Is It Really "Same Old Arsenal, Always Cheating"?

Wednesday, 03 March 10

With the horrific injury that poor Aaron Ramsey suffered still fresh in my mind, I thought I would try to change the subject a little today.

There were a few other talking points on the weekend and the first one was the Carling Cup final between Manure and Aston Villa.

How the referee decided not to send Vidic off after he gave away the penalty early on, I'll never know. The fact that Manure went on to come back and win 2-1 was a particularly sore point for Martin O'Neill afterwards.

I'm not his greatest fan, but he had a point and in my opinion referees are still running scared from Manure's Manager.

You might notice I don't use his name at all, such is the strength of my dislike of the man, and the fact that he called up Shawcross to sympathize with him after he shattered Ramsey's leg only increases my hatred for him. The man will stop at nothing to get what he wants and the examples are there for everybody to see.

I can remember when he was caught driving in the hard shoulder by the police and he got a letter from the club doctor to say that he had a bad case of diarrhea and had to get to the training ground quickly to save himself from the consequences.

I didn't believe a word of it at the time and to get a doctor to lie for him is the lowest of the low, but it just shows what a bully he is.

Take the case of Dimitar Berbatov and how he ended up playing for Manure. He flew to Manchester on transfer deadline day to talk to Man City and Manure's Manager apparently met him at the airport to hijack the move.

Did he have permission to meet Berbatov, or was he acting outside the rules again as usual? The FA gave him a sideline ban for his comments on referees this season, and it still hasn't stopped him from tearing the referees apart when Manure loses or if he thinks enough injury time has not been added.

The other thing I noticed at the weekend was the fact that Birmingham managed to beat Wigan 1-0 with a penalty. Did anyone else notice that the penalty came from a dive by Fahey and nothing has been done about it since?

Does that mean that the FA are happy for players to win penalties by diving and as long as it's not a high profile team or game there will be no action taken? If Wigan had held out for a point it could have been the point that makes the difference between survival in the league and relegation, but we won't know that until the season is over.

Compare that to the fuss made over Eduardo's supposed dive against Celtic in Arsenal's Champions League qualifier and you can see why some Gunners fans think we are victimized. I don't think Arsenal is victimized, but rather I think the likes of the FA and UEFA are incompetent and only react to media uproar.

I remember that disgraceful " assault" on Pedro Mendes by Ben Thatcher and the fact that although the referee saw it and dealt with it on the night the FA decided to charge Thatcher afterwards, although this was clearly against their regulations.

I'm not saying that he should have gotten off with what he did, but they can only enforce the rules as they are and not change them to suit themselves. 

The good news for today is that our Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis said yesterday that the Clock End, North Bank, East Stand, and West Stand will all be reintroduced to the Emirates. Obviously they will be names given to the four sides of the ground in an effort to reintroduce some of the traditions of the club. The Clock will be moved back inside the stadium overlooking the pitch from it's current position outside the stadium.

I think it's a great move and the sooner it happens the better.

That's it for today but don't forget to keep your fingers crossed for all of our players playing in international friendlies tonight.

See You Tomorrow.