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.