“So what’s the blog about this week then Dad?”
“Well love, as I’ve told you many times, it’s an Arsenal blog. You know, about the football team, Arsenal.”
“Yeah but that doesn’t usually stop you, remember when your team were playing Sunderland and you wrote about a family holiday and how you ended up driving around Roker Park because your Dad got lost?”
“Fair comment. But in my defence I do have to pad it out a bit. Especially if I don’t want to just write what every other blogger is writing. It is after all only a football match and one that hasn’t even happened yet, there really isn’t much to say.”
“So who are they playing this weekend then Dad? I know it isn’t Manchester because you haven’t been in a foul mood all week. Talking of which who exactly is Judas?”
“He was a character from the Bible. Allegedly grassed up the messiah, but I’ve always wondered about it, I mean didn’t Jesus tell him what he would say, who to and when? A bit of a set up job if you ask me. Anyway let’s stay on the point, we’re playing Cardiff.”
“We are?”
“Arsenal”
“But you said we”
“Yes yes I know, that’s how fans describe their team, they become so involved, so much part of the club that it feels like a part of our lives in a way that nothing else really does.”
“Nothing?”
“Oh come on love I don’t mean family, of course not, in a way, you and your brother are just as important as Arsenal, but unlike other hobbies or entertainments following the fortunes of a football club becomes tribal, it’s us against them, you know?”
“No, not really Dad, sounds a little bit mental to me. Anyway, Cardiff. I’ll tell you what, you could write about the time me, you and Warren went to see the Arctic Monkey’s at the Motorpoint Arena – that was in Cardiff”
“Yeah, or there was that time I drove into Cardiff to get Liz to the train station.”
“I don’t remember that”
“You weren’t there. We were camping at Llantwit Major.”
“Was that when you did the Gavin and Stacey tour of Barry and Barry Island?”
“Different story love, don’t interrupt”
“Well excuse me”
“Sorry. Anyway, we were camping, well, caravanning to be precise, and Liz had screwed up the dates because when she told me to book the holiday she already had tickets for this music festival, an eighties thing at Henley On Thames. Rewind, that was it, and it turned out she had to get there while we were still booked on the camp-site in Wales. Turns out Llantwit has a nice little train station and the train from there went straight through to Reading where her mate lives”
“Vanessa?”
“Yeah Vanessa, anyway they were meeting up and the train is cheap as chips from LLantwit so she books a ticket, she’s always using trains for her job so it was the work of a moment for her to organise it, did it on her phone in fact, anyway as I said she books a ticket and I drive her to the train station on the Friday morning early. And I mean early, the train wasn’t due for twenty minutes. We stood on the platform, she’s chain smoking to make sure she gets enough inside her to last the journey and I’m wondering what to do in Wales on my own for a couple of days, a bachelor gay, both of us content and looking forward to the weekend. Until I utter the fateful words. ‘You got your tickets?’ She just raises her eyebrows, you know what Liz is like, the seasoned traveller, and pats her pocket. Then checks it, frowning. Then begins patting and poking in all of her pockets. I couldn’t believe it. She travels by train all the time and has never forgotten her ticket, not once. And the thing was, we’d been stood there so bloody long I could’ve driven back to the camp site got her tickets and got her back in plenty of time – but not any more. ”
“So what did you do?”
“Well, I couldn’t drive her all the way to Reading could I? We had, much to the amusement of the good folk gathered there on Llantwit station, a minor domestic. You know, one of those public arguments where you try to keep your voices down so as not to attract too much attention but everyone is thoroughly enjoying it because you are the only two people talking and they can’t help but hear it. In the end we drive back, get the tickets and she works out that if I drive like an absolute maniac I might just get to Cardiff before the train does and she can join it there. This seems infeasible to me, the roads around Barry, Cardiff airport and Cardiff itself being a tad busy at that time of the morning and trains having the advantage of going at a hundred bloody miles an hour and in a straight line. Well anyway, she won the argument”
“Well, der”
“Yes, quite. She says the train makes lots of detours and stops and that ought to buy us enough time and so off we trot like something out of a bloody cowboy film chasing the damn train all the way to Cardiff and you know what?”
“Mmmm?”
“Are you listening? I said you know what? As I get into Cardiff city centre the satnav is telling me that we might just do it, the train leaves in ten minutes and we have five minutes to go.”
“So it all worked out?”
“Not exactly. And this is where the second domestic disturbance tested the foundations of our union.”
“Anyone ever told you you talk funny Dad?”
“Many people, many times precious. This secondary and much more voluble dispute centred around whose responsibility it was to ensure that the satnav is regularly updated via the Tom Tom website. You see had it been up to date it wouldn’t have been telling us to turn right down a road which was clearly no longer a right of way. Yes we were in time, yes we could see on the map that the station wasn’t far away, no we couldn’t bloody well get anywhere near it.”
“So what happened in the end?”
“I drove in a manner likely to provoke the interest of the local heddlu, unsure of where I was going until we came in sight of the station, I flung her out, her rucksack after her and she legged it, over a wall, through a car park and out of sight.”
“You didn’t go with her?”
“I was exciting the ire of a rather large vehicle across the path of which I had stopped the car in the manner more usually reserved for American detectives or perhaps desperadoes, either way I needed to beat a retreat.”
“So did she make the train?”
“Yes, it was running late.”
“That’s a really lame fucking story”
“Daisy!”
“Sorry dad, but you’re going to have to do better than that for the blog.”
“I could talk about how well Cardiff played against Man United I suppose, at least that would be relevant.”
“Are they a good team?”
“Man United? God no.”
“No, Cardiff.”
“Oh I see, pretty good I’d say, I think they will be full of confidence and really hard to contain”
“But you think your team will win?”
“I always think we will win. It’s why it hurts so much when we don’t. It’s probably why some fans feel so let down when their team lose”
“But surely Dad it isn’t the team’s fault that fans decide to invest so much of their emotional well being in the result of a football match. That’s the fans fault. The team want to win because that’s their job regardless of whether you and a bunch of similarly weird blokes”
“And women”
“and women, decide to hinge their future happiness on the outcome of what is, essentially, them just doing their jobs.”
“Yes but a lot of people are too emotionally immature to realise that. You on the other hand being my daughter are not only beautiful but smart too. It’s genetic”
“Smart enough not to put my happiness in the hands of a bunch of strangers at least. Anyway how do these folk react? They start fighting fans of other teams or something?”
“Oh God no, this isn’t the nineteen seventies. They go onto the internet and verbally attack fellow supporters and the Arsenal players and manager”
“What? But that’s ridiculous”
“You’d think so”
“If, as you say, they identify with the team so strongly that it’s like a deep abiding relationship, like a family, then surely they wouldn’t attack their own family? I mean it’d be like publicly vilifying their children for failing at school, or being bullied by someone bigger and stronger”
“Or someone smaller and weaker – even worse”
“Well Dad, I don’t think I’ll ever understand you football fans, so I’ll leave you to your blog, good luck with it.”
“Actually Daisy, I don’t have space to write it anyway now, our conversation has taken up the word count.”
“Shit”
“I know right”
“Dad”
“Yeah?”
“Stop trying to talk like a teenager.”
“Sorry”
Cardiff
About steww
110 comments on “Cardiff”
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Positively Arsenal 
I call that goal the ‘heartbreaker’. Just when the other team have given their all. What an assist.
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Ramsey booked? For what?
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Top of the league.
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For being so good?
3-0!
Not even mason could give the dive by PO heh!
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Walcott in involved in the move from back to front. Strength in depth.
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A word for the way we’ve worked off the ball. Simply outstanding. Still doing it 95 minutes gone.
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Gr*t
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I thought the pass from Ramsey to Walcott was a little off but watching the replay he obviously wanted to force Walcott to return the pass to himself and not go for goal ; )
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What a performance from the boys. I liked the way Ramsey grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and kept the team’s tempo up. And that header wasn’t too shabby either.
Szczesny is on fire. What a great pair of saves. Great goal from Flamini.
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Pulis and Stoke lost as well. I want Cardiff to stay up.
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It’s possible to argue if someone wants to that the header from Campbell was just a little close to the ‘keeper, but for me the speed and strength of his reaction, as with the save on Tuesday, was outstanding.
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Remember when the end-of-an-eraists declared that Arsene was finished because his constantly changing teams would drop points in Novembers past. Of course they failed to acknowledge that when Arsene’s teams get truly bedded in they are almost impossible to beat. Now all the reactionay pundits like Robbie Earle are hopping unto the bandwagon. Give me their jobs as I said weeks ago we look like this is our year. We are the real deal.
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Ever since being dropped for Fabianski last season Szcz has massively upped his game. Probably the best keeper in the league at the moment, always switched on and pulling off crazy saves.
Not going to talk much about Aaron because, well, I think at this point in time I’d probably have to learn a new language so I can come up with some more superlatives to describe him. Knowing that the people on here stood by him even during tough times makes me incredibly proud. That’s what support should be about.
Giroud is simply incredible. Wouldn’t want any other CF instead of him. Winning everything and always working hard, despite being kicked all game and with referee’s usually not giving anything.
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In every game Szczesney is making crucial saves at crucial times he is turning into a great keeper and he was another the naysayers were saying get rid of
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when the front 3 couldn’t hold on to the ball and the midfield were tiring, the back line were excellent again. the team seems to take a deep breath then smashes the hopes of the invaders at the gate so clinical.
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Wenger will have the last laugh given the shit he has had to take after losing Cesc and Van Judas over the past two years:
Wenger said: “It is always difficult to say [which loss was worse] or prove more or less. “We lost two great players, one was an exceptional striker, the other an exceptional midfielder. This season is the first season [for a few years] where we did not lose a great player and is why as well we had the advantage of a better start.”
Read more at: http://www.clubcall.com/arsenal/wenger-admits-departures-were-harmful-1671617.html
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Arsenal win, very one was perfect. Used to that. But what about Ramsey ‘eh? Very touched by his behaviours towards his former club. He showed the class that befits all Arsenal players. I loved how he did the Ayatollah as a mark of respect.
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@aob
That’s the brilliant thing about this team. Even when the opposition puts us under pressure, I never really feel like we will concede.
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I was listening to Aljazeera, best commentary ive heard for years ” Mertesaker clears BIG FLYING GERMAN I think that’s what their singing ” yeah right im sure you did
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I love how we respond back when teams respond.
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What a performance. I watched the game via an Internet stream at my ManShitty supporting neighbour. I told him that should Arsenal win the league or any cup this season it will shine so much more brightly than any trophy won by Shitty or Chelski. I preached to him and his brood, that they ought never to praise Mansour’s name, which they do, because it is a shameful thing to do…but they don’t care….
Go on Arsenal, go on all the way and have Shitty and chavs shove their petrodollars other I’ll gained wealth up their arses……
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So is there any team better than us still to play?
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Compare Ramsey’s class with van Persie’s lack of class…
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And shoutout to the boss, high line from set pieces, pure genius.
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Great win…
Yes shotta, what has been truly critical for the way we play is truly the fact that no key squad players were sold! And see the difference that makes as the players get to know each other. Also these players are becoming friends just like that 07/08 team and more importantly not letting their manager down with below par performances.
We remain on top – so may it continue till May!
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@aob
Yeah, I had that same stream and those two were actually bearable! I feel so sorry for those people who had to listen to Stewart Robson instead who has doing commentary for Sentanta..
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As for Wenger doesn’t do tactics, he sure did a number to Malky MacKay and Cardiff in this game. Unlike our past games, during the 1st half our attacks came from primarily down the left side with Ozil drifting over to that side and linking with Cazorla and Gibbs. Note the cross from Ozil to Ramsey came from the left. In the 2nd it was back to our usual heavy bias to attacking from the right side to which Ozil began to drift. Naturally the assist to Flamini came from that side. Yet lily-livered lemmings bought hook-line-and-sinker the stupid narrative that our genius of a manager is past his best.
Best I can say to them “There is Only One Arsene Wenger!
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From Orbinho:
Ramsey has now scored two more Premier League goals from open play than Tottenham this season
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“Aaron Ramsey’s heat map is ridiculous”
“guys a fucking rabbit on crack”
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Another clean sheet, best part of the win.
This team just gets better and better. And you can sense more is to come.
Bench finally looking good. Wenger is a master at picking subs.
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Fins
That heat map is outlandish. Looks like a great wank to a great performance.
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*result of
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Terrific result at a ground which had banana skin written all over it (ask Manure; ask Citeh).
Could also be a significant moment in the season although how much so will become clearer by the end of the weekend. Essentially, Spuds HAVE to get a win v Manure, Manure have to get a win v Spuds (oh dear), Chavs could do with a win v Southampton who themselves HAVE to get a win against Chavski. Liverpool will expect a win v Hull but anything less will be a blow, at least in their heads.
Nothing is anything like decided but if results go our way over the next 20 hours then momentum will clearly be with us and that ain’t bad.
Personally I’m hoping for a draw down the Drain and wins for Southampton, Hull and Swansea. Any one of those going our way will be immensely pleasing.
Hope you’re feeling better George.
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If you hold Ramsey’s heat map up to the light it almost says ‘fuck you’ which I’m assuming is a subtle, subliminal message to his detractors, both former and current.
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The bench is still missing Ox and Poldi. Our team is stacked with talent in all areas.
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I think we may have to apply to the PL to have more players on the bench and more subs because of our small squad!
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And Diaby.
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What a mature performance. Disciplined and patient. The subs all contributed as well.
I’m getting a bit sick of the snide remarks about Ozil and the truth is that he has settled into this squad seamlessly in his first season.Things can only get better!
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Listen to the commentator here, Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrron Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrramsey
http://arsenallatest.com/video/252-arsenal-highlights.html
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Guess where the following was cut and pasted from?
“Well, it could have been worse.
A moment of slackness and some indifferent finishing and we lose.
Still, at least Arsenal won.”
I must be fucking mad….I saw a terrific performance. Don’t forget we are playing against another premier league team…..what do they expect?
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Steww
Love that link…..I’ve watched it about 5 time already….
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Spine tingling Steww.
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Link to some some cool pictures of AFC at Cardiff:
http://swol.co/cardiff-city-v-arsenal-the-best-photos-as-the-gunners-win-03/31671
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@GP
Yeah, apparently us dominating all game apart from maybe 10 minutes in the second half doesn’t count for nothing. Somehow, it’s better to be miserable about a brilliant win against a team that’s rather tough to play away.
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Hey hey, it’s Game of the Day……
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draws all round would be nice tomorrow… sets hull up nicely with confidence for Wednesday, don’t want them too down and out… also cuts our 7 pts lead at the top by only 1 point!
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PG
The smile face rule must be rescinded.
Forthwith.
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Kaplagh!!
Welsh Klingon
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🙂
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Cesc who?
Pin pulled from grenade,
Walks causally, but hurriedly away.
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