By Myles Palmer
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Good news : only three games left.
Bad news: Two of them are Liverpool and Everton at Highbury.
Great news : Man United 1 WBA 1 !!!!!!!
So if Arsenal beat Liverpool on Sunday afternoon they will be second and Everton should qualify for the Champions League.
XABI ALONSO will not be tired.
He did not play against Chelsea in midweek.
He had to watch as the Champions League semi was balanced on a knife-edge, knowing that if Liverpool won he would be heading for Istanbul in the last and biggest game of a long season.
It’s an up and down life as a footballer.
Xabi broke his leg on January 1st and plays in the Champions League Final on May 25th.
You can get much more up and down than that. Every player’s nightmare followed by every player’s dream game.
Months ago, when Liverpool drew 1-1 with Manchester United, I wrote this :
“XABI ALONSO gave a masterclass of modern pivot play.
He was a free-floating creative anchorman, a Spanish drum machine who set the tempo, just as Paulo Sosa used to do for Portugal and Juventus, knocking off volleyed passes to wide positions, covering every blade, and almost making it 2-2 with a tremendous floating drive from the halfway line, which Roy Carroll got back to and parried down from just under the bar.
Xabi Alonso is the player England need.”
IT IS IMPORTANT that Xabi is not allowed to have a good game at Highbury.
The more he has the ball, the less likely Arsenal are to win.
RAFA BENITEZ is a tactician I love to watch.
He knows how to plan a game and control a game and improve a team with his subs.
Rafa knew how to cancel out Chelsea at Anfield.
They had one shot wide by Gudjohnsen at the death and one free kick by Lampard, that Dudek saved brilliantly.
That was it. Chelsea did not deserve to win.
WHAT WORRIES ME is that Carragher and Hyypia are smart as well as tough.
They will know too much for Reyes and van Persie.
What also worries me is that Rafa might cancel out Arsenal the same way he cancelled out Juventus and Chelsea.
Chelsea played narrow at Anfield and lost. Arsenal play narrow and they could spend the whole game passing the ball in front of Liverpool, who know Arsenal can’t hurt them by crossing the ball.
Will there be goals?
Yes, but not many.
THE END of the season has turned out to be more interesting than we thought it might be.
Everton started the campaign by being stuffed 4-1 by Arsenal at Goodison.
They could end it by cheering Arsenal on to victory over their neighbours.
Chelsea look set to beat Man United’s best points total of 92, thanks to a soft Mike Riley penalty against Charlton at the Bridge.
Lampard was outside the area and fell inside and Makelele netted the penalty at the second attempt.
NEVER A PENALTY !!!!
Tonight a Spanish ref gave Real Madrid one that was even worse against Real Sociedad.
Madrid were 1-0 up when the keeper went for a 50-50 with Ronaldo in mid-air and punched the ball and his follow-through caught Ronaldo in the face.
PLEASE ! Never a penalty.
If it had not been real Madrid, that would never have been given. A bad, bad joke.
I switched off in disgust and came upstairs to type this.
It’s therapy. I feel better now.
May 7th 2005