The Red Tide

Watch out, the Arsenal tide is racing in. Rosicky is back, and so is sublime, poetry-like football that Arsenal are known for. A 6-2 thrashing of Blackburn is enough to prove that, undoubtedly, Arsenal are the best and the most fluent attacking side in the premiership and probably the world, when they are in gear. They can entertain like no one else can, they can create football like no one else can, they can tap talent like no one else can and thank you Mr. Wenger for all that.

Adebayor was bought for 3 million pounds, and so was Van Persie. Apart from Rosicky, Arsenal’s first 11 is lesser in value than Chelsea’s struggling Shevchenko. And to still play such exquisite football is one hell of an achievement. Fine, the Red Tide did have some obstructions in the form of a doubtful defensive display, but hell, they should have scored 10 goals today.

3 minutes into today Arsenal-V-Blackburn game, Arsenal went behind thanks to a Nondo penalty. The Arsenal-brewed talent Bentley looked dangerous for Blackburn, but Gilberto scored an unlikely corner header to put us level. Hleb then added a brilliant second after going past a couple of players, after being put through by Adebayor. Adebayor then got a deserved goal, even though it was through a penalty to make it 3-1 to the Gunners. The Arsenal midfield was purring, and the Red Tide was pushing forward as if Osiris was commanding it to. A brilliant one touch move which ended with Rosicky putting Hleb through would have been finished only if the Belarusian had been a little selfish. The irony of it all!

2^nd half – Arsenal were as dominating and when Rosicky hit the bar, you felt as if the poor Czech’s first goal would never come. He deserved one for his excellent display, but Fate continued its curse on him. Emirates stadium has to go through a panic-stage. It went through one when Nondo scored his second, and then Blackburn suddenly took the leash for 10 minutes. But then, enter Van Persie. Thankfully Wenger put him on the right, where I think he plays much better. He proved my point with the goal of the game. Some typical Van Persie fakes (as all Van Persie lovers would know), and a sublime left foot finish, which seemed guaranteed as soon as the Dutch-men switched to his left foot, helped the Arsenal-faithful to breathe a sigh of relief. Then what followed was another brilliant team goal, finished once again by the left foot of Van Persie. It was then Fabregas’ turn to get into the mix. He went past Savage making him look like an idiot, and then indirectly set up the lucky Flamini for Arsenal’s 6^th. Wow.

It has been a long time since I have thoroughly enjoyed an Arsenal match, and to get such enjoyment without Henry, says a lot. Footballism’s God prophesizes that Arsenal is going to go on a rampage and this Red Tide is going to sweep the living daylights out of the Premiership. Beware.

P.S. Over-excitement often leads to predictions that are over-enthusiastic in nature, but they are prophesies none the less.

The Unemphasized "London Derby"

Okay. My approach to this post changed thrice during the course of the friggin’ exciting match between the Gunners and the "Great" one's army.

The first approach was going to be as to how shitty Flamini played, but the how he capped of the shitty performance by a well-taken goal, only to re-emphasize Wenger's undying faith in his chosen first-eleven. I almost got annoyed with him for playing Flamini for soooo long, but then it paid off, which kinda shut me up. Anyway, my first approach was going to be full of joy and passion at the supposedly brilliant Arsenal victory. But Essien changed all that.

A truly fantastic and unbelievable 35 yard scorcher, Essien’s shot was a well-deserving equalizer, and was good enough to overshadow the earlier Ashely Cole foul on Hleb which would have prevented the brilliant strike. Anyway, I am not going to vent too much here, but the goal wouldn’t have stood if the referee got his eye-sight sorted and gave the deserved free-kick to Arsenal. But, hey, whatever.

Things changed after that. Besides a horrid performance by screwing-up-at-Chelsea Wright-Phillips, Chelsea should have taken the 3 points, and it was unfortunate that the bar adored them. But hey, don’t take anything away from Arsenal and Arsenal’s Gilberto for their and his solid performance. In the past, Arsenal have also met with similar bar-hitting incidents, which have had even more fatal results, so this kinda cancels out. So all you Chelsea fans - SHUT UP, and Ashley – shove it.

Cole got the treatment he deserved for his “BOT” – Betrayal of Trust – as some very “mature” people coin it. The Arsenal fans seemed to have the better of the reflexes to the Chelsea supporters’ late awakenings when it came to booing the “wanker” (to quote unquote Cole himself). Otherwise Adebayor had a decent game and so did Van Persie. Essien was the deserved ‘Man Of The Match’, and Drogba showed flashes of his brilliance only to be made notorious because of his shitty acting. How the hell does a 13 stone, 6+ foot guy fall down like a pansy when he is nudged only slightly. “Loser”, I say.

Anyway, the second half was more exciting than the first, and capped off a truly memorable and entertaining match: 1 - 1. And to think, Arsenal were without Henry, Gallas, Toure, Rosicky and Lauren. Hah, Chelsea could only manage a draw – brilliant.

P.S. The Unemphasized "London Derby" refers to the fact that the commentators failed to mention even once that it was a London Derby. Bloody hell there are too many London clubs.

PRR

Guess who is joining the Premiership Rat Race (PRR) of use-lots-off-wealth-on-team-to-become-rich-and-famous – our very own, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Maktoum Al Mohammed, the proud ruler of Dubai. Yes Govind, you can partially rejoice – his Highness is planning to pitch in 480 million pounds to buy the living hell out of Liverpool. So, that somewhat means ,that Arsenal is the only nor-foreign-bought club, which ironically has a non-foreign coach and only 1 English player in its top playing 16. Right. The English, I tell you.

Anyway, why Liverpool is all happy is because now they can get a new stadium, and be totally wannabe’s of Arsenal. It’s okay Govind, it’s only natural for any club to do so. What Sheikh Mohammed is going to be doing is clearing all Liverpool debts (which not surprisingly is about 80 million pounds), buying controlling stake worth 180 million pounds and investing in the new stadium that will be built in Stanley Park. He, the owner of Dubai International Capital (DIC), is one rich man. Respect sir, and please don’t kick me out of the country.

It’s also fun, yes plain fun, to note that Dubai now indirectly owns major chunks of 2 clubs - Arsenal, with all the ‘Emirates’ sponsoring and Liverpool, with the latest DIC take-over bid. What’s even more fun to note is that now the premiership might turn out to be a 3 way battle – The Americans (Glazers & Man Utd) v/s The Russians (Abrahamovich & Chelsea) v/s The Middle East (Sheikh Mohammed & Liverpool). Boy oh boy – World War III indeed.

On a more saving-my-ass note, actually quite seriously, I have deep respect for our ruler Sheikh Mohammed. He is one hell of a strategist, and his vision is boundless but practical. Dubai is where it is because of him. Hats off on a great job sir, and good luck with Liverpool.

P.S. This post is a mixture of football and Dubai, so you’ll find it on both of my blogs. =)