It is another decisive weekend in the Premier League, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s men at Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, and Manchester City hosting Tottenham Hotspur for late lunch. The potential from the two results swing cannot win Manchester United the Premier League title, but as the proverbial sometimes goes, a six point gap come Sunday night would certainly go some way to sending the title towards Eastlands.
Ferguson will be thankful, then, that the United injury list is down to just the seven absentees for the weekend’s fixture as the Reds face an Arsenal side out of the Premier League race, but still possessing enough firepower to damage the visitor’s dreams.
That is to say little of the redemption Arsène Wenger’s men will seek after United’s humiliating 8-2 victory at Old Trafford earlier this season. It was a result that had some Arsenal fans calling for the Frenchman’s head, and ensures a far tighter match this time out.
“It won’t be as open as the last time. There is no chance of that,” admitted Ferguson on Friday.
“There won’t be a lot between the two teams. They have only lost six goals at home this season so we are well aware it is going to be a hard game. I just hope we can get the result we want and need. I have never used revenge as part of my motivation. It rankles but you have to forget it. I am sure Arsène did that. That is what I would have done anyway.”
The fixture should see the return of two old stagers in Paul Scholes and Thierry Henry, although the later is struggling with a training ground injury. Scholes may start in the absence of other midfielders.
Yet, the United manager says that old rivalries between the teams have died over the six years the Arsenal have gone without a major trophy. It is a period in which Chelsea and now City have challenged United for the Premier League crown, and not the north Londoners.
“I don’t think that [Arsenal not being a threat] is the issue. I think it’s because they are different types of teams,” added Ferguson.
“The type of player they had, the likes of Vieira, Petit, Henry, Tony Adams and Steve Bould, has been replaced by a different type now. It’s a younger player, a different type altogether. Arsène has not changed his philosophy and it has paid dividends for Arsenal over a long period. He is still trying to do the same things. He is still trying to entertain and to play their football their way. You have to go back five or six years for when it was last combustible, when Keane and Vieira had that slanging match in the tunnel.”
Anderson is likely to be sidelined too, although Ferguson had positive news on key midfielder Cleverley, who may be just three weeks away from a competitive return.
“We’re a bit better in terms of injuries,” Ferguson told the press on Friday.
“Smalling and Jones will be fit, and Cleverley and Young have done some running, which is good. But Anderson is still a bit a short – he got an injury in training last week. Tom and Ashley are doing a good running programme and their fitness levels are good. They have done a lot of work, he and Ashley.
“I am hopeful in 10 days’ time he [Tom] will be playing football on the training side of it. That is the plan anyway, unless there is any recurrence. We can kick on then. It would be a great boost to have them both back – they’re influential players.
“The way Cleverley started the season was phenomenal and he’s been a loss. He’s got something different from the others. It depends how he does in the training, but his fitness levels should be fine. He could cope right away. If he does, you are talking about a week.”
If news of Cleverley’s potentially return has offered Ferguson’s men a genuine lift, then there is also a warning about Arsenal’s ability to still impact this title race. Wenger’s men may be 15 points behind City, but the Londoners host both Manchester sides before the campaign ends. Indeed, midfielder Michael Carrick believes that Arsenal remains a factor this season, with Wenger’s men in fine form until recent losses to Fulham and Swansea City.
“They didn’t start the season too well but they are still up there,” claimed the Geordie midfielder.
“Arsenal against Manchester United is always a massive game. They will want to win and so will we. Manchester City have done well. You have to give them credit. They set an early pace, had a funny Christmas period, and have now bounced back. It’s close at the moment, so we want to catch up with them. The bar has been raised this year.”
Meanwhile, the Gunners have an injury list every bit as long as United’s, with up to eight players likely to miss the fixture. Wenger will be without defenders Kieran Gibbs, Bacary Sagna and André Santos, while midfielders Jack Wilshere and Mikel Arteta will sit out the tie. Marouane Chamakh and Gervinho are at the Africa Cup of Nations. Loanee Henry will face a late fitness test.
Despite the absences in Robin van Persie the Londoners still retain the league’s in-form striker. The Dutchman has 26 goals in all competitions this season.
“Van Persie has scored a lot of goals and is playing really well,” added United striker Wayne Rooney.
“He will be the biggest threat for Arsenal on Sunday. Van Persie and Ramsey are certainly the two who have stood out for them this season. It is not about me and Van Persie. It is about us against Arsenal. That is what we will be focusing on. There are a lot of top strikers in the league; Van Persie, Sergio Aguero, Yakubu is playing really well. It is about us against Arsenal. That is what we will be focusing on.”
With United only a victory away from drawing level with City at the Premier League summit or, indeed, slipping six points behind, Ferguson, Rooney and the United squad will surely be more focussed that the Reds’ last league match on the road – a devastating 3-0 loss to Newcastle United.
Yet, with back-to-back wins since that rocky Christmas period, and key players coming back into the squad, there is a little more reason for optimism than just a few short weeks ago.
Match Facts
Arsenal versus Manchester United, Premier League, Emirates, Sunday 22 January 2012, 4pm.
Potential Line-ups
Arsenal (4-3-3): Szczesny; Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Miquel; Rosicky, Ramsey, Song; Walcott, van Persie, Arshavin. Subs from: Almunia, Squillaci, Miyaichi, Eastmond, Benayoun, Henry, Park, Oxlade-Chamberlain.
United (4-4-1-1): Lindegaard; Rafael, Jones, Evans, Evra; Valencia, Scholes, Carrick, Nani; Rooney; Welbeck. Subs from: De Gea, Fryers, Smalling, Cole, Giggs, Fabio, Rafael, Jones, Park, Lingard, Diouf, Keane, Hernandez, Welbeck, Berbatov.
Performance Stats
- United secured a 3-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers in the last Premier League game;
- Wayne Rooney covered the most ground for United in that game with 5.65 miles;
- United fans welcomed back a goalscoring Paul Scholes on his first league game back for the club;
- Scholes covered 3.94 miles in that game in 69 minutes on the pitch, impressively close to the total of 4.16 miles set by Nani who was substituted at the same time;
- Danny Welbeck and Michael Carrick were also on target for United in that game. Welbeck’s goal was his fifth of the season, coming from 30 efforts at goal with 73 per cent on target;
- Carrick posted the second highest total distance ran against Bolton with 5.61 miles;
- Meanwhile, Arsenal lost 3-2 at a battling Swansea City in the last Premier League match;
- Midfielder Aaron Ramsey covered the most ground for Arsenal in that game with 6.57 miles, the 14th time this season the Welsh midfielder has topped the distance charts for the Gunners;
- Goals from Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie were not enough to secure victory for the Gunners though. van Persie’s goal was his 18th in the Premier League this season, and restores his place at the top of the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index;
- van Persie’s goals have come from an incredible 90 efforts at goal, with 62 per cent on target. He has also put in 34 crosses and contributed six assists.
Form
Arsenal: WDWLWL
United: WWLLWW
Officials
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
Assistants: S Burt, A Watts
Fourth Official: P Dowd
I like this site even though like the ones that represent AFC, it is too one sided. Your club will never have an easier season againt my lot than this year..your 8-2 win against the third team kids plus reserves called back from loans was not only expected but we were surprised that you were surprised! So now after AFc suddenly got 5 of our missing 9 back the club went on an unbeaten run until..yes a further bunch of long term injuries left us with no defence left at all. Sunday we will be playing without Sagna, out for 3 months, his replacement Jenkinson, out for 3 months, Gibbs out for ever…Santos his replacement..out for 3 months….then Coquelin the third teamer CMf who played fullback out for 6 weeks, Diaby out for 9 months, Arteta, out for 4 weeks, Henry injured in training, and probably Vermaelen our only decent defender who has been out for 3 weeks again after missing 9 months! Not that excuses the manager for not having half decent reserves but AFC are there for the taking and I think you will. I pray for a miracle but am not expecting anything…you even have you mate of a ref who in the past 4 games reffing us he has cancelled an equaliser againt Man City and a blatant penalty..then a penalty againt Fulham when the score was 0-1 to us….bad enough have a crap second squad but to have a bent ref too….welllllllll! Hope you lose and fairly Sunday.
GunnerPete – jawn. Poor lil Arsenal! United have plenty of players out too if that makes you happier. As for the laughable bit about the ref – Dean’s a Scouser. We won’t, and never do get any favours from him.
Ed if it makes you feel better, he’s talking out of his arse – I think this is the most cynical, pessimistic, anti-United fansite on the internet. 🙂
Please add to the above Jack Wilshire who has missed all year so far….sorry abot that!
Looking forward to the game. Should be interesting. We’ve had our injuries over the last seasons as well, and this year has been just crazy with injuries. We’ve had as many if not more players out, so not really all that sympathetic to your situation 😛
Rooney x3 tomorrow
Arsenal have gone back to their old habit of not pressing off the ball
If that’s the case tomorrow then we will win
degea rafa smalling evans evra valencia carrick jones nani rooney welbeck
Yeah ^ agree
Isn’t De Gea fucked though? Needs an eye operation
And we still don’t know whether Welbeck is fit
A. Lindergaard
R. Da Silva C. Smalling J. Evans P. Evra
P. Jones
A. Valencia P. Scholes. M. Carrick L. Nani
W.Rooney
D. Welbeck
R. Giggs
D. De Gea
J. Hernandez
J.S. Park
F. Da Silva
E. Fryers
Hope fergie goes for it today rather than sitting back content with a point, arsenal are there for the taking and draws are no good for us from here on.
Rooney and welbeck to start 2-1 united.
Why the heck do we have two topics for this? Please Ed can you merge them. Thanks.
Still don’t know whether Ferguson will heed his own advice of last season by packing more into midfield or not.
Reckon a 6 man midfield is on the cards, with Rooney playing deep and Welbeck in a sort of left wing/forward role. We have plenty of attacking threat from our full backs. Could be a good tactic against Arsenal.
Manchester United XI v Arsenal: Lindegaard; Smalling Jones Evans Evra; Valencia Carrick Giggs Nani; Welbeck Rooney
No Rio or Rafael… I’d rather see Smalling at CB than Jones at the moment. Hopefully he’s got over his blip.
Decent team
Young defence
smalling has to be centre back
Fucking cheating City scum. Why do people gloss over the fact Balotelli is a violent thug? He should be suspended after that.
Come on United.
1-2 United win.
No Henry for Arsenal.
Subs: De Gea, Berbatov, Park, Hernandez, Fabio Da Silva, Rafael Da Silva, Scholes
why is Rafael on the bench?
No fucking clue. He’s playing great football atm and usually plays well against Arsenal. Another ‘inspired’ decision from Ferguson.
Fuck. I’m still angry about that City win.
Just hope we don’t give them the space in midfield like last season. They’ve gone for plenty of pace and youth, which might overrun Carrick and Giggs.
need a big result after that spurs game
any win will do but no doubt the arse will raise their game after the result at OT last year
links???
Need a good start.
http://www.footballstreaming.info/streams/todays-links/
try vipstand for links
Not sure i will feel much better if we win after that city game.
it will help.
u’ll feel a lot worse if we don’t believe me
If we fail to win this then it will be man City’s title with ease!
We’ve got a very tough next few games!
giggs shouldn’t be playing
Set up better than the last time we were at the emirates, been pretty lacklustre with the ball
replacing one injury prone player with another even worse one
That’s Jones done for a while
Bloody hell…
Our injury record is fucking unbelievable.
give the ball to valencia ffs
sadly true.
we are piss poor from corners
Nani looking most likely to make something happen for us.
O-C fucking dusted Evra there.
Been like that for a while.
sweet memories of bruce and pallister getting a hatful from corners
vida also got his fair share to be honest
giggs is doing my knob in today with his piss passing
Giggsy’s still got it.
Giggs, love it
Rolling back the years etc.
that wouldn’t have happened if he was in midfield instead of giggs, blame taggart
We’re actually playing well in the final third
We’re playing well, but just not getting through.
This is some good pressure
Arsenal not in it
Need to be more clinical!
Rooney going to shit again… FFS
That was pitiful Wayne…
greedy bastard… shoudl be 2 up ffs
Giggs turned Ramsey
He’s twice his age FFS
This is so frustrating.
yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllbeckkkkkkkkkkk/ toneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Djourou is total shit
Nani is just walking past him
Tony VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
yes 0-1 valencia.
MANCHESTER IS MY HEAVEN- SIR MATT BUSBY
get in tony… should be outta site by now
Giggs with another assist
There is nobody better at delivering final balls and crosses
radio 5 commentators said wellbeck scored lol
that dont surprise me.
hmmmmm
i swear i saw welbeck on this post – lol
THOROUGHLY DESERVED
Arsenal are shit. They will surely play better second half
They’re not pressing and they can’t defend and they have nothing going forward
‘The Ox’ as he is known is ‘aving it, and that’s it
Arsenal have been camped in their own box at times. We need more goals. Relieved to be in the lead though.
why was song not carded for elbowing rooney
referee just spoke to him instead
I can’t remember a 45 minutes against arsenal where we’ve been so comfortable in possession., including the 8-2 game and the CL semi final. We should be out of sight and I’ve got a strange feeling that we’ll end up dropping points now. I don’t see arsenal giving us as much time or space in the second half.
Agreed. And to think I was worried about the 4-4-2 formation. Giggs and Carrick bossing midfield, Arsenal have lost their only strength – possession.
Need a quick goal to quash any London rebellion.
I’d consider putting Berba on — he’d score a few goals against this rabble.
Arsenal replaced Djourou for a 19 year old with no Prem experience
don’t be silly
you will be hung drawn and buggered for that thought in some quarters on rant
need to focus on getting another
no time for complacency
just get the ball to the wings
Smalling you fucking Mong!!
let off there with smalling
massive let off there
cant believe that….. madnesss
thisLl be waynes half
Oh my…
Is that worse than the Torres one
Should have been 2 fucking hell Tone!!
Another second half bottlejob
should be 2-2 ffs.. we are rocking here. tbey will score if they keep this up
sitting back waiting for the onslaught don’t help unless we score a second
Aye, the forwards can end the agony by keeping it up top and scoring a goal FFS
We need the 2nd now!!
Ramsey dive
rooney been shite… hernandez pace could hurt them. mertsacker is slow as fook
Our corners are shite. Rooney’s done fuck all, maybe put Berbs or Hernandez on instead?
i did at first i read yours and got confused.
fuck offffff
ffs, we are letting them get their cocks out.
need to be positive and stop faffing.
fuck off.. rafael getting a rush of blood there
Fuck’s sake. If we don’t win this, the league is over. Either Spurs or City would rape both us and the Arse on current form.
FUCK OFF
Still need a second
Good goal… good game.
Fucking hell how shit are we not being able to put this shit to bed!!
Keeper should have saved that.
Serves us right. Possession counts for nothing if you do not take chances.
straight through evans’ legs.
some one in our team grow a pair of balls and get a second
nani fucked now
Nani fucked
Great
Bottling it.
Rooney has been useless and yet again out of sorts..
Bye bye title
Boos for Arshavin, haha
You don’t know what you’re doing at Wenger
they have oxlade-chamberlain and ramsey – we have Tupac Morrisson and Chubby Checker Anderson
Arsenal have been there for the taking today. Looks like we blew it.
The answer is that we are very shit.
win or title over i think.. any fight in us these days?
This is a dark day for football.
rafael off?
what the fuck is going on with him
No invention in CM as per usual…
Ropey defense…
Everytime i think we are playing better and might still challenge City we fcuk it up
Aye, Park on for Raf, grim
running up the pitch like a cunt
but he normally does that 3 times a match
welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllb eckkkkkkkkkkkkk
to be fair rooney’s pass to raf was too late – lead him straight into a dead end – and Raf is no Berba so that ain’t gonna work.
valencia been amazing again… get fucking in
wellbeck
YESSSS fucking Tony V makes it happen again. I love that lad, he’s got real fight in him.
yeeeheeeheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Motherfuck
Valencia
SCHOLES – VAL – WELLBECK – GOAL
The Gooners are going to rightly crucify Wenger for taking Ox for the fucking useless Arshavin, who ushered Tony V into the box to make the goal.
loving wellbeck, that was a proper finish
keep it tight you fucks.. nothing crazy
yep – Arseshaver fucked it up but waht a pass and what a finish, it was great the way two mins before Scholes was pointing to the players where to pass it. the guy is the einstein of midfield
Thank god for that. Now hold on ffs
Arsenal still a scruffy bunch of sore losers when it’s not going their way.
yep, faff factor coming into it.
we need to get two men around RVP, that will do it.
Come on United.
rooney in the middle 4-5-1 now
Kockshitny fuck off you thug
Gooners can whinge all they like – their players are sore fucking losers and they’re going in hard
loving wellbeck still chasing for everything and giving their defence the shits
evans, ffs, cover RVP!
5 fucking minutes … come on….
Is Evra Dr Dre’s counsin?
winger doing his nut, daffy old twat
Evans… Good god
Fucking defence. Wake up you cunts.
ffs keep the fucking ball and spread it out wide
evans jesus
Lol Welbeck…
yes great win.
good win, very satisfying.
Roo did fuck all. Giggs, Tony V, Wellbeck our best players.
Decent game… good result… Alf happy.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
moi aussi
if only we hadn’t fucked ourselves against b’burn last month……..
Gooners’ treatment of Arshavin is out of order really, especially when you need him to come on and do a job
He’s shit, but I’d just fuck off if I were him
what was welbeck doing at the end?? madness… motm???
Rooney good first half, awol second half, Valencia excellent, Smalling solid, Giggs and Carrick fell out of the game as it wore on.
Welbeck if he had a good touch would have had a hat trick today, good that he scored but he was very poor otherwise.
he may be on SAF’s list of no value in the market so be careful what you wish for
And Evra top class
Now we wait for the injury news
Jones and Nani fucked, Welbeck and Rooney limping at the final whistle
and he’s still better than hernandez as well
great really
evans was good tbf
Too harsh on Rafael – playing well at the moment. Not his fault he was attacking – someone fucking had to. Fergie wouldn’t take Evra off for bombing forward.
Valencia awesome again, as was Carrick, Welbeck and Evra. Good game.
p.s. apparently Jones just has a twisted ankle. Don’t know about Nani.
He isn’t.
You are an idiot if you think Hernandez is better than Welbeck. Danny is more skillful, better at dribbling and passing, and can score goals that aren’t tap ins. He’s also about 3 years younger. Hernandez is a super sub like Ole. A very good one though.
I can only think of one good game he’s had in the time he’s been at Arsenal. The 4-4 v Liverpool. Arsenal FC have treated him very well and I can see why their fans are pissed off that he’s still there. He’s so lazy and looks so disinterested.
I’m surprised Oxlade Chamberlain was taken off. He had a good game.
Van Persie reaction to the substitution:
http://arsenalist.com/video/?id=xnwuw8
Arshavin is shit and the fans are right to question him. But that goal wasn’t his fault. Every left back in the league has been turned inside out like that by Valencia this season, and Arshavin’s not even a left back.
im warming to wellbeck hes got goals in him..
wenger won us that game by taking ox off and bringing arshavin on.. crazy decision. rvp looked puzzled.
Nice to see wenger pissed off, again.
I agree, they’re are different types of forward though tbf….
Steve Bartram on Twitter – Fergie says that Phil Jones will be out for a few weeks. Ankle ligaments, apparently. Carrick had a hamstring injury in the second half. Nani and Rooney are carrying knocks.
Wellbeck looks superior to me, though it’s true that they are different types of player so it’s great to have them both. It’s Wellbeck that’s really putting Berba out of a job though. Although the way Rooney was playing today, I’d be very interested in seeing a Berbatov-Wellbeck partnership given a chance, with Berba in the more withdrawn position.
It’s actually pretty impressive that we are just 3 points behind City with our injuries this season. You have to conclude that if we’d had just some of the likes of Vida, Rio, and Cleverly available more often, that would account for more than 3 points difference, and that’s not even taking into account a lot of absences for Ando, Hernandez, Young, Welbeck etc.
Of course I also think we’re not going to win the PL for the same reason; you just can’t with so many absent 1st and 2nd choice players week-in, week-out.
He is.
i also noticed at the end how Van Persie seemed to be looking around the stadium with the air of a man who had had enough….it was as though he was taking it all in for one of the last times he will play there
He’ll be gone next season methinks…esp with no champions league
Well… Wenger said he was tiring, and he’s got a fuck of a lot better reputation with youth than we do, so I’d give him the benefit of the doubt.
Really as he should have scored about 3 today, he was caught by Koselciny after a poor first touch, he tried a ridiculous trick when he should have just taken a shot in the last minute, he got a lucky break when their keeper spills it instead of laying it off to Nani in a great position he tries a shot from an impossible angle. He was a tad unlucky with the Mertesacker tug back but I honestly think Hernandez would have got away and scored.
As for this team player thing, he makes his run too early finding himself offside and leading to us not been able to play balls over the top. He spent the first 20 minutes stopping and sulking when the ball wasn’t played to him. Look at him berating Giggs for not playing a ball back to him when he should be getting into the six yard box. Here is a guy who has been playing 20 matches trying to give advice on someone who has been playing 20 years.
He has a long way to go and I don’t believe the hype one bit.
Are you mad? Hernandez was fucking born offside! HE constantly breaks down play because of that and the midfielders just pump long balls to him because pace is his only weapon in that situation. He’s like the goal poaching version of Walcott.
I actually agree about finishing – Hernandez is superior at the moment, but that will change. And I think this season the difference has been marginal – Hernandez has not been deadly at all.
HE has football ability on the ball – that’s the key difference. Not as much as Berba, but a lot more than Hernandez or Macheda. In fact I would argue he has better dribbling and control than Rooney, an area in which Rooney has regressed.
remind me once more squigs….who scored our winner today?
albeit whilst clearly injured
oh, and one more thing too…get used to sucking his cock now, as when that homegrown players rule comes in you will be thankful for him as Hernandez will be in Spain then unfortunately, as I love Hernadez but just not as much as Welbeck.
i’m liking this cunt deadrevel
she speaks sense
we look like inter Milan in our away kit.
Welbeck has a poor touch and certainly no where near the touch Rooney has. If he had a touch as good as Rooney’s Welbeck would have scored more then one today.
How we keep winning with senior citizens in the team amazes me. SAF will never buy any new midfielders as long as we keep winning with Giggs and Scholes. Rumours have it that he is playing these players until he finalizes a deal with two midfielders that he is hoping to sign this summer. Will have to wait and see as I’ve heard this story before.
Yes, I have heard this story before too…from you!
My thoughts precisely
Calls for retrospective action against Balotelli… can someone explain to me, how the FA could justify punishing a player, who scores the winning goal in a game?
They’d have to admit that the referees failure to properly deal with incident, cost Spurs 2 points… maybe 3… not to mention the points given to a team, that quite probably should have only had 9 men on the pitch.
Another strong argument for video help for refs in the modern game… it really is time to sort this out.
you will never see video referring as long as blatter and platini are around. it becomes too hard for the cheats in european and south american football to buy games if decisions can be changed. and these cheats are very powerful.
they would rather bury their head in the sand and pretend nothing is happening in their beloved game. pretend that this technology doesnt exist despite the fact that every other sport bar their own is using it.
I wonder what would happen if the Premier League told Blatter to stick his authority up his arse.
The PL is the most powerful league in the game, and I think that if one strong league made a stand, others would follow.
I think the Germans would follow, the Dutch, and the US as well… that would get things started.
Blatter has ruined FIFA, and FIFA is ruining football… I don’t think many teams in Europe would disagree… even Blatters Spanish lackies would agree that he’s an embarrassment.
Eventually someone has to take a stand against the whole, “old boys” structure of FIFA… it’s ridiculous in the 21st century to have such an incompetent, unprofessional bunch of obviously corruptable cronies running the great game.
Blatter and his ilk will never just give up their positions and walk away… it will have to be taken from them…
“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and ching’ tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”
It was spurs inability to score at virtually an open net plus their shitting themselves defensively which cost them the points. You cannot say that the ref cost spurs the game. That is conjecture just as it would be conjecture for me to suggest that city might have scored anyway with 10 men. Spurs should not get away with their fuck ups.
I have said it time and time again. Ref errors are part of football. Doesn’t change the fact that spurs showed what spineless shit cunts they are.
I hope they fail to make the top 4. ‘Arry can piss off for all i care.
That is complete and utter bollocks Sheesh.
complete…
and utter…
bollocks…
He obviously has a deep seated dislike of Spurs and the Ref errors are part of football line is the worst of the lot. It’s so shockingly easy to amend and with serious money waging on of these ‘Ref Errors’ it shouldn’t be accepted in the 21st century.
That’s some argument there.
Well done, Alf.
No worries Mate…
I love the way you argued with the fact that Spurs should have made it 3-2 and they couldn’t defend for shite in the final few seconds of the match.
Oh and Welbeck > Hernandez.
I pointed out that they weren’t ‘bollockless’ and that they played very well and that most neutral observers would probably come to that conclusion having seen them. As well as having some very talented footballers they have plenty of spirit in them and you can see around the team. Friedel in for the erratic Gomes, proper attacking full backs and Scott Parker battling for everything alongside the Modric and Bale’s. They are a proper team and you don’t win as many games as they have this year by being fragile.
But no insert cliches that are about two years out of date now about them not having the fight in them and always fucking it up and you must be correct.
I judged on what I saw yesterday and they were good, I’ve no time for Scott Parker but don’t tell me he is to be found wanting in spirit.
SHEESH IS RIGHT AND YOU ARE WRONG, BUT YOU ARE RIGHT TO A CERTAIN DEGREE EVEN IF YOU ARE FOR THE MOST PART WRONG
OH AND
I think it’s a case of ignorance is bliss, people don’t want to take them seriously but they are a serious team. They play us in a month or so and I think they will be all over us, we got them at just the right time in August with them having the first game postponed and being clearly rusty.
They were bollockless. Tottenham’s first goal came entirely against the run of play when City had made it 2-0, were dominating possession (and looked like they were going to score again) and came out of a defensive fuck up.
You talk about Spurs improving but they flatter to deceive.
Spurs will drop points when it really matters. Last year, they dropped points at home to teams like Wigan and they will do so again. They couldn’t get past Wolves the other week.
If they bottled getting into the top 4 at the end of the season, it would not surprise me. They ‘should’ get into the top 4 given how many points they have accumulated but I’ll be interested to see how they manage in April/May. They’ve benefited from how poor Chelsea and Arsenal have been. If Liverpool had beaten Bolton the other night, they would have been 3 points behind Chelsea. We all know how shite the Scousers are. That tells you everything.
We Benefited from playing Spurs,Arsenal and Chelsea at home at ideal times. We dropped points at home to Blackburn, Just like ‘Ref Errors’ it’s part of football as you say.
City were 2-0 up and fair enough they had shell shocked Spurs but I don’t see how they were on for a third as they had only scored their first about 6-7 minutes earlier. Spurs play on the counter so possession stats shouldn’t worry you.
I don’t believe they flatter to deceive, I think they are finally showing some of their obvious potential after years of flattering to deceive. Some players such as Bale improved beyond recognition and they have a more balanced team then before.