At least he saved the world another week of bitching about how dirty Bolton are and how soft and squishy is the Gunners ' pysche with an 84th minute winner. But if Arsene can find a decent bidder, I won't shed too many tears if Bendtner takes leave from Emirates. For today its all good, however, as Arsenal keep pace in the battle for fourth (sigh) with Villa and Everton. The rest of Saturday's results after the jump.
FT Aston Villa 2 – 1 West Brom. Fucking Villans lose one already, ok?!?
FT Arsenal 1 – 0 Bolton Wanderers
FT Everton 2 – 0 Hull City. The Toffees have allowed no league goals in a month and are on a five match unbeaten run. Good time to find form, as they have a brutal stretch coming up.
FT Middlesbrough 1 – 1 Sunderland
FT Newcastle United 2 – 2 West Ham United. The damaged goods bowl. Slightly used Prem club for sale, $100 million OBO.
FT Stoke City 0 – 0 Liverpool. Whoops.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
We still want to sell you
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Presuming that we eventually extort 18 million pounds from Citeh for RSC, I've got no problem with taking him off your hands for some portion of that money. He's clearly not a completely formed striker, and he's inconsistent as all hell, but Rovers need someone beyond Benni who will actually make stuff happen. I like Derbyshire a lot (nice backstory, and nice Kuyt-like effort in the winger-striker mold), but he doesn't score nearly enough to be reliable, and doesn't seem to have Kuyt's insane "luck" of being in the right place at the right time. Bendtner at least scores, even if he frustrates the crap out of you when he isn't...
I think Villa has gotten OG's in three of their last five maybe (and I think all three were 1 goal wins). I'm sure the pro-Villan commenterati will straighten me out and correct me if I'm wrong (as well as note that someone was probably on the other end of all those crosses...). But still, Arsenal is going to need some deity to start enforcing any law of averages.
I'm ambivalent on Bendtner. He's on the pitch about 5 seconds and almost buries a header today, then he scores the winner. As a late sub, he's fine. Plus, how much are you going to get for him? And it's not like Ade's play has been inspired. In fact, few on the Gunner side have played inspires as of late. That's probably why Villa are in fourth (and, despite my complaining, deservedly so).
Anyway, I'll be hosting a pro-meteor seance in advance of tomorrow later if anyone wants to dial in.
It's actually 4 in the last five, Bertin, but in two cases, a Villa player was right next to the scorer (Gabby on the Zayatte OG at the KC, and Laursen next to Kevin Davies against SFB), and would have tucked it away. On today's, Gabby exploited a known weakness of the keeper (namely, a low shot anywhere near the goal). I'd say only the West Ham OG was lucky (and it was extremely so).
But Villa have been good at making our own luck this year, a karmic payback for the last, oh, 26 years.
I personally wonder why Vela's not starting. I grant you that you're not sure what you'll get from him, but the ball seems to find him in scoring positions, and he doesn't seem to fear shooting. I'd be really tempted to "sink or swim" him and see what you get. I suspect he'll swim very well...
Oh, and as long as the game goes 92 minutes of 2-2 back-and-forth attacking pre-meteor, I'm all in for the seance (I want some footy entertainment with my hangover tommorrow morning).
PR did a good job of summing up my thoughts on Bendtner.
Villa - good on you guys. The team plays hard, physical, but attractive football. MON is my manager of the year for both his ability to make keen tactical changes and for having the right mentality when purchasing players. If Villa don't make it to CL next year, it would be a shame.
See, I knew you'd set me straight. Keith. Today's was a shot with a ton of weight on it, but the keeper got a hand on it and it could have bounced any number of ways... but it found the net.
Wasn't counting the West Ham as that was more of a freak deflection from near the edge of the 18 (if I recall correctly).
I figured I'd get called to the mat for saying Villa are 4th when they are really 3rd (although United have three games in hand now).
Amazing how much Villa I've watched for how much stress they are causing me. But they have been involved in two of the best matches this season (v. Everton and v. Arsenal). But to be honest (and really sports gives you every reason not to be honest) Arsenal haven't been one of the 4 best teams in the Prem this season. Still time left.
Andrew, you'd really give it to O'Neill over Moyes? Everton is in sixth and as another UF'er pointed out, they haven't allowed a league goal since Dec. 7 and only allowed 2 goals in 8 games as well. They are 6-1-1 with a 5 match unbeaten streak. And that with almost no healthy strikers.
Not bagging on Villa, if anyone else is going to crack the top 4, I've got no problem with them (I just wish it was at Chelsea or United's expense). Still, Moyes has been a magician as of late.
While I root ultimately for the meteor, I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning at the bar. I hope the game lives up to what it "could be" rather than what its "likely to be"...
Come on, you faakers, give us some entertaining football before you inevitably tie...
PR: Yeah, I'd still give it to MON (at this point in the season). But I'll qualify: he has Villa playing focused ball, and manages a game better than anyone I've watched this year. He is absolutely indispensable to his side. Now, the same could be said about both Moyes and Phil Brown ("And Brownie, you're doin' a heckuva job . . ."). Both have compelling cases and have done spectacularly well in tough situations. For Everton to be sniffing a UEFA spot when their striker corps is nonexistent is in no small part thanks to Moyes; like Brown, he's doing a lot with very little. Come May, my mind may surely have been changed by what Moyes or Brown have accomplished. However, I look at Villa's current eight game unbeaten streak; their current table position; how they've recouped after a bad November by not losing over 5 games in December. This is great stuff, and MON deserves the lions share of credit.
This guy makes a better case than I did above.
O'Neill Brings Football back to Villa
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