So we’ll have to play our northern pals without services of 30-goal Thierry Henry, and anyone who thinks this is not a blow has probably had a blow to his head. However, look at the following record and we can all rest a little more comfortably: The six league games he has missed this season have brought us four wins, one draw and one (meaningless, given the circumstances), loss. You could add the first half of the Everton game to that stat too, if you fancied. If you did, it would be goals scored: 15. Goals conceded: 3.
Anyway, that’s a roundabout way of proving that we are anything but a one-man band, and I think the biggest recipient of this could be Robin van Persie. He had a patch mid-season of starting league games, but fell out of favour after his daft red card at Southampton on 26 Feb. It wasn’t until 25 April – less than one month before the cup final – that he started again, and it’s testament to him that he has dragged himself into contention for a starting berth at Cardiff in that short period of time.
We’ve got the added distraction of Colegate to contend with this week, and we’ve just got to hope it doesn’t weigh on Cole at all. It’s not that I feel sorry for him – I have a well of sympathy approximately ¼ inch deep – but without the services of Gael Clichy, he’s the only player in his position.
And finally, the prize for the crappest excuse goes to the people that decided not to hold an FA Cup final parade, should we win. Apparently, it’s been decided that there’ll be no party, “due to the difficulties which all parties have encountered when discussing the organisation of a safe event in such a short time frame”.
Absolute piffle, that is. Every time we win anything, the same logistical question comes up, and is overcome. And what of the “short time frame”? We beat Blackburn one month and one day ago, and we got to the semi-final on 12 March, two months ago. Rubbish! Boo!
Didn’t the same thing happen when we played Southampton 2 years ago? It’s a bit wierd. It’s like saying, “even if we win the cup, we’re not actually that arsed about it” which is an odd message to be sending out just a few days before the match.
Quite. It’s a cop-out.
Does everyone believe Arsene 100% about Thierry, he initially said he’d wait til Wednesday or Thursday to decide and it seems a bit early to rule him out completely. He’s done this before with Tel, could it be a Fergy-style mind game?
according to the local papers/and arsenal.com itself there isn’t time to organise the parade ‘cos various members of the team are fecking off all over the place the day after the match, some on holiday and some to play in various thingies….if I can find the bumf relating to this will send you link but mrwoo read it somewhere a few weeks ago.could just be that they think they’ll lose ( heaven forfend ) Keep up the good work
I’ve looked on Arsenal.com and this is giving the same story as reported in the media; i.e. no parade “due to the difficulties which all parties have encountered when discussing the organisation of a safe event in such a short time frame”. This suggests problems with policing & road closures etc rather than anything the club can directly control.
I hope the decision is not due to the players having better things to do, which would be pretty poor. They could start their holidays a day later for the sake of giving the fans a day out & sight of the cup. And I’m sure most of them would do so.
PV and TH have revealed how the players ultimately feel by saying the target this season was the premiership or CL. It shows how far the bar has been raised that the FA Cup would be a poor substitute and no longer worth celebrating in the same way as the 70/80’s. What a sign of the times! and not entirely healthy for the game in general. Hoping for a return to the days the League is won with 78 points and teams can afford to lose 5-6 games a season and still win the championship.
Funny how out of touch Glazer is if he plans to offer Fergie a pay rise and new 4 year deal, irrespective as to the result on Saturday, Man Utd are in decline, especially if you consider the money they’ve spent.
Maybe because Chelsea are holding theirs on sunday?
is anyone interested in this new Vieira/Keane ‘feud’?
Interesting to view some of your fans comments. The reason I am commenting is because I was reading through some of Charlies Buchans football Monthlys, in it was an article about when Arsenal won their first F.A Cup back in the Day when it was Arsenals First Final and Charlies last! Very interseting to see how much change has happened in the time in between!
Best of luck for the final, glad to see freddies back from his thigh strain.
Cheers
Dean
Sunderland Association Football Club – Blog
If you read the ‘feud’ quotes, Vieira’s actually quite magnanimous, going on about how much he respects Keane etc.
In reply to Ed – Yes I do believe Wenger about the Thierry thing. For 2 main reasons, 1 being that TH14 has come out and said he isn’t up to it because both his achilles have been injured and although its the biggest game he’s ever missed he knows the team can do it. And 2, If there was even a 10% chance TH14 would play I believe Wenger wouldnt have said much at all until the last minute. Thierry is a huge loss for that game but hopefully we can prove we are not the one man team everyone still seems to be suggesting (even though we have a enormous number of goals in the prem and TH14 scored 25 of them, less then half.)