Barcelona Away (CL) ManYoo Away (FA)

I don't have much to say. Really nothing to say at all.

To be honest, I've given up on things to say. It's really indefensible.

Two competitions in one week. What is there to be said? Nothing at all.

My CD player has stopped working in my car. My laptop has a virus and won't let me restore. Japan got wiped out and there was not a large monster in sight!

Will something restore my faith?

Wait? What's this? JENS? You've got to be kidding.



I don't really care anymore.

~LeChat

Orient at Home (FA) and Sunderland at Home

My what a lackluster week. To be honest, I could care less about either tie. It's kind of funny how one can be a hero on a Wednesday and a complete muppet by the weekend.

Nicklas Bendtner, please stand up!

Fact of the matter is you may think you're the bees knees but your consistency is severely lacking. The big head and the big feet need to be in communication.

Ahh, I'm not here to slag off on poor Nicky alone. Honestly there's no reason, no concrete reason to drop points at this stage of the season. With the United scum falling prey to the team that once was Liverpool, the Arsenal would be 1 point, ONE BLOODY SODDING POINT off the title.

However, this is not the team to do things the easy way. Let's not revisit the should have, could have and would haves of these last couple of weeks. It's trying. A man could be dying slowly in a pool of quicksand and you have about 33% chance of the Arsenal throwing the rope within arms reach, whether or not the rope doesn't break is a different story.

I know there are some reading this saying, "What kind of fan are you, slagging off your own squad like this? Are you some kind of glory hunter? If they don't win, you just whine."

To those I say, when you've been doing this as long as I have, you would understand the intimate and almost salacious relationship you have with your club. How that club comes to define your very being to the point of perversion. How, if you come up to my face and say those words to me, that I might actually haul off and hit you with nary hesitance or judiciousness.

When you have paid your dues and have been allocated your time, in that case, you may question my loyalty as I would question yours. In short, that is not for me to decide nor care about your loyalties or lack thereof.

I'm just saying, I've walked the valley of death and am prepared to stride once more with my head held high, in spite of what mine enemies and detractors would throw down upon me.




Oh to... Oh to be... Oh to be a Gooner!

~LeChat

Stoke at Home (EPL), Birmingham Carling Cup Final

Midweek fixtures, well as usual, not much to say. Three points to the good and that's about it. I have to admit that I myself was not in form at all this week. This flu thing seems to be wiping out whole offices as we speak. It sort of reminds me of 28 Days Later or some other zombie apocalypse type story. Everyone is infected.

I end up with a 2 day work week and the Carling cup final to look forward to. I took it easy on Friday and spent most of the day in bed on Saturday. I was not going to let this flu hold me back from watching a cup final, so head it off at the pass, so to speak.

Sunday, woke up, not in the best of moods and feeling a bit wonky at best. I headed down to the pub, walked in and said hello to the ManShitty crew before ducking back out and over to the Gooner pre-game at the Inn.

Bakerman and ArseBob had set up a room to have a few drinks and get everyone loose for the cup final. It was nice. I only had a coffee as my body was still not used to what I would call normalcy.

We all start heading to the pub around 10 of for the kickoff. There were several strange punters that I'd never spied before, but that's what you can expect for a cup final; a bunch of johnny-comes as ACMilan would say.

**editor note**
There was just a loud explosion and the electricity went out at the end of the previous sentence. That was really odd. I'm thinking a transformer blew or we are now under attack by martians. The former more likely but the latter, with my luck is quite plausible.
**/editor note**

I was standing next to GrumpyGooner and mentioned to him that there was a strange vibe in the air, almost ominous. I don't know if he really heard me or if I was just talking to myself but something was not feeling right.

Like most games, there was an ebb and flow. They scored, we scored and then the clock starts ticking. The game is 90 minutes; the only thing certain in football. A miscalculation, a bobble and an easy tap in from a seasoned striker settled the cup and lack thereof for the Arsenal once again.

Surprised? No, not at all.

Shocked? Not really.

Disappointed? Of course, who wouldn't be, unless you were a Birmingham fan. It was a real shot to the heart.

I know one thing is for certain, at least in my opinion, if I wanted things to come easy, all the time then I would have choose something more certain. However, I did not.

Every failure makes every success that much sweeter. Two more cups and a league to go.

~LeChat