It’s morning. It’s still quiet so I’ll do a little On This Day Interlull post.
October 17, 2004
Alex Ferguson has decided to open up about next week’s Arsenal v United match and has spoken about last season’s contest at Old Trafford. According to him, “What the Arsenal players did that day was the worst I have ever seen in this sport. No wonder they were so happy about the verdict. They forget things easily. That mob.”
Looking back now, it’s funny to imagine that for one second he thought it was the worst thing he’d ever seen in football. That wasn’t true at the time. It was clear to step up the competition and strengthen the team for the upcoming games. At the time, none of us knew it wasn’t about the team, but about his 12th player, Mike Riley.
That was the game that ended our unbeaten run, the game where Rio Ferdinand and Ruud van Nistelrooy had to be sent off, the game where Wayne Rooney dived to win a penalty and the game where Riley had a good refereeing performance. Still seen as potentially corrupt. Don’t take my word for it. watch it again. trigger warning: You will be triggered. It was on a day like this that, despite all the complaints about VAR, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I wonder if Ferguson thinks what he’s doing now is the worst he’s ever seen in football. Roman Abramovich? Man City? A major failure in the European Super League? Manchester United spent £90 million on Anthony?
October 17, 2005
This morning’s paper said the Sp*rs are suddenly better than us. Jermaine Jenas is keeping his mouth shut, as is director Martin Jol. Find out for yourself. Doesn’t connect.
The more things change, the more things stay the same. Right?
October 17, 2009
There is talk between Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski about who will score the goals.
Personally I think Almunia will play but he knows there is no room for error now. He could compete not only with Fabianski, who signed a new contract last summer, but also with Don Vito, who has shown his potential since joining the team in recent weeks. I wonder if there was an element of Almunia being sent in to get his head straight. But if he returns to the team, he knows he has to perform well if he wants to stay there. And that’s probably not a bad thing.
Almunia. Fabianski. Manone. Despite all my respect for those chaps, we didn’t take as much care of the goalkeeper position as we did back in the day, did we?
October 17, 2010
Tony Pulis said of non-English speaking directors:
I have nothing against foreign managers. They are very nice people. Besides Arsene Wenger.
After Graeme Souness commented last week that Wenger is not a footballer, it is worth remembering that Wenger does not exist in a vacuum. That kind of low-level xenophobia has been an issue he’s had to deal with for most of his Arsenal career, and it’s too complicated to explain this morning, but further down the line I think it’s affected how Arsenal are viewed in a number of areas. Media, fans, and officials.
Arsenal is a London club, but I think we were also considered ‘foreigners’. A big part of that was the trash from players like Pulis. I will also never give up my belief that the horrific injuries to Abou Diaby, Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey were a result of this. No other team before or since has gone through three legbreakers in such a relatively short period of time.
I don’t know what Tony Pulis is doing these days, but I hope he gets an incurable bug.
October 17, 2015
After returning from an ACL injury, Theo Walcott made clear his desire to play as a centre-forward and Arsene Wenger agreed. He played seven games there between early August and October, including one in a very enjoyable 3-0 win over Manchester United, in which he provided two assists. The manager was cautiously optimistic. I wrote:
It’s something he’ll have to work on every game as it doesn’t come naturally to him, and as good as he’s been lately, it’s impossible to make a definitive judgment after a few games. I hope I can watch it again and again because the director was right. If he plays like he did a few weeks ago, he’s going to cause all kinds of problems for the defense.
Dear reader, we haven’t seen it over and over again. He started the following week in a 3–0 win over Watford, but picked up a calf injury and, as far as I know, that was the last game he played there. He added just three goals in his next 24 league games and played fairly well on both wings, but Walcott’s centre-forward experiment was short-lived.
Since then it’s mainly been Olivier Giroud, whose 16 Premier League goals sound reasonable for a team with a pretty good scoring spread, but a 15-game slump between January and May means we won’t be able to take Leicester top of the table. played an important role in preventing A title when all the other ‘big’ clubs had fallen.
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okay. I am sure this post has made everyone cherish those old memories. But it’s part of what made us who we are today. And maybe just a reminder to enjoy some quality time while they’re here.
Until tomorrow.
