By Myles Palmer
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LAST NIGHT showed the huge gulf between the top three and the bottom ten as Arsenal thrashed Fulham 4-1 and Chelsea hammered West Brom 4-0.
Hold the front page : Arsenal scored two from free-kicks !
That will not happen again for five years.
And hold the back page : Jose Reyes could soon be back on form !
Beanpole Zat Knight gave us an early preview of Fulham’s defensive incompetence by clipping Henry in the box as he raced onto a fine pass from Hleb, who looked good on the right flank, with Reyes on the left.
Lauren’s penalty was poor. He checked, not fooling keeper Tony Warner, who dived to his right and saved.
Then Toure miskicked a Radzinski cross to Claus Jensen, who beat Lehmann with a chip which dipped sharply down into the far corner of the net.
Bergkamp made the first and fourth goals for Cygan, sending identical free-kicks swinging in from the left side.
On the first, Cygan nodded down and in for 1-1 and on the second he missed the header and the ball popped up off Toure’s foot and broke for the big man, who volleyed in for 4-1.
Henry was playing more in the middle and scored from passes by Reyes and Flamini, taking him to 184, one behind Ian Wright’s record.
Henry looked fast, powerful, super-skilful and wickedly cool.
THE DIFFERENCE between playing Chelsea and playing Fulham is mega.
Against Chelsea, it’s almost impossible to score. Against Fulham, you can score at any time.
Playing like that, with a defence like that, Fulham may be the worst of some seriously poor Premiership sides.
SENDEROS was dropped because Arsene said he had taken his mistake on Sunday too much to heart.
The Swiss is a great defender, a terrific character, and he will soon be back better than ever, I’m sure.
Senderos is a vital player who could be captain of Arsenal in two or three years time.
It is important that he doesn’t get injured. Same with Toure. If either of them gets crocked, the team would be in trouble.
ARSENAL were due to play Liverpool this weekend, a game which has been postponed because Liverpool play CSKA Moscow in the Super Cup in Monaco on Friday night.
Next game is at Middlesbrough on Saturday September 10th.
In-form Mark Viduka v Pascal Cygan?
An interesting duel.
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THE MICHAEL OWEN transfer saga has become the biggest bore of the summer.
Owen’s ambition is far greater than his skill, so he did not make it at Real Madrid, as I predicted.
Sven, talking out of turn, said Man United should sign him.
Owen hopes to go to back to Liverpool, but Rafa Benitez does not want him.
Newcastle have offered £15 million, but Owen does not see himself there.
When will it end? It’s the biggest bore since : Will Trevor Francis become the first £1 million footballer ?
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The Guardian has a hilarious story on page 2 today.
As you probably know, the barking mad Christian televangelist, Pat Robertson, said that the USA should assassinate Hugo Chavez, who is one of my heroes.
Robertson said “We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”
Today, a follow-up story by Duncan Campbell that put a smile on my face.
Campbell writes :
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela hit back vigorously at calls by an ally of President George Bush for his assassination by offering cheap petrol to the poor of the US at a time of soaring fuel prices.
In a typically robust response to remarks by the US televangelist Pat Robertson, Mr Chávez compared his detractors to the “rather mad dogs with rabies” from Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and unveiled his plans to use Venezuela’s energy reserves as a political tool.
“We want to sell gasoline and heating fuel directly to poor communities in the United States,” he said.
Mr Robertson’s remarks have threatened to inflame tension between the US and one of its main oil suppliers.
Yesterday the religious broadcaster apologised for his remarks.
“Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologise for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the US is out to kill him,” he said.
In a TV broadcast on Monday, he said: “If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.”
Yesterday Mr Robertson initially said his comments had been misinterpreted, but went on to add that kidnapping Mr Chávez might be a better idea.
“I said our special forces could take him out. Take him out could be a number of things, including kidnapping.”
The Bush administration tried to distance itself from Mr Robertson’s views without upsetting the large Christian fundamentalist wing which the veteran evangelist represents.
A State Department spokesman said assassination was not part of government policy.
“He’s a private citizen,” Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, said of Mr Robertson. “Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time.”
August 25th 2005
P.S.
I really hope Chavez can do something for poor people in the USA !