Finale - Arsenal Christmas Carol part five

Mr Wenger leapt out of his bed and flung his window open. He leaned out and saw Theo Walcott skipping down the street. "Young Theo, what day is this?" He asked. "Why sir, 'tis Christmas day!" Theo exclaimed. Mr Wenger thought of all the things the spirits had shown him as he looked down at Theo's happy little face. "Quick Theo run to the butcher's shop and get the biggest turkey in the window." Mr Wenger said and Theo ran away as fast as  his little legs could carry him. Mr Wenger hastened down to the training complex where Pat Rice and all the boys lived, all of the boys were gathered in thee main hall as Mr Wenger made his entrance. They all looked up at him, bewildered, they never saw Mr Wenger at Christmas, normally Mr Rice did the best he could to create a festive mood singing carols with them. "Please don't cancel our Christmas sir." Said Tiny Jack forlornly. "Nonsense Tiny Jack!" Replied Mr Wenger, "I  have seen the error of my ways boys, this year we'll have the best Christmas ever!" Mr Wenger declared to a chorus of cheers from the boys. He then went on to offer Robin a new contract with his wages doubled and the new ping pong table for the comon room he'd been begging for for months, he told Park Chu-Young that he would finally play for 90 minutes in the Premier League, restored Tomas Rosicky to the starting eleven and ordered state of the art medical treatment for tiny Jack. Just as he finished his Christmas proclamations, Theo burst through the door with a massive Christmas turkey. "They sold the biggest one to a man in Sunderland but luckily they got this one from a farm in France!" Theo said happily. Arsene Wenger began to carve the turkey for the team's first and best Christmas dinner and tiny Jack cried glefully  "God Bless us every one!

An Arsenal Christmas Carol Part 4

Mr Wenger stared around him grumpily, he was getting mightily irritated with his sleep being interrupted by troublesome spirits. He settled down into his bed but his eventful night was not over yet. Once again the silence in his house was broken by an unearthly noise. A sound of clacking, almost like castanets in the corridor accompanied by a high-pitched yelping sound. Mr Wenger leapt out of his bed, incensed. "No more dutch ghosts, I can't take it aymore!" he yelled.

Arsenal Christmas Carol part 3

Mr Wenger looked all around him but the room was still and silent, slightly bewildered, he pulled his duvet up to his chin and leaned back on his pillows. At first he could not sleep, but slowly his eyelids began to grow heavy. Just as he dropped off into sleep, there came a scraping sound at the door, as if someone was scratching at its panels trying to get inside. Irritated at his sleep being interrupted once more, Mr Wenger got up and flung open the door. The corridor in front of him was empty. He slammed the door shut and turned back into his room. As he did so he let out a yelp of shock. Standing in front of him was the unmistakeable form of his team captain and top scorer Robin van Persie. Only something was different about him. Like Dennis before him, Robin was now silvery and translucent. "What the hell are you doing here?" demanded Mr Wenger. "I am the ghost of Christmas present," Robin said "So that's just how I roll." "But you're not dead." Mr Wenger said disagreeably. "I'm not that kind of ghost." Robin replied. "I am a spirit of the season, sent to teach you an important moral lesson and I've taken this form beecause its significant to you. Now I must show you something." He clicked his fingers and with a jolt they were transported from the house and into a freezing field next to an imposing grey building. Ghost Robin pointed to a wooden bench and some forlorn looking figures sitting on it. "Look Mr  Wenger, look how sad and bored Tomas, Andrei and Chu-Young are. Spare a thought for them sir." Mr Wenger looked closer and indeed there was Andrei Arshavin's chubby, child-like face, a face that seemed made for a happy expression, set in an unhappy little pout as he kicked his heels against the bench. There was Park Chu-Young, frustrated, desperate for a chance to prove himself, watching all the other new signings flourish ahead of him. There was Tomas, back to fitness but waiting for an opportunity, overlooked and underused. As Mr Wenger began to feel a sense of guilt and sadness, the ghost Robin took them inside the building. There was Bacary Sagna pining for his lost BFF Gael Clichy looking at pictures of happier times and there was poor tiny Jack hobbling about on his crutches, struggling around in his protective boot. "Look at these bleak times Mr Wenger. Your team is feeling a little sad sir, its a good job I'm around to lift the mood." Ghost Robin said with a little smile and with a wink he transported Arsene back to the silence of his room.......

A (very Arsenal) Christmas Carol part two

As Mr Wenger was drifting off to sleep, he heard a far off thudding sound. Dismissing it as either his irritating neighbours or the sounds of the old heating system in his house he turned over and closed his eyes again. Once more he heard a thudding sound, but louder, closer. Mr Wenger sat up in bed, grumbling to himself. "If that's UEFA at the door again you can go away, I've told you a hundred times, I wasn't breaking any rules!" He yelled, shaking his fist at his bedroom door. Just then, his bedroom door flew open bringing with it a blast of freezing cold air. Mr Wenger started, then beggan to shiver.

A Christmas Carol Part one

Christmas Eve, London.
Deep in wintry north London there lives a man named Arsene 'scrooge' Wenger, he works every day in his little office, overseeing his big project. Always he is working, day and night, on the training field or by the light of his little lamp. The work on his big project goes on and on, so that one day his ideas will change the world. But this project takes time, so much time because Mr Wenger guards his purse strings very carefully. He scrutinises every outgoing, saves his money scrupulously for the good of the project. There is no room for frivolity. And therefore there is no room for Christmas. And so this is what he tells his assistant. His long suffering assistant Pat Rice, a kindly twinkly Irishman. He informs Mr Wenger that once again it is Christmas and its customary to have a day off. "Christmas again Pat?" Mr Wenger asks irritably. "But if you have the day off, who will take training on Christmas day for we have a match on boxing day." A boxing day match, for his boys, his youthful football team, his callow and childish pride and joy. "Of course sir." Pat sighs. "But who will look after Tiny Jack?" Tiny Jack, the baby of the team, its fragile star in waiting, poor tiny Jack hobbling on his heavy crutches, suffering with a leg injury. "Oh alright then Pat. Have your Christmas day." Arsene grumbles. He heads home in the snow, back to his big, old empty house, "Humbug" He complains to himself, "What nonsense all this christmas business is..." he groans as he goes to bed......
To be continued..............

So the time had finally come: Grand Prix Final weekend. And where was I? Well Ruth you must have been at home glued to eurosport I hear you say. No I was on holiday in Bruges. But never fear readers my v+ box (the best invention ever) was on hand to capture the madness in all its glory. So I started out today with the men's free program. Oh what a contest.

Revival

Well, it seems the whole season wasn't over after a couple of months after all. The revival of our season continues apace. They were all waitting for it to shudder to a halt when we drew with Fulham but we're not readyy to lie down yet. Oh no. I'm honestly over the moon with the spirit the boys have shown to drag ouur season back kicking and screaming and put together a fantastic run of late. Yesterday's result was a rousing 4-0 defeat of Fulham. The list of goal scorers made for pleasing viewing too with goals coming from all over the park courtesy of super centre half Thomas Vermaelen, centre mid supremo Mikel Arteta, king of the wing Gervinho and of course the man himself. Our very own superhero. The unstoppable RvP. And we are now up to the heady heights of fifth in the table. Yes. You better be looking over your shoulder because we're catching up.
And what about in the league of champions? Well only one English has so far qualified for the knockout stages. The team in question? ARSENAL. Yes. YES. Working together to lead the way people. All of the boys should be very proud of that little fact.
Speaking of facts, I learned some very interesting ones about Andre Santos, a man who is very quickly becoming a cult hero amongst my friends and family. We love the guy. We learned that he drives a green and black smart car (the colours of his first team) is a big fan of Strictly Come Dancing and has apparently taught all of his teammates the dance to his favourite Brazilian record.
And a not so gentle reminder to comment and tweet your votes for my Christmas story, either the grinch or Christmas Carol. Do it! There's not long left to have your say.

A Seasonal Poll

Regular readers will now that last year at Sports Wall we did a footballing nativity, this year I'm planning to do a special Christmas story series again. But I'm torn between two ideas. So readers, get commenting or tweet me @moleyontheline and tell me whether I should do:
1) The Grinch who stole Christmas (possibly starring Jorge Lorenzo or Stinky Stoner)
            or
2) 'Twas the night before Christmas
             or
3) A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) possibly Arsene Scrooge and Tiny Jack Wilshere
or feel free to suggest any other ideas

Adventures in gay Paris

The figure skating grand prix series continues apace. Its been brilliant so far. Last week was the fabulous NHK trophy in Japan which was won by the delightful Daisuke Takahashi and the magnificent Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov. This week's action moved to Paris annd the Trophee Eric Bompard. It was a very exciting field despite the obvious disappointment of Brian Joubert's withdrawal. The men's competition was full of thrills and spills with lots of the boys going for quads. Reigning world champion and all round nice guy Patrick Chan won the competition despite some uncharacteristic unsteadiness. His floaty red shirt for his long program is very classy and his exhibition performance with his cute little military outfit and mop dancing is so endearing. I also love the fact that Canadian Patrick dances his gala routine to Canadian Michael Buble, the uber canadian-ness cracks me up. Nan Song who has totally come out of nowhere this year with some cracking performances got second place and he once again wore his wonderful 'I've been rolling around in the craft cupboard' outfit for his gala spot. Michal Brezina got the bronze and Florent Amodio finished fifth. The pairs was once again won by Maxim Trankov and his partner Tatiana. I can't say enough good things about this man seriously, everytime I see him I like him more. Tatiana's fall in the short program provoked the very manly and very Russian response of grabbing her and physically hauling her back onto her feet. And I just love how they stand out with their gothic themed music and outfits. Nicky Slater has been on form this weekend with a constant stream of Gok Wan style fashion critiques on many of the contestants, he's starting to develop an obsession I think. 'Why aren't his trousers the same colour as her dress?' 'I like this outfit, I think a one piece makes the lines look better' on and on he went yet some how he missed the fact that Florent Amodio wore TRACK PANTS for the exhibition gala. I mean really. Come on Florent, sort it out.

A Five Star performance

I think Saturday's game may be the one of the best game i've seen in quite a while. Complete and utter madness but a brilliant game nonetheless. At the end of the first half it seemed like it was going to follow a familiar pattern with us having enjoyed arguably the better chances of the game then falling behind to a goal we should be able to defend better. But then the second half happened. The crazy happened.

Maxim-um enjoyment

Well well well Skate Canada turned out rather good didn't it? The men's contest was not only surprising but totally brilliant. In the short programme Javier Fernandez pulled off an absolute stunner of a performance with a flawless quad (oh yes), some perfect triples and some charming choreography to sort of french themed music to storm into the lead. I've liked Javi since I saw his weird cartoon themed skate last year so to see him get a silver medal in the end was lovely. Then there was Daisuke Takahashi's mind-blowing blues themed free skate. Good God can that boy dance. He just oozes style, his movements are so fluid and slinky. As my friend text me shortly afterwards 'that guy was amazing.' Indeed. It says something for the strength of the field that this genius only got third.

Ice Cold

I've had a really heavy cold for about two weeks now. The last time I had a cold this bad you may remember what I did to cheer myself up and aid recovery. I watched figure skating. And what were Eurosport showing last  weekend? Only coverage of Skate America, the first grandd prix of the year! A happy coincidence readers. The difference with a Grand Prix competition is that it's assigned so it's a smaller field. It's no less fun though. In attendance at Skate America were some very exciting people.

SuperRobin

Something else I drew to cheer myself up. Inspired by Robin's prolific scoring in the last couple of matches. Remember Robin with great power comes great responsibility..

Where's Andre Santos?

Just a little visual representation of the 'Where's Andre Santos?' game we invented, that I did to cheer myself up the other day.

A tribute to Marco Simoncelli

source

I don't even know how to begin this post. It's difficult to find the words becuase it's still so difficult to actually comprehend that it actually happened. At yesterday's race in Sepang Marco Simoncelli passed away after a horror crash. Its such a tragic waste of such a wonderful person. Its such a sad day for the sport and the world but particularly for his family and those close to him. But as terribly sad as we are here at Sport's Wall, we would like to pay tribute to Marco by focussing not on the tragic way his life ended but on the many many postives it contained. We feel that its only right that such a fantastic joyous person should be remembered in the same way. We loved Marco for the sheer joy he brought to the paddock every week, we looked forward to seeing and hearing his interviews on TV because he was always so heartwarmingly goofy, we loved his giant hair and how tall he was and how weird his legs looked dangling off his bike, we loved how fearless he was in every race, how defiant he was in the face of criticism, how truly special he was, a complete wacky one off. I love that even as I get teary eyed writing this, he still makes me smile as I remember all the fun and hilarity he brought with him to every race weekend. So Goodbye Marco, you'll leave a massive gap in the paddock and while it won't be the same without you we offer you heartfelt thanks and love and say simply "ciao."

Gradual Progress

Very slowly, very quietly, against everyone's expectations Arsenal have gone top of their Champion's League group and back into the top half of the Premier League. I feel a tiny little bit excited but also I don't want to jinx it. Yes yes there are still some issues to be worked on BUT let's focus ont he positives here people, that's what we're all about here at Sports Wall. The confidence of the team is obviously still a little fragile but RvP is in fiiiiine form. In the game against Sunderland he scored two fabulous goals, put in a proper captain's performance and reiterated his commitment to the club in his programme notes. What a guy. Then we have Wednesday's game against Marseille. A solid defensive showing. Yes I'll say that again. A solid defensive showing. The back four actually looked pretty assured. Even Djorou at right back who was out of position. While he was on the pitch Jenkins looked very promising making some lovely, quick little runs down the flank. In both games the boy Chesney has continued to look very confident and assured which is precisely what we need. Tomas Rosicky played very well on Sunday, then played the entire 90 minutes, which is very encouraging. Wednesday's game also spawned our fun new game 'Where's Andre Santos.' Its a lot like 'Where's Wally' and originates in the fact that the commentator mistook Andre Santos for someone (we can't remember precisely who now) who looked absolutley nothing like Andre Santos. So now we like to spot him all over the pitch.

The Mentor

 This is based on a conversation I had with my friend Simon in which we imagined how difficult it would be to try and help Theo with his focus in front of goal. Also its the first time I've been able to draw anyone standing sideways.

(late) feliz cumpleaños dani

I've been very remiss readers. I forgot Dani's birthday. Considering the ridiculous amount of time I spend thinking about varying aspects of Dani's life and career, so much I could act as some sort of semi-official sponsor of his, its frankly outrageous that I've forgotten his special day. So Sports Wall would like to send massive belated birthday wishes (and mental hugs) to the tiny little boy that holds a big place in my heart. Happy Birthday. And to mark the special event here's the early draft version of Dani and Valentino.

New wonderful world...of moto gp

It took me a while, but here's my little character profiles of some of the moto GP boys

Two steps forward one step back

Well it seemed as if things were going in the right directionn. Firstly we had a three nil victory over Bolton. And in this match something very cool happened. Robin van Persie scored twice which took his total for the club up to 100. Awesome. Then there was the mid-week Olympiakos game. It was a very strange game. On the one hand Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored a lovely goal to become the youngest English goalscorer in the Champions League and Andre Santos scored his first goal for the club and Tomas Rosicky was captain. But on the other hand there was some extremely sketchy defending going on leading to the narrowest of escapes with one of their shots cannoning off the crossbar. But still the boys held it out extremely well and above all we were the ONLY English team to win in the Champion's League mid-week. But then the derby happened. A two one loss to Spurs. However, there aare things that must be considered. One: their forst goal was a handball. A clear handball. Again officialdom contrives to rob us. Two: for most of the game we were the better team. And that is a very important thing to keep in mind. The level of performance was much improved and we still have important players on the sidelines. Also  Francis Coquelin played very well in the centre of midfield. The boy has potential. It always seems like I'm saying the same thing after these results but I really do beleive its impoortant to find the positives. Because that's what being a football fan is. You don't just give up when its difficult, that's not how it works. When your team is struggling you just have to scream and cheer a little louder and with a little more feeling. You get behind them because if you don't, you shouldn't have been there in the first place. Because if you really love your team you can't just switch that off.

Feeling Defensive

Well I think its fair to say, I did not see this weekend's result coming. I know things weren't exactly going to plan so far this season but four three at Blackburn was not something I would have predicted. However, this isn't going to be a sad, moping post. I didn't feel as despondent after this game as I did after the game we shall never speak of again. The thing about the Blackburn game was that the performance of the team was not reflected in the scoreline. It was a weird fluke of a scoreline. The first major thing to point out is that Yakubu's second goal was offside. Shouldn't have counted. Then we must also consider that Alex Song can't be blamed too much and castugated for his own goal as he knew absolutely nothing about it before it hit him, and it did just hit him, he didn't direct it or anything it just rebounded off him. Poor Laurent Koscielny's own goal was still horrific mind you. And one more thing, Theo Walcott should have got a penalty at the end of the game when Paul Robinson rushed out and took him down. Accuse me of bias all you want but there is no way on earth that if that was down the other end it wouldn't have been given. But its not all doom and gloom, there were plus points in there somewhere. For a start Mikel Arteta and Gervinho scored their first league goals for us and Marouane Chamakh scored his first goal in months. Also the boys responded admirably to going behind and fought back very well. The last five or ten minutes they threw absolutely everything they had at the Blackburn goal and were literally inches off an equaliser and given the amount of chances we had within the game we could conceivably have won the match. And at least there was some good news mid-week with some of our babies putting in some lovely cameos to secure a three-one win over Shrewsbury. Yes they scored first. Yes they're a couple of leagues below us but a win is a win.

Moto GP - the movie

Stumbled across a fabulous little trailer for 'Fastest' which is the follow to the imaginatively titled 'Faster' a sort of Moto GP road movie that follows all the dramatic developments and exciting moments of the season as a whole. Watch the trailer at the official website http://www.fastestthemovie.com/index-intl.html go on. Anyway the ridiculously dramatic cycle of flicking words like 'fame' 'girls' 'thrills' 'speed' and the really dramatic voiceover are all well and good and brilliantly OTT but I wish you could all see the trailer that very quickly assembled and started playing in my head. I think if I'd created a behind the scenes look at the season we can safely say it would pretty much be 'Bromance and sports innuendo- the movie.' My scrolling words would be very different- 'speed, thrills, secrets, bromance, accents, leather, podiums, crashes and....SIMONCELLI.' Speaking of Simoncelli, known to my mother as 'the big hairy one' I think my version of the movie would heavily feature 'Simoncelli cam' which is essentially a camera following him at all times capturing his wacky antics. One of my favourite things about the real trailer was that they subtitled him when he spoke, I know his accent's funny but it's not that bad. I think there would also have to be some sort of segment featuring 'Nicky's Frat house', security tips with the 'Texas Tornado' and a sort of eeyore type guide to all the problems (not of his own making of course) currently afflicting Casey Stoner. The main focus of course would be my constant real life quest to accrue evodence of the 'Pedrossi' bromance. I'm sure you can all work out that that's a combination of 'Pedrosa' and 'Rossi'.  Clever, I know. I'm pretty sure if you followed them all season with a camera (which God willing someone will allow me to do, one day)  you would get so much footage that someone of my very special mindset would have endless fun forming into a bromance montage. God knows there's the beginning of a photo series already. And in true moto gp- you think i've made this up but i actually haven't- style here is the fantastic return of extracurricular Thursday from Indianapolis. And the random activity selected for the boys this time is.....American Football!

(source )What I love about this is how Andrea Dovi (far right) looks like he has literally no idea what on earth he's doing there. So much so that he can't even be bothered to pose for the picture properly. Happy days.

World Championships!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been lucky enough to catch  plenty of the IAAF world Athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea. What a spectacular competition it was. Drama across theboard. I love big athletics events like this because there's such a massive variety of sports on show, its great to learn all the little details you didn't know before and such a wide range of athletes means you not only get some wonderful stories but you aadopt new favourites too. I invariably end up adopting lots of new people at these big events, as if I don't support enough people as it is.

Opening a door, closing a window

Well, well, well it was a busy old day at the Emirates on transfer day. I bet Arsene's cheque book didn't know what had hit it. Pat and Gilles must have been working overtime in the old get away van. All in all I'm pretty impressed with our dealings. Park Chu-Young or as he shall forever be known thanks to be predictive text - Paul Chu Young seems a sensible and solid signing. Experience? Check- he's south Korea's national captain. Reinforcement in a vulnerable position? Check- We've had finishing issues of late and have shall we say a history of frailty in that position. Next comes a pair of much needed reinforcements. Andre Santos at left-back, who once again has plenty of national team experience, having just played at the Copa America. Also it's a postion that needs reinforcing as Clichy has departed and Kieran Gibbs seems to be made out of glass. And then the big one. The much needed centre half. And what a big one he is. Six foot six of Bremen captaining, national team lynchpinning German engineering. Beautiful. Nice move Prof. I wasn't massively thrilled about Yossi Benayoun but you can't argue with how much top level Premier League experience the guy has. Then we were all thinking this is great but we're still missing something, a certain sunny western European je ne sais quoi, soemthing cultured, sophisticated, something that maybe has a way with free kicks. Then lo and behold with about ten minutes to go, it happened. The missing piece began to click in. Mikel Arteta is coming. Yes. THAT is precisely the kind of something we all want. So maybe that heavy loss might not have been so bad if it's triggered this lovely rebuilding right here. I for one am VERY excited to see how this goes. Plus its so fun to have to keep track of deadline day for once, its normally boring for gooner.

Down at the Riverside

This weekend wasn't all doom and gloom for me though. I did manage to take myself off to the fabulous Riverside Stadium on Saturday to watch Middlesbrough (my local team!) play Coventry. I haven't been to the Riverside in a while but I always enjoy going because I used to work there on the turnstiles. It was a really great job because for a football fan nothing beats the matchday atmosphere and obviously we got to be part of it for every home game. Plus it had the fabulous perk that once we'd let all the fans in and counted our tickets we got to sit and watch the match for free.

Nightmare

Well Sunday's match was just a total disaster. I don't think I've been quite that upset at a football match for quite a while. I could have cried by the end. When Robin missed his penalty and just sank to his knees in the box, it just broke my heart. Seeing poor Jenkins get sent off was brutal. I know a lot of people are saying that we never expected to get anything out of the game anyway but I'm an insanely optimistic and devoted fan and there's always a part of me that thinks they can win every game, no matter what the circumstances so there was absolutely no way I saw anything like that coming. Its unbelievably difficult to find positives from a situation like that but you can look at it and see reasons. I mean let's be fair to the boys here, we had 8 players missing. That's more than half a team. Any team in the world would struggle in a big game with that many injuries and suspensions. Plus many people are saying that with that many players out Arsene should have set his team up differently and shouldn't have tried to outplay them, should have been more defensive. But how? What would this different set up be? What would this magical defensive solution be? The only experienced players he had left were all attacking players so obviously he went for an attacking set up. They slagged him off for using kids but ignore the fact that if he did go for this magic defensive strategy he would have had to use more kids. So before we all go crazy with knee jerk negativity lets all just remember that we've only played THREE games this season. There's plenty of time left of the season.

Quote of the Week

" It will be a long time before I want to get into the Europa Cup. If we ever look like winning the Fair Play League, I'll run on the pitch and tackle someone myself" - Mick McCarthy, and I don't doubt it actually I think he'd rather enjoy it too....

A Champion's performance

Now I don't need to tell you all againthe angst that's been hanging around the Emirates of late. BUT last night the boys exorcised all that. And how. Now I'm sure that you had all heard just how important this game was in the build up. Crunch qualifying time. Then at the end of the first half disaster and Di Natale strike. Suddenly it's just got real. Things are looking a little bit terrifying. Then the second half dawns, Tomas Rosicky comes on as a sub. Everything changes. Fluency and vitality come back into our game. Our little dumpling did us so proud and its not overstating to say he changed the game with his creativity and experience. And damn I have never seen him fly in to so many brilliant tackles before. But the drama was not over with. Oh no. A penalty is conceded. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. And his name is Chesney. Holy Lord is that boy something. What a save. He has come so far this season its unbelievable. I am so very excited to see how he keeps progressing. Gervinho was also excellent last night, his pace is electric and those mesmerising little runs he's capable of are just what we need. I was also impressed with Jenkins, he stepped up very well in his first start in Europe, a very strong and mature performance. I could not be prouder of the whole team, this is exactly what they and we the fans needed. Perfect timing guys.

Breaking the law or why Wenger got caught

How they really found out he was flouting his ban......

It never rains but it pours....

Here we go again. There I was thinking a new season means a new start, perhaps the unfairness of last season will pass. Clearly I was wrong. They're starting early this year. Robbed again. Sometimes it's really hard to take defeat, sometimes you get yelly and want to swear a lot. This happened to me on Saturday. But sometimes you can keep a sense of perspective, sometimes you think there were mitigating facors. This also happened to me after I calmed down on Saturday. At first I was raging, fist-shaking mad you might say. Not only was the lead up to the first goal offside, not only was the second goal offside but robin got shoved over in the box in a move that literally anywhere else would have been a penalty. So it was very easy to get very upset about the result. But my Dad lovely as he is, said to me 'look, you need to keep this in perspective.' And he was right. As usual. We were missing more than half a team on Saturday. Wilshere injured, Song suspended, Gervinho suspended, Tomas Rosicky injured, Kieren Gibbs injured, Djourou injured, Koscielny goes off during the game. That many players were missing and yet we weren't outplayed by a pretty much full stength liverpool side complete with new signings. We only conceded after we'd had a man sent off. Both goals were offside. So when you start to look at all these things, it all adds up and it all makes sense. And lets not overlook some encouraging performances. Vermaelen: easily man of the match, absolutley immense, as I said last week, he's turning into one hell of a player. Frimpong, until a silly red, he was looking handy, making good runs. The boy Chesney, once again nicely confident and assured. As my lovely grandad put it "that goalkeeper's having a good day." And Ignasi 'Bambi' Miquel, looks ridiculously assured for teenager. Calm and unflappable, apart from his hair. So let's not get carried away with knee jerk  reactions of negativity, let's just wait and see what happens.
Oh and here's angry Arsene to accompany the post. I've been doodling some ideas recently so keep an eye out for more of these little guys coming your way.
As always comments and tweets @moleyontheline are very welcome. Seriously, go ahead.

A play-off and a fond farewell

I watched the Champion's League play off tie with Udinese this week with interest. I must admit that when I first saw that we had drawn  them, I was slightly apprehensive, maybe even a tiny bit worried. I've seen them in Serie A before and they're quite a handy team. But all in all given all the recent circumstances and shenanigans I think the team performed admirably. I've slagged Theo off goodness knows how many times and how badly but I will grudgingly admit that his goal was a good little finish. And although the level of performance dropped in the second half, we did still manage to defend pretty well and didn't commit our old mistake of letting in a silly goal. The boy Chesney once again looked very assured, which makes me feel much more positive about our make shift squad. Also Mr Vermaelen is turning into one hell of a player, all round quality really. And I'd forgotten how ripped Bacary Sagna is. So yeah, that was a nice thing to be reminded of.

Also this week there was a massive departure from the Emirates. We all heard  about it. But there was a less publicised departure too. A much more upsetting one. Emmanueel Eboue left us. Now I know he hasn't always had it easy throughout his time at the Emirates, I know he wasn't everyone's favourite, I know he made mistaakes but don't we all. I've really developed a soft spot forr Emmanuel Eboue over the last few seasons. What I loved about hhim was his relentless optimism, his boundless energy and the fantastic way he always always cheered everyone on from the sidelines. He was always first to join in with celebrations. He is frankly hilarious. In our house we  always had a joke based on the Simpsons where when we saw him we used to say "I was saying E-boo-e" (it was boo-urns in the simpsons.) So I will seriously miss our little ray of sunshine and I would like to say: Thank you for everything Emmanuel and good luck to you.  Let's all relive the tuly wonderful 'space pimp' moment shall we?

An Open letter to Cesc Fabregas

Dear Cesc,
As a very devoted and very proud Arsenal fan I would like to make one final request of you: Please stop. Please Cesc, please stop with all the tweets and quotes telling the world how much you 'love' Arsenal as a club, how much you'll 'miss' your teammates and all your 'admiration' for Arsene Wenger. Just stop it. Who exactly do you think you're kidding with all these little declarations. Allow me to enlighten you, precisely nobody is fooled. Allow me also to explain to you just why everything you have said since your transfer is so galling to Arsenal fans like myself, because clearly nobody has explained it to you so far. When you've spent the best part of a year telling everyone how much you want to go to Barcelona, moping around looking miserable and pretending you're already at Barcelona (yes we all remember that backpass) we're seriously not going to be convinced by your little 'ooh i'm so sad' act. "I'll always carry you in my heart' 'once a gunner always a gunner' Spare me Cesc, if you cared that much you wouldn't have left. As for the whole 'its my biggest regret that I couldn't lift more trophies as Arsenal captain' blah blah, I have this to say to you Cesc, a true winner would stay and prove he deserves those trophies and fight for the team. But obviously you didn't because you wanted to go 'home' back to your 'dream' club, a home and a dream that you had no problem deserting all those years ago because you couldn't bear to wait to get into their team. So I hope you enjoy all those trophies that everyone else will be winning for you, you'll certainly have a good view. Oh and that weird voice you keep hearing? That's the last player who moved from Arsenal to Barca, and do you know what Alex Hleb keeps  saying? "I should have stayed at Arsenal"
Regards,
An Arsenal Fan

Big trouble in little Newcastle

Well, well, well. Of all the scenarios I imagined for opening day, I don't think that one figured at all. I'll get to the main talking point later but first there are some positives to be taken from this frustrating nil-nil. The boy Chesney looked really impressive at the weekend. Full of confidence, commanding and beautifully assured when coming out of his goal. A point that no one mentioned in lieu of all the controversy was how well our defense did. There was none of the flapping, out of position nonsense we've seen so often they were calm, solid and kept their positions well. I think little Kieran Gibbs has come along well too, I've had my doubts about him in the past but I was impressed with his pace down the flank on Saturday. Our little dumpling impressed in the so called 'Fabregas role', though let's be fair he's been playing in that role for longer than Cesc (and in my humble opinion doing it better.) He always seems to have his detractors for some reason but his talent is undeniable and he did put in some wonderful passes. I was very impressed with our new boy once again, his pace is fantastic and his enthusiasm and ability to get into promising positions bodes very well. However there was an obvious blight on his promising debut. The incident. Now I won't deny he shouldn't have slapped Joey Barton BUT he wouldn't have done so if Joey himself hadn't gone steaming in to get involved with something he shouldn't have. So for Barton to escape a red himself is unbelievable and has no justification whatsoever. Also let me clear something else up, Gervinho didn't dive, there was contact there, so once again Joey's motives for getting involved start to look dodgy. And once again Joey proves that he is a massive tool who doesn't know when to stop or how to shut his mouth by mouthing off on twitter afterwards. Joey you look ridiculous enough as it is, don't make it worse. And by the way accusing someone of going down too easily then flinging yourself to the floor like a sack of spuds IS the definition of hypocrisy Joey, just so you know.

Opening Day!

Joy to the world and let us all rejoice! For it is Opening DAY! I love the first day of the season, it just has a special feeling about it. For me opening day has this amazing magical quality to it. No matter what has happened during the close season and pre-season, opening day represents a fresh start and therefore anything is possible. Opening day should be the happiest day of the season, everyone should be happy and full of hope on opening day. Why? I hear you ask. because my friends I'll say it again: ANYTHING is possible on opening day. Reality is yet to intervene, the ridiculous schedule is yet to take its toll, the cold hard months of winter are yet to bite, the slate is wiped clean and the squad has all kinds of points to prove. So football fans everywhere, embrace the optimism of this wonderful day and get behind your boys. Wear all of your lucky club associated gear, crack open a beer, SMILE, sing your team songs and yell for all you're worth. Today is not a day for worrying, today is a day for joy. Today we get our football back.

Like a fine wine

Once again we've forgotten a special day. Two days ago was the birthday of a legend. Not just a legend, a man who is pretty much a hero to me. But this man is a very under appreciated legend. We here at Sport's Wall would like to rectify that situation, so here is his own personal trubute. Happy (belated) 38th Birthday Filippo Inzaghi. I've pretty much grown up watching Super Pippo poaching goals and straying offside. I think I may have elucidated on my affection for him before but since it was his special day I think its a subject that deserves a revisit. Plus I want to appreciate him as much as I can while he's still playing. I absolutely dread the day he retires because I honestly can't even contemplate how devastated I'll be when it happens. He's been such a big part of my football life, he was one of the first footballers that I remember loving regardless of who they played for. I loved him when he played for Juve, all cute and boyish with his floppy fringe. I've loved him at Milan for years , loved his hilarious persistence in getting caught offside and his hilariously geniune bafflement when he's caught for it. And I still love him now, with the most beautifully eloquent expression of displeasure I've ever seen. To my eyes he still looks as good as he ever did and I for one can't wait for him to return triumphantly from his knee injury. So a very very happy birthday to you Pippo. Sports Wall loves you and we always will.

A celebration of Sporting Brothers

A while back I got an idea. Now its coming into fruition. Since it seems to have become a theme in my sporting consciousness of late here is my celebration of my favourite sets of brothers in sports.

1. Team Schleck. I've explained my love for them before but briefly here's why: they're from Luxembourg, they have a weird name, but most importantly they seem like really really nice guys and the brotherly love just radiates off them.

2. The Klitschkos. Once again the brotherly love is palpable. Also much like Frank and Andy their mother seems to have done a hell of a job raising them into all round nice guys. BOTH brothers have managed to earn a Phd in Sports Science. What an example.

3. Fabio and Paolo Cannavaro. Some families are just really blessed in the genes department. These two are a case in point. Not just one colossus of central defending but two.

4. Niko and Robert Kovac. Firm favourites of mine for a long long time. Once again, some people just win the gene lottery. Eternally classy players, criminally underrated.

5. Eirik and Espen Valheim. A recent discovery of mine. Brothers from Norway who do synchronised diving. How cool is that? Plus Espen might be the most beautiful name ever.

And an honourable mention for Tomas Rosicky and his brother Jiri. Simply because when I found out that 'little dumpling' had an older brother, my excited response was "oh my God. There's a big dumpling!"

A Special Birthday

Today is a special day. Its special because its a very special boy's birthday. Today is Robin van Persie's birthday. As you know we're pretty massive fans of RvP here at Sports Wall. We love his free kick taking skills. We love his floppy hands and how he flails when he runs. We love his feisty side, when he gets all fighty. We love his accent. We just plain love the man. Also we love that we've sat in his seat in the Emirates dressing room. We love that 'dutch arms' have become part of our life because of him. We also love that along with the stellar assistance of my dad we've developed a special sing-song sort of dutch accent way of saying his name just to make matches more fun. So nothing gives us more pleasure than creating a little birthday tribute for our favourite Dutch master.
We sincerely hope the rest of the boys are throwing him some sort of party while they're away in Portugal and we really really hope that  their birthday gift for him is a win today. Plus cake. You can't have a birthday without cake.

Impressions of Pre-Season

Pre-season is in full swing as we speak. And thank God for that. I've really been missing my football. I've been watching Arsenal's prep with interest. Mostly its been pretty good. It hit a slight snag today when we didn't win the Emirates Cup. Which is our own trophy. But we've won it every other year and won nothing else so maybe its a good thing. Who knows. Regardless of results, they've played pretty damn well during the whole tournament. Our dear little Tomas Rosicky played extremely well today and his free kick that set up Robin's goal was outstanding. Gervinho too is looking very exciting, even at this early stage. He looks like a good edition to the team and seems like he has a good turn of pace and certainly in the games I've seen so far he makes some excellent runs and gets into very good positions. The babies are looking pretty sharp too particularly Benik Afobe. Their play in midfield was lovely and the passing moves seem to be running together very well. However, one of the best and most heartwarming moments of the tournament was the fantastic reception Thierry Henry got from the fans. He did a lap round the pitch and they all sang his name, it was beautiful. So good to see our very own prodigal son return home.
On another pre-season note, I've joined my friend's fantasy football league for the coming season. My team can be generously described as 'Arsenal plus optional extras.' Introducing 'Team Leopard Trek' :
The boy Chesney, Gael Clichy, Chris Samba, Phil Jagielka, Bacary Sagna, Tim Cahill, Charles N'Zogbia, Aaron Ramsey, Gervinho, Robin van Persie, Fernando Torres.    I feel pretty optimistic about their chances, really.

Carry on up the Alpe

Wow this year's tour is one hell of a race. Utterly, totally mad but one hell of a race. Yesterday's stage was one of the most brilliant breakaways i've ever seen and was greeted with mass rejoicing in HQ. We love the Schlecks you see. And we loved how brave Andy was yesterday, pinging off into the distance with sixty kilometres to go. Speaking of bravery, what a job Thomas Voeckler has been doing in the yellow jersey. It doesn't really get much more hardcore than that. We love how much everyone has taken to the little guy, in particular the eurosport commentary team who've all developed misty-eyed man crushes and have straight up abandoned impartiality in favour of actually cheering him on now. He seems to have become a sort of endearing French Charlie Chaplin figure. Today's stage is unsurprisingly mental with all the riders having to climb up the insanely intimidating Alpe d'Huez. It's gotten off to a pretty exciting start with Cheaty Alberto shooting off persued closely by our Andy and a couple of others. Thomas Voeckler was once again redefining heroics by somehow managing to keep within thirty seconds of them and providing us with a seriously heartwarming moment as he rode with Jerome Pineau. He just leant over and gave him a friendly, comforting pat on the shoulder. It was brief but really great to see a moment of camaraderie in such a fiercely competitive spport. We know have a pretty exciting chase between the leading group and a pursuit led by Cadel Evans and including brother Frank. I can't wait to see how this pans out.....

All set to get wet in Shanghai

Managed to catch the men's 3m synchronised diving final this morning. Hot damn what a contest. I like watching diving when I can, its very entertaining and as you all know I have a bit of a thing for aesthetics and diving is a VERY aesthetic sport. Particularly pleasing are the super slow mo replay cameras, now they don't just use the super slow mo on the actual dives. Ooooh no. They use that camera on everything. Its brilliant. Madly, surreally, hilariously brilliant. You have never seen someone picking up a towel, taking a shower or shaking someone's hand in quite such a dramatic fashion before. But seriously I do enjoy the gymnastic type aspect of diving and I particularly enjoy the synchronicity aspect of it. I find synchronicity fascinating. Fascinating in its weirdness. But anyway, it was a cracking contest. China maintained a pretty high level throughout with mind blowing technical precision. The rest of the field kept it really exciting though with a few teams swapping places in the medal places, it was in the final round that it really kicked off with Russia nailing an absolutely stunning last dive to leapfrog Mexico into silver medal position and leave USA in fourth. I also enjoyed the performance of the Ukranian team and while the Norwegians didn't finish very highly I liked them a lot too largely because they're brothers and both named E. Valheim. Erik and Espen Valheim. What a beautiful sounding set of names. I'm quite fond of sets of sporting brothers, which gives me an idea.....Till next time kids...
Oh and the name of the post comes from Eurosport's brilliiant slogan for the championships!

Dani day at Sachsenring!

There was absolute pandemonium in HQ today at the end of the Moto GP race. This was because Dani's marvellous comeback finally kicked into top gear today as he marked it with a win. Yes you read that right, in only his second race back our gorgeous boy won. Not just won, won in style too. He played it perfectly with a dynamite start, then some kick ass passing moves on stinky and Jorge. It was a stunning race all round with lovely Dovi and Marco engaging in a pretty livley scrap for fourth place which was later joined by Ben Spies. Valentino had his fair share of the action too, showing us he can still get it done in an almighty scrap with Alvaro Bautista and Fratboy Hayden. One of the particular highlights of the race was Alberto the happiest man on earth hanging right off the pit wall, waving like a madman at Dani to go faster. Also good was Dovi blowing kisses at the camera at the end, he's always a very charming boy. But by far the best moment for me today was eating my moto GP winning cookie at the end of the race. I made my moto gp cookie at the beginning of the day to eat with the race in honour of Dani and it ended up a victory cookie! And it was delicious.

Back with a bang

Let us all rejoice Arsenal's pre-season campaign has officially begun! The first match of the Asian tour happened yesterday with the boys taking on a Malaysian national eleven. I was so excited to see all the boys in action again and to gauge where the team is at. And all in all it was a great match. I know that pre season obviously isn't the same level as the actual football season and you can't place too much significance on its results. BUT having said all that, it was really nice to see them playing that well, this early on. We won four nil and dominated in possession against spirited opposition which is always good to see. One of our newer, younger team members really made an impression, Ryo Miyaichi playing on the wing. He looked really sharp, constantly getting into good positions and he looked comfortable on the ball. He looks like a really exciting prospect and I'm looking forward to seeing him develop this season. Aaron Ramsey had a good game too and its really heartening to see him getting back to the player we know and love. Our defenders had a good game which is very good for their confidence and another newbie Carl 'Jenkins' Jenkinson looking lively at full back. Even Carlos Vela put in a shift. And towards the end of the match something very special happened. Something that HQ has been waiting for for quite a while. Our dear little Tomas scored a goal. A neat little header as well. I was absolutley bursting with pride, nothing could have made me happier. He also got to wear the captain's armband for the second half. Perhaps all our campaigning is finally paying off. Well Done little Dumpling.

Cycling Carnage and Boxing Brothers

I managed to catch some of the Tour de France on sunday and apparently I dropped in on an eventful day. The main talking point was of course the TV car incident. A TV car actually swerved right in to Juan Antonio Flecha  which caused him to hit Johnny Hoogerland. Flecha hit the ground and Hoogerland flew into a barbed wire fence. It looked as painful as it sounds. Both riders were in an absolute state but somehow managed to remount and finish the stage which frankly is nothing short of heroic. Apparently Hoogerland's leg wound needed 33 stitches afterwaards and he still raced today. Surely the definition of hardcore. Luis Leon Sanchez won the stage with a neat bit of tactics sprinting off the second Thomas Voeckler approached behind him. Our Andy Schleck watch total was one sighting. Today we indulged another of our traditional Tour de France pass times was looking out for sculptures of bikes in local fields made from agricultural stuff like tractors and hay bales. Unfortunatley there was onlly one sighting on this front too although it was a cool one with two people made of hay.
Yesterday morning I was rudely awoken at an outrageous hour as the neighbours are doing some kind of loud kitchen remodelling however this did allow me to catch an interview with Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko on BBC breakfast. I'd seen part of Wladimir's fight against David Haye the day before and I was really impressed with him as I'd never seen him box before. I always thought that he seemed like a really decent guy and both he and his brother more than proved me right duing the interview. They both came across really really well with the particular highlights being anytime their family relationship was brought up. Wladimir's story about his elder brother teaching him how to box when they were young was adorable, revealing that he "saw stars" the first time Vitali hit him, equally charming was his slightly lost in translation reaction that it "didn't taste well." Also the fact that his brother calls him 'Wladi' is just too sweet for words. The brotherly love was evident the whole way through with their answer to the question of who was the better fighter being to simultaneously point to the other one. Similarly when asked if they'd ever fight each other, they said no on the basis that it would upset their mother. Now there is a pairof well brought up boys.

A Fond Farewell for Fabio

Sad neews reaches us at HQ. Five years to the day since he heroically led Italy to world cup glory, Fabio Cannavaro has announced he is retiring due to a serious knee injury. Sigh, there goes another one of our favourite veterans. He's a player I've grown up watching and I sincerely hope he will go into management as he still has so much he can offer to the game. His towering performances at the 2006 world cup were one of my highlights of the entire tournament and seeing him on the verge of tears after Italy's elimination at last year's World Cup was absolutley shattering but also a testament to how much he cares and what a true captain he is. So Sports Wall would like to say a massive thank you to Fabio for all the wonderful years of wonderful football. We'll miss you Fabio!

Transfers and the Tour

Its summer so the transfer window shenanigans go on. This week Gael Clichy left for man City. I was really sad to see Gael go, he's been a great player for us and he's been with us a long time. Also he's half of one of my favourite football bromances in his sweet beyond belief friendship with Bacary Sagna. Seriously Bacary wears his gloves and I've seen the Emirates dressing room they sit right next to each other, slightly apart from the others. What's Bac going to do now?
I've been watching the transfer rumours and I have been very very nervous at times. Butt thinggs appear to be moving along, Gervinho is apparently close to signing and while I would prefer a certain Columbian striker instead, this is a step in the right direction. Also I hear that Almunia and Nicky Bendtner are 'negotiating' moves. This is very good progress; to make way for new signings some people must move on, this is inevitable. And finallly it seems like the right players are being linked with moves away.
This time of the year also means the return of the annual "Where's Andy Schleck?" game to our household. Its a fun game. The game consists of my dad watching the tour de france while I periodically ask him "where's Andy Schleck?" Simple but immensely fun. Andy schleck is my favourite cyclist for a few reasons. One, he has a cool name. Two, he's from Luxembourg. Three, the lovely relationship he has with his brother, a couple of years ago one of them made a break away and the other got stuck behind so he went back for him. Mrs Schleck must have been bursting with pride that day. So along with playing the Andy game, I'll be cheering for him all the way in the tour.

The long awaited return

It's been a long wait but finally this weekend Dani returned to the Moto GP paddock. And of course there was a rather tall Italian waiting to greet him on his return. Unfortunatley it wasn't Valentino Rossi but Marco Simoncelli the cause of his absence. Poor Marco attempted to do the decent thing and shake Dani's hand in an attempt to put all the animosty behind them but Dani was having none of it. I was a little disappointed in Dani and his refusal of the handshake. I just didn't think he was that kind of person, he always seemed more mature than that to me. Don't get me wrong I understand why he would feel angry at Marco but I don't think continuing to blame him helps anyone. Maybe Valentino can have a word with him and help the situation since he's apparently friends with both of them. Having said that, I did enjoy Dani's deadpan declaration that "there's nothing in his [Marco's] head but hair." The race itself was pretty good with some exciting battles the whole way through the field. Dani foughtt his way from fourteenth up to seventh, which on his return from injury is pretty damn good. Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso put in sterling performances pipping Casey at the end of the race and throwing the chammpionship right back open. Also little baby Marc (Marquez) won again! Yay. We're quite fond of little baby Marc at HQ largely because he looks like the love child of Bojan Krkic and Justin Bieber.

Service with a smile

There was a big big reason to celebrate here at HQ yesterday. Wimbledon, third round, Centre Court....picture it. Feliciano Lopez steps out onto court against Andy Rodick, a player he's lost to seven times,, including reecently at Queen's. Then...BOOM...Ace. A pattern begins. But not just a pattern of big serves, a pattern of some beautiful volleying and exquisite passing shots. Flic is ON his game today. Then sudddenly he's making the eighth seed look very ordinary in the first set tiebreak. Then it happens again in the second tiebreak. In the third set the damn breaks and so does Flic. It's glorious, fist-pumping, vamos-ing, hair shaking glorious. I could not be prouder. I've been supporting Flic for a long time, since number 90 in the world to be precise, but his ranking has never mattered to me, its his game in  all its flowing aesthetic glory. In full flow he's a beautiful sight to behold, he has awonderful languid grace to all his movements and i could honestly write reams about how gorgeous his tennis strokes are. Another highlight of Flic's match was the commentary of the man, the legend Boris Becker. He's fast becoming a favourite a HQ with his left-field remarks. The other day, one of his fellow commentators pointed out Noel Fielding in the crowd, to which Boris promptly responded "the guy in the middle? That's not a woman?!" Then during Flic's match he began musing to himself about the state of Andy Roddick's nails, reasoning that biting them that far down must hurt. The piece de resistance came when he spotted Roddick's wife (a swim wear model, who's been in Sports Illustrated.) His thoughts? "Anyone seen the swimsuit issue? (pause) I HAVE!" Genius.

A good vintage

Something unusual has happened at HQ. I've been watching Wimbledon this week and the most affecting match I've watched and the one that has moved me to blog was on the women's side of the draw. Yes you read that right, there's a wave of feminism going on here at Sports Wall. And its all because of Kimiko Date-Krumm. Mrs Date-Krumm was Venus Williams' second round opponent at SW19 this week. Normally everybody would be commenting on the fact that she is ranked number 57 in the world and Venus is a multiple Wimbledon champion. But there's something else everyone was commenting on. Kimiko Date Krumm is forty years old. She turned pro in 1989. I'll put that in context for you all, that's the year I was born. She retired in 1996 and came back in 2008. That in itself is inspiring. But watching her in the match was something else. Her athleticism was amazing and her shot making ability was absolutely sublime, her ability to change her game to suit the moment was so impressive. It was a display of proper vintage tennis. She pushed Venus Williams all the way eventually going down with a more than creditable score of 7-6, 3-6, 8-6. I hope her match was as inspiring to all the aspiring tennis players out there as it was to me. What a fantastic example she's setting for us all, Kimiko we salute you.

Two Dani-less rounds

I've been slightly remiss about my moto GP postings, largely because there's been a Dani shaped hole in the grid for the past two rounds. I had to tape Catalunya because I was on holiday. I was hoping for a Valentino Rossi win since I was in Italy but fifth wasn't too bad, given he's still in the developing stage with the bike. I spent quite a bit of my day out in Riva skulking around bar canopies, leaning over in a super unsubtle way trying to surreptitiously watch their highlights. Luckily my mum then handily sent me a text informing me that "stinky" had won and Rossi had finished fifth. Stellar.
Then it was the British GP. It was eventful to say the least. Lots of rain meant crashes for Spies, Lorenzo and Simoncelli and lots of sketchy moments besides. Which means its all change in the leaderboard again. Unfortunately stinky is now leading but it does mean narrow the gaps at the top which lets Dani back in if he returns sharpish. A friend of mine attended the GP and has returned with autographs! I haven't managed to find out whose yet and the suspense is killing me, I can't wait to hear all the exciting stuff from the weekend.

The start of crazy season

Well here I am back on the shores of dear old Blighty once more. I've been gone a week and I've returned to find crazy season in full swing with rumours flying all over the place about Samir Nasri. I've heard all sorts of nonsense linking him to Manchester United and even saying talks had been opened but I refused to put too much stock in them given the sketchy nature of the speculation and general lack of official quotes. Then lo and behold today I check twitter and there's a tweet from the man himself saying "Don't believe the newspapers and the rumours I'll let you know if something happens." To me that sounds a lot more postive for Arsenal fans than any of the nonsense printed in the papers. We've also been subjected to speculation about a bid for Gael Clichy from Liverpool and the continued, tedious debate about Cesc Fabregas. I for one hope Gael Clichy isn't going anywhere, I don't understand the amount of criticism that's been flung his way this past year. And as you all know I'm heartily sick of the Cesc saga. I wish they would just settle it already. Either sign him or shut up its that simple. I've also heard tons of supposed transfer targets that i'm not happy with; Chris Samba- NO, Gary Cahill- NO, Oxlade-Chamberlain-no, Gervinho- no. One rumour however, stood out: Falcao. Now that would be a huge and resounding YES.

Post-Season Break

Big early morning greetings to everyone from Newcastle Airport. That's right I'm out of HQ for a holiday. Where are you going, I hear you ask. Well I'm going to the beautiful home of all things Calcio. Ruth's Sport's Wall is decamping to Bella Italia for a little break. So if things are quiet for a few days that's why. Anyway, the football season ended on a little high with justice prevailing and Barcelona (and football) winning the champions league against Manchester United. Also football triumphed in the Premier League with Wigan staying up instead of Birmingham's anti-football. I've been watching more of the French Open, in particular Mr Nadal, who I must say is starting to look more assured as he progresses. I also enjoyed the endurance clash between my favourite catalan lion David Ferrer and Baby G Monfils. Five sets of showpiece tennis, get in. Now we're down to the serious part and I'm hoping to catch some of it on Italian TV. I'm pretty sure they show Moto GP there as they might have a rider or two in the championship. Anyway, ciao for now

F for fabulous at the French

One of my favourite sporting events has come round again this week. Its time for the red clay of Roland Garros and that means one thing; the French open. I think I had forgotten (only slightly) how much I actually enjoy watching tennis. Its beenn  a cracking tournament so far. The first match I watched was Roger Federer's opener against  Feliciano Lopez. If you've seen any of this blog before you'll know that this was entirely because of Flic Lopez and literally nothing to do with Roger. Flic is an absolute aesthetic dream, he has a beautiful, graceful languid quality to his movements. He brings out the 'Death in Venice' in me he really does- I read the book recently and adored it, I totally identify with so much in thhat noveel. Anyway, point is he's a wonderful player to watch. Unfortunatley he didn't win but that doesn't mean I  didn't enjoy it. I always enjoy watching hima nd cheering him on whatever the result. For some reason I feel the need to be a lot more vocal when watching Feliciano and I yell at the TV during near enough every point in his matches. Luckily HQ was empty yesterday so I didn't look like a total loon. I also watched Rafael Nadal's first round match which was a lot closer and more worrying than  I'm used to from him. As we speak I'm watching his second round match which the eurosport commentator (male) has pronounced 'F for fabulous.' I have to agree. There's been some breathtaking shots from both him and his opponent, particularly at the net and this third set is turning into a hell of a contest. I caught two of my favouritte players in action briefly too; firstly Gael 'Baby G' Monfils. I love his all action, mission impossible style of tennis and how wonderfully expressive he can be (those eyes!) Secondly David Ferrer. I love the sheer energy this man has, I love how he prowls on the baseline like a sexy Spanish lion and I love his fiery temperament. And you know, he's a real hard-working professional. Ahem.
It hasn't all been boy-watching. Unusually for me, I tuned in to the women's competition too and watched Kim Clijsters. I like Kim. I have a lot of respect for her and she seems a classy lady. Unfortunatley she lost today. Oh well back to the boys then.

My (Europa) Cup runneth over

As you all know I'm a big fan of the Europa League competition. I just plain love watching it as its full of random players that I like to keep an eye on and I really love to adopt a team in the competition every year. My record in this respect in pretty damn good. Last year I adopted Atletico Madrid. First and foremost for Tomas Ujfalusi, the guy cracks me up no end and I love his hardcore attitude. Secondly Diego Forlan, the man  is a machine. And thirdly Quique Sanchez Flores a man who rocks knitwear like no other. This year I was torn  in the early stages between Napoli (Edinson Cavani oh yeeeeah) and Porto. As I've said previously I've really enjoyed watching Porto in Europe this season. Their passing is incredibly quick, they flow so well as a team and they play beautiful incisive attacking football. the final on Thursday was pretty cagey at first but they totally deserved their win. It was veery fitting that Falcao scored the goal that won them the trophy too given that he has  been far and away the star of this yeear's competition. The rapturous celebrations were pretty special too. I loved the sombrero he acquired from somewhere. And his sweet joint lifting of the trophy with birthday boy Helton. So here's to a great competition this year and this great tradition continuing next year. Roll on the next round of boywatching

A walk down Wembley Way

While I was in London last weekend, I didn't just visit the Emirates. My dad and I went to Wembley for the FA Trophy final. My Dad, you see is a massive Darlington fan and when I was a kid I used to go to all the matches with him. And when they got into the division three (its called league two now) playoffs about ten years ago we went to watch them at Wembley together then. So it was pretty special to go to the new Wembley to watch Darlington together again.

A horrendous hat-trick

A stark contrast to a couple of weekends ago when everything went right. This weekend everything went wrong. Sporting wise. First up was Moto GP and while there were positives such as Valentino's first Ducati podium and lovely Dovi on the podium, there was an incident which overshadowed the joy somewhat. Dani had a little duel with Simoncelli which he came out of worse and crashed. His collarbone is broken. Poor baby Dani has only just recovered from breaking the left side of his collarbone. Now he's broken the right. It just never ends for the poor guy. I wish him all the very best in his recovery because as you all know HQ is very firmly Dani territory. Then came the Arsenal match. A 2-1 loss to Aston Villa. Robbed doesn't cover it. A stonewall penalty denied. A perfectly good goal denied for no apparent reason. Bookings and red cards not issued. Ridiculous. On the plus side Robin got fighty which is always a highlight. Then to complete the hat-trick, Rafael Nadal lost the Rome final to Novak Djokovic. What a weekend.

A visit to the Emirates

Its been pretty quiet here at Sports Wall for the past couple of days, as I was away in London for three days so was wrenched from my laptop. However, while I was there I achieved a dream. Yes everybody, I've finally done it, I did the Emirates Stadium tour. Photos this way......

Happy Birthday to a football legend

As the title indicates today is the bithday of an absolute legend of the game. Feliz Cumpleaños to Juan Pablo Sorin who turns 34 today. He's aplayer who brought us a lot of joy over the years particularly at the 2006 world cup so much much love to Juan Pablo on his special day.

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Tennis News- Flic's big day

More exciting sports news from this week. Last weekend Feliciano Lopez reached the final of the Serbia open. He didn't win it, but we still feel like its worthy of celebration. He's been one of my very favourite sports people for some years now after I watched one of his US open matches and was just bowled over by how charming he is and how entertaining he is to watch. I follow his results very closely and to see him get in a final is fantastic. So there you have it. We love you Flic! Congratulations.

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Dani day in Estoril

I've already talked about one momentous event that happened over the weekend but there are even more to come. Starting here. With Sunday's Estoril GP. And a stonking GP it was.
Once again before it had even started we were on the right track with a press room bitch fest worthy of the red carpet. Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli got into a little spat about Marco's ahem aggressive riding style. The highlight was Jorge telling him that "if it happens in the future with you, then there'll be a problem." To which Marco replied "Then I'll get arrested." What a guy.
The race itself was a tactical masterclass from Dani Pedrosa. Valentino Rossi would have been proud of his patience and perserverance in stalking Jorge until four laps remaining. Clever boy. Lovely Dovi also pulled out a hell of a strategy in reflecting the famous Elias-Rossi duel over the line from 06. Its turning into an amazing season already and with Le Mans up next we're sure to have more drama coming. Bring it on

Justice

FINALLY. Finally loyal fans. Finally it has happened. Rejoice boys and girls. Justice has been done. Arsenal have beaten Manchester United. Oh yes, savour that just for a moment.

From Russia with love

Is everyone feeling chilled out? Shall we take down the temparature some more? That's right everyone, it's that time again....ISU WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. I've been ridiculously excited since I saw the entry lists for this and the rescheduled event finally kicked off in Moscow this week and boy has it lived up to its promise so far.

Light relief

Some sterling work from Joachim "Jogi luuuuurve" Loew in the press today. We all remember Jogi right? He's the coach of the German national team and the king of knitwear. Asked about rumours that he wears a wig, this is how he responded:
"I've heard that before too. Rubbish. You're welcome to tug on it. There is so much mischief made. I suppose it's part of my job."

Stellar quote sir.


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The end of a Dream

Well it looks like our title hopes are pretty much dashed. There could be some sort of miracle (which I will continue to hope for) but pragmatically speaking our part in the race is run.
Nevermind, there's always next year. Its pretty hard tto say but its also true. The past few weeks have been extremely difficult causing me no end of stress and actual heart-rending pain. BUT overall its been a pretty good season. I've been pretty damn proud of those boys a lot of the time and a little blip at the end of the season isn't going to change that. So with that in mind, I'm looking back over the season at moments of improvement and reasons to be cheerful for next season.

A stressful couple of days

Well my beloved team had two important games in four days. Liverpool on Sunday and Spurs yesterday. My stress levels have now gone through the roof. I've waited till now to wrute the blog as now I can be a little more even handed in my review. There's plenty of controversy to keep us all going, so what are we waiting for?

Birthday Poles

Today is a very very special day. Not one but two amazing people were born today. Our poles in the goal, Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski celebrate their birthdays today. Lukasz turns twenty six while the boy Chesney turns 21. So we'd like to say Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin to them both.

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St Stephane's Day

It's come to my attention that I forgot to celebrate St Stephane's day. Well here we are ten days late. Happy Late ST Stephane's Day everyone! The official day is the 2nd of April but feel free to celebrate today. Its a celebration of the birth of the prince charming of the ice Mr Stephane Lambiel. How do you celebrate this magical day I hear you ask? Well some interpretive dancing is always a good idea, be sure to flick your hair lots, wear a waistcoat if you can or some knitwear, listen to something by Damien Rice (one of his favourites), watch a movie with Leonardo di aprio in it (ditto) and wave a Swiss flag. Or just stare at the aesthetic perfection of St Stephane of course......

Also feel free to extend the celebration by watching the World figure skating championships in Moscow starting April 24th!

More like it

The title says is all. THAT boys is more like it. Not only was the game a well-deserved victory and timely morale boost but it marked the competitive return of 'Crazy' Jens Lehmann. Wooooooooooooo.

European thoughts - Serie A and Uefa cup

I've been lucky enough to catch some pretty good European matches lately. Firstly I watched the Milan derby, which was a cracker. I'm a big fan of AC Milan so its really lovely to see them doing well again. It was fantastic to see Gianluca Zambrotta playing and playing well. And Clarence Seedorf. Its a well known fact about me that I love a verteran old campaigner and this is partly why I love Milan so much. It fills my heart full of joy to see all the players I've grown up watching still going strong. So I'm praying so hard for one of my very very favourite people to recover from his knee injury. The man they call SuperPippo. Everytime I watch Milan and he isn't playing I feel a little twinge. I think I'm going to have full on hysterics when he *whisper it* retires. Another thought that occurred to me during the derby was about Robinho. I think he is suffering from what we in the business call "Nicklas Bendtner syndrome." He displayed all the symptoms, terrible first touch, reluctance to pass to teammates and skying chances. As my dad said "its a pity Robinho isn't as talented as he thinks he is."

Then the other day I watched Porto in the Europa league. What a game. What a side. I really like the look of Andre Villas Boas as a manager; he's young, he's got his team playing lovely free flowing football, he has swagger and he's a snappy dresser. And boy are his team impressive. Time and time again they swept majestically down the pitch, what a pleasure it is to watch them. And Radamel Falcao in particular. He scored a hat-trick on the night and it was a stellar performance. Plus he's so beautiful. Like breath-taking. Look

Jerez GP - Crashes, hissy fits and comedy falls

Now that is how to start the season with a bang. This weekend's race had absolutely everything you could ask for and hopefully is just a taster of what we're going to get this season. So without further ado, let's dive right in.

Arsenal news- New signing

Fantastic news coming out of the Emirates. We have a new signing of world-class pedigree. He's only young but he has masses of potential and is definitely one for the future. What's even better is he's an all-rounder who's flexible position wise. Step right this way to check him out.....

Sporting Thoughts- Comebacks, issues and track cycling

Well last weekend was a funny old couple of days. There was a dramatic Arsenal game and the first Moto GP race of the season. This weekend, not so much. Its an international  break and there's track cycling on eurosport. So let's start at the start and look at last weekend.

The evidence mounts

"Pedrosa called me a few times when I was still in recovery, to see how I was doing and to tell me to stay positive," GPOne.com reports Rossi as saying.
The bromance lives! The evidence just keeps building. I think google plants this stuff in my way. Anyway I just found this and I thought it would make a sweet little pre-race thing.

The BIG Moto GP season Preview

Aaaaaaaaaaaah I'm super excited! Are you? But Ruth, about what? I hear you cry. About the brand new season of Moto GP of course. It all kicks off in Qatar this weekend, after three very long months away and a very exciting pre-season of testing. So let us glance into the Sports Wall crystal ball to see what we can expect from this season....

Everyone's Irish on the 17th

Today is St Patrick's Day. As it says in the Guiness factory in Dublin, "everyone's Irish on March 17th." But today is also a cool birthday day. Today three people who are very cool share a birthday. First is a football player I have a serious inexplicable obsession with. I just love the guy. Happy Birthday Steven Pienaar. Second is an all round footballing legend. An absolute hero of a man. Happy Birthday Pat Rice.
And finally an even more special birthday. HQ has been filled with cards for this person. Today is my mum's birthday. So lots of birthday love to Sports Wall's own superheroine.
Three extra reasons to celebrate today. Enjoy St Patrick's day sensibly everyone.

Three Down

Well there goes another one. First the Carling Cup, then the Champion's League, Now the FA Cup. Now this isn't a bitter whiny, post (again). This is finding posititves in our predicament. So let's march on.......

Mes Que un disgrace

Did you all see it? More importantly did you hear the whistle? If you answered no, you have working ears and mental faculties, if you answered yes then congratulations you have superhuman hearing.
I'm talking about the Arsenal vs Barcelona game of course, but where do I even start?

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day! Happy Women's day everyone. Since this blog is pretty boy-centric usually and since of course it is run by a woman, I decided that today on Sports Wall we're going to pay tribute to some of the fantastic ladies making sports great.

The rivalry continues (x2)

Well, well, well. What a difference a week makes huh? Suddenly it all doesn't look so bad.

Perspective

Here it is. I'm finally ready to look back on the Carling Cup. Now we all know how upset I was so lets not dwell on that side of things. But I will share with you my remedy for cup final heartache. Two things. Number one: find somewhere to vent and let it all out. I went into my garden to swear but you screaming and crying are also good, just suit yourslef. Then Number two; ice cream. Lots of it. Prefereably straight from the tub.
Now onto the perspective. Firstly, yes we all know it was a final and a trophy and so on BUT the Carling Cup is the erm...lowest profile out of the competitions we had a shot at. Don't get me wrong I would have loved them to have won it and I'm not belittling the competition. Also lets all take a reality check here, the season isn't over we still have quite away to go, to let one game shape the rest of our season would be foolish in the extreme. They're all professionals they absolutely must get this in perspective and instead of letting it get them down they have to use it to their advantage and let it fire them up. Let this disappointment fuel our other aspirations. Defeat makes the eventual victory taste sweeter so don't let them forget that. 
As cruel as losing the final in that manner was, there are positives to be had there. For a start the fact that we were actually in a final after several seasons of near misses. Also we weren't comprehensively out played or badly beaten. We lost it on one stupid error. Its a problem but one that can be worked on. Another problem that needs to be worked on is the attitude problem that some of our players *cough*fabregas*cough* seem to have. The problem I'm referring to is that in the build up to the final it occasionally seemed that it was being treated as our only chance to win a trophy. What springs to mind was the whole "fabregas has waited so long to captain a final and now he can't" debate. GET OVER YOURSELVES. There are going to be other finals. I believe that wholeheartedly and it goes without saying that they should too.
To finish up I would like to add thatt I have a huge amount of respect for Arsene Wenger's response after the gaame. He said that he didn't blame any player for the defeat. Ass soon as he said it my dad said "its a good job it isn't you because you would have." Followed by, "You probably would have smacked them daft." Thanks Dad.