Saturday's Football

Ok...before I rant; watched the Liverpool and Bolton game last night. Really good match, plenty of goals and a red card. Liverpool clearly deserved the win, no question about that. Although they're still struggling without Alonso.


That was a good start to the football, however the following game was something different entirely. Manchester United did not deserve to win. The foul on Arshavin before he scored the goal set the tone for that idiot referee Riley. The challenge was late and took out Arshavin, it couldn't have been clearer yet it's waved away. There was sweet revenge though with Arshavin's fantastic strike. From there until the Man Utd's penalty we dominated. We're much improved upon last season, we look incredibly balanced and we're now making other teams fearful (even Ferguson changed his usual formation).

The penalty....the ****ing penalty. Rooney took a terrible touch, he was never going to catch up to that ball. If you look at the replay, Rooney's left leg has already gone to ground before Almunia has touched him. It's difficult for the referee to tell without video evidence to use but it's arguably a dive. So we've established; Rooney's mistake, he's going nowhere, and he's already decided to hit the floor. So now we're drawing. The second goal a few minutes later was bizarre and very unlucky. I felt sorry for Diaby because I've always thought highly of him. These goals came soon after Ben Foster saved Van Persie's shot with his little toe, a huge moment in the game.

Even after Man Utd took the lead, they really didn't improve that much. Apart from Nani having a chance and Berbatov's terrible shot in stoppage time, we still played better. Throughout the game we had to deal with bullshit refereeing which I felt was a direct result of the Eduardo situation (his dive and subsequent manhunt by UEFA). The last goal we got was offside, I'm not arguing that one although if the goal was allowed it would have been a much fairer score.

So what else can I say? Typical Old Trafford referee bias followed by two lucky goals for United in a match which was dominated by Arsenal. I'm angry, all Arsenal fans should be angry. But at the same time, I'm not worried because if Man Utd don't start playing better and improve, particularly with their passing, then they won't win any respectable silverware. It was a good performance from us and we're a much greater threat than last year, and Arshavin is going to be a key player for us. Once we get Nasri back and drop Eboué (clueless in the final third), we'll definitely be a strong force. I remain confident and believe that justice will be served, hopefully in our next match we'll show some real passion and recover from this loss. I don't often single out rival teams (aside from Spurs) but believe me, I'll be cheering on every team Manchester United play against for the rest of the season.

Thank you and get ****ed.