Broken Heart

The heart is a muscle, it bruises. My heart is very bruised right now. I actually wept after the game. Honestly I did.
Its how close we got that is so agonisingly difficult to take. Once again its dominating for so long then slipping up at 89 minutes.
But I'll have to pick up my heart off the floor and hand it over once again to my boys. My boys who are so very careless with it. I have to. I have to keep believing. And so do they.
Its not the end of the world, we're still in with a chance for three.

Happy thoughts

Here is a snippet of a fantastic interview with Robin van Persie from the latest Arsenal magazine:

on top of the world

Sorry for the delay readers. But finally today I can share with you all the unconfined joy I've been feeling that not even a draw with Leyton Orient could spoil. I've been floating on air for a week. All because Arsenal defied the odds and did the impossible. We beat Barcelona. Oh yeeeeeeaahhhhhh. The boys were no less than inspiring. It was a hell of a game. What a difference a year makes, they put in a mature, committed and aggressive performance. It was glorious to behold we went a goal behind and there was no dropping of heads, no loss of spirits it galvanised them and they upped their game. The pace in midfield was thrilling, the counter attacks were absolutely blistering and there aren't enough superlatives to describe Robin van Persie's performance. Jack Wilshere truly manned up and actually delivered a performance he's threatened for a long time. Alex Song was an absolute colossus, blood and thunder as always. And the boy Chesney, he gets more impressive every time I see him. I think the most important and impressive thing is his confidence, he's willing to get yelly and he actually dominates the penalty box (mind you he is 6"5 but its more than a height thing.) All in all I was very very impressed. Its not just the result its self, its the massive morale boost it'll give to the team.
Moving on to the weekend's result. I know a draw with a team a couple of leagues below isn't ideal but there are two very important positives to take from the game.
1.) Tomas Rosicky finally scored again. Its been a long time coming and damn does he deserve it. It'll do wonders for his confidence and it can only help him find the net again. aaaaaaaand
2.) Ignasi Miquel. He looks like a hell of a prospect at centre half. Such authority in an eighteen year old (!) is incredible. Plus he's cute as hell.

Belated Birthdays

Two of our favourite boys in the world of sport have had birthdays this week. First on monday (14th) our little french ray of sunshine Bacary Sagna celebrated his birthday. We hope they had a little party for him at the emirates and we can only assume Gael Clichy did something nice for his friend on his anniversaire to make it joyeux. Then on the 16th Valentino Rossi turned 32. Once again I like to think somebody from the moto GP crew threw him a party. And I sincerely hope and pretty confidently guess that Dani Pedrosa got him a present. Many many happy returns to a fabulous pair of all round fantastic gentlemen. Have a glass on us guys.

Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's day. Not sure how to celebrate? Allow the boys of Sports Wall to show you how......

Quote of the day

"He's got more than Ivana Trump shoes him"
Some stellar cerebral punditry from ESPN on William gallas changing his boots in the middle of a match.

Boy Watch - Internationals and Testing

Lets cast our eyes around to catch up with some of our favourite boys. Firstly there's been some Moto GP testing going on at Sepang (in Malaysia.) We're extremely pleased to report that Dani Pedrosa came top of the pile for two out of the three days and Andrea Dovizioso was also consistently good reaching third. Marco Simoncelli managed to finish top on the last day which meant that all in all it was a very useful test for Honda. Valentino Rossi hovered around twelfth but to be fair he's recovering from a shoulder injury. I'm often pretty sceptical about these pre-season things and I think that you can't read too much into as the riders have been on an lengthy break and they're not using the full package and settings on the bike. Having said that I'm still happy that Dani's leading the field.
In the world of football, there's been plenty of international matches going on this week. Pretty much all of them have been friendlies but plenty of major football nations have been in action. The Arsenal boys were out in force with a  whole bunch of them representing France (including Laurent Koscielny fo the first time.) Theo and Jackie Wilshere were representing England against Nicklas Bendtner and his Danish mates (including blog favorite Simon Kjaer.) Our hero Tomas Rosicky captained the Czech republic and also scored a goal! Finally. However he also 'collected' a groin injury. Sigh. Cesc and Robin weren't allowed to go out and play and had to stay at home on the flimsy premise of flu.

Transfer Thoughts

I've been meaning to write about the transfer window for a little while but my cold got in the way, but nevermind I'm getting there now so (semi) regularity can resume. Obviously the main stories were Chelsea and Liverpool. I'll start with Chelsea. I think they've been ripped off. This is not just on the evidence of Sunday's less than stellar debut. Being ruthlessly honest Fernando Torres has been average for a long time. Very little in the past couple of years has indicated he is worth anywhere near £50m. When he first came to the Premier League granted he was good but he's stagnated in a big way. And we can't just blame this on the situation at Liverpool. The evidence is there elsewhere for all to see but people don't want to see it. The last two major tournaments he's played for Spain, he's been woeful. But Ruth, I hear you say what about scoring the winning goal in the final of the euros? That was literally the only useful thing he did the entire tournament so it really can't be taken as any sort of realistic sign. On top of being off the pace, he's really really sulky and petulant. Not someone I would be willing to gamble a large sum of money on. Speaking of which...Andy Carroll. Once again I hear you say but Ruth what about the hat tricks? the goal against Arsenal? They are all well and good but this is his first proper season in the premier league. And he's been injured for some it. And he's injured again. His fee is not justified either. There is simply not enough proof that he can produce the right kind of form consistently to justify the amount of money. And there's the questionable temparament question once again. He's a powder keg and the odds are on for him to cause trouble. One of the main reasons for the large fee is apparent though, he's english. Therefore he costs more. Thats how it works in our domestic game these days. How elese do you explain why he cost more than David Villa, an infinitely more skilfull player.
Another interesting issue was thrown up by the transfer window. What happens when a player you like from another team (not the one you support but one you like nonetheless) moves to a team you can't stand? This happened to me. I have a lot of affection for Everton. I like their squad and their plucky spirit. One of my favourite players at Everton was Steven Pienaar. I'm obsessed with the man. But the unthinkable happened. He went to Spurs. I'm gutted. And very confused. Obviously I still like him but I can't like the team he plays for under any circumstances. This is very difficult, I want to see him do good things but I don't want his team to do well. Ever.
And to finish just to say thank you to all the people everywhere who read this blog, especially those overseas (like the Japanese google users who linked to me through Stephane Lambiel!) I love checking my stats and seeing where my audience is from, so thanks everyone. If you have questions, comments or anything feel free to tweet me! There's a link on the main page and its moleyontheline.

Righteous Indignation

I've had a relapse of my horrible cold over the weekend so if there's any errors in this one I apologise. But my horrible mood over feeling ill wasn't imporved by the events of Saturday. I was going to go and watch the match at St James park originally but for a variety of reasons I didn't. I'm sort of glad I didn't now. While watching my team score four times would have been awesome, seeing them let in four and attempting to contain myself would not.
Now I know I'm emotionally invested because its my team out there but some of the decisions in that match were just ridiculous. First case in point: Diaby. I know you can't push people on a football pitch but his reaction if not defensible is at least understandable. Barton's challenge on him was reckless and Diaby has been seriously injured by something similar in the past so while he shouldn't lose his rag with scumbag Joey you can see why he did. Another thing, Newcastle defended Barton by saying that he got the ball with the challenge and caught the man with the follow through. Now lets rewind a few months to when Man City said the same thing about the challenge from Nigel de Jong that broke Hatem ben Arfa's leg. Newcastle weren't so sympathetic to that excuse then. They wanted him banned and sued and everything. So why should we accept that nonsense from them? Its double standards. Furthermore the ref indicated that Diaby's second shove on Nolan contributed to the sending off. The incident had nothing to do with Nolan. He came steaming in from somewhere else and got in Diaby's face. So he should have been booked as well, at least. Which brings me to one of the most inexplicable incidents of the game. After Newcastle scored their penalty (first time) the boy Chesney was getting the ball out of the net when Nolan again came running over and grabbed him round the neck and threw him to the floor. The referee's reaction? He books Chesney. Obviously this is galling because of the inconsistency of the ref completely ignoring a clear red card offence that he had no problem punishing our player for. Aside from that its just inexplicable. Why book the boy Chesney? there's no timewasting or provoking or anything, he was getting the ball out of his own net as it was OUR kick off. See how ridiculous that looks now?
Then there was the second penalty. And the free kick. The second penalty was nowhere near being a penalty kick. The newcastle player just fell down. With no assistance. The ref and lino were close enough so I don't understand how they didn't see the lack of contact between them somehow. Then the free kick that led to the last goal was a similar disgrace. Out of a challenge between Tomas Rosicky (hieghtening our sense of injustice) and Joey Barton there was apparently a foul on Barton. The first time I saw it on match of the Day, I didn't realise what was happening and I genuinely thought that Barton had fouled Tomas and the kick had gone the other way. When I learned otherwise, I was astounded.
Jack Wilshere is right the inconsistency in refeering is unbelievable. I was appalled by the blatant mistakes made on Saturday. It keeps happening and its unfair. Somebody somewhere needs to look into it, seriously. Its getting out of hand. I'm not just bitter because its my team, its affecting the outcome of games and it shouldn't. Now after all that moralising I need a rest.

nananananananananana CUP RUN

Its time to 'man up' (metaphorically) and get back to footballing matters. The Gunners cup form continues. In the FA Cup we overcame a gritty, battling Huddersfield side in a great game at the Emirates. My perserverance paid off and Tomas Rosicky returned! I was extremely pleased to see him as always. My ridiculous level of Sport obsession means that quite frequently my family are obliged to share it with me. And in Tomas' case one of the focal points of my obsession is his hair. And so my mum's way of commenting on his return was "I don't know what that boy has done to his hair, he must get bored with it."
And better even than our FA cup progress is the sterling job the boys have done in the Carling cup. We're going to a final! It feels unbelievably sweet to be able to say that after so long. They thoroughly deserve this shot at silverware and showed both fight and skill in overcoming Ipswich. The anticipation levels in HQ are pretty high and will probably reach fever pitch (haha) before the 27th. I'm excited and nervous all at once and I'm still marvelling that we've got there. So all together now... "we're the famous Arsenal and we're off to Wembley...WEMBLEY....WEMBLEY"

Bern 2011 - A Sartorial Breakdown

To round off my coverage of the Championships in Bern, here's a lighthearted celebration of one of my favourite aspects of figure skating- a stroll through the costuming highlights of the event.

Making an exhibition of myself

I watched the full glory of the exhibition gala at the ISU championships and I'll just come out and say it now MY MIND WAS BLOWN. I can't fully express the joy that this gave me. A demonstration of how awesome this thing was is to be found in what the newly crowned european champions in both pairs disciplines did. Robin and Aliona from Germany did a routine to 'barbie girl' by Aqua. Just let that sink in. Then add to that the fact that she dressed in pink tights and shorts and a barbie t shirt and he had "K" on one pocket of his shirt and "B" on the other (for Ken and Barbie of course.) Epic. Then there was Fabian and Natalie. Their theme? George of the jungle. Oh yes. And yes he wore a loincloth. Brave brave man. Your eyes do not deceive you people, there is the evidence. Lovely Brian Joubert did Daft Punk and Kevin van der Perren excelled himself by skating round with lit torches. Actual fire. That speaks for itself. John and Sinead Kerr did 'Mad men' dressed in suits and they did two insane lifts where she lifted him, they were unbelievably good. And who else grace us with their presence? St Stephane of Lambiel of course. SO thank you Bern for providing a week of camp, ridiculous, and utterly compelling entertainment. See you in Toyko ice fans! And also maybe here for a sartorial breakdown.......