They wrote us off, but the Gunners are top, top, top of the league!
TOP-top-top top of the league. It may only be for a few days, so let’s crow while we can. Top-top-top of the league, we’re top-top-top of the league. There is a serious point, though.
After 22 games – yes, we know, one more match than Chelsea – Arsenal, it should be recognised, have proven a fair few people wrong.
If Manchester City are to intrude on the top four, everybody said it would be at Arsenal’s expense. If Aston Villa are to get in there, it’s at the expense of Arsenal. I won’t mention Spurs.
But after just over half the season, Arsenal have shown they can keep pace not only with the fourth place cut-off line, but the frontrunners as well.
And they have done it playing more exquisite football than the long ball, moneyed muscle men at Chelsea and the moaners at Manchester United.
It’s true Chelsea were too strong for Arsenal’s passing playmakers when they played each other, but over the season so far, only a maximum of three points lies between them. That’s hardly a gulf in ability, even if there is a disgusting chasm in the amount of money the two clubs spent on players. It’s only a matter of points and if Arsenal can pull some points from the next four matches – Villa, Liverpool, Man United and Chelsea’s mercenaries – and Fabregas can stay fit, then they won’t be so far off.
RICHARD OSLEY
I watched a fantastic goalkeeping display by Boaz Myhill of Hull City – unfortunately it was against Spurs. On any other day I would applaud his agility, but on Saturday the portly shot-stopper’s antics were agony. Our finishing left much to be desired and our inability to up the tempo and pressure as the game progressed was almost as infuriating as Mr Myhill and his procrastinating cronies. When I watch a man have a two-minute rest before he takes a goal kick, I instinctively question his fitness, and then the wisdom of paying £35 to watch such gamesmanship.
Fortunately, and in no small part thanks to Alex Ferguson, referees are beginning to award vast quantities of added time. I certainly approve, until Spurs emulate Angola’s four-goal collapse in the Africa Cup of Nations I will enjoy every extra minute I’m given.
On another note, this may well be my only chance to say farewell to Roman Pavlyuchenko. Fifteen goals for £13 million, that’s a tidy bit of business. It may have been an impossible task to replace Dimitar Berbatov but I feel we could’ve got a little closer; it’s true both are sullen at times, dissatisfied and constantly tug at their shirtsleeves but one was a genius, and that’s the attribute we needed to replace.
PIP WROE