Riding on Wingers of Fire

I guess I don't have to say above was based on true events. I also don't have to say I proudly answered the waiter in the negative when he asked... coz I had vodka in the colada... not that I, coz I have... I'm not... ok so I had vodka in the colada... The point is of change. Whether change is in fact inevitable, as stated confidently in too many movie dialogues, is still a matter of debate about why its inevitability cannot be changed too... But seeing as how I sat drinking idiotically overpriced cocktails listening to hindi music and watching ManU-Arsenal... and that if you'd asked me what I'd have been doing on a Sat night 2 yrs back in IIM, given my choices of watching football in the dorm, and sexing up tons of babes in a night club, I'd quite definitely have chosen to obviously... sleep. Rewind 3-4 yrs more in College if I had the choice of clubbing or sleeping, I'd have been playing football by moonlight. Rewind 4-5yrs more in School if I had the choice of playing night football, or sleeping, I'd probably have been sexing up tons of babes at a night club (I might have confused "computer in my room" for "night club"... honest enough mistake). So I find it mighty unfair that I changed enough to go to a nightclub on game night, just to watch a game with two teams that haven't changed one bit in the last 10yrs.

I'm quite reluctant to preempt the possibly impending but definitely insightful match review post from Tazimbhai (read : "he played well...scored... He played badly... conceded... overall they played worse, lost... but injuries and referee were true culprits), so I won't really say anything about this game that hasn't anyway been true this entire season, and according to me since 2007. The part in the preview about wingers turned about to be right I suppose, but unlike the the post and the quite-bad ZM article, I don't really see how this was the Arsenal fullbacks' fault, it really should be Wenger's and the Wingers' faults. Moaning about injuries is quite ludicrous, given I think man for man, the ManU team is quite completely bereft of talent, and severely inferior to every corresponding Arsenal player, except Nani, and Valencia (over Walcott, and Ox/Arshavin/ugly broomhead guy). My beef is that Wenger has stuck with this formation ever since I can remember, through thick and thin. I bring up formations not because I think they really determine tactical supremacy in themselves, but that they represent the best players on the squad, playing where they are best/ most effective.












The diagram shows just how static Wenger's 4-1-4-1 and "rampant wing play" has been over the years, with the one exception in 2006-07 (for some mysterious reason I can't understand, it also shows Arsenal pulled off an incredible miracle in the transfer window to replace David Seaman. And Sagna was probably too ugly to show up on the diagram even on paper). It used to work when they boasted of Pires, Ljungberg, or even passably worked for Hleb, but years later sticking doggedly with this system and hence having to field Walcott etc is just building for the future, a team of the past. The fact that most of their creative chances come from the wings is not proof it's working, it's proof how many monkeys with how many typewriters are really sitting on their wings these days. I don't really think Ramsey's dropped in form, far as I see, he's still positionally good, involved in play, and on the ball more than any other player, his efficacy after this is really down to opposition tactics and his own team's set up to receive the ball, more than a drop in form (and for the record, I can't believe they blame him for the Swansea goal, which fvckhead passed to him behind his forward momentum, and marked by 2 players!!).

Song is every penny worth the penurious-beggar's-Xavi description accorded to him by Tazim, and I've always been a fan of Yossi and Rosicky. Keeping them on the bench because they don't fit into the Wenger Winger Machine is rubbishing the one year in 2006-07 where they vaguely managed to play some attractive free flowing football - the year they dropped the width to stuff the channels with genuine ball playing MFs in Hleb, Rosicky, Cesc, and a deep-lying Persie. Hleb back wide next year, Arsenal back to ManU football and it's been the same ever since. For the amount of time Song spent at Left and Right back this game, he may as well have gone to the African Cup and showcased his talent in a formation that uses them. Talented central MF's seem to be wasted in a 4-1-4-1, and in teams with nice football - wingers tuck in so central MF's dictate, not the other way around (Giuly at Monaco, an Overmars clone, tucking in once he came to Barca, and the old Cocu/Enrique brigade was replaced by Xavi/Iniesta, and Rufete or even Joaquin at Valencia are just some of the examples I'm biased enough to bring up in the interest of sneaking in a few Valencia mentions...).

Saying they should shift to 4-2-3-1 with Song-Arteta/Wilshere : Yossi-Ramsey-Rosicky : Persie, is simplistic intellectual masturbation for all the good formations probably do after the starting whistle, but for all practical purposes they at least need to ensure the best players are in, and comfortable. All this whining about referees and injuries is really annoying when they have a team that should have beaten ManU if playing trump cards, but Wenger's static obstinacy extended to his starting XI and formation, not just his tight purse, his hilarious raincoat stolen from an Ent, and his insistence on saying sing instead of thing. Not changing to reflect a completely different set of players, and indeed differently evolved opposition tactics is quite dumb, this kind of no-changeness can only belong to an irresistible force like Barca that hasn't yet met an immovable object. Even their Valencia orgasmathon 2-2 draw was more of meeting another irresistible force than an immovable object, yielding a particle field of enough entropy to theoretically annihilate any anti-football matter... as you've by now guessed from the bursting-at-seams-liga-frustration, I of course could catch neither the Valencia @$#%&$&@ draw, nor the Barca romp, since punkbitch night clubs think the natural progression from EPL match, is FTV... which meant I had to spend an hour actually making conversation!! (the alternative was sexing up a bunch of dudes... whose attractiveness was admittedly growing on me after 90 minutes of Rooney, Nani, Djorou and a lot of etc..)