Drive By: Stan, the Mancs and King Kenny’s Kuyt
It’s a Friday and I’m out of town, so my post will be brief and to the point, while written on the road over the course of a few hours.
By now many of you will have read about Silent Stan’s share acquisition in the club, meaning, in effect, that the American business man will own a majority of Arsenal and have a greater say in the club’s direction. Most people seem to think this will have little effect on our daily experience as supporters. I won’t go into any extra talk on this since it’s been discussed ad nauseam already, not to mention that I’m not particularly well versed in this side of the club’s organization. If you want to read a good fan-based background of the deal you can try @oranje-sky’s at the LPGcast site, one I recommend.
The weekend will, no doubt, shape up to be one of vital importance. Tomorrow Man City face off against United for the FA Cup and, though we’re not involved at all in this match, I would get an obscene amount of joy out of watching the Mancs go through a long, tiring match filled with injuries to Rooney, most of their defense and, why not, Fergie as well (it would be nice to see some purple to accompany the red on that face). This is perhaps a bit on the violent side and, though I’m not a violent guy, I would love to see some pain come to United in the coming weeks, just enough to hinder their title chances and give us an opportunity to take the league. I’m not asking for United to completely implode, but to drop a few points so we can put in a solid fight for the title. The way this season has gone I’m not sure I feel we will have deserved the championship if we walk into victory, but if these lads put in some fight and passion and manage to scrape the points needed to win then I can be satisfied with how they have done. Man City can have the FA Cup just for this year if it messes with United’s league performance. Consider it my gift to them.
On to Sunday. We’re up against Liverpool at the Emirates to attempt an important three points in a fixture that has traditionally been hotly contested. If we were facing the scousers mid-season I would have felt more confident than I do now, since King Kenny has been phenomenal in his reworking of that club’s performance after taking over from Roy Hodgson, who was dropped as manager. I’m worried they have gained some confidence and may put in a strong show this weekend. In particular Dirk Kuyt (what a fantastic name) and Andy Carroll seem to have been tearing apart defenses and we all know how fans have felt about our back four this season. Truth be told, we’ve a better defense in the league in terms of goals against than either United or Liverpool, so there’s some hope we may fare well this weekend, especially since Djourou seems to be returning as is Song and Szczesny. If we can get the offense and defense firing at the same time we should do well going into the final seven season games. My hope against Liverpool is that a season of experience will have helped Koscielny to the point of putting in a better performance than he did in the season opener. He looked quite shaky in that game and that type of performance isn’t going to win us any titles. Van Persie is still on fire and Cesc showed signs against Blackpool that he is approaching his best once more, making me somewhat less nervous for Sunday’s game.
That’s about it for now. I’ve had a busy day of appointments and am looking forward to a relaxing supper out with friends this evening. In the mean time stay positive.
