Fortune Has Favoured Arsenal For Once

I know. The world has gone mad, for once the international break has come at the perfect time. Why? Because after Arsenal’s mad 20 minutes on Sunday where they let in 2 goals against Sunderland, who I must say at one point looked like taking the lead, the team needs a rest and a chance to get away from headlines such as ‘How Long Can Arsenal Keep Up Their Good Form For?’. Normally at this time of the year I sit down at lunch with my colleagues and I say ‘Fecks sake, the international break has disrupted us again’, it’s almost an annual rant. Not this time.

The players will all go away and serve their countries as if their lives depended on it, then come back fresh. Things were starting to look shaky after the defence let in 2 goals, however, with a break to forget about the Sunderland game, the team will come back stronger than ever and beat Bolton at home 2-0, who under Sammy Lee look a fraction of the quality they looked under Allardyce. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ must be ringing around the Reebok Stadium after only 2 months of Sam leaving; why did Sammy change the tactics?

Bolton had turned into a nifty team who were getting good results for the first time in years. Sam left, and if you ask anyone what the main objective is when a manager leaves, they will reply to keep consistency. Sammy should have carried on playing the boring, long ball tactics Sam introduced. But hey, Sammy can turn it around, and the only positive is that it can only get better for Bolton.

More so, Togo may not qualify for the African Cup Of Nations, and that’s a bloody good thing for us. Togo and Mali are tied at the top of Group 9 with only the top team qualifying. Hypothetically, we want Kanoute to bag a hat trick and beat Togo 3-2  so Togo are eliminated, with Adebayor scoring a brace; one 70 yard pile-driver and one amazing overhead kick from the half way line. Thus, Adebayor comes back with more confidence than before, and as we should all know by now:

Adebayor + Confidence = Goals Galore

Back to France Arsenal. Adebayor has come out and said ‘My partnership with Van Persie is magnificent’. Thanks for stating the bleedin’ obvious Emmanuel, but it’s good to hear it. RVP and Adebayor are like shampoo and conditioner; one without the other doesn’t show the best results. When Adebayor is without RVP he looks lost and disinterested, this is because him and Robin have built up an excellent understanding together. Furthermore, Robin has an intelligent footballing brain just like the legend Bergkamp had. Robin has elegance, class and exceptional shooting ability, he makes something out of nothing. When they play together, two things happen: 1. Adebayor becomes a target man who holds the ball up until RVP arrives to smash the ball in the net 2. RVP slides Adebayor through and Adebayor scores a great goal.

Eduardo has not played much yet, but he will be excellent next season. Next season, the headlines will not only be ‘Can Arsenal Win Back To Back Premiership Trophies?’ after we win the league this year, but ‘What Is The Best Partnership Up Front For Arsenal?’.

On another note, Ten Cate has agreed to join Chelsea. This is not good. Ten Cate was the reason Barcelona played the lovely, attacking football they played in the Champions League when they won the competition in 2006. Now he’s gone, Rijkaard has come under severe criticism and under intense pressure from fans and media. Frank relied on Ten Cate, Ten Cate would say ‘Frank, play Ronaldinho on the left pushing up forward acting as a striker, Messi on the right, Eto’o up front with Deco through the middle.’ Voila. This is what made them good. Frank wanted to play Eto’o up front and Ronaldinho behind him. In fact, this is what Frank done for a short spell and still does at times. Ronaldinho through the centre is not the same as Ronaldinho on the left.

Ten Cate is world class, Ten Cate is the equivalent of Eto’o and Drogba as a strikeforce for a team; unstoppable. Everyone respects Ten Cate and one day he will take over an elite club and win the champions league with them in his first 2 seasons. When Wenger leaves Arsenal, I want Ten Cate taking over. But that seems unlikely now.

Finally, the other half has been bugging me to explain how the offside rule works as I always shout ‘Ref you tosser that was offside!’, then turn my head 90 degrees to see her looking at me in a perplexed manner saying ‘what’s an offside?’. So on Saturday at 2.30pm I thought I’d explain it whilst we were down the pub. I sat there for 20 minutes using 3 pint glasses (2 representing the defenders and 1 the attacker) and explained it to her. ‘Ahhh I understand now’ she said. At 2.40pm she jumped up in the middle of the pub and shouted ‘Refs thats offside!’, everyone turned around and looked at us. The person next to her said ‘The offside rule counts in football not Rugby luv’. In utter embarassment (my cheeks were as red as the tomatoes my mother picks from the bottom of our garden) I sat there and quietly sipped the rest of my pint. I’ve never been so embarassed in my life. At least England beat the Aussies to sweeten the embarassment.

 Ramin