It's The Drog... Again!

After witnessing a 2010 Malaysia Cup match between T-Team and Selangor at the Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, mad redo1 proceeded to the McD 'drive-thru' outlet to catch the visit of Arsenal to Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, all seats in front of the TV were taken. Thus when another Gooner, Ahmad Arif arrived we decided to adjourn to the nearby T-Cafe.

It was still 0-0 but Arsenal already asked a few questions about the home defence. Both Marouane Chamakh and Laurent Koscielny should have put The Gunners ahead but both were unable to find the back of the net with their effort.

Arsenal were matching the home side but as always there was the question of luck that became a crucial factor in these kind of matches. Perhaps I am a bit bias but the feeling was Arsenal were not getting the break when playing against the so called big teams. Whether it was decisions by the officials or the bounce of the ball.

And tonight, it was no exception.


Our nemesis Didier Drogba connected with a low hard delivery from Cashley Cole and it hit the post before going in. It could have hit the post and rebound to safety but no, it went in off the post. During the build up to the goal there was a foul on Abou Diaby but it went un-noticed by the officials (not saying they did it intentionally but just failed to spot it).

In the second half I thought for a long period of time Arsenal could have leveled the score from their dominance but they just could not find the crucial breakthrough. Samir Nasri was very lively and so was Jack Wilshere. Andrey Arshavin whose attempt forced Peter Cech into making a good save in the first half, faded in the second.


Then came the moment when the home side put the match just a bit beyond our grasp. A foul by Koscielny as they broke through meant the referee Mike Dean had to award a free kick, which was centrally located of Lukasz Fabianski goal.

During the build up Florence Malouda joined the wall. Now, when I was at school, the coach taught me when an opponent joins your defensive wall during a free-kick, make sure have a team-mate covering behind him and do not say 'welcome to our defensive wall' to him at all time.


Unfortunately, the entire Arsenal squad did not go to my school. Thus when Malouda stepped aside after the referee had whistled, there was this big gap in the wall and for a Brazilian like Alex it was like a Grand Canyon opening up for him to slot his thunderbolt, which I doubt even the best goalkeeper in the world now would have difficulties in reaching it.

That it. We are now seven points behind the league leaders. But so what? We have been adrift before but on many occasions we managed to find ourselves in the mix right to the death. With many personnel coming back from the treatment room in the next few weeks, our squad will look much stronger.


The most positive aspect from the match at the Bridge was Fabianski. He looked confident throughout the match and if he is given a run of matches during which he does not court any 'incident', then Mark Schwarzer's dream of playing for a top club will remain just that, a dream.

Keep on Goonering you ARSE-s!!!

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