photo: Getty Images
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Top of the morning to you and after a quiet christmas, things went back to normal yesterday with a lot of football. Everyone played: The Chavs, The Mancs (both) and of course, us
We won, but in typical Arsenal fashion, we made as hard as chucking a camel through the eye of a needle. We won the game and i was happy, we played well, we dominated, but then we messed things up and made it nervy, first with the Giroud red card and then the penalty
So, the red card. WHAT THE HELL WAS GIROUD THINKING??? Now i think Giroud is a cool enough human being, but getting the red card is nothing short of the highest heights of idiocy
It was not only idiotic, it was also selfish. Here we were, on the up, really dominating and then Giroud has a chance, runs for the ball, claims he was pushed, had a clearance struck right at his face, goes down and in a moment of idiocy went to get himself red carded.
Now i get the frustration that must have caused to be pushed while running for the ball, but he’s a professional and should have known better, he should know that you don’t do things like that, not in front of the referee, now Onuoha went down like he’d been shot, but that’s to be expected, players would always try to take advantage of situation, so this was certainly Giroud’s fault
Now with the red card, he misses West Ham tomorrow, Southampton on new years and the FA cup clash against Hull. These are all important games and he will be missed. His actions have been incredibly selfish, he should have thought more about the team in that moment.
Maybe the ball hitting his face short circuited his brain for a moment and it was actually the ball’s fault
*Ponders that*
Nah!
He was just selfish. Now this is a problem as it impacts the team seriously. With Giroud missing for 3 games, you wonder how Arsene will cope. Walcott is just coming back from injury, Podolski hasn’t played much, Welbeck is suffering a slump in form and Alexis is bone weary.
Now you wonder about tomorrow. Normally this is a game you would want to see if Alexis can be rested, but with Giroud out and Arsene worried about balance and Oxlade Chamberlain out, you wonder if Alexis will be rested. If Chamberlain can’t make it in time for tomorrow and Arsene persists on resting Alexis, then we’re looking at a forward line of an unmatch fit Walcott, an out of form Welbeck and a mercurial Podolski. Not exactly the most confidence boosting team sheet and when you consider that if Walcott and Podolski play right and left the fullbacks don’t really have much cover.
We all know that neither Walcott nor Podolski are the most defendy types and against a West Ham that will have Downing running at us, you’d want your most hardworking players playing cos you know West Ham will do just the same. They’ll work hard, they’ll hound us and Giroud has put us in this position.
Let’s hope we can cope with it, let’s hope that when he returns he does better. We should have a glut of returning players by then, we can only hope for the best
Till later
