What goes round comes round and we wait to see what Mcleish will say when another English player breaks another leg of one of his players. He will start whining. Hypocrites.

Its a shame that the guys at the FA will be saying their crap of no-malice blah blah…

These lousy English players feel jealous of the skills of players like Eduardo and no body wants to say this. They are just trying to show the young weak but skilled players that they are stronger. So they go in with such primitive tackles without caring what the consequences will be. He probably intended to hurt him and thats what matters. Probably he didn’t intend to kill him!

How shall we ever know. Why can’t the FA act on bad tackles before it is too late. Why can’t they impose severe punishments for such tackles to discourage these less talented players from injuring their more talented colleagues. Shame on the FA because they can’t see this. Yet they want to take their league abroad. On TV on saturday, they could not even replay the incident because it was too horrific; out of a horror movie! Thats how far the premier league can go in encouraging impunity.

Looking at the pictures I get a few tears in my eyes. I think I am a bit too emotional over it. I suppose Eduardo’s teammates feel worse. No wonder they even couldn’t even concentrate during the match. I would have cried if I was on that pitch seeing someone so sweet deliberately hurt by a heartless beast that calls itself a professional footballer.

Hearing Mcleish saying that the fool does not need to apologise makes you wonder how far the English game can sink.

I watched Arsenal pre-season during the Emirates Cup and the Amsterdam tournament. They beat during those tournaments big Italian and Dutch clubs. They did look young, but the kind of soccer they were playing was as fantastic as the media has come to accept of recent.

I thought at that time that this team was going to do well when the season begins. Ofcourse the pundits were also watching, I just don’t know why they didnt seem to want to give it to Arsenal despite very clear signs that the likes of RVP, Flamini, Walcot, Eduardo, Bendtner etc were really appearing very good.

Then the season began and so did the silky moves and they started to win. Then the pundits acknowledged the quality of the soccer, most also accepted that they got it wrong at the start of the season. Some ofcourse are yet to conceed how completely wrong they got it. They are still hoping like Ferguson and Grant, that the big collapse will finally come.

During the Chrismas period, when Man U won at Everton (By chance really and out of the sheer stupidity of an Everton defender) and we drew at Potsmouth, these people must have sighed with relief, believing that the big collapse had just come.

But surely drawing at Potsmouth cannot be a collapse when loosing at Westham isn’t or drawing at Lutton isn’t. This is exactly what Man U and Liverpool have done in the last few days. The pundits still say Man U will take the championship and Arsenal will collapse.

But where is the evidence? Look at the team now, they have played 21 games, lost at Boro, drawn at Blackburn, Man U, Liverpool, Newcastle, Potsmouth. Half the season is gone. They have done better than everyone else really and the table shows it. Now they have lost Toure but that is almost it. With RVP back, they could be as good as they started the season.

When will they collapse. The evidence is that they won’t. People like Sagna fortunately do not even understand the language of the pundits. Flamini and Gallas as well speak little English. Even Fabregas, Almunia do not understand much of Ferguson’s mind games. It doesn’t matter that Avram is also making a try at mind games. OK Walcot could be distracted but even if he did which is typical of English players, they could lose just the Carling cup.

To the pundits who keep claiming that Arsenal can’t last the distance and that Man U are the real champions: where is the evidence?

In the premier league, they have to overcome the loss of Toure to the African Nations Cup. In the champions league they have to do what Man U failed to do last season: beat AC Milan over 2 matches. In the FA, they may have to face a big PL side after today’s draw. In the Carling cup, they have to overcome old foes Tottenham.

These huddles are not impossible to jump.

When Kolo Toure is away, I hope Senderos will not make too many mistakes as he usually does. I would rather go for Djurou, though he seems not to have impressed much during his loan spell at Birmingham. The few times I watched him there, he seemed to be promising. Senderos doesnt seem to be getting over his mistakes well enough.

I hope RVP comes back. Sweet RVP, I love him.

I think Traore has been solid at the back, Diarra has also looked good the times when he has played. In the absence of Toure, Wenger could attempt to do what he does best. Convert one of these fellows into a Central defender to partner Gallas. This is ofcourse far fetched but we shall watch and see.

I hope Fab, Flamini, tricky Hleb and Rosicky remain fit. Rosicky has improved a lot. Ofcourse Eduardo is on fire. Bendtner is doing right. Walcott as well. With Ade not going anywhere, I think the attack is really promising.

The signs are good. Come on 08.

Before Sunday, the same man who had claimed that Arsenal can’t cope with injuries watched as his side failed to cope without Drogba. Terry who thinks he has a patent on ugly tackles was given a dose of his own medicine. Unfortunately, Joe Cole avenged for him and both Terry and Eboue might be out for a while. So much for how dirty the premier league can get.

The title is now down to two teams, despite Torres who I think is world class, looserpool has no chance and despite Avrams misplaced hopes that wars of words might work for him as much as they have worked for Ferguson in the past. This season, talking off pitch will not help. The champions will have to win it on the pitch not off it.

Since GTV came in, the pay TV market is pretty confused. GTV says they will be broadcasting all the crucial matches this December, but they comfortably don’t mention the Man U vs Liverpool which will be on DSTV. Sometimes what they say is not what you get. Enough of these monopolies.

I saw highlights on ESPN and I think Arsenal were back to their former self. The win though was not enough to put us top of the group because elsewhere, Sevilla had won their game with 3 goals.

Wenger says that its OK, but maybe deep down would have prefered weaker opposition at this stage than Barcelona, Real, AC, or Inter.

I say bring them on. I only hope that Ivory Coast will crash out of the African Nations Cup in January so Toure can go back to London before February.

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.

There was no power the whole day so when I went home, I lighted candles and spent some time talking with a few people that had come to my place. We were discussing Ebola.

My place doubles as a bar and a home. There were a few customers taking some drinks. We talked until it was about 10:00pm then I started preparing to switch on my small generator. As I was still preparing, the power came back so I didn’t have to switch on the generator.

Since the beginning of the week, I had set myself to watch the Newcastle game. I was ofcourse a bit apprehensive at the news that Fabregas, Hleb, Flamini all in addition to RVP would be missing from injury.

So I connected my GTV decorder only to see on the screen that “this card is not authorised”. I tried making phone calls, but that deep in the night, I couldn’t get through to anybody. The GTV guys had harshly and unceremoniously cut my connection off yet I had just paid their subscription a few days earlier.

I felt very depressed. I actually noticed that I am not that good at handling disappointment as I quickly became irritable and withdrawn. I failed to eat my supper. I knew without watching this game and, being alone at home, without a friend to keep me together, I was not going to sleep. I was a bit restless.

I decided I would drive to town to see the match, maybe while there, I would get over my anger. When I told my house keeper to eat faster so we go and watch from town, the young man just started laughing. I felt very irritated. He said I can go, I will find him at home when I return.

Shortly, I was on the road to a hotel some distance away. I found Adebayor had already scored (perhaps the goal of the season, as I later saw on replays). I felt the referee was biased against Arsenal, he easily awarded decisions against them and ignored fouls by Newcastle. The most ridiculous came towards the end when Ade was clearly obstructed by a Newcastle defender in a one on one situation.

So much for the standard of refereeing in the EPL, but I felt if Arsenal are to be champions in May, they will not be counting on referees to help them. If anything they will be lucky that these men, do not start awarding controversial penalties against them.

I felt that Adebayor, Sagna, Toure, Gallas and Diarra were fantastic. I felt Rosicky and Eduardo even Bentner when he came on were average. Eboue has to be credited for his involvement in the Adebayor goal but he was probably average on other occasions. Clichy was a bit quiet to me. Gilberto to me didn’t play well. Maybe he has lost form due to being benched for long or he is disgruntled and has lost commitment or he just had a bad day. I felt he committed many fouls in risky positions. Running like a headless chicken is not the Arsenal way.

I think Almunia still needs to convince, he continues to blunder by occasionally leaving his line precariously and I felt he shared in the blame for the goal because he did not cover Taylor very well otherwise he could have touched the ball for a corner before it hit the post. Still you have to credit him for making some saves though I felt he was dramatising a bit on every catch.

Of course Adebayor lost a bit of concentration by passing the ball to Eduardo instead of clearing it to safety. Eduardo who seems to have a lot of potential to become a very entataining player with a load of confidence and trickery in future should have played the ball out for a throw in or something else other than what he attempted to do. Those two probably share the highest blame for the goal.

Still you can’t exonerate the rest because you feel that should Flamini and Fabregas have been in, probably the goal wouldn’t have gone in because the two are more positionally aware and could have covered where Almunia didn’t.

I was thinking of Walcott, but I don’t know why Wenger chose not to bring him on. He probably has his reasons and you can’t criticise him really. I felt the English youngster would have added some pace in front and occupied some newcastle players getting some of them off Adebayor whom they really kicked in the last minutes without any response from the ref.

This side was definitely missing Fabregas, who would have increased their potential upfront as well as provide some cover when needed at the back because he is very positionally aware. Flamini was missed very much and Gilberto proved to all and sundry that Flamini is the man.The trickery of Hleb could eventually come from Eduardo but not yet.

Yesterday’s game proved that this season these four (Flamini, Fabregas, Hleb and RVP) are very massive players and very critical to Arsenal’s fortunes. You can only hope that the team can hang on until they return. Should any three of them return when Arsenal is still on top, the premier league will most likely go to the Emirates in May.

To win the premier league this season, you will have to win your games and not expect another team to drop points. All of Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal are in fantastic form and seem unlikely to easily drop points. No body should expect to be helped or even fairly treated by the referees. The brainless prayers in the lower rungs of the league table are also not going to stop kicking at the flair players. They will not even give them any space to breath as Alan Smith showed against Sagna somewhere during the match when he just run into the latter and even won a free kick from the ref.

Wenger must have thought that a draw is not a terrible result and feared to risk Walcott on this ground where Newcastle was determined to just run (like headless chicken) into any Arsenal player with the ball (Martins did it several times). I will not be surprised if Walcott starts at Boro alongside Adebayor. Bentner could then be on the bench but you never know how Wenger will do it. He is a very patient man and he knows that Eduardo is good despite his current average performances (Ask England).

Ferguson, changing to higher gear in his so called mind games, had earlier claimed that Arsenal will begin to lose points. I think his comments are irrelevant though he will think that this match proved him right. Such comments can only add more steel to this Arsenal side. If he thinks his mind games is what he needs to stop Arsenal this season, he is definitely wrong and he should look elsewhere.

The headless chicken that are kicking into injury our best players are doing better than Ferguson. So are the referees who are letting them get away with it. If Arsenal can contain these headless chicken, then Ferguson’s mind games won’t work. If the big players continue to get injured, then there is real trouble as the likes of Gilberto have shown on more than one occasion that they won’t deliver the goods.

Chelsea will suffer during the African Nations Cup, and should they eventually lose Drogba, they could drop out of the race. Liverpool are in it and in Torres they have one player that could win it single handedly.

Man U also have Ronaldo who could single handedly win it again but they need Arsenal to slip up, which is why Ferguson is desperate with his mind games, starting with the “foreigners” thing then now “they will begin to lose points soon”.

Any positive out of this game? I think yes. Adebayor scored his ninth, I want him to take the golden boot come may. Injured players were not risked so they could be available for more crucial games. The unbeaten run (in the premier league) was preserved which is good psychologically especially against Ferguson. People like Diarra showed good signs and people like Gilberto removed the last doubts on Wenger’s selection mind.

Wenger would also have noted Almunia’s errors and probably added the goalkeeping area to his so called “one area I need to strengthen” because Lehman is a no no.

When I reached office, I called the GTV people and they told me that they had not even seen the payment I made despite making several calls to them before and even faxing the bank slip. After checking they claimed that payment was for November and I would have to pay for December before I am reconnected.

They claimed their grace period of 1 to 10 days had expired!

In the bank, the tellers are putting on gloves, because they think Ebola can go through money. There are just too many people in the lines and I just have to go back later hoping the numbers will have reduced. I was trying to avoid crowds because of Ebola but I am desperate to get the GTV connection back on because there are just too many games this December. Shame on these service monopolies.

English footballers are deliberately playing bad football and getting away with it. One just needs to look at how Heskey kicked Walcott the other day, how Carew lunged at Hleb from behind and how players like Ronaldo, Fabregas, and other “brainy” footballers are constant targets of bad tackles.

The brainless players have been joined by Diouf, a looser by all standards, judging by his tackle last weekend which he went away with.

The FA is probably going to recruit Mourinho to save the English game. Steven Gerald is probably going to tell them to also chase away the foreigners. But English football may never be saved until the FA, the referees and Setanta, stop encouraging bad tackles against the flair players.