Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Here's to Captain Gallas

So work is killing me. I have 42 and a half hours just this week, which is ridiculous since I work a part time job. But since I last wrote, we've had two matches and won them both, in the league against Chelsea and in the Carling Cup against Blackburn.

So first, the victory over the scum from across the Thames. Can anyone on Earth feel better than William Gallas right now? He's scored against Man United in the 93rd minute to earn a draw, and he beat his former team with a goal that he scored. I was thinking it was a bit of a stupid move to make Gallas the captain, but now I see whatever Wenger saw. The guy is massive for us. I'd say after Cesc and maybe RvP he is our most important player to the team right now. He is always steady at the back and he has shown he knows when to get forward. More importantly, he knows how to finish when he gets there.

As for the game as a whole, we pretty much had the better side in the first half. We were passing well but didn't get the goal until the 45th minute. Cesc sent in the corner and Cech made an arse of himself and forgot to grab the ball and Gallas soared to head it into the corner. The second half was very fast paced both ways and we had two more good chances to score. RvP and Cesc were both returning form injury and you would think that they both would have scored if they were up to their normal fitness levels. Chelsea had a few chances but Almunia was very solid in goal saving a few good shots from them. So it was a good win that put the pressure back on Man U and we are top of the league again. Liverpool are now ten points behind us and you wonder how long it will be until they win another title. It could be a long time with Benitez in charge.

On to the Blackburn game. We changed the entire side from the one that played against Chelsea and started such well known players as Mark Randall against Blackburn's first team side. We scored in the fifth minute when Bendtner crossed for Abou Diaby and he sent a swerving half volley into the opposite corner. Friedel never had a chance at it and it was a great goal. We almost scored right after that when Bendtner hit the bar with a good effort. The next goal didn't take long after though. We went up 2-0 on a good finish by Eduardo. On 41 mintues though Blackburn pulled one back through Roque Santa Cruz, who I've decided has too much skill to play for Blackburn very long. So halftime came and it was 2-1, but not for long as Santa Cruz put in another shortly after the restart. So it was 2-2 and the game was wide open for the taking. Randall came off for Barazite and in the 90th minute Denilson got his second booking and was sent off. It went into extra time and in the 105th minute Eduardo got his second. Alex Song of all people made a great run from the back with the ball and sent Eduardo through and he made a great finish of it. We held on with 10 men after that and got the 3-2 win.

I've been quite critical of Eduardo, but he did have a good performance in this match. Maybe this is his level though...he doesn't seem to perform at all in league matches and maybe at least for this year this will be where he makes his mark. He's been a bit shite every other time he's played. We will see.

As for Lasagna Diarra wanting to leave Arsenal, let him. He isn't all that good and if he isn't willing to work for playing time then we are better off without him. Every player that comes to Arsenal has to earn their spot. Very few times has an established player come in and just gone straight into the team. You can think of Pires, Gallas, Sol Campbell, and maybe Rosicky, but other than them, every other player has had to prove he can play to get into the team. See ya Diarra.

Alright that's all for today. Have to finish Christmas shopping. Later all. Cheers to Captain Gallas.

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