A Weekend of Lacking in Confidence

December 28th, 2009 | by: Mario | Comments(1)

Seeing as it’s only the crazy English people that like to spend their holidays on football grounds, there’s not much reviewing to do for this weekend. I’ll start with our North London woes. At Emirates, Eduardo started for Arsenal but looked sloppy on a couple of occasions. He missed a sitter right at the start of the game and it looked like he struggled to get past that fact throughout the game. The fact that Arsenal broke the deadline only after Dudu was substituted won’t do much to help his confidence either. Corluka played the whole game for Tottenham away at Fulham, while our other two Spurs were, unfortunately involved in that dreaded substitute combo we’ve all come to fear lately. Modric came on with 20 minutes to go and was a direct replacement for Kranjcar, further adding credit to the theory which will leave us hardly ever seeing these two play together.

Some might say “Hey, Bilic does it with Croatia, why can’t Redknapp at Tottenham?”, but there’s a lot more to the equation when playing week in & week out at what’s arguably the fastest & most physical league in the world. Anyway, we’ll see how that unfolds soon enough. Meanwhile, the rest of our striking force in Premiership didn’t have the best of weekends as well, Klasnic was substitued in a 1:1 draw at Burnley and Kalinic sat through Blackburn’s away game at Wigan. But to get back to the man I’ve opened this week’s review with, Eduardo.

There’s something rotten in the state of Wenger’s, and it might as well be a matter of self confidence. Judging by the last few games I’ve seen him, Eduardo is as confident as much as he is the next Queen of England. Meaning, he’s not, and it shows on every touch he’s made over the last couple of weeks. Which can mean only one thing, ladies and gentlemen. Eduardo is indeed a human being. I mean, the guy got his leg torn apart just as things were starting to settle for him. He recovered miraculously. He then got trialed & prosecuted like a medieval witch, and for what? I’m not gonna even spend time writing it down. And now, after all is said and done, the circumstances are such that Eduardo is pretty much the only available striker in the team.

Furthermore, Arsenal are seen (righly so) as contenders, meaning the pressure is all the more greater. So he buckles under it. Shit, it happens. But, and from what I’ve seen Arsenal fans understand it perfectly, it takes time & it takes faith. I’ve heard lots of people tag & criticize Arsenal fans as a quiet and less worthy bunch. But when I hear those Eduardo chants (and they do it often & loud), they prove to me that they’re above that and I can’t help but feel great fondness for these guys & gals. Thanks for that.

Oh and I seem to have completely neglected one player who’s made somewhat of a backdoor entrance to the Premiership. That’s right, we’ve got a Chelsea bound 17 year old keeper in the shape of Matej Delac, who spends an hour parrying Drogba shots and then goes off to learn the capitals of the world with his classmates. An awesome story and an awesome prospect. But I’ll save it for the upcoming talent column that I’ll start posting up soon. Till then, Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!