A home tie against a team from the old Division 3. That'll be a walk in the park and indeed it was. Unfortunately, the park was full of dangerous dogs and shit. On a freezing cold January morning I entered the ground unconcerned as to what I was about to witness but, for the umpteenth time this season, the team was chopped around and produced an utterly dire display. Harsh? We won!
It was an embarrassing victory. We scored an own goal and were awarded a very soft penalty. Huddersfield played amazingly well and we underestimated them as we did Leeds at home and Ipswich away. For the third time this year we got away with it against lower league opposition. This one was costly though. As Nasri pulled up the stadium and Gooners worldwide held their breath before uttering a united, 'Fuck.' Damn the hamstring. Nasri's loss for future games is unlucky. Nobodies fault just the bad luck injury fairy hits us again. What wasn't bad luck was Squillaci's utter stupidity at stopping Hunt who was on the run of his life. Is that the best a French international can come up with? Let's face it, he's not that good is he. People say we need a stop gap player to add to our central defenders. We have the stop gap already and he's suspended now for being a muppet. We have just over 24 hour to sort this out. Panic buy time!
Huddersfield were fantastic. We were wondering at 1-0 how they hadn't scored as they had chance after chance. Almunia pulled off a world class save (yes! I said it!) and Arshavin saved us with a last gasp tackle in the box. In fact these two were the only two that came out of this game with any credit. Arshavin worked hard again and he just needs to remember where he put his shooting boots. Maybe Eboue has hidden them for a laugh. Not funny anymore.
I don't really like picking on players but I seem to be today so I'll mention Denilson! He was awful today. Frustrating as he can do so much more and what better game to shut up the critics than against a League 1 side? Why can't these players take their chances to shine when it's on a plate for them. If we fail to bring in another defender Song will end up there with Denilson in his role and the team will suffer. Song can cover at the back but shouldn't.
I also thought Cesc let himself down a bit by waving the imaginary card at the ref when we were awarded the softest of penalties. I don't like to see that. I got a text from my cousin saying, 'Classy from Fabregas, wanting a Division 3 player sent off, how desperate are you?' My reply was, 'Very desperate.' I also don't like that stuttering run up. It won't be long before a player air kicks the ball, waits for the keeper to dive and rolls the ball the other way.
This is turning into a miserable rant. Imagine if we'd lost! It was freezing cold, frustrating, not very entertaining and we squeaked through but that's what matters. A change of attitude is needed for The Orient away in the next round.
You may know that my footballing mistress is Cambridge City and this could've been a big day for them. They beat Long Buckley and Hitchen Town in the FA Cup this season. Had they beaten Dover, Farnborough, Gillingham, Aldershot and Huddersfield they would've been running out at The New Highbury today and their squad of 16 part timers would've given us a game on that performance.
However, we limped to the hat and the quadruple is still on but what a cold costly day it was.
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