Djourou/Interpol and the Toon fall out

So Johan Djourou has injured his knee, this is concerning given the major knee surgery he had not that ago. Essentially I think he had a bit of the knee joint lining replaced (probably autologous chondrocytes) and the big concern will be that this repair has failed and dislodged into the joint, meaning the knee has become swollen and painful. It may turn out to be nothing much, however I am sure we will know more after an MRI scan, it's simply impossible to know the gravity of the situation now.

Apart from Newcastle fans and a few standard Arsenal haters, the general consensus of opinion is that Dowd played a massive part in Newcastle's comeback yesterday. The fact that Nolan stayed on the pitch and the second penalty were clear errors, even Graham Poll has backed Jack Wilshere's assertions of inconsistency. The commentators started laughing at Dowd's decisions on the stream that I was watching and this said it all for me.

The strange news this evening that has been breaking is from France and it concerns the Arsenal-Newcastle game. Personally I have no idea whether this has any truth to it or not, but the fact that French TV are reporting that Interpol are fishing around the Arsenal-Newcastle game is more than just a dodgy rumour on some individual's blog. The original news source is here, this appeared before the TV footage.

Maybe this will turn out to be absolutely sod all, maybe not, but there may be something to it if a reputable French TV channel is reporting it. They must be reasonably sure of their sources as they would be very open to litigation if there is no substance to it. Either way I'm just reporting what they are reporting, the fact that it is gathering such momentum says a lot about the refereeing performance we saw yesterday, it was so biased that only a Geordie would try to pretend that it was not primarily Phil Dowd that got them their point from the game.