BAGGIES NEXT – TIME TO RE-BUILD OUR SEASON/MAD JENS RETURNS

Firstly, thanks for all the posts on my open letter to Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis published in my last blog on Wednesday. The issue of possible ticket price increases certainly seems to interest Gooners. The letter got over five times as many hits as my blogs on arsenalinsider.com normally get. You can see it here if you missed it http://tinyurl.com/5veq6qw

Now we look forward to travelling up to the West Midlands to play the Baggies at the Hawthorns. Carlos Vela who has started only once but made three further substitute appearances scoring two goals in the process is prohibited by Premier League rules from playing against us tomorrow. Just as well. With our luck he’d get a hat-trick!

West Brom are of course now managed by Roy Hodgson having given Roberto di Matteo the shove. They’re only one point above the relegation places with a similar goal difference to both West Ham United and Wolves but eight better than Wigan Athletic who are stranded at the bottom effectively five points from safety due to their bad goal difference. They look as if they’re down to me with just nine games to go.

I’d say it’s any from the Hammers, Wolves, Birmingham City or Blackburn Rovers for the other two relegation places. Blackpool, Stoke City and Aston Villa aren’t clear of trouble either. Blackpool look particularly vulnerable to me. I think they, their fans and manager Ian Holloway have been a great addition to the Premier League. Their convicted rapist owner Owen Oyston, not so much. I hope they stay up and thrive despite his sleazy presence.

Aside from anything else the Yates’s Wine Lodge pub in Blackpool has one of the all-time great pub signs – “Champagne on draft”. I pooh you not! I’ve always had this vision of pints of Moet et Chandon Dry Imperial 1966 being pulled up on a hand pump beer engine of. It just appeals to my daft sense of humour. You can’t whack Blackpool fish and chips either. 

Roy Hodgson was ill-advised to take the Liverpool job having done so well at Fulham and most everywhere else he’s been in his career. This has  included taking Internazionale whose side included Paul Ince and the great Chilean international centre-forward Iván Zamorano – an absolute legend in his home nation – to the 1997 UEFA Cup Final where they lost to Schalke 04 on penalties at home in the San Siro in the second leg. In goal for Schalke 04 that night? A certain Mad Jens Lehmann, a player who is definitely still crazy after all these years. Completely off his rocker. The man marches to a different drum that’s for sure.

Lehmann was a hero for Schalke in the second leg, saving Iván Zamorano’s penalty in the shoot out taking the trophy back to the Ruhr 4-1 on penalties after the final ended all square over two legs 1-1 following extra time. Jens was of course a hero in our last trophy win, the 2005 FA Cup Final against Manchester United in Cardiff. A combination of excellent goalkeeping from him, including saving Paul Scholes’ penalty in the shoot-out and poor finishing from United saw it end 0-0 after extra time. At 4-4 Patrick Vieira – in what turned out to be his last ever kick of the ball for Arsenal before decamping to Turin to play for Juventus – won it for us with the last of a perfect five out of five penalties.

He was at it again the following season, a truly vintage one for him, his best in our colours, saving Juan Román Riquelme’s penalty  late in normal time of the against Villarreal away in Spain in the Champions League semi-final second leg with the aggregate score at 1-0 to us. Unfortunately he showed the occasionally rash side of his technique giving away a penalty and getting himself sent off early on in the final in the Stade de France in Paris against Barcelona. Even down to ten we managed to take the lead through Sol Campbell in the first half and keep it well into the second half. Ah, what might have been. The stuff of football discussions since the game began.

I’m hoping that Jens will provide an experienced head in the dressing room and on the training ground in the vital weeks ahead. We all need to put our doubts on hold and really grind out a series of wins in our remaining ten games. We simply have to turn the bitter disappointment of the last few weeks into an advantage to us. We’ve got to focus on our one remaining chance of a trophy this season. We can do it IF we have total focus and tactical discipline and we finally catch a break with injuries.

Let’s leave any further post-mortems to one side for now. I’ve been as guilty of that as any other Gooner as we lost the Carling Cup Final then tipped out of the Champions League and FA Cup. The only thing that matters now is three points tomorrow afternoon at The Hawthorns.

Keep the faith!

vic@arsenalinsider.com

Vic Crescit

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