I wish I could have been in Rome last night, unfortunately my lack of a commitment to the cause and the fact that my job has the flexibility of an ironing board meant I couldn't be there. I shall leave the match report to the boys who made the trip but I do feel the need to pass a little comment on the coverage of the game by various bits of the media.
The Arsenal-Roma game was shown so little respect by the media in the first place, it was almost as if it wasn't being played and that Manu are the only team that matter, the way in which the media doesn't strive for any kind of objectivity in these matters is quite disgraceful and highlights their rank bias in favour the nauseating merchandising machine that is Manc-chester United. If Jose Mourinho did assault a Manu fan then may I be the first to congratulate him, it's one of the only sensible things he's ever done in his career, for some reason I suspect that the Manc complaining is probably a dishonest liar who was not assaulted and just wants to get Mourinho in trouble by this 'mummy, he hit me' act.
Then the game itself. Firstly Roma away is a very tricky fixture, in fact the Chavs got comprehensively beaten there recently, so expecting us to go there and roll them over would be unrealistic. Secondly calls for Walcott and Eduardo to start were stupid, neither are match fit, so with Arshavin cup tied and Adebayor out, this was the only eleven Arsene could have picked. It was not vintage Arsenal by any means, but Roma didn't create nearly as many chances as we did in the first leg and the way in which we battled hard in the face of adversity was definitely something to be commended. It is this heart that was missing in the early season, we may be slightly lacking in one or two areas but at least the effort and desire is there now. There was no doubt that Almunia and Diaby put in outstanding performances last night as well.
The negative media reaction was something that I expected. Despite the fact that over the two legs we shaded it, the media chose to highlight our luck in the second leg and not our bad luck in the first leg. The media seemed almost disappointed that we had made it through. Compare and contrast this to there Manc loving as they ignored Manu's great fortune and lethargy in the first half against Inter, if Inter had taken one of several great first half chances for the away goal Manu really could have been in great trouble, there was no mention of 'luck' for the Mancs though, strange that.
I expected better from our own so called fans. Mr Leopold Mendacious seemed on the verge of suicide as we got through, why can't this annoying individual just put a sock in his whinging gob? Our great friends at 'Le Grove' who seem to so admire Arsene that they gave their blog a french twist with the name accused Arsene of 'crowing' as he dared to be proud of his side, how dare you Arsene, you must be damned either way as some people just have to be negative all the time. Just look at the Arsenal side versus the Manu side in terms of costs:
By my calculations its about 140 million versus 35 million. Anyway I preferred the Addict's take on events, he noticed our character and grit despite what some are saying, if we can't enjoy moments like this then how very spoilt have we become? Arseblogger summed it up nicely too, sometimes 'get the f*ck in' is all it comes down to. We're into the bloody quarters, it isn't that bad is it? And frankly I'd accept playing badly every game between now and the end of the season if it means we win the Champions League, we've seen brilliant football some years with no trophies, I'd happily taken a biggest prize of them all with some awful football along the way! Come on you Gunners!
The Arsenal-Roma game was shown so little respect by the media in the first place, it was almost as if it wasn't being played and that Manu are the only team that matter, the way in which the media doesn't strive for any kind of objectivity in these matters is quite disgraceful and highlights their rank bias in favour the nauseating merchandising machine that is Manc-chester United. If Jose Mourinho did assault a Manu fan then may I be the first to congratulate him, it's one of the only sensible things he's ever done in his career, for some reason I suspect that the Manc complaining is probably a dishonest liar who was not assaulted and just wants to get Mourinho in trouble by this 'mummy, he hit me' act.
Then the game itself. Firstly Roma away is a very tricky fixture, in fact the Chavs got comprehensively beaten there recently, so expecting us to go there and roll them over would be unrealistic. Secondly calls for Walcott and Eduardo to start were stupid, neither are match fit, so with Arshavin cup tied and Adebayor out, this was the only eleven Arsene could have picked. It was not vintage Arsenal by any means, but Roma didn't create nearly as many chances as we did in the first leg and the way in which we battled hard in the face of adversity was definitely something to be commended. It is this heart that was missing in the early season, we may be slightly lacking in one or two areas but at least the effort and desire is there now. There was no doubt that Almunia and Diaby put in outstanding performances last night as well.
The negative media reaction was something that I expected. Despite the fact that over the two legs we shaded it, the media chose to highlight our luck in the second leg and not our bad luck in the first leg. The media seemed almost disappointed that we had made it through. Compare and contrast this to there Manc loving as they ignored Manu's great fortune and lethargy in the first half against Inter, if Inter had taken one of several great first half chances for the away goal Manu really could have been in great trouble, there was no mention of 'luck' for the Mancs though, strange that.
I expected better from our own so called fans. Mr Leopold Mendacious seemed on the verge of suicide as we got through, why can't this annoying individual just put a sock in his whinging gob? Our great friends at 'Le Grove' who seem to so admire Arsene that they gave their blog a french twist with the name accused Arsene of 'crowing' as he dared to be proud of his side, how dare you Arsene, you must be damned either way as some people just have to be negative all the time. Just look at the Arsenal side versus the Manu side in terms of costs:
Van der Sar, O'Shea, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov.
Almunia, Sagna, Clichy, Toure, Gallas, Nasri, Denilson, Eboue, Diaby, Bendtner, Van Persie.
By my calculations its about 140 million versus 35 million. Anyway I preferred the Addict's take on events, he noticed our character and grit despite what some are saying, if we can't enjoy moments like this then how very spoilt have we become? Arseblogger summed it up nicely too, sometimes 'get the f*ck in' is all it comes down to. We're into the bloody quarters, it isn't that bad is it? And frankly I'd accept playing badly every game between now and the end of the season if it means we win the Champions League, we've seen brilliant football some years with no trophies, I'd happily taken a biggest prize of them all with some awful football along the way! Come on you Gunners!
