Arsenal v Barca media reaction

highburyJD · Post by **highburyJD** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 11:54 am

here's an emailI just sent football365 after getting wound up by everyone going on about how lucky we were:

Just imagine: England play Spain in the quarter finals of the World Cup.
Spain come flying out of the traps, Xavi pulling the strings. They rain down shot after shot.
Rooney seems to be playing through an injury but no England player can get near Spain anyway.
David 'Calamity' James makes a series of amazing saves and Gareth Barry clears two off the line.
Several of the chances fall to Torres resulting in great saves or him missing the target
Steven Gerrard and John Terry both go off injured in the first half - Barry is forced back into central defence and Glen Johnson has to play right wing.

Second half Spain score a quickfire two - Torres finishing twice, both to some extent James fault.

After 60 mins England have been comprehensively outplayed - then they come back.
Walcott scores immediately after coming off the bench, then the hobbling Rooney wins and scores a pen.

How do you think this game would be reported on...? Would Barry be slated for losing Torres when playing out of position?
Would there be any comments about 'travesties' 'embarrassment' 'schooled' or 'disgrace'?
No - it would be heroism, grit and bottle, it would be Agincourt, the Battle of Britain and Rourkes Drift rolled into one.

If England (or for that matter ManUSA and Chelski, with their expensive Englishmen) are outplayed and don't lose, it shows character.
The Arsenal's comebacks (in individual games and the season) are nothing but luck or slackness of the opposition.

Well here's to being written off time after time after time and always 'luckily' coming back.
Others have decided that great heart, grit, passion and determination are exclusively English qualities.

We at least have that one quality Napoleon famously said he looked for in his generals.
I'm proud of this young team, the core of which have been together for four years,
and like Arnold Palmer they've been practising.

HighburyJD

littlefire · Post by **littlefire** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 11:59 am

Excellent post.

lagerisgood1981 · Post by **lagerisgood1981** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:00 pm

Totally agree ...

ambarron · Post by **ambarron** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:04 pm

agreed

same goes for bad tackles! i watched rooney go over the ball on a Bayern player on tues night, he was booked but could have been red, however andy gray and tyler were laughing about it!!

its the same when scholes does a foul, ha ha scholesy cant tackle etc etc

fuck them!!

DanielD · Post by **DanielD** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:07 pm

Great post..

Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:13 pm

Ahh we are a nation of Shopkeepers.......

highburyJD · Post by **highburyJD** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:23 pm

SammyDroppedHisShorts wrote:Ahh we are a nation of Shopkeepers.......

that wasn't the famous Napoleon quote I was thinking of!

Smudger · Post by **Smudger** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:30 pm

Great post and sums up my feelings, I am so fcuking proud of the boys today for sticking in there and getting that result - the ITV commentators were writing us off after the 2nd and predicting it could be embarrassing - well that showed them! Arsene talks a lot of the mental toughness of the team (and I have doubted him sometimes) well we certainly displayed that last night. Thats why I loved AFC in the very first place - the grit, determination and refusal to lie down and be rolled over by superior opponents that we have seen many times before (Parma in Copenhagen my most striking memory) and it was fcuking brilliant to see it back again last night. Thats why we are The Arsenal. History. Tradition. Class.

BT · Post by BT » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:32 pm

On the radio this morning they did a whole speil about Man U and Arsenal over using and over relying on Rooney and Fabregas and therefore damaging their bodies and world cup chances! As if Fabregas isnt the most fouled and kicked player because of his superior skill! Whatever injury he has is probably all from the Birmingham challenge.

Then they went on to say 'is the fact that there are no English teams left in the semi finals a sign that the premier league is fading'!

Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:45 pm

highburyJD wrote:
SammyDroppedHisShorts wrote:Ahh we are a nation of Shopkeepers.......
that wasn't the famous Napoleon quote I was thinking of!

I know...but its apt

Dan_85 · Post by **Dan_85** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:48 pm