This post should have appeared yesterday, but I think I made a mistake somewhere.
On Sunday morning, I woke up early to watch Pretty Boy take on the Hit Man. I was supporting Pretty Boy. The English media as usual had fed us to the usual hype that their man was going to win. He seems to have bought into the hype as well.
The crowd was impressive; Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Silvester Stallone, Tiger Woods, David Beckham, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Oscar De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis, etc. English fans booed the US national Anthem, sung by Tyrese.
Then the fight began and the rest as they say is history. Mayweather is good. The guy may talk whatever he does, but you cant fault him in the ring. You got this feeling that the ring is a very lonely place. Poor Hatton, could only count on himself not even the referee, not even his girlfriend who sobbed in the stands, obvously not the rowdy Britons in the stands and not the English media. Mayweather did not need anyones help including the referee, so the boos from the Britons asking him who he is did not affect him. That boy is just good. Period.
Hatton’s was only the second unbeated record lost in the weekend. Liverpool had been beaten the previous night by Reading.
As I went to the hotel to watch Arsenal against Boro, I was thinking that another unbeaten record is at stake. It was lost as dreaded. “We lost because we deserved to lose” concluded Wenger.
I thought that again, Gilberto had put up a poor performance, Almunia blundered again and Eduardo, Ade, Eboue and possibly Clichy were average. Diarra to me was impressive. Toure should not have conceeded the penalty but possibly was put on pressure because Almunia left his line without a chance.
Could Almunia have punched the ball out for a corner instead of sending it right to a Boro player? These are questions you can ask if you have never been under fire, but champions do compose themselves and do the right things even under pressure.
“At the moment we miss players in the same area, that handicaps a little bit out creative potential, but it does not mean we should conceed a penalty after 3 minutes” said Arsene Wenger. Well, you could say that yes we conceeded the penalty but lacked the resources to recover because Flamini, Hleb, Fabregas and RVP were not there. These guys simply have shoes that are too big to fill. The weakness of the midfield against Newcastle and Boro is simply glaring. I dont think the creative potential in the last 2 games was handicapped “a little bit” but Wenger is a very patient man and that has contributed to his success.
Against Chelsea, I hope, atleast 2 of them will be back. If Flamini is back and he combines with Diarra in midfield and RVP is back and combines with Adebayor, I think Chelsea will be sent packing. Should RVP not be back then I would go for Walcott to start alongside Ade instead of Eduardo who I think is really high quality but has not hit form yet.
If these guys remain fit and Fabregas and Hleb can return when Arsenal is still on top of the table. The title pretenders can forget and Ferguson should not celebrate his outbursts yet.
Next weekends fixtures are truly juicy.
