I don’t normally write those articles
I never write : Everything will be fine when Robin van Persie comes back.
And I never write: We miss Rosicky on the left side, if he came back and played the next nine games we’d win the league.
When a player comes back, you don’t know how quickly he can find his form. Especially if he is a goalscorer. If he’s a striker, he needs a goal. Then he needs another goal. As Christian Vieri once said, “Only a striker knows what it’s like to score and not score.”
Any football match is about eleven players playing eleven opponents and trying to win. What might have happened if X had been in midfield, if Z had recovered from his groin strain – I’m rarely interested in the hypothetical
My default position is : When Rosicky and Robin van Persie are fit enough to start games, I’ll start writing about them.But I could write about RVP on Saturday, since he might start against Middlesbrough, who visit Aston Villa tonight. RVP can control a ball and hit it hard. He can score goals.
Arsene Wenger says: “He can make a difference. How much? I don’t know. He has played eight games, we have played 28. To have him back for the last 10 would be patience rewarded. He played eight games and scored five goals. When you lose a player like that you think of course we are in trouble but we compensated well. He is desperate to come back and do well.”
In this squad, even when everyone is fit, Arsenal do not have enough goalscorers. So as soon as Fabregas stopped scoring, they began to struggle.
Last week Adebayor heaped praise on himself but said his improvement was due to his teammates.
”They have made me the player I am today, the way I played at the San Siro. Every single day in training, they’re telling me what I should be doing. Am I becoming a world-class player? I don’t know. That’s for others to judge. “
Then he missed a sitter at Wigan after 42 seconds.
World class ? I don’t think so.
World class was Fernando Torres against Inter Milan last night. Torres is by far the best centre forward I’ve seen at English club since Jurgen Klinsmann’s first season at Spurs in 1994-95.
Fabio Aurelio made a good interception, a la Clichy, and broke up the touchline , played the ball forward to Torres, who turned on the edge of the box and drilled a right foot half-volley into the bottom corner. It was a textbook turn-and-whack goal. Van Persie could have scored it. Ian Wright or Anelka could have scored it. Bergkamp, obviously, could have scored it.
But Adebayor couldn’t have scored it.
Since I had money on Liverpool winning or drawing the game, I was glad to see that Torres shot flash into the bottom corner. I love to see world class strikers scoring world class goals and that goal killed the game, as it put Liverpool 3-0 up on aggregate. Cordoba would have tackled Torres, if he had been playing.
Inter striker Julio Cruz was lively and almost every Liverpool player kicked him. When he hit a rocket shot in 8 minutes, Reina had to make a phenomenal save, diving low to his right. In both legs, Inter were unlucky to have a defender sent off for two yellow cards.
Graeme Souness said that before these two games against Liverpool he thought Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a top player. “He’s shown us nothing, ” said Graeme.
Inter coach Roberto Mancini said he is leaving at the end of the season. His contract had four more years to run. He said he’d told his players and it was nothing to do with last night’s match.
Most interesting article I’ve read this week was about Harry Findlay in The Independent. Like me, he believes in betting on favourites.
Today’s our wedding anniversary. What do you say to a girl who’s given you 32 years of happiness?