Can anyone cure this poor man? Asked to comment on Eboue’s terrible foul on Evra, Arsene Wenger explained that he hadn’t really seen it properly. Just as he’s never seen any other bad foul that one of his players has committed. It is amazing how well he has done, building and rebuilding one terrific team after another at Arsenal, without being able to see properly.
It is a tribute to Jose Mourinho, and his extraordinary impact on English football in just a few years, that we had almost forgotten Wenger’s terrible affliction. Arsenal were so far off the pace during the Mourinho years, that Wenger’s sourness became a strange irrelevance. Twelve points behind Chelsea in 2004-05, 24 points behind in 2005-06 and then 21 behind Man United last season. Last season, Arsenal’s whole season just exploded in a few days: losing the Carling Cup in a nasty brawl with Chelsea, knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn and the Champions League by PSV Eindhoven and not even managing third place in the Premier League. It was even possible to feel sorry for Wenger. It had all gone so wrong.
And then this season it all started to go right again. Top of the League, Mourinho gone, the media buying his stuff about Wenger’s babes. Alright a little setback against Tottenham, but Arsenal were playing their reserves against Spurs’ first team. And then kicked out of another cup but this time by Man United without Ronaldo, Tevez, Giggs, Hargreaves, still without Neville and Silvestre, and for much of the match without Scholes. Ripped to pieces by Nani, Park, Fletcher, Anderson and Carrick. And Arsenal’s response in the second half? Try and kick United off the park. Eboue sent off. Gallas and Gilberto should have been sent off. And Wenger managed to see it all (except for Eboue’s sending off) and condoned every tackle on Nani. Years of hype about Arsenal’s beautiful game under Wenger suddenly goes up in smoke because he couldn’t bear to see a young player ripping his midfield and defence to pieces. Some reputations won’t survive that game. Gilberto? Finished. Flaimini? What will he have to do this season to erase the enduring image of Fletcher’s second goal while Flamini was rooted to the ground, looking on? Fabregas? How will he live down Fletcher’s first goal or what Nani, Anderson and Fletcher did to him throughout the game? And Wenger himself? He should have said that what his defenders did to Nani was unacceptable, that what Eboue did was stupid and wrong and that he’s been getting away with this kind of thuggery too often. But he didn’t. His myopia, in every sense, was overwhelming. Some of us will remember that as Wenger’s defining moment, whatever his team achieve this season.
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What do you expect AW to say then ? criticize Eboue in front of the reporters or fine his weekly pay or, sell him ?
Chelsea won 2 consecutive EPL because both Man Utd and Arsenal were in the middle of rebuild. Look at what happened last season and now, when both clubs are almost done with the rebuild, Chelsea lost their title and they are now fighting for the 2nd/3rd, while Arsenal now leapfrogged to the. Look at their squad this season, don’t you think they have a stronger squad compared to last few seasons, and yet they are struggling ? Mourinho came to England at the right time when both teams are rebuilding, and he was fired at the right time before they concede the EPL title again this season.
It was a bad game Arsenal had. Man Utd was the better side, so what ? it’s just FA Cup, and AW has won it numerous times. Scoring 2 in a single unimportant game will not make an average-Fletcher a better player than Flamini, let alone Fabregas. So, Fletcher who ? Man Utd need to win in that game because they are already 5 points adrift the top in EPL and winning the FA Cup is a more feasible goal.
Despite the dissidents, i enjoy reading your writtings!!
I watched Man Utd vs Arsenal at Old Trafford a few years back (the game when Arsenal won the title) in the prawn cocktail section with my then 10 year old daughter. Driving home to London, my daughter asked out of the blue ‘Dad, what’s a pedophile?’ All sorts of thoughts rushed into my mind, none of them pleasant. ‘Why?’ I asked tremulously. ‘Because the man in front kept shouting ‘fooking pedophile’ at the Arsenal manager,’ she said.
I’ve never had too much time for Man Utd. opinions of Mr. Wenger since then, or, for that matter, any time for punditry. But I do have time for the dignity and intelligence which Wenger (West Ham notwithstanding) normally displays. Myopia notwithstanding, at least he appears on the TV. Mr Ferguson, by contrast, took umbrage long ago and refuses to talk to the BBC, the start of an unpleasant trend.
It was a very poor Arsenal performance. Man Utd. were far better. It happens. Wenger said the same. I’m not sure whether Fletcher would fetch more in the transfer market than Fabregas or Flamini and frankly, I’ve seen a lot worse than Eboue’s ‘horror tackle.’ Adebayor’s dive in the box, for starters, put Ronaldo or Rooney to shame.
Football is best watched with earplugs, I think, and not with the prawn sandwich brigade. I’ve never taken my daughter to a match since and it takes a big match to get me up to Old Trafford.