Will you boo, hiss and go ‘ya boo sucks’ when Bill Gallas steps out in a T******** shirt against the Arsenal at the home of football tomorrow?
Bill and Harold Steptoe come to the Emirates for the second NLD of the season after we swept them aside at Shite Hart Lane earlier in the season in the Carling Cup.
And all/some eyes will be on Bill as he lines up for the team that dare not speak his name. For one, I won’t boo him. It’s all too much effort for a decent enough, though moody player and I would rather concentrate my efforts on cheering on God’s own against the dark forces. He is just getting a pay day out of that lot when AW wasn’t prepared to dish the dosh.
I suspect there are bound to be howls of derision for Bill, though – especially from Samir Nasri given the fallout between the French pair during his last season with the rip-roaring Reds. One player unfazed by the prospect is Bacary Sagna. He is quoted as saying: “On the pitch there is a war, but off the pitch we are all friends.
“I am not angry at him because he signed for our rivals. He was always very professional and he always gave everything. Football is football, I am not furious against him. William needed to leave to play football and that is what he loves.”
All NLDs are important for obvious reasons but this particular clash has taken on an extra significance. For the first time in their undistinguished history that lot made the CL and now their fans/cretins believe they are on the cusp of world domination helped by the fact that they have the best player in the history of the game, Gareth Planetoftheapes.
Add to this their supposed intention to move from the cackpit to a new venue at the London Olympics Stadium in Stratford so they can ‘compete financially with the big boys’ and it emerges that the time has never been better than to take them down a peg or two. to transport them back to the sad reality of their mediocre existence.
But our home form has to be taken in to consideration here. We can ill afford dire displays such as those against West Ham and Newcastle not to mention the dismal defeat dished out by West Brom. True, we have bounced back with a 2-0 win at Wolves gained in the face of an avalanche of pressure from Mick McCarthy’s hard-working team.
Then there was the 2-1 triumph at Everton last Sunday in which our boys showed a deal of steel to carve out the three points. (BTW, classic last week at Goodison at the bar in the ground before the game and some Doris waiting for a white wine says to me, ‘We went to Anfield this season and they didn’t even sell Pino Grigio’ – how times and football fans change eh? I have also seen a gran knitting during the game at the Emirates in Club Level!).
My contention is that we have developed a more resolute edge to our game personified by the foot-in tackles of Cesc Fabregas. Let’s not be afraid to play our football, but let’s stick up for ourselves when we have to and not be afraid to go in hard. Especially against this lot.
Ultimately though: Victoria Concordia Crescit is the way ahead…
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