Two Englishmen are on fire in the Premiership.
Gerrard and Rooney.
They are natural resources : football gushes out of them.
Stevie G was awesome at the Reebok in Monday’s 2-2 draw.
He is elemental, a force of nature.
If you are losing, he will equalise.
But he might score the first goal.
If you are drawing, he might score the winner or make the winner.
Stevie G has amazing running power, colossal desire.
HE WANTS IT!
HE REALLY, REALLY WANTS IT!!!
Why have you found consistency, Steve?
Because my mind is clear, he said.
That means: I will play wherever Rafa wants me to play.
Stevie G has 15 goals and it’s only January 3rd.
WHEN MAN UNITED stuffed Bolton 4-1, Rooney was like a human firework.
He was a Catherine wheel, spinning round, sparks flying everywhere. He was a rocket. He was a Brock Cannon. He was a firecracker. He was a sparkler.
Flames and sparks and patterns flew out of him.
Rooney is a beast with finesse. A grizzly bear with the balance of a mountain goat.
He has the best first touch of any English striker since Peter Osgood and the best first touch of any British striker since Mark Hughes.
He is grizzly-strong, like Hughes and Alan Shearer, but also as nimble as Peter Beardsley.
His audacious dribbles often include a tackle, as we saw when he made the third goal for Ronaldo against Bolton. He beats the first defender, loses the ball to the second, but wins it back instantly.
Kenny Dalglish was never European Footballer of the Year, but I hope Wayne Rooney will be. And I hope his career is as long as Kenny’s, rather than as short as George Best’s.
His appetite, like Gerrard’s, is huge.
He has vision, skill, pace, steel.He doesn’t play the game, he creates the game.He decides what kind of game it is going to be.
Rooney enjoys his football more than anybody and he concentrates more fiercely than anybody as well.
SVEN MUST LOOK at Rooney and Gerrard and think : save some for Paraguay, lads.
Arsenal were dire at Villa.
Toure was their best player by far, Ljungberg their worst.
In the last two games Freddie has looked a spent force.
Ljungberg and Van Persie are injured and miss this game.
REYES was rested at Villa, where they made a poor side look good.
Resting Reyes was a gamble.
If Reyes has a good game and Arsenal beat United, it was right to rest Reyes at Villa.
But that decision did not look right to me.
As Vieira used to say, the truth is on the pitch.
WE WILL SEE THE TRUTH AT 8.00 PM
I’m going to the game, but not looking forward to it.
But I AM looking forward to seeing Rooney, the Englishman with Irish flair.
And Ronaldo is coming into form again.
Bottom line, I cannot remember an Arsenal game where I was so apprehensive.
It could be Jens Lehmann versus Rooney.