On Saturday I watched Jeff Stelling’s Soccer Saturday programme at lunchtime.
His guests were Paul Merson, Paul Walsh, Phil Thompson and Charlie Nicholas.
They are are regulars. So is Matt Le Tissier.
They spent the first 15 minutes talking about Chelsea, Scolari and Hiddink.
Merse, who once managed Walsall, reckoned Hiddink’s CV looks good but he is over-rated.
Unfortunately, I missed the highlight of Saturday’s show.
Friends told me about it later : Merson said he was watching the Spurs-Arsenal game on Sky last Sunday, and when Eboue was sent off, Merse said, “I broke my TV.”
Two pals told me that Charlie, Phil and Walsh were laughing uproariously and falling off their chairs when Merse admitted that. I don’t know exactly what he said, so we don’t know whether Merse put his foot through the TV screen when Eboue got that red card. The Who’s drummer Keith Moon used to do that. His back garden was littered with TV sets that had suffered that fate
The FA Cup draw was made by Frank McLintock and Graeme Souness and Arsenal will play Sheffield United or Hull City in the Sixth Round, if they beat Cardiff tonight. And if they beat Burnley.
So Arsenal have had a jammy draw after jammy draw. Three home games out of four !
When Arshavin starts playing, I’ll get interested in watching Arsenal again.
Watching Adebayor has caused my interest to collapse, fizzle out. I’m not motivated to write about a team that draws 0-0 and 0-0 and I’m not motivated to write about Song, Denilson, Eboue or Adebayor, although I believe Denilson would be OK in a better side. I need to be re-ignited by something or someone.
If Arsenal thump Cardiff 4-0 tonight, that might do it. No reason why Nasri and RVP can’t bang in some goals tonight, Bendtner too. But I don’t take a win for granted. Complacency is never wise in the FA Cup.
Arshavin will spend this week improving his fitness and may play against Sunderland next Saturday.
Without key defender and captain Martin Laursen till March 19, Aston Villa are starting to struggle a little bit.
They lost 3-1 at Everton in the FA Cup. That is a big blow to them, but it means they have one less competition to worry about and can focus on league games. The Uefa Cup is a side-issue for them now
Senderos and Vieira came on as subs in an entertaining Milan derby, which was on BBC3 last night.
Pato did not have a great first half but he always excites me. In 19 minutes, he took a craftily bent pass from Ronaldinho and went round Julio Cesar but was dispossessed. Adriano knocked in a Maicon cross with his hand ten minutes later and the goal stood. Stankovic scored a stonking goal to make it 2-0 at half time.
Second half, Pato got one back. Senderos came on for Kaladze in 77. That was only his fifth Serie A appearance and he partnered Maldini at centreback. A Pato shot hit Cesar’s legs and then Jose Mourinho brought on Vieira for Adriano to tighten up the game. PV4 clipped Pirlo seven minutes later to kill a counter-attack and was booked. It was one of those : If I kick him here, I’m gonna get a yellow card. But if I let him pass that ball, it could cost us the game.
Sub Pippo Inzaghi, played in by Pato, hit a good shot but the ball hit Cesar’s foot and didn’t go in.So Inter beat the geriatric AC Milan by 2-1.
Juventus dropped two points, so Mourinho will walk the title now.
Man United play Inter Milan in the San Siro in 10 days time. Cristiano Ronaldo might be motivated for that one. He might be fired up and really concentrating. He might do to Inter what George Best did to Benfica.
That would be something to see.