Le Grove

So yesterday I found myself watching Switzerland vs Colombia in the under 17’s world cup, Switzerland won 4 nil, the Colombians were favourites but lost a man early on when they conceded a penalty and just lost the plot.

Then I watched Spain, who were favourites, get tonked by Nigeria the hosts. Then I thought, will any of these step up and become world stars? There was a Swiss player with a very Arabic sounding name that looked classy, a few DM’s and a Nigerian forward, but no one really grabbed me.

When I watched the under 21’s in the summer, Ozil (or whatever his name is) stood out but they were all raving about a Swedish forward who I’ve never heard of since.

My point is how many of these kids will make it, how many will become good then want to go back to their homeland because of pressure, and how many will stay in our team and make us unbeatable for a decade like the scousers were and the Mancs are?

Arsene Wenger has been with us long enough to see if his project will work, we have a crop of young ‘uns coming through that look good, time will tell if they step up, but it’s like owning all the houses in Monopoly, unless someone lands on them, there’s no point in collecting them all.

Now that may sound like an Eric Cantona moment but it has concerned me for sometime, let’s see if Fran Merida stays, he is a great example, Cesc is another, if they all hang around, it could pay big dividends, if they don’t, it could prove a waste of time.

Another example was Lupoli and Bendtner, they were banging them in for fun, and Lupoli was the star, what happened to him?

If you all get a chance to watch Nigeria vs Switzerland try, then take a look and try and guess who’ll be the next superstar and whether or not they’ll make it.

The last time we signed under 17’s sensations one was called Senderos and the other Vela.

Oh and spare a thought for fat Frank who strained a muscle having a tom-tit on a private jet, I bet the chavs have him fit though, I bet he won’t be out for 3 months like he would had he been at Arsenal.

Have a great day Grovers, the next 2 posts are on Pedro!

We all know that those away games up north used to cause us problems, the reason I’m not worried is, we have such a good team, don’t get me wrong, I still believe had we signed two heavyweights in the summer, we would be 4 points clear of Chelsea and looking at a season going unbeaten.

The team we currently have though is still good enough to take care of the Sunderland’s of this world, when you think we have Rosicky, Nasri, Vela, Wilshere and Theo to come back, I think we have plenty in there to win all our remaining games this year.

Watching City does show you that money doesn’t guarantee success, but then they have a shit manager who bought Kolo (our weak link) and made him his captain! How funny was it to see Kolo stranded in the middle of nowhere as the ball hits the back of the net again, that brought back memory’s.

So although money doesn’t buy success, it sure as hell would do if the right manager was spending it, I still think that we need cover when the ACN comes along, and also we need that cover to act as competition and cover in the event of injury.

I know we have the kids coming through, and I agree we can’t ruin their chances, so that’s why I still see Vieira as the perfect answer.

After watching the chav/manc game yesterday, I really saw nothing there that I feared, I don’t think the chavs will have the legs to go through the season at that pace and the mancs are just not as good without their Portuguese pikey.

It’s good to see that although Arsene isn’t spending any money that at least Ivan Gazidas is, he’s added another expensive member to his team, this time a lawyer, who happens to be an expert in the field of takeovers.

Arsenal football club now has the biggest management team in the EPL, it’s a shame we have done the worst deals though isn’t it? Ivan, don’t worry, I know it wasn’t you, but having such a large team of pencil pushers, makes we wonder what the point is, the naming rights and shirt sponsors are set in stone for a long time to come.

Anyway Grovers, we are second, we also have a game in hand, and we we be playing the chavs soon, win our next two games and we could go top! Imagine that!!!

Ok, so I ended up watching the match in some Soho bar, dressed as the mad hatter. My report will be strictly note form today, exactly as I saw the match. Apologies for the lack of craft, this is totally blackberry!

Notes:

Scored more goals than we’ve scored before, but conceded the most in our Premier League history.

Rambo starts the game ahead of Song because Wenger wants to give him a run out. Geoff predicted correctly!

Wolves make the first chance of the game with a looping kevin doyle header. Gibbs cleared off the line.

Ebanks Blake gets a header off from a corner that fizzed past Almunia’s near post.

Wolves were playing a high line which Van the man nearly exploited.

Eduardo had a shout for a penalty turned down. What a joke, it was a nailed on one. Match of the day of course didn’t show that one.

Wolves continued to exploit us aerially. They had a game plan, and it was doing well. Diaby took a few minutes out to allow us to gain composure… I hoped! Song took his place, then I realised it wasn’t a a cunning Diaby plan. This team amendment would hopefully allow Rambo the chance to get forward.

Arsenal picked up a free kick after Eduardo was cynically shoved over. RVP fizzed in the free kick…it missed everyone and went in off Zubar. I jumped up, saw Eduardo waving his finger…assumed it was disallowed, thankfully it was just an admittance that the goal wasn’t his. Arsenal were undeservedly ahead.

Arsenal started to dominate.

Song broke up play in the middle, laid it off to Rambo whose pace allowed him to beat his man, he then  passed to Eduardo who with one touch, chipped Hennesey in stunning fashion, well maybe a tiny deflection.

Sagna won the ball in his own half and gave it to Cesc, who then passed it back to Sagna, who elegantly chipped the ball to Van persie, who stunned the ball to Cesc, who buried it inside Henneseys near post. Fab-ulous stuff. Sagna loves an assist lately, eh?

The second half started slowly. I did wonder to myself why Rambo didn’t start ahead of Diaby? Song was reassuring in the middle, cleaning up like Ashley Cole in a room full of ugly hair dressers. Aaron Ramsey was a touch unpredictable in the first half, but going forward he looked every bit the player we’d hoped for.

Gibbs was booked for a challenge he tried to pull out of…  …harsh in my opinion.

Arshavin scored our fourth after he buried the punch out back into the net from twenty yards out, super, super strike.

Arsenal dominated the rest of the game until the 89th minute when I said to my friend,

‘This is when we concede’

Sure enough, we gave away a needless corner, Vermaelen lost his marker and Wolves nabbed their consolation goal. I had a disagreement with a few of the grovers about late goals. My view is if you concede enough of them, it becomes a mental issue. I think its apparent we have a problem now, it doesn’t bode well for the big games does it? 4 late goals in 5 games, very upsetting from a perfectionist point of view.

Conclusion.

Superb play at times after a shaky start, who cares though, we are second, and if today is a draw, we can go top by beating the chavs, so after much soul searching, I asked the postmeister Geoff for his opinion on the ideal result, and we both agreed a draw would suit, a nil, nil one, followed by 4 sendings off for violent conduct.

Have a super Sunday and let’s hope for the perfect result to finish off a great weekend.

So the boss says Manuel is back to his best, that sounds to me like to manager is happy with his keeper and that’s a worry, if we had a Seaman in goal I could understand that comment but we don’t, so if he’s content, get used to it people, he won’t be looking for another.

Ok, word on the street is, that young Craig Eastmond travels today, perhaps Wenger is looking at his replacement options for the ACN, I would like to see if this kid can have another good game, blooding him against Wolves could be an inspired moved, if he does, good luck Craig.

News that we’re after Ozil sounds like complete bollocks to me, as the article says he is a replacement for Cesc, well as Cesc is going nowhere, that makes it a non story, and anyway, we have Ramsey and of course, Fran Merida, which brings me onto todays question.

You could say that losing Wiltord and Edu on free’s was a little careless, and that losing Flamini for zip was a bit daft, but to lose Fran Merida for nothing at the end of the season would be staggering. I’m sure we wouldn’t have allowed his contract to wind down, especially as we spent all summer getting the rest of the team on long term contracts, Gazidas is way too smart, isn’t he?

Carlo Ancellotti sees us as his main threat this season, nice little compliment that, and high time we were talked about as potential champions again, today is a good test, but anything less than a win would be a major disappointment, so let’s hope we go at them as if they were some foreign team.

I watched ‘The Damned United’ last night, boy that took me back to what a real tackle was! If you haven’t seen it, get it, it’s so well acted it ought to get an Oscar, it takes you to the day when football really was a mans game, and when I see teams now roughing us up, it makes me laugh, watch this film and you’ll know what roughing up is!

Have a great day Grovers, it’s in our hands and today the Arsenal will close the gap, and don’t forget, we’ll score more than they do, and that’s all that’s needed!