By Myles Palmer
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THERE IS still a helluva lot to play for.
That was the message I took from Vieira’s performance in that scrappy game at Blackburn.
Arsenal still have a lot to play for.
The FA Cup, finishing above Man United, beating Chelsea at the Bridge : three challenges remain.
A 1-0 win at Blackburn with a young team keeps Arsenal third and demonstrates a desire for that automatic qualification place.
SENDEROS has stabilised the defence.
He is left-footed, but he is so two-footed that you don’t notice that he is left-footed.
Like Sol, he is better on the left side.
Playing with Cygan was a bit awkward for him.
His composure on the ball means, I think, that Vieira pushes forward a bit more than he does when Sol is playing.
Senderos still makes a sloppy pass or two. But he is very, very young for a centreback and 25 times better than most his age.
Lehmann has been good since Senderos has been good: a German with a Swiss alp protecting him.
Lehmann was especially solid against Blackburn, although he had little to do.
FLAMINI has played the last dozen games and his passing will improve over time.
And he will improve if he is playing with Bergkamp and Pires, who make it easy for players to pass to them.
I kinda like Fabregas on the right. It’s a cool option which may be useful next month.
Saturday was a radical midfield, really : Fabregas-Flamini-Vieira-Cole.
REYES had a good second half and AW says he wants to keep him and develop him.
Freddie dropped out with an ankle injury during the warm-up.
This meant that van Persie was thrown in at 15 minutes notice.
He had an incompetent half-hour. The ball did not stick to him. He did not get his pass in.
Then van Persie scored from a pass by Cole. Centrebacks Todd and Nelson allowed a huge hole to open up and van Persie turned neatly and waltzed round Friedel.
CLICHY was superb. The lad has such an exemplary attitude. When he’s fouled he just gets up and gets on with it.
Steven Reid waited till the 91st minute before launching a shocking assault on Reyes, a really wild tackle from behind. Told you he was a bruiser.
Ewood Park was an untidy, dull game, but a good win. And another clean sheet.
Teams for the Cardiff FA Cup semi will be a little different to these:
BLACKBURN : Brad Friedel, Dominic Matteo (Nils-Eric Johansson), Aaron Mokoena, Lucas Neill, Ryan Nelsen, Andy Todd (Kerimoglu Tugay), Garry Flitcroft (Brett Emerton), Morten Gamst Pedersen, Steven Reid, David Thompson, Paul Dickov
ARSENAL : Jens Lehmann, Gael Clichy, Ashley Cole, Etame Mayer Lauren, Philippe Senderos, Kolo Toure, Cesc Fabregas, Mathieu Flamini, Patrick Vieira, Jose Antonio Reyes, Robin van Persie.
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CHELSEA FANS, hang your heads in shame.
Chelsea have succeeded and failed.
They’ve won the title but lost the public.
They’ve been the strongest team, but they can’t handle it.
They’re winners, but they’re losers.
They have no class.
They should be enjoying it. but their nastiness has spoiled the fun.
Chelsea do not know how to behave.
Like millions of other people, I’ve gone off Mourinho lately.
Uefa have thrown the book at them.
QUITE RIGHT !
No club should behave like that.
It looked as if Drogba does not know the rules. He is not allowed to raise his foot to Valdes, the Barcelona goalkeeper.
So when he has a yellow card AND he has been warned twice by ref Anders Frisk, he should not show his studs.Drogba sent himself off.
Mourinho accused Rijkaard of going into the referee’s room and then – utter insanity- Chelsea put that in writing to Uefa.
YOU DON’T TELL LIES IN A WRITTEN REPORT !
Did they have a whole week to write that report?
Mourinho threatened to sue ref’s chief Volker Roth, who called him “an enemy of football.”
A manager who impedes a Lazio player from taking a throw-in, as he once did, IS an enemy of football.
His assistant apparently swore at Jamie Carragher five times during the Carling Cup Final !
Who do they think they are?
With every abuse, Chelsea make Arsenal look classy, decent, superior.
IN NYON, something seems to have happened on Monday morning.
We understood that Kenyon and Lars Christer-Olsson sat down for two hours on Friday and agreed to downplay the whole controversy.
Kenyon apparently said he would shut Mourinho up.
Then at noon on Monday Uefa accused them of being liars and of creating “a poisoned and negative ambience”.
So, at last, something is being done about Mourinho’s ruthless gamesmanship and mindgamesmanship.
His hypocrisy in protesting that Deco dive at the Nou Camp was quite breathtaking
Uefa should also ban Carvalho for ungentlemanly conduct.
When it was 3-3 on aggregate and Barca were going through on Ronaldinho’s away goals, Carvalho tugged the keeper’s shoulder as John Terry’s header bounced in.
No ref can see that.
No referee on this planet can see that foul.
Collina has to watch the header to see if it goes in or hits somebody’s arm.
I doubt whether Valdes could have reached the header.
But he is entitled to try.
Valdes was denied that chance by a sly foul from Carvalho.
The Uefa charges relate to “false declarations” in a report sent by Chelsea following the Nou Camp first leg on February 23.
LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, I was a bit shocked by the strong language used in the statement :
“Uefa today announced the opening of disciplinary proceedings against Chelsea FC, head coach Jose Mourinho, assistant manager Steven Clarke and security responsible Les Miles, for making false declarations, notably in the complaint sent by Chelsea FC following the Uefa Champions League match played against FC Barcelona at the Camp Nou on 23 February 2005.
“By further disseminating these wrong and unfounded statements, Chelsea FC allowed its technical staff to deliberately create a poisoned and negative ambience amongst the teams and to put pressure on the refereeing officials.”
William Gaillard, Uefa’s Director of Communications, made it clear that Chelsea’s behaviour was “totally unacceptable”.
WHAT AN AVALANCHE of bad publicity !!!
How utterly squalid !
As I say, something must have happened on Monday morning that we don’t know about.
Did Lennart Johansson insist that Uefa hammered Chelsea?
Did the refs say they would not handle Chelsea’s matches if Mourinho was allowed to walk free after such outrageous and calculated behaviour ?
NOBODY, as far as I know, has even mentioned what Mourinho did in the Old Trafford tunnel for the Carling semi second leg.
After the warm-up, Mourinho stood in the entrance to the tunnel and shook hands with the United players one by one as they came off, just before kick-off.
Was that sportsmanship?
Or subtle gamesmanship disguised as sportsmanship?
Have you ever seen a manager do that before?
You are flying too close to the sun, Icarus.
Your wings are melting.
Gravity will take over. You’ve made a crash landing inevitable on March 31st.
March 22nd 2005.