Happy Friday Ziggy,
First off, I must say I have absolutely no idea to what you refer when you speak of embarassing things that have happened to me at Saturday Club. Surely you must be confusing me with someone else.
I wish I had a definite answer for the sisters. At this point, I am just as informed as they are about what my future holds. I hope that I'm going to be home sometime within this calendar year - possibly in the winter, but I don't know.
Onward to the FA Cup Semifinals this weekend! Now, I know that you're a United fan and so probably haven't heard of the FA Cup in a while and so let me refresh your memory. The oldest association football cup competition in the world, the FA cup is administered by the Football Association of England and is open to teams from the football leagues of England and Wales. The charm of the prestigious cup is that it has become renowned, over the years, for pitting the smallest and largest teams of the football leagues on a more level playing field than anywhere else. One only has to go back a few months to recall the absolutely hilarious 4-2 trouncing Bradford City (a league 2 side) meted out to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the 4th round of this year's competition. The memory of the preeminent bus valet of our time, Monsieur Mourinho's face after that defeat never fails to cheer me up when I'm feeling down and a picture of the same spent three weeks as the screen saver image on my phone.
What makes the FA Cup so romantic is that such upsets aren't limited to the playoff or preliminary stages and that one doesn't have think too hard to find examples of shocking results in the latter stages of the competition. Eventually relegated Wigan beat premier league defending champions Manchester City in the 2013 final to lift the cup. In 2004, division 1 Milwall defeated premiership Sunderland in the semifinals to book a meeting with United in the finals that year. Indeed, in 1991 mighty Nottingham Forest lost the final to the obscure, non-league Tottenham Hotspurs (or the cock-and-ball as they're affectionately known by their three fans in Al-Basseh, Morocco), whose greatest claim to fame until that point was that they were controversially crowned Northwest White Hart Lane (blocks 31-47) Hopscotch Junior Runners-up in 1952. So basically, anything can happen.
That said, something that definitely won't happen is Reading beating us on Saturday. Arsenal are actually playing very well right now. The last two games provided a microcosm of why we've won 16 out of our last 18 games in all competitions. Against Liverpool we were at our fluent best, especially for the last ten minutes of the first half. The midfield were slick in possession and we drove forward in numbers, secure in the knowledge that Coquelin would sweep in and recycle possession if one of our passes didn't work out. The vast majority of them did and Alexis, Ozil, Giroud and Cazorla buzzed around the Liverpool defensive line taking advantage of the obvious lack of confidence in their centre halves. Toure in particular was very poor on the day. As the cherry atop the victory flavoured cake, we were lethal in the final third. All four of our finishes were from the top drawer and Alexis' goal in particular will be one of the goals of the season.
Against a stubborn Burnley side fighting tooth and nail to stay in the premiership, Arsenal displayed a satisfying steel in their game. In what was a very difficult game against a very fit and organized team, the gunners were disciplined, tireless and did the basics very well. We held onto the ball comfortably when we had possession and kept our shape when we didn't, leaving Burnley no space in which to work in our half. They pressed us well and tried to break us down but each Arsenal player defended well and to be honest, apart from Boyd's scuffed shot, Burnley weren't incisive enough to merit a point. Our defense held up and maintained their good form and Coquelin was imperious in front of them, making an absurd 11 interceptions in the game! That man can't put a foot wrong currently.
So two games and two contrasting, but equally satisfying, performances which bring our winning run up to 8 in a row. On the other hand, Reading have a string of poor results behind them and are languishing at 18th in the Championship. They've been struggling to score at one side of the pitch and leaking goals at the other. They're safe from relegation, and have a great manager in Steve Clark, but I just don't see Reading standing up to us right now. I predict a 4-1 victory and Arsenal making their way through to their 19th FA cup final!
Oh and Liverpool play Villa on Sunday in the other semifinal. Sherwood may just nick that one...
All right! Unfortunately I can't watch the game live tomorrow cuz I have an exam at the same time so I should really be there instead. Dang.
I love the idea of you ending your posts with a poem and I can't wait to read them. I really enjoyed the one you posted on Tuesday. Made me think.
Looking forward to the next one,
Dada
First off, I must say I have absolutely no idea to what you refer when you speak of embarassing things that have happened to me at Saturday Club. Surely you must be confusing me with someone else.
I wish I had a definite answer for the sisters. At this point, I am just as informed as they are about what my future holds. I hope that I'm going to be home sometime within this calendar year - possibly in the winter, but I don't know.
Onward to the FA Cup Semifinals this weekend! Now, I know that you're a United fan and so probably haven't heard of the FA Cup in a while and so let me refresh your memory. The oldest association football cup competition in the world, the FA cup is administered by the Football Association of England and is open to teams from the football leagues of England and Wales. The charm of the prestigious cup is that it has become renowned, over the years, for pitting the smallest and largest teams of the football leagues on a more level playing field than anywhere else. One only has to go back a few months to recall the absolutely hilarious 4-2 trouncing Bradford City (a league 2 side) meted out to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the 4th round of this year's competition. The memory of the preeminent bus valet of our time, Monsieur Mourinho's face after that defeat never fails to cheer me up when I'm feeling down and a picture of the same spent three weeks as the screen saver image on my phone.
What makes the FA Cup so romantic is that such upsets aren't limited to the playoff or preliminary stages and that one doesn't have think too hard to find examples of shocking results in the latter stages of the competition. Eventually relegated Wigan beat premier league defending champions Manchester City in the 2013 final to lift the cup. In 2004, division 1 Milwall defeated premiership Sunderland in the semifinals to book a meeting with United in the finals that year. Indeed, in 1991 mighty Nottingham Forest lost the final to the obscure, non-league Tottenham Hotspurs (or the cock-and-ball as they're affectionately known by their three fans in Al-Basseh, Morocco), whose greatest claim to fame until that point was that they were controversially crowned Northwest White Hart Lane (blocks 31-47) Hopscotch Junior Runners-up in 1952. So basically, anything can happen.
That said, something that definitely won't happen is Reading beating us on Saturday. Arsenal are actually playing very well right now. The last two games provided a microcosm of why we've won 16 out of our last 18 games in all competitions. Against Liverpool we were at our fluent best, especially for the last ten minutes of the first half. The midfield were slick in possession and we drove forward in numbers, secure in the knowledge that Coquelin would sweep in and recycle possession if one of our passes didn't work out. The vast majority of them did and Alexis, Ozil, Giroud and Cazorla buzzed around the Liverpool defensive line taking advantage of the obvious lack of confidence in their centre halves. Toure in particular was very poor on the day. As the cherry atop the victory flavoured cake, we were lethal in the final third. All four of our finishes were from the top drawer and Alexis' goal in particular will be one of the goals of the season.
Against a stubborn Burnley side fighting tooth and nail to stay in the premiership, Arsenal displayed a satisfying steel in their game. In what was a very difficult game against a very fit and organized team, the gunners were disciplined, tireless and did the basics very well. We held onto the ball comfortably when we had possession and kept our shape when we didn't, leaving Burnley no space in which to work in our half. They pressed us well and tried to break us down but each Arsenal player defended well and to be honest, apart from Boyd's scuffed shot, Burnley weren't incisive enough to merit a point. Our defense held up and maintained their good form and Coquelin was imperious in front of them, making an absurd 11 interceptions in the game! That man can't put a foot wrong currently.
So two games and two contrasting, but equally satisfying, performances which bring our winning run up to 8 in a row. On the other hand, Reading have a string of poor results behind them and are languishing at 18th in the Championship. They've been struggling to score at one side of the pitch and leaking goals at the other. They're safe from relegation, and have a great manager in Steve Clark, but I just don't see Reading standing up to us right now. I predict a 4-1 victory and Arsenal making their way through to their 19th FA cup final!
Oh and Liverpool play Villa on Sunday in the other semifinal. Sherwood may just nick that one...
All right! Unfortunately I can't watch the game live tomorrow cuz I have an exam at the same time so I should really be there instead. Dang.
I love the idea of you ending your posts with a poem and I can't wait to read them. I really enjoyed the one you posted on Tuesday. Made me think.
Looking forward to the next one,
Dada
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