Arsenal's first game against the greedy, money grabbing little bastard Ashley Cole was long anticipated by Arsenal fans. A chance to give the disloyal fool some abuse, especially after his pathetic attempts to defend himself in his wailing autobiography.The build-up to the game (off the field) was dominated by the police and both clubs trying to stop Arsenal fans abusing Cole too much - especially with inflatable mobile phones and fake banknotes. Threats of arrest, searches, and numerous warnings to Arsenal fans not to try to get into the ground with photocopied pieces of paper - an utterly ridiculous situation, brought about by somebody's high minded decision that all this was homophobic. But as the Arsenal fans sang during the game "we're not homophobic, we just hate Ashley Cole".
Considering that Sol Campbell and Freddie Ljungberg have been the target of (real, not imagined) homophobic abuse for years, and that Manchester United fans regularly (and in huge numbers) sing "sit down you paedophile" at Arsene Wenger, it really is a bit rich from police, media and authorities to suddenly become interested in this, and to go in heavy on Arsenal fans.
Others are equally annoyed that, after ignoring abuse directed towards Arsenal people for years, all of a sudden people get interested. Coming a month after Robin Van Persie was hit by a coin thrown from the crowd at West Ham (about which nothing further has happened), some photocopies of money really aren't going to hurt anybody. In fact, even in this game, the hundreds of Chelsea fans making aeroplane gestures at our German keeper (despite the fact that the captain of Germany plays for their own team!) was far worse than anything any Arsenal fan got up to.
Inside the ground, the horrible machine that is Chelsea started winding all the away fans up, introducing Ashley Cole as the "greatest left back in the world". At half time, their MC led an old player around the pitch - when Arsenal fans booed, he tutted and said "and THEY talk about US having no class". Despicable club, and when you add their constant haranguing of the referee to the equation, it is easy to see how they are not well liked at all - but then they thrive on being hated.
The game itself seemed to go on forever from where I was sitting, the first half in particular. Cole being booed with every touch, and a pretty decently even first half saw relatively few chances. Chelsea players were in the referee's face for every decision, of course trying to get some advantage later on, and of course on the orders of their disgraceful manager.
With around 20 minutes to go, I had deja vu from the Manchester United away game - a solid enough and determined performance, keeping a clean sheet, followed by a late smash and grab. So, when Flamini scored with about 12 minutes to go, the celebration in the Arsenal end was amongst the most mental I have ever seen at an away game (certainly since Real Madrid in the Bernabeu anyway!)- the whole place went ballistic for a good 2-3 minutes after the ball hit the back of the net.
Unfortunately, Chelsea turned it up so much in the last 10 minutes, that eventually Arsenal were lucky not to lose 3-1. With Wright-Phillips and Robben causing havoc against tired Arsenal players, they created chance after chance. Essien scored with an absolute cracker of a shot with 7 minutes to go - I was sat right behind the path of the ball, and it was one of those that, as soon as it left his foot, you could tell it was flying in.
Several missed Chelsea chances later, and after one astounding miss from Hleb, the final whistle went - for the last 10 minutes, Arsenal were lucky not to have lost, and overall, Chelsea shaded the game, but it could easily have been all 3 points to Arsenal - we were not all that far away. A hugely encouraging performance, especially from players with an average age 6 years less than that of the Chelsea team. If only we could play like that every week at the moment, we would be in much better shape!
No comments:
Post a Comment