Since I do not expect to have the analysis for the Stoke match up for a couple days, I thought it best to jump the gun a bit and talk about the two very, very different elephants in the room.
First, of course, is the horrific injury that Aaron Ramsey sustained when Ryan Shawcross, England National Team member and captain of Stoke, drove his foot through Aaron's right leg. I just do not know where to begin. I started watching too late to see Diaby's injury a few years ago, but when I heard that Arsenal has sustained three injuries of this extreme sort in five years, I could not believe it. The similarities between this incident and what happened to Eduardo two years ago where too substantial to ignore. How can this happen at all, to any team, especially to us as much as it has?
If I blame anyone, I blame the English football culture. I do not believe that there is some widespread conspiracy to take out Monsieur Wenger and his foreigners--but I am increasingly irritated by the villainization of our manager in the English press, and the attitude taken toward Arsenal's style by English columnists, bloggers, and commentators of all stripes. Granted, Wenger brings it on himself sometimes. You can support him all you like, but the man is undoubtedly arrogant, and when you combine that with his Frenchiness, it makes him prey for English writers when he does and says anything. When Porto beat Arsenal in the same round that Rooney and Manchester United took down AC Milan, Real Madrid lost a shocker to Lyon, and Bayern Munich beat Fiorentina in a game full of outrageous refereeing, the focus was naturally on Wenger and Arsenal, and almost all of it was negative. Whether it was Wenger complaining about the refereeing, his selection of Fabianski, or what have you, commentators wrote ten stories criticizing Arsenal for every positive piece written about their boy Rooney.
The most constant criticism of Arsenal is that they are not physical, and I tend to agree. But when this viewpoint is repeated again and again, when people increasingly hate arrogant, pass-and-move Arsenal soccer and glorify teams that play a robust "man's game", when "professional fouls" become not only an accepted tactic but something that fans and commentators applaud, somebody, somewhere, gets their legs broken in two places.
Aaron Ramsey, the most promising Welsh talent of this generation, will not play for the rest of the season. If Eduardo's case is accepted as the model, he may not even play next season, and when he does return, he will be half the player that we knew. His career has not been ruined, but it has been seriously compromised. This is the third Arsenal player whose future could have been much brighter if it was not for this muscular, English, anti-prissy-foreigners attitude, and that is not to mention the rest of the Arsenal squad, most of whom are rotating in and out of the squad, missing most of every season because of one injury or another. Already, I am reading about what a good lad Shawcross really is, and how Wenger is whining abstractly about how soccer should be played and how "our boy" should be punished too-harshly. The Premier League should be ashamed.
Most of all, I feel absolutely terrible for Aaron, and I am intentionally calling him Aaron now, because this may be the lowest point of not only his career, but his entire life. Arsenal.com is asking fans to submit short messages to Aaron, so I suggest that everyone please click and send out your sympathies. He was shaping up to be a wonderful young player, and if he can keep focused and positive, he will work all the harder in his recovery and in returning to the player that we will hopefully see one day in the future, in an Arsenal shirt.
And then there is the good news. Arsenal is back in the title race--two points off United, three off Chelsea, in part because of this.
Chelsea loses its first game at home this season. It is their first loss at home in fifteen months. Manchester City breaks a decade-long record of not scoring in Stamford Bridge by putting away four goals. Wayne Bridge does not shake John Terry's hand. Chelsea loses two men to red cards, Belletti and Ballack. Tevez scores a brace, and on his second, Bridge joins the celebration. Bridge is subbed out late in the game, and receives mixed applause from Chelsea fans. I speculate that Abramovic has just about had it with his team's players. THAT. IS. AWESOME.This, of course, is not to underestimate Arsenal's contributions to get back into the title race, in a display away to Stoke to be really, really proud of. More on that soon.
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