Rangers fan and editor of Two Banks of Four, Alistair Hunter kicks off our series with his moment.
“…The definitive better late than never goal…”
Not my words, rather, the words of Sky Sports commentator Ian Crocker. He’s having to scream each syllable down his microphone to the benefit of, not only the television viewers, but himself too.
“I think we’ve just seen the goal that’s won the championship, here,” adds the pundit, allowing Crocker to catch his breath.
After two weeks of old arguments, the Champions League’s return proved a refreshing end to the
monotony.
At what point England’s dour, 1-0 win over Wales was forgotten is hard to say. It could have been on ninety-three minutes at the Nou Camp, when Thiago Silva powered home a late equalizer, or maybe seconds later, as Ivan Peresic’s breathtaking volley flew into the top corner in Germany. The contrast between two midweek spectacles couldn’t have been more pronounced.
It seems that international breaks are now nothing if not depressing inevitabilities – interim periods cut from the same cloth as that mountain so elegantly described by the brilliant Dante.
To say that Rome wasn’t built in a day would be much too obvious. As streams of black and white clad supporters jubilantly exited Juventus’ shiny, new, packed to the rafters stadium, a wave of doom engulfed the capital.
As the goals flew by in Sofia, something happened. A drop, a loss, a departure. Memories wiped blank, evaluations reset and hopes freshly kindled. With Ukraine emerging into view, Bloemfontein faded – unhappy recollections usurped by a new wave of optimism.Brilliant article by Andy Brassell about Lisandro Lopez, Argentina’s forgotten striker.
James Appel is typically informative in his analysis of Igor Akinfeev’s injury.
Jim White talks Peter Crouch and Stoke City.
Ashley Young, England and bucking the trend set by under performing wingers.
Rory Smith analyzes revolution at Anfield.
A brutal summation of the situation at Goodison Park.
Kevin McCarra commends England for their away form.
Martin Samuel on the importance of today’s England-Bulgaria match.
To ask English football to learn, is usually to ask too much. In the cycle of perpetual misfortune, England have carved themselves a comfortable little place – one festooned with cushions, lights and running water by the very men and women who pray for better everyday.Wayne Rooney and Jesus Christ have a lot in common. Both are featured in best selling books – Rooney’s albeit, of a more recent publication – both have faced trials and tribulations, births and resurrections and both at one point or another have offered hope to a group of disciples, disillusioned with the current state of things.
Both are messiahs. Just as Jesus rose, quickly, stealthily from anonymity, Rooney did too. Rooney scored, Jesus preached. The parallels are there for all to see, the overlap between the lives of two seemingly polar opposite characters.
But then again, it isn’t really a shock that comparisons have been made. Religious undertones are an ever present in modern day football reporting – symptomatic of the way religion has been used to articulate the feelings of fans, players and clubs over the last century.
In the midst of United’s attacking wildfire, one forward was removed from the rest. As in most things, Berbatov was on the outskirts.
He has always been different from the others. Quiet, withdrawn, Berbatov refuses to be sucked into the loud, effervescent public life of Rio Ferdinand, nor the wild, sex driven antics of Wayne Rooney. When United players are asked to describe their Bulgarian teammate, the answers tend to be vague or mumbled. To an outsider, it would seem as though nobody really knows Dimitar Berbatov. He is said to sit far from the rest on away trips, and rarely join in on raucous games of cards in the wee hours during those infamous tours abroad.
Lackadaisical, languid, lazy. Berbatov’s playing style has generated cliches of its own. Wishing to criticize, no wide range of vocabulary is needed, merely a group of synonyms that any would be TV pundit learns in their crash course to being unoriginal.
Even when he achieves, Berbatov’s accomplishments are derided. A golden boot made impure by the distribution of goals – heavily on one or two games against low level opposition – and a second title win in three years, more the work of Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez.
Now the criticism seems to have worked. The Bulgarian Berbatov is further away from first team football than ever, on the outskirts both personally and professionally.
Interest from PSG and Juventus though was rejected, despite his apparent distance from the starting eleven, Berbatov holds some value in Ferguson’s eye. What value though? Has he just been shelved away, kept only to save face, to show that thirty million pounds wasn’t wasted? Berbatov is fast turning into another object, kept only for the sake of stubbornness, cursed by no fault of his own, but by the failure of those around him to understand his footballing importance and by a price tag which many see as at its most useful when tied around the striker’s metaphorical neck.
The 2011 Champions League final looked to be his nadir. Left out of the squad entirely, Berbatov was forced to take a watchers on role while the constantly injured Michael Owen claimed a place on the bench. That season Owen had netted twice in the league. Berbatov was top scorer with twenty.
Aston Villa 0-0 Wolves- Defenses on top as both teams continue a run of fine defensive form. Between them, only two goals have been conceded thus far, with a slue of fantasy managers benefiting from the form of Roger Johnson and Richard Dunne.
In an attacking sense, Villa were disappointing – N’Zogbia is still to live up to his pre season billing.
MOTM: Richard Dunne- Solid. A second clean sheet of the season.
FOTM: Jamie O’Hara- Popular fantasy option, but sullied his performance today with a yellow card.
Blackburn 0-1 Everton- Tim Howard is the clear star, saving one penalty and seeing another hit the post. A clean sheet too makes the American man of the match.
Both Mauro Formica and Junior Hoilett were guilty of missing from the spot, while Mikel Arteta kept his cool in the closing stages.
MOTM: Tim Howard- Clean sheet, penalty save.
FOTM: Junior Hoilett- Penalty miss and a yellow card.
Chelsea 3-1 Norwich- Chelsea have failed to live up to expectations so far, and were flattered by a three-one scoreline. Grant Holt got off the mark for Norwich, while Bosingwa, Mata and Lampard also scored their first goals of the season.
After coming on mid way through the second half, Mata was terrific, linking play well and scoring the third goal.
MOTM: Frank Lampard- A goal and an assist edge him ahead of Bosingwa.
FOTM: John Ruddy- Sending off was harsh, but still, he’s flop of the match.
Swansea 0-0 Sunderland- I thought the Swans were supposed to be entertainers! – another 0-0 draw for the newly promoted side.
Michel Vorm is fast becoming one of the league’s stand out goalkeepers, this his second consecutive clean sheet. A new look Sunderland side continues to struggle though, now they’re winless in three.
MOTM: Michel Vorm- Great saves, great player.
FOTM: Danny Graham- He just keeps on missing.
Wigan 2-0 QPR- I never thought I would say this, but Franco Di Santo actually had a good game. Two goals makes him a clear MOTM, though Emmerson Boyce also deserves a shout for an assist and a clean sheet.
QPR have been very inconsistent thus far, still nothing to write home about from star creator Adel Taarabt.
MOTM: Franco Di Santo- Two goals, an easy choice.
FOTM: Danny Gabbidon- Most popular, so he edges out all the other QPR defenders.
Liverpool 3-1 Bolton- First goals made this one interesting, with Henderson and Adam both getting off the mark for their new club. A goal from defense for Martin Skrtel also worth mentioning, though his performance was sullied by Klasnic’s late consolation.
The form of Klasnic this season has been spectacular – three goals in three games make him the league’s top scorer.
MOTM: Charlie Adam- A goal and an assist.
FOTM: Gretar Steinnson- Three conceded and a booking to boot.
Jock Stein must be turning in his grave. The man who engineered possibly the greatest ever single achievement by a British team in Europe may have failed to leave a legacy worthy of his brilliance, but never in his wildest nightmares would he have foreseen the eventual fate of Scottish football.
In a sporting world seemingly bereft of romanticism, the release of financial irons have prevented men like Stein from creating teams like the Lisbon Lions. Never again will a side composed of players all recruited from within miles of the ground ever reach European nirvana, but most Scots would have expected even their most monetarily handicapped to at least salvage a scrap of dignity.
Dignity was never the watchword for Hearts though, who lost 5-0 at home to Spurs, and while Rangers and Celtic both took two legs to be defeated, their failures are almost even more appalling.
After humiliation in Sweden, Ally McCoist’s Rangers side needed to offer disillusioned fans a boost – something they never came close to achieving; an away loss and home draw put pay to that.
The same formula of results conspired to knock out Celtic – one time champions more sheepish than anything else. Tonight’s loss in Switzerland, a far cry from Lisbon ’67.
“It’s a real low point for the Scottish game,” said SFA cheif executive Stewart Regan. An admission of defeat, followed by a statement of the sort of pomposity that epitomizes Scotland’s, and in particular Glasgow’s, naive approach to the modern European game.
“You look at some of the teams still competing, and they are the minnows of Uefa.” For the Scotland which greeted feverishly the return of Stein’s champions, denigrating rivals was a prerogative they had worked hard to deserve – for the country now listed below Iran in Fifa’s latest world rankings, the right to call others minnows has been long dissolved.
Scotland’s place alongside the big fish of European football has been usurped by other, savvier, opponents. Left behind in a maelstrom of change, Scottish football tonight find itself at its lowest ebb – its too premier clubs financially incapable of keeping up with rivals across the border, and now fast sinking below fellow competitors in nations as far a field as Sweden, Switzerland and Slovenia.
What the big wigs atop Scottish football don’t seem to understand, is that no longer is it the job of their football teams to hold the national flag proudly in a battle against the English. A different set of standards must now be applied. England no longer fear Rangers and Celtic, their attention is focused much more acutely in the direction of Spain, where the exodus of talent from the Premier League to La Liga is fast mirroring England’s steady leech of managing talent from up North.
The Scots must, for now at least, content themselves with their current position in the game – one far off that which they seem to feel God graciously endowed upon them. Rangers and Celtic are no longer realistic challengers on the European platform, lacking the sufficient talent to beat even teams from countries that hadn’t yet gained independence back in 1967.
The conundrum that a once proud footballing culture find themselves ensconced in is not one that will be solved with a band-aid of optimistic words. For all the talk of gradual improvement, patience and a long term plan, it remains unclear whether those in charge really know what they’re doing.
Gone are the days when a cleverly constructed team, put together and developed by a savvy manager, could rule the roost.
Arsenal are a side run by consummate professionals, an intellectual manager and a group of players molded in a footballing cast that, for all its faults, is admirable. The style inherent in their passing game was one which gave the Premier League something different. Arsenal was our answer to the Spanish magicians battling at the top in Spain – perfect no, but a boon to the league.
Even after their resolute win in Italy this evening though, the jury remains out on a team now shorn of arguably their two best players. While the importance of Champions League qualification cannot be downplayed, those holes – sadly – left by Nasri and Fabregas need filling. Arsenal were terrific at times, but always seemed to be missing something, that extra edge which has served them well further along in European competition. It was players like Nasri and Fabregas who catapulted the Gunners into a Champions League semi final – but more importantly, it was they who orchestrated play, gave Arsenal their creative identity.
Arsenal were always everyone’s first pick to watch on a Saturday afternoon – their stadium a fitting venue for some of the most marvelous attacking football ever played in an English ground.
For all their money, ambition and star quality, Manchester City will never replicate the Arsenal style. In many ways, City are Wenger’s antithesis – the epitome of what football has become, symbolic of changing tides in the world’s game. While Arsenal develop, City buy – stockpiling players and leeching the rest of the league, before poisoning average footballers to the rest with exorbitant wages.
This is not what we as English football fans should want. We shouldn’t glory in the beginning of the end this season, for one of the country’s most storied clubs, but suffer with them – mourn the loss of one of the league’s great entertainers. The Premier League is a lesser place without Cesc Fabregas, and a diminished product without the Arsenal of Nasri’s era.
United will continue to attack with verve and panache, but even at their most swashbuckling they never touch the heights so often frequented by Wenger’s team. On the whole, they are a superior side – certainly a better alternative to Manchester City – but their ethos is too different from Arsenal’s, for the Old Trafford club to act as a substitute.
No side better represents England’s answer to Ajax and Barcelona, than the one set to drop into the league’s bottom three this weekend. A philosophy dedicated to ingraining footballing thoughts and ideas is one that should be savored with the same vigor as title triumphs – even more so now as the financially charged world forces such principles into extinction.
Arsenal for many a year offered the Premier League a different dimension, a breath of fresh air amidst a backdrop so fiery that often the very act of respiration was forgotten. In the end, football is designed to entertain, though sadly, those with goals focused around aesthetic values are fast being alienated by a monster of our own creation.
What is next for Arsenal?
In For The Hat Trick 