By Myles Palmer
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APRIL is a big football month.
The month starts to get interesting when Arsenal play Blackburn in Cardiff (Sat 15th) and Chelsea at the Bridge (Wed 20th).
Chelsea will have played Bayern Munich twice by then.
Uefa gave Mourinho the minimum 2- match touchline ban yesterday. Next time they will punish him.
NORMALLY, Arsenal v Norwich would be a walkover.If we had not just had a 14-day international break.
France skipper Vieira comes home disappointed after draws against Switzerland and Israel.
Henry’s calf strain meant he did not play in either game. Latest reports suggest he won’t be fit for Norwich.
GILBERTO may be back and if he plays in front of Senderos, Arsenal could keep clean sheets all through April, which would be fantastic.
Clean sheets would allow Arsenal to edge out United for second place, which is Arsene’s dearest wish right now.
Is Norwich a crunch game for Ashley Cole?
How do the fans feel about him now?
Will he stay? Does Arsene really want him now?
Or is the boy who buys £165,000 cars sure to join Chelski, who will pay him more?
And it could be social as well as the money. Ash has just spent 10 days with Frank Lampard, John Terry and Joe Cole. They are all young Londoners, like him. He has more in common with them than he has with Thierry and Patrick.
THE WORLD CUP qualifiers have produced an imaginative manager : Jose Pekerman of Argentina.
Pekerman might be the new Scolari.
He picks a 33-man squad, knowing that Argentina have not beaten Bolivia in La Paz since 1973.
If you fly your best players in from Europe you are asking them to cope with jet-lag as well as an altitude of 3,600 metres. The human body can’t cope with that.
So he picks mostly local players for his first game in La Paz, goes a goal down, comes back to win 2-1.
Then he picks a more normal European side in Buenos Aires when they play Colombia.
It’s a tight game but a fast break gives them a chance from a low right-wing cross. And Crespo slots it.
In a blue and white shirt, Crespo is up for it.
BRAZIL used the same players in both games.
They looked zonked against Peru, especially Kaka, who was fluttering like a daffodil in a light breeze.
Never seen Kaka look so weak, so jet-lagged.
Ronaldo was walking, standing still, worse than peripheral.
Pizarro smacked a big elbow into the gob of Bayern teammate Lucio.
Eventually, Ronaldo woke up for a moment, remembered that he is a genius, and fed a sweet pass to Kaka, who finished perfectly, a deadly shot inside the near post.
URUGUAY played like Everton, organised and ferocious, muscling Brazil out of it in Montevideo.
Dida really surprised me by spilling a 30-yard shot which bounced, Diego Forlan snapping up the rebound.
The equaliser, by Emerson, was offside.
A right wing corner, Kaka and Emerson are offside in the six yard box, headed back by Lucio, shot by Luisao hits the keeper, Emerson scores from a tight angle.
Goal allowed, Brazil draw 1-1.
Ronaldinho was ebullient, creative, very mobile, breathtaking at times, by far Brazil’s most authoritative player.
Lucio, the South American Thuram, was superb in both games.
ROBINHO of Santos is 21 and headed for Real Madrid.
He is electric, bouncy, zippy and keen.
Not as much of a power player as Samuel Eto’o.But more of a ball-artist.
Robinho made a difference when he came on against Peru, producing a smart reverse pass to play in Ronaldinho for a penalty that wasn’t given, and making a diagonal decoy run for the goal, sprinting right to left to allow Ronaldo to pass right for Kaka to score.
I love that kind of thing: it’s so Brazilian.
Robinho will fit in at Madrid. Owen doesn’t.
YES, APRIL looks like a really good football month.
And that’s just as well with an election campaign in full swing.Fortunately, I don’t need to watch that or read about it or talk about it.
I’m busy this month and that saves me a lot of time.
I can’t vote for a party that employs Alistair Campbell.
When Dr David Kelly died, Tony Bliar thought his government was finished.
April 1st 2005.