Of all the clubs in all the draws of the CL pot, AC Milan walks into ours. If there was a team that I had wanted to avoid drawing it would have been them, but as soon I thought that I knew we would get them so there was no point in me wanting to avoid them in the first place which means I wouldn't have thought that I had wanted to avoid them, hence not getting them. But I thought. And we did. (Or as they say in Latin, Cogito ergo did.) We will just have to deal with it now.
Yes, we do have an excellent history against Italian teams but I guess so would Manu against unknown teams from Switzerland. History counts for nought in football, although in the run of form that Arsenal is in now one can feel courageous enough to feel a bit confident about our chances. That run of form will heavily depend on what we do in the December festive fixture season mentalness with close to 63 games in 2 weeks or something insane like that. If we can continue this good run into February, then maybe, just maybe we can nick it and then go ahead and lose to Barcelona in the next round. We could have done with an easier tie but more on that in February when we have lost half our squad to injuries and the other half to the Bubonic plague (just to balance out the heavy jinxing I have done previously - commending our good form...what was I thinking!)
The Champions League's bastard brother Europa Snow (Mandatory song of ice...) conducted its draw today as well. We might not get the opportunity to test Andy Gray's now famous assertion that Barcelona would struggle against Stoke on a cold Wednesday night at the Brittania but we have something close enough. Stoke have drawn Valencia.
One of the few good things about being in London is that I get to watch La Liga now without having to be awake at ungodly hours and watching broken streams that make football look like bitmaps in motion rather the much touted poetry. Not that I have ever done this, but I would have to do in case I had wanted to watch these oh-we-play-such-beautiful-passing-football buggers play. But sitting in UK I can watch them at more convenient times. This has allowed me to confirm things I had known earlier (La Liga defenders cannot defend, Valencia crossapalooza too) and learn things I hadn't hitherto known (Valencia do play well, Barcelona are better than Arsenal). Watching one game of Valencia, albeit a game in which their one and a half team played (not the first team, but not quite their second team I gathered), has convinced me that there is some credence to the constant drum beating from this blog's la liga man. One word: steroids. They play like Arsenal on steroids. Get the Ramseys, Wilsheres and Songs of this world, pump steroids into their bloodstream and send them out onto the field to run like febrile hares in heat - lo, you have something that looks like Valencia. In the continuum (a staggering concept that I came up with about the trade-off between possession and penetration - requires a post of its own) between Barca and Arsenal, Valencia lie in between. They like having the ball (and eat it too) but not as much as Barca that they would pass it all the way back to the goalkeeper, stewards, the crowd and start all over again. But they aren't like Arsenal either and don't want to go forward with direct pace and are patient enough to pass and move without attempting too many of the risky (risky in the sense of conceding possession) attacking passes that Arsenal try. But one thing that stands out is the movement which is 10 times more than that of Arsenal. Arsenal for me have the most mobile midfield/strikers (next to Man City's maybe what with Silva Yaya and Aguero pirouetting all over the pitch) in EPL, but it was nothing compared to what I saw of Valencia. Their game seems faster, pacier, hurrieder, pressingier. The urgency with which they play is as if they are missing their favourite show on TV and want to be done with this stupid football business asap and get back to their homes.
It will indeed be curious to see what happens when they face Stoke. That's Stoke with a style of playing that is football's answer to the all blacks and defenders who think the back to belly supleix is an allowed form of tackle in football. Stats I just made up show that Stoke's ball has spent more time in the air than the International Space Station. Passing is only something they have heard in passing, and it means nothing to them unless used in conjunction with the passing away of the opponent team's striker. Their rough-house, no holds barred, wrestlemaniasque, royal rumbly hell in a cell style versus Valencia's float like a butterfly sting like a bee on steroids approach should make for interesting viewing. Bring on the cold nights.
All this is probably nonsense given that I have watched only 1.5 games of Valencia, but hey it's my post ya.
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