Arsene Wenger: *whines* Mummy..they were rough on me.. Boo hoo..

Here I am now again.. with my latest ramblings on the weekend that just passed us by. Let's see.. can't exactly remember what happened Saturday.. the highlight of the weekend was Sunday's crunch match between Manchester United and Arse-nal.

Oh but i do remember going to jalan bukit merah for claypot rice.. was not bad.. mainly cos the place was cooling.. Diana gave me a fright though... She went to visit her grandfather while we were there, who stayed in the next block.. I called the phone after realising she took so long and guess what? The phone was off.. I thought something bad happened to here sia..Thank God the Princess is fine..We went to Tiong Bahru for White Chicks.. was not as funny as it was hyped up to be.. i did however, like the square-off at the disco between the 2 sets of girls..dancing to the tune of Beyonce's Crazy in Love.

I couldn't sleep Saturday night.. fell asleep at about 11 and woke up about 3-4 am.. put the teevee on..before falling asleep again..haha.. umm.. the morning and afternoon was pretty normal. chill and church..

Fast forward to 11pm.. and Manchester United at home vs Arsenal. Arsenal comes into the game on the back of a 49-game unbeaten run.United, on the contrary, enters the fray knowing that they haven't clicked as a team despite the depth in talent in the squad and that defeat in this fixture would leave them a distant 14 points behind the league leaders, Arsenal. The Red Devils were dealt a blow when skipper Roy Keane was unable to shake off a viral infection. Other than that, there were no surprises in the lineup. Carroll started in goal, with the back four comprising Gary Neville, stand-in captain Rio Ferdinand, Mikael Silvestre and Gabriel Heinze. United's midfield quartet were Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and Portuguese sensation Cristiano Ronaldo. Upfront, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney were there to plunder the Arsenal goal..

The first half was boring.. Rather start-stop and littered with cynical challenges, majority of those coming from the home side. The main talking point surely must have been the foul on Ljungberg by Ferdinand that was never given. Yes I admit it was a foul and Rio being the last man should have received his marching orders. But in my opinion, it was early in the game, and the referee didn't want to risk "spoiling" the game with a sending-off. Besides, he probably didn't have the guts to. Yeah-yeah.. *whine-whine* C'mon if the foul was committed on a United player at Highbury.. the offending Arse probably wouldn't be sent off as well..

Oh and not forgetting Van the Man's stamp on Ashley Cole. That was cynical no doubt. To be honest, i didn't feel anything bit of sympathy for cole.. the whole stinking team deserves it anyway, especially Lauren, Lehmann and Vieira. And if Keown and Parlour were still around.. them too. I had hoped Cole's leg would have been broken.

The second half brought a change of attitude towards the game.. With the clock ticking down, spaces were starting to open all over the park.. No wonder when Rooney, dubbed Roonaldo by the Old Trafford faithful, twisted and turned in the box, and left Campbell in knots, the Arsenal centreback's natural reaction was to stick out a leg and bring down the 19-year old boy wonder, whom by the way was celebrating his 19th birthday on matchday. what a perfect gift.. a penalty earned, albeit seemingly via simulation, by Wayne Wonder..

I sat up as soon as Rooney was felled and looked straight to Ref Mike Riley, and as he pointed to the spot, my mind went back to the same fixture last year when van Nistelrooy missed a last minute penalty before undesirable scenes erupted at the end of the match, which was aptly named the "Battle of Old Trafford" later on.

Anyway, penalty given. Vieira and Lehmann tried their best at gamesmanship, trying to psyche van Nistelrooy into missing the penalty.. well.. he didn't.. Calm and collected, the Flying Dutchman (in clear reference to Arsenal's non-flying, Mr I'm afraid of flying in aeroplanes, Dennis Bergkamp) slotted the ball in the bottom right corner of the goal before running off to the corner flag, sliding on his knees and screaming his heart out. Ruud had, with his goal, erased the ghost of last year. That dreadful penalty miss which bounced off the crossbar and out..

A goal down, in unfamiliar territory, and staring at defeat in 49 games, Arsenal pushed forward. Ashley Cole abandoned his position as left back to take up a left midfield role. That gave United plenty of room down the flanks and at times through the middle. They nearly paid for it when Giggs broke through, only to see it shot parried by Lehmann. 78 minutes gone.. it was terrible watching the match. was afraid of an Arsenal equaliser. But then thought to myself, if I'm feeling terrible with my team a goal up, how would those Arsenal fans feel? Hahaha..

The last time Arsenal went on an unbeaten run, they were derailed by a young upstart hailing from Merseyside by the name of Wayne Rooney, then 17 years old and playing for hometown club Everton. Two years on, on his 19th birthday, the stage was set for Rooney to do a double over the Arsenal. The ball broke free to Rooney in centre midfield. With the majority of the Arsenal team up in the other half trying desperately for an equaliser, Rooney found himself free of a marker. He took the ball forward before releasing to Alan Smith who was screaming his head off for the ball, on the right. Smith, faked a shot, squared the ball for Rooney who continued his run into the box, to slot home the goal that put the proverbial "final nail" Arsenal's coffin. Ohh.. how he celebrated, how Old Trafford erupted, how Fergie was delighted, and I? I was just glad to let out all the tension with a warcry that would have awoken my grandmother. Game over. Arsenal lost.. Now since they had nothing to play for, they decided to start a fight. Reports from Soccernet and Tribalfootball detailed how Henry debated with Carroll (just cos' the keeper didn't pick up the ball.C'mon Monsieur, you'd do the same if your team were up.. besides I always see you bringing the ball to the corner to stall time.. so.. ditto..), how Vieira and Campbell stalked the referee, how Fergie had a bust-up with Arsene Whinger.. ahh i mean Wang-er.. no..oops Winger whatever. But surely the most shocking of them all was this excerpt from a tribalfootball.com article..

Arsenal player threw soup at Man Utd boss Ferguson [tribalfootball.com - October 25, 2004]

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was drenched in soup after his players clashed with their Arsenal counterparts in the tunnel at the end of yesterday's clash.

The Guardian says the identity of the Arsenal player who splattered Ferguson is unclear, largely because of the number of individuals involved in the mêlée.

One witness described Arsène Wenger's players as going "berserk", with Thierry Henry and Jens Lehmann among those wanting to prolong the argument after the final whistle.

Oohh.. that must have hurt.. I was referring to the stark assessment of the Arsenal players after Wenger claimed he was proud with "the way [my] boys handled themselves" when "there was a chance some of [United's] players could have lost their heads". I'm sure he was so proud.. Perhaps that's what Wenger's team really were.. boys.

It was strange how Arsene, usually unsighted when it comes to his players diving, could muster enough eye power to note that Rooney had dived. Unsurprisingly though, he didn't have any opinion when Ashley Cole later brought down Ronaldo with a genuine foul inside the box. *sigh* Wenger.. You've become such a loser leh..with your comments.

Yeah yeah so United's roughhouse tactics prevailed. But it was not without class with van Nistelrooy's cooly-taken penalty and with the ease with which Rooney and Smith sliced through the Arsenal defence. I guess you win some and you lose some. surely wenger knows that.. so seriously.. Mr Wenger, stop whining or risk becoming like your captain Vieira..

So Mr Arsenal Chief. Another day, another match, United might be on the losing end of proceedings. But for now bragging rights belong solely to the true men in red.. the Red Devils of Manchester United Football Club, and there ain't any damn thing you can do about that.

In other news, tribalfootball.com reported on October 25, 2004 that Manchester United fans protested against the prospect of Malcolm Glazer's takeover by flooding the club's Megastore before the Arsenal game and refused to leave. The scene turned ugly as the protest broke up, with some supporters hurling beer cans at the front of the store. At the same time, around 3000 fans embarked on a noisy "Not For Sale" protest down Sir Matt Busby Way. Later, as the teams re-emerged after the half-time break, an effigy of Glazer was dangled from the second tier of the Stretford End, with a banner warning him that messing with United could "seriously damage his health".

On a lighter note, here's a joke for all..

WHO DOES WHAT

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee." The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it because that is your job and I can just wait for my coffee." Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee." Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me." So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says..."HEBREWS"