Thursday 6 August 2009

Big Friday

So it's almost underway, and an early pivotal moment tomorrow is the Champions League draw. We are in the 'non champions' path and will play one of five unseeded sides, as we are seeded. The teams we may face include:

Fiorentina
Atletico Madrid
Celtic
Anderlecht
FC Timisoara

There's not much doubt that the top two of these five would be the toughest, Celtic would be in the middle and the bottom two sides are the easier ties. Mind you, none of the games are easy, but on our day we really should win against any of those five sides given our record in Europe. However it is rather annoying to see the lack of quality in the 'champions path', there really are some very average sides there. UEFA should make up their mind as to what they want, do they want a true 'champions' league, in which case go back to the old format of just champions. Or do they want a competition with the best sides, in which case they should not bias things in favour of the weaker countries as they have blatantly done this year.

Elsewhere news is slow, it is all quiet on the transfer front, the stories involving Big Phil, PV4 and Chamakh have tailed off somewhat. Rather amusingly the same old lame chorus can be heard emerging from the ever faeculent shite hart lane, apparently the lanky one thinks Tottenham have as good a chance as anyone of breaking the top four this season. Crouch demonstrates what it takes to sign for Tottenham, you must be dumb enough to believe what the dodgy twitcher 'Arry tells you.

Given that the spuds were battling relegation last season, I fail to see what they have done to transform themselves into a side that is capable of breaking the top four. They have managed to get a few more centre backs injured and exchanged one average striker for another, hardly the stuff of dramatic improvements I feel. What a bunch of numpties the spuds are, I'm sure their moronic and arrogant fans will still be convinced that this is 'their year', well maybe it is, as long as 'their year' means another year of watching average football played by average players and getting terribly disappointed that the end product and results are unsurprisingly rather average, yet again.

6 comments:

Obsinho said...

I'd say the top 2 are a tricky draw (yes we beat Atletico in pre-season but that counts for nothing) and indicate the value of finishing 3rd. There is a very real risk of not making the group stages this year.

Having read wengers comments at th charity launch today, I think he is going to be as canny as possible again. Prices are still not realistic and arsene is even more inclined than ever to play the waiting game and get better value. Don't know my opinions on this yet - I kind of envy the speed of the scousers reactions, but also think they have paid £5m over the odds.

As with last January, would we have earned enough points with Arsh in the side early to compensate the board for the extra cost? Depends where our priorities lie - winning games or making money.

Rhinogooner said...

We've got Celtic

Fred said...

I'm happy with Celtic. Should be quite a comfortable win.

Ted said...

Not a bad draw but not great either. We play away on 18 August and then back at the emirates on 25 or 26.

Uncle Mike said...

Don't the Spuds ever learn? Last season, they were in drop-down danger before 'arry came in, and he got them to the middle and he's a 'ero. So what happens when they have him for what appears to be a full season, and then they stay in the middle -- if that -- and the fans turn on him, asking why he isn't challenging for the Top 4 or at least the Europa League?

I suspect The Twitch will return, and he'll remind everyone of the real reason he's called Harry Houdini: He'll escape! And they'll have to find another caretaker for the rest of the season. Who will want the job? (I do, I do, I do!) Shut up, Sven!

I don't mind playing Celtic at all. There's no program in all the world I respect more, with the obvious exception of our own. And, unlike their Glasgow neighbors, their fans are not filthy bigoted animals.

Though there was that morning in Philadelphia when I watched the Fulham 0-0 disaster with six other Gooners, and we joined the Emirates crowd in booing them off the pitch (in our case, through the TV), and then I saw the Liverpool fans in the next room stunned over losing 2-0 to freakin' Middlesbrough, and then in the main room, there were Celtic fans whooping it up over beating Who Knows Who Cares FC 7-0. They couldn't sent one of those goals down to us and two or three to the Scousers?

1979gooner said...

Mowbray's teams always play good football and that will be good for us, we perform well against footballing sides.