What a jigsaw of a day !
It has take me a little while to put the jigsaw together – but I have it at last.
Waking up this morning (eventually) the events of all of yesterday, from waking up in the early hours with the fan’s usual nightmare of leaving my match tickets at home, a potter in the garden, the uneventful trip to London, early to the stadium, the gradual slow rise in tension as the kick off approached, the slight tick of adrenaline, nothing more …………………………………… no inkling at all really ……………none …..
Then two and a half hours of emotional, mind bending, throat wrenching, expletive exhausting football. YES FOOTBALL!
And what a semi final it was – by no means anyone’s idea of a classic football encounter. No football connoisseur or coaching guru will have marked yesterday in their book of notable landmarks.
The Pie Eaters controlled, resolute, unimaginative but, as they had proved in their two most recent FAC games against Citeh, never a side to be under-estimated. Don’t ever try to tell lightning how many times it has struck or will strike – lightning is not interested in your opinion or even your statistics.
For Arsenal that bit of hesitation in our passing, a degree of rust in our flow across the park with the ball, the back of the players’ minds exercised by the certainty that for us to win was expected, but to lose would be calamity.
And so the game unfolded. From my eyrie might above the goal I watched, as you all did, the efforts we made to push Wigan, to look for holes, to chase and harry, to find that opening that would bring the goal and settle our collective nerves.
Sanogo worked and worked and worked, then ran some more. The Ox was by far our most effective performer. Aaron tried to bring his energy and some intelligence into the contest, to differentiate between a side who play as we can, and he Championship scufflers.
But it was not to be. An error –or a freak injury – I do not even know now having watched it again on the box last night handed the penalty to Gomez and suddenly the challenge before us took on a steeper tilt, and the clock which had measured the afternoon as a neutral custodian of time now began to menace us.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man – as so often the BFG showed why he has earned 100+ German caps and, having watched the headed finish again on TV, is a much finer footballer than many credit him for.
The final minutes and extra time, flashed by. By then my voice had gone, my mind was going, I had words with a pair behind me who had pressed my button on Sanogo’s alleged shortcomings once too often ( the looks of horror at the row on the fans around us were fair to behold). The players were shot, both sides running on empty tanks, legs barely able to sustain a run over ten yards much less a decent shot.
And so to penalties – my personal horror – I hate penalties – hate them – stemming perhaps from my first ever penalty shoot out in the Heysel. I peered into the abyss, and the abyss peered back.
Fabianski – an individual triumph but a triumph that embodied the collective effort of a team that gave its all on a day when it mattered.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
But go to the FA Cup final
Thanks to Andrew( @anicoll5 ) for today’s wonderful post
Positively Arsenal 
Nice summary Andrew. Pity we didn’t meet, hopefully try again at final.
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Oops signed in under other name Steve I here
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Absolutely stunning post Andrew – it really takes me back. I’m still buzzing about yesterday and no amount of doom and gloomers are going to take the shine off the club’s achievement in getting to the FA cup final.
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Just imagine for one moment the consequences if we had failed to beat Wigan? Disastrous. That is literally an understatement. That is why everyone of us on this blog suffered through every single emotion felt by Andrew yesterday.
Most times history hangs on a single unglamorous event. Such is yesterday’s result where the sheer bloody mindedness of both the players and the manager to not lose under any condition has both short and long-term consequences. Obvious immediate benefit is the possibility in May to end this media-fuelled trophy drought. In reality the successful paying down of a brand new stadium without losing our champions league status is the most significant modern-day achievement of any top-level club in Europe.
Not losing yesterday has a greater significance because it gave Arsene Wenger more time to complete the rebuild that commenced after the demise of the youth project that featured Cesc and Van Judas. Just reading the bitter, twisted dooming of the anti-support and their fellow travelers tells you they know that their anti-Arsene agenda suffered a major blow yesterday.
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anicoll,
Really well written.
The game itself was played at a pedestrian pace and really will not have impressed the neutral, and caused nail biting in even the staunchest of Gooners.
But, somehow we toughed it out and even with the so called Penalty Shoot-out lottery, we WON.
I do not give an F a U a C a K about the who, the why or the where of how we did it, because none of that matters. We will do the biz at the final!
Come on you Gunners. 🙂
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heh ..we had to suffer i suppose, excruciating pressure, poor wenger having to go through this for the fucking f.a cup when he has won 4 of them and well….media and fans i suppose, nevermind, players need to kill it from now on,….. but when i saw caldwell taking the first one i said to myself ” miss it you cunt for all the kicks and dirty tackles youve given to arsenal players down the years with sunderland and whichever shit team you played for”…. lucas obviously heard that… they all fought and fought well, think gibbs changed the game a bit and sanogo is so raw but work ethic brilliant…sagna unlucky not to score…have given lot of stick to arteta, very good 2nd half very cool assassin in penalties. believe this was the “final” with all the drama and nerves and in the actual final they will score 5..its due.
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COLL
very well written mate. Damn right it was a gutsy win and I hope you get enough of a recharge from it to fill your batteries back up after that emotional rollercoaster. And thank you for standing up to the two dumbbells that tried and tried again to ruin you supporting experience. I wonder, did you have any” words ”
With them after the game was over or you didn’t bother. Also, what was your sons thoughts and feelings after the game??
I think I read that he was with you at the game but sitting a few rows away. Very curious about his thoughts for his age and from his perspective. Thanks for the writeup and we salute all supporting fans . Home and away.
A R S E N A L !!!!!!!!!!!!
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The English commentators they switch to when our shit pundits are done talking complete nonsense, forgot Wigan had beat Man City twice in the span of a year.
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The media has a full on Liverpool boner.
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Really got the atmosphere of the afternoon, anicoll.
They always do, G69.
Skrtel got away with a handball – will the panel review that and give him a ban, does anyone know?
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Poor Bob Wilson has prostate cancer. Let’s hope he can come through it.
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Truth be told, i still get get my head around people mocking arsenal for celebrating reaching an FA cup final… which is worht celebrating regardless of the opposition. In fact winning any game is worth celebrating regardless of the opposition.
I see City also lost at anfield but not peep from the media cos its not Arsenal right? ‘Pool has not won the PL for well over 20 years.. now they are in a position to do so, everyone has conveniently forgotten how long they have had to wait!
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Fun, you forgot the clear cut penalty on Silva and excusing Suarez a second yellow for simulation.
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Well written ‘coli… We will win the FA cup, then it will change to one trophy in 9 yrs without adding that it has just been won which implies that the next year has to come first before we can ascertain whether others were won in addition.
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Only stumbled on this blog recently after finding you on twitter. Thx for always lifting me up whenever after we had a downer. PS: thx especially for putting that asshole Le Grove in his place. I hate that wanker.
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Thanks for the kind comments Positivistas
Gk – you will not be too surprised to hear that the two Groaners have buggered off by the time Santi’s kick went in – so quick was their exit one had left his coat on the seat – odd – very odd
No 1 son had a great day out – he is learning how to be a football supporter – meeting Mel was obviously the highlight of his (and my) day.
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And I forgot to say how much I enjoyed yesterday’s blog Tim – Ta
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Great post Coll. We are going to wipe the flood with Hull in the final. Players coming back and injecting the flair we had before the injuries took their toll. Then the media will be wondering about our strengths with the addition of a couple of good signings over the summer….we are on the up…..
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@ Georgaki, you wish… they would wonder at our strengths? when they have not finished moaning about our past summer and January non-signings?
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Pleasure to meet you & Louie yesterday Andrew,great write up from what was a tough old game to watch,especially with the bloke I had sat next to me,we do have some filth in our ranks don’t we? Oh well,Hull it is,plenty of players to come back,Jack,Kos & Mesut to name but 3.
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I love that post and just how written it is.
My weekend was slightly different as I went to Wembley arena on Friday night to watch the Harlem Globetrotters and take my sons to an event that I had wanting to take them for years after I had been mesmerised as a kid when my dad took me about forty years ago. The night was good and my lads and wife enjoyed it but for me it just wasn’t how I remembered and think no side could ever be as good as the side I watched all those years ago. This is why every Brazilian side will always be compared to the boys from Brazil in the seventies and why every ARSENAL side will be compared to the invincibles even though the comparison is unfair. There are fans that will never really be satisfied with what they see because to reproduce the drama of 89 or the excellence of 2004 cant happen any victory has to be new and in its own right.
Anyway back to my weekend my eldest lad and I got up early still knackered from the night before and made our way to the Globe at Baker Street, expectation, excitement and a touch of anxiety was in the air before the later was drowned in alcohol. The place was rocking just like the years when I followed ARSENAL to away games all over the place however this was to change.
When we hit the ground the ARSENAL fans although outnumbering the winganites 3/1 or maybe more where very quiet and with a slow pitch and a weight of almost the whole crowd on their back, the team were on top but not fluid or anything like all they could be. We have at least five separate supporters groups who all seek meetings with the board from time to time and seek to improve the lot of the supporter or complain about the running of the club but maybe they should ignore politics and at first concentrate on the primary function of the fan and that’s to support the team. I’m sure some of the board members were sitting at Wembley thinking why are they paying all that money to get in and then sit there quietly like they were watching on telly at home.
I looked down enviously at the wigan fans who danced and sung as one and were waiting for their team to overachieve rather that to watch waiting for the horror that would inevitably would come the way our fans do. We used to wait and pray for something magic to happen and now we seem to wait and pray something doesn’t happen, to play with that cloud of negativity hanging over your head must be very difficult.
I sat there during the penalties in pain and when the final one went in I ran down the step to the bar over the exit and screamed almost in tears with joy and relief. We had made it and then it was of to a northern soul night where I awaited the knowing smiles of scousers red and blue and mancs from the blue half of Manchester and although they tried to rib me none were as critical as our own fans funny that.
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a_or_b @ 6:39 pm
“We used to wait and pray for something magic to happen and now we seem to wait and pray something doesn’t happen, to play with that cloud of negativity hanging over your head must be very difficult.”
Unbelievable innit? I can confirm this pall of on negativity twitter which outside of PA is my closest contact with the fan base. And this is despite my best efforts to maintain a lean and trim time-line to be rid of of the most hysterical elements in the fanbase as well as the trolls and dyed-in-the-wool doomers.
It seems to me that a significant section of our support has a serious case of self-entitlement to the glory days of the Invincibles. There really is a need to vigorously fight such wishful thinking. Since 2003-04 the landscape has changed dramatically for Arsenal and for Wenger in particular. All top clubs have imitated Wenger’s scouting of the best talent in Europe, especially in France. Now the oil-funded teams as well as the traditional European powerhouses are willing to pay big money for not only established stars but for up-and-comers as well. There is no way Wenger can quietly sign up a Viera, Henry, Pires or Petit at fair value without serious competition from CFC or MCFC willing to overpay in transfer fees and salaries. We may be be able to make a big signing now and then but we will never be able to match oilers like Mann City who lost as much as of £52m for the year to 31 May 2013 compared with a £98m loss made the previous year.
People need to get used to the idea that we cannot compete in the transfer market with clubs who can incur big losses because their deficits will be funded by their sugar daddies. While we may do a big signing every now and then, unlike the sugar daddy clubs, Arsenal will have to partially depend on organic growth. This takes time, there are no shortcuts. There will be setbacks, heavy losses as we experienced recently, as we make the baby steps along the road to glory.
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Thanks Andy: great post and so glad you and your boy enjoyed the day.
I had been terribly anxious all week, always feeling that Wigan in the Semi-final would be really tricky after all that has gone on. I was watching on the TV and for about five minutes felt that I shouldn’t have been worried after all, but gradually became uncomfortably aware that it was likely to go horribly wrong. Their penalty was typical somehow: the foul on Nacho immediately beforehand, his subsequent injury (looked nasty), the rash and slightly unnecessary challenge, the delayed decision, the gloating of the commentator -our whole season in agonising microcosm. But what a great fight back, and what a top and brave move to go to 442 but to take Podolski off (as he wouldn’t have fitted the new system). The extra height in the box made the difference and terrific tenacity and composure from Sanogo to maintain the possession that led to the equaliser showed Arsene’s tactical decision 100% correct. Not that I have heard anyone else say that, and nor would I expect to such is the misery of the pundits and groaners.
I have been involved in more than a few nail-biting sporting moments over the years, as player, coach and fan, but I have never, ever felt as tense as I did between the Wigan penalty and the end of extra-time. There was a moment when I was actually quite worried about how fast my heart was beating. Funnily enough, when we got to penalties I relaxed, and I honestly can’t say whether it was due to confidence or the end of hope. But wasn’t it interesting that it was the players who have copped the most stick since Christmas who stepped up: Arteta to put us ahead for the first time in the match; Kallstrom to inch us further ahead; Giroud to maintain the two goal advantage and then Cazorla to seal the match. All of these have been criticised, derided and at times openly mocked, but they showed both class and courage to win the day. And if our players were attacked for celebrating the win, then thank heavens Keane and the AAA lot weren’t anywhere near my house to see a deranged fifty something cavorting and screaming as if he’d won the lottery.
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Couldn’t go, couldn’t watch *sobs*. Thanks to everyone for their comments on the game and Passenal and Andrew/anicoll5 for the pitchside reviews.
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arse_or_brain too!
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Glad someone has come up on twitter with a pix of Roy Keane celebrating winning the cup versus Millwall… I hear some say its cos he is holding the trophy… well you have to get to the final to talk about holding the trophy… right? I thought so too!
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Hahaha
FOREVER
that was excellent. I had no problems acting like an out of control fifty something. The whole pub was out of control. I fit right in.
I will be a bit busy with all the Passover festivities for the next week so to all you faithfulls a happy and peaceful festival of FREEDOM and take care.
UP THE GUNNERS OF ARSENAL!!!!!
destroy west ham and pop their bubbles..
Send that Sam allerd••• back down to lower division. fight fight FIGHT!!!!!
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Sorry to be AWOL yesterday – after the match was over it was a “things to do, places to go, people to see” Saturday that kept me limited to quick sound bites on twitter. But I did come back last night, long after most of you had gone to bed, to read all the comments.
That was the most excruciating sporting event I have ever witnessed in my life…ever. And not because the performance itself was lacking. It wasn’t, I don’t care what anyone says. I believe the team set up to be cautious, and with the exception of the penalty, I think they did what they set out to do. Luckily, the team has more patience than we do. It would have been nice for tired legs, of course, if it hadn’t gone to penalties, but like someone else said, I relaxed a little once we got there. I felt like our boys could handle that just fine. Anyway, the match was excruciating, because I cared so much. Heart racing, palms sweaty, pacing the floor for the better part of two and a half hours…never before have I done that for a game of any kind. The sheer weight of disaster that I felt like would fall if we lost, almost made it too much for me. Almost. Watching AW pace back and forth, sit than stand then sit again – I thought, ” I feel you, man, I’m doing the same.” But the boys didn’t panic, held their nerve, and here we are. And for me, it was worth all the nail biting, heart pounding terror to see those lads celebrating like madmen, hugging and piling on each other in joy. And for that shot of Arsene embracing Aaron like a son, both of them with smiles that would light up the dark. To those “pundits” who questioned the level of celebration, I say f**k off. You are what is wrong with the game. To hell with you, anyway.
So, on we go. Cup finals all, until the end of the season, I guess. Another ride on the roller-coaster awaits on Tuesday. I haven’t caught up with the news enough today to know, but I hope Nacho will be ok. I still can’t believe Aaron put in that kind of shift in his first start in four months. The boy has unreal levels of stamina. Other players will be coming back soon, so there will be a new surprise every game! Should be fun. (banned smiley)
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Great write up Andrew, really captured the emotions of the day.
Penalty shoot out?
I never had a moments doubt about the outcome.
Hopefully we will have a relatively fresh team for the final.
Hull will try to kick the sh€t out of of our team and the ref (Dein, Clattenberg?) will let them.
My only worry at the moment is that our goal scoring has dried-up a bit.
This is really hurting us in he league.can we finish 4th?
I hope so.
Will I celebrate.
You’re darn diddly toot-in’ neighbour!
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Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
That’s a Beckett quote, isn’t it Andrew?
I hope reasonable fans will,see this season as failing better.
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Isn’t it amazing how in various parts of the world, hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles apart, how we the supporters of our club suffered similar pain and anguish through 120 mins of normal and extra-time of FA cup football? Is there anyone still doubting why there was such a great celebration as our boys refused to lose and came through in the end on penalty kicks? Pedro (Le Grove), Piers Moron and company: you boys, not Wigan, took one hell of a beating yesterday. No doubt.
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Somehow I feel I can take on the world all week.
Thanks to the Arsenal.
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Some great stuff on here these past couple of days on the emotion and experience of supporting THE Arsenal.
Beautiful things is of course off we go again against the Appy Ammers tomorrow night
And the quote is stolen from Beckett DC – there is a bit of Nietzsche – even the Gospel of St John – I am shameless in my pilfering, shameless
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A5, shouldn’t worry about any pilfering its you that puts it together and for that youshould take much credit.
I hope everyone is recovering both mentally and physically and getting ready for tomorrow, I suppose I should spare a thought for the players as well and I think fans need to bear this in mind if we look a bit laboured at times. We
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We just need to scrap a win tomorrow and try and patch ourselves up from game to game and hopefully not lose any more players between now and the end of the season.
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I’m overjoyed by the win, and the manner of the win on Saturday. We fought and won. It has been said over some years that the minute this team overcomes and obtains that first trophy, it will become an unstoppable force in football. For many reasons, I believe that. We have taken a truly massive step.
By Somebody called Lucas Pavlov
The Gunners are by far the most injury-affected Premier League team this whole season, and in my opinion, that is a key factor in their doubtful performance, being eliminated from Champions League and at the present time, in fifth place in the Premier League. Fortunately, they’ve managed to reach the FA Cup final in which they’ll face Hull City, and winning that tournament is a must in order to have a respectable season.
Returning to the injuries issue, the Gunners have been suffering from them since the very beginning of the season in the middle of August. For example, Mikel Arteta missed the first five weeks due to a thigh injury, and Nacho Monreal the first one (back injury).
Moreover, midfielders Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (knee ligaments) and Lukas Podolski (hamstring) got injured in August and they came back after three months (Chamberlain) or two and a half (Podolski).
Other long-term injuries that the Gunners suffered were: Aaron Ramsey (thigh, out from December 26 to April 5, more than three months), Yaya Sanogo (back injury, from September 9 to February 11, five months), Santi Cazorla (ankle, five weeks out between September and October) Thomas Vermaelen twice (two and one month, back and calf injuries respectively).
Furthermore, they’ve got many middle-term injuries (between one and three weeks): Laurent Koscielny (knee, two weeks out in December), Nacho Monreal (foot, three weeks out between February and March), Tomas Rosicky (three times, thigh and knock twice), Jack Wilshere (twice, both ankle injuries, in November and February), Bacary Sagna (twice, both hamstring, in October and December), Chamberlain (calf, one week out in March), Kieran Gibbs four times, Nicklas Bendtner twice, and so on. You can see the full list here.
In the last match against Wigan, seven players were out due to injuries: Wilshere, Gnabry, Özil, Rosicky (all midfielders), Walcott (striker but he usually plays as an offensive midfielder in Wenger’s scheme), Koscielny and Abou Diaby (cruciate ligament tear, he got injured in March 2013 and has been out of the pitch for more than one year). And that big number of players out isn’t a thing of the last match. It’s the common thing in the Arsenal 2013/14 season.
Anyway, I show these facts in order to give a correct panorama of the situation. It’s true that the Gunners faced many competitions in the season, but other teams didn’t have so many injured players.
The point is a team cannot fight for a title like the Premier League or Champions League with those injury problems. And it’s not about having a large squad in order to have a good replacement of the injured players.
If your players got injured all weeks, you would never have a definite lineup, and that’s very important in order to win trophies. The players must know their partners, and having more or less the same lineup in all matches in the same tournament is the best way to achieve that (it’s impossible to play with the same lineup in all the competitions, because it’s very physically demanding and the players would get injured for sure).
Now, Arsenal players and their manager Arsène Wenger have to focus in the present, think about how to defeat Hull City in the FA Cup final, and also about getting the fourth place in the Premier League in order to qualify for the next Champions League. But when this season is gone, they’ll have to contemplate how can they avoid having so many injured players in the next season and solve that problem. Otherwise, I believe that they can’t win either the Champions League or the Premier League next year.
Fortunately for Arsenal, Wenger knows the problem and doesn’t underestimate it, as he said a few days before: “Our main task [next summer] will be to keep the team together and think where did we go wrong. There are a lot of positives in our season as well, but we have dropped off when we lost our players at an important moment of the season. That is what we don’t want to repeat.”
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I hope the players are recovering!
Rosicky, if fit, might have to come in for apprentice No.2 (Chambo*) who looked a little bit knackered by the end of the semi-final.
*Only AM-ish types count as apprentices of the grandmaster. CMs are a different breed, though these days with pioneering managers playing players like Lahm, Thiago, Wilshere and Chambo in there, I don’t know. I do know that even Rodgers has given up on his alternative back five fetish (was lucky it was only 2-0 earlier on in N.London – Marco Biesla inspired back threes are different, see Chile) and played Coutinho at CM yesterday. “What has happened to my beloved Arsenal?”, hehe.
Abu Dhabi City U21 coach P.Viera described Ramsey as the best midfielder in the league this year. Given that other candidates have also had injuries, that still holds for me. And Ramsey too might be exhausted for Tuesday. Kim Kallstrom to get his first start opposite Nolan? I hope that silly socialist Scrooge Vengar (who earns and pays millions, and has done/for at various clubs over decades…er) listens to that request (he always ignores me *sobs*).
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Lest we feel we have a monopoly on nutcases as I made my way back towards Wembley Park I stumbled into conversation with two Wigan fans – one was appropriately downcast, thought they had done well and still looking forward to a good end to the season and the chance of a play off return to the PL.
His mate was pure Black Scarf material, Wigan had been shite all afternoon, ranting that the moment he saw Caldwell step up to take the first penalty he knew that WAFC were out, that Rosler has not got a f****** clue etc ……………………………
Evn his mate looked embarrassed
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Just got back from the game. What a great day in Wembley started on Marylebone and then the Globe . Then on to Wembley. Reminiscent of the Cardiff days. The young uns were hilarious and completely battered by the end of the day…and the horses got to canoodle with many a plod donkey.
The fans were incredible in that game, even after Wigan scored first. The equaliser was just insane at our end of the stadium….and the penalties. Never known tension like it. On balance I think the authorities were right to leave the heart attack victims in their seats until after the game. Tidier that way.
Why is it that any win in the FA Cup is a good win especially when it gets you to the final unless you are Arsenal and then it is all about not deserving it? But who the fuck cares. This team just need a bit of luck. Yaya is going to be a monster. Love him.
Poor old Hawkeye had to watch it in America with Piers Morgan on the TV as a pundit. What an arsehole….Morgan I mean.
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Ticket for the Baggies smoothly obtained – not much on the Exchange these past few days so pounced when a reasonable option in Block 96 came up
Not sure what that lack of spares tells me ?
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As Danny Fitzman said at the Emirates on the 22nd September 2007, Arsene Wenger will finish his career at Arsenal, we always knew this was the case.
Danny also said ” if he wanted to spend £100 millions, he could”. May Danny RIP.
As the Wigan manager said “Mark-Antoine Fortune took Mikel Arteta out of the game”.
The knives are out for Arteta, how dim some people are.
Wigan forced the Arsenal to go 4-4-2, and out of their comfort zone.
The Wigan ground was the worst in the EPL, I trust this summer they upgrade the playing field.
As for the Hammers, 4-4-2 again?
COTG
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Was it Wigan who forced us out of our comfort zone and to go 442, or a case of German hide and not so seek?
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Is this just a case of faulty memory, but was there a time at the start of the 2012/13 season when Jenkinson played on the right wing/midfield?
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Good ole 4-4-2-ish variants have been adopted in games more often then many imagine.
More obvious last season when the Arsenal were chasing goals and games more often (not as many 2-0 scorelines!).
And in many games the team switches to some kind of 4-4-1-1 thing (don’t ask me!) when off the ball for spells.
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So the FA Cup final ticket allocation has been announced.
25,000 to Arsenal – 25,000 to Hull City
Considering the ground holds 90,000 that’s one hell of a lot of corporate arseholes.
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Here’s hoping AA….I’m still a little too cynical…..but on the face of it it’s out in the open and it would take one hell of a case for the doped clubs to make EUFA perform a volte face
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Certainly an interesting day if the reports in the Telegraph are accurate or roughly accurate. The puzzling bit is how Chelsea sailed through with so word of reproach – perhaps that explains why Jose has had to put up with not signing a $$$$$ striker so far.
I suspect that whatever sanction is decided on the clubs involved will challenge it so in the immediate future it may get bogged down among m’learned friends. In the longer term however if UEFA can show they have teeth to enforce FFP it is beneficial, even for the Citeh’s and PSGs of the world.
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FH I don’t remember Jenks playing in midfield but three seasons ago but I remember Gibbs playing on the left side of midfield against Everton – If Kosc is fit I would not be that sorry tonight to see Tommy at left back and Kieron in front of him. The more height along the back line and the more speed in midfield the better
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This is a really top comment ArensalAndrewA and refreshing to read such balanced perspective. Thanks for it – and much needed after foolishly reading Le Groan’s piece this morning.
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great read on pirlo in the internet …..thank god for silvio blocking his move to fucking chelsea…it would be unbearable…..
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