Wenger's "failed" youth project

Three months and a decent revival later, Arsenal have now well and truly gone some way to establishing themselves at the right end of the league table. The nightmarish start to the current campaign, although not yet a distant dream, has now been replaced by a string of solid if not elegant performances. There is still no guarantee that we will finish in the top four this season, but then, it looks like we've given ourselves a bloody good chance. The added experience in the squad has no doubt played a huge part in the resurgence with the likes of Gervinho, Arteta, big Mert and Santos adding some steel and calm to a flamboyant and young team. There seems to be a notion doing the rounds though, that Wenger's investment in experience, has meant his youth project of many years has failed and that he has abandoned his youth policy. I'm not quite sure about that. 

Pleasant Hangover

Most of us Arsenal fans are still gloating over the 5-3 victory at Stamford Bridge and quite a few others have been asking us not to get carried away. You know who? The people who got carried away themselves after Arsenal lost by that unmentionable scoreline at Old Trafford. In any case, for the record, we're not getting too excited as we very well know there's still almost 30 games to play. We know.

Others have been joining Alan Hansen in crying out loud about the sloppy defending from both Chelsea and Arsenal. While there is a little truth in that claim, after a great game that kept you on the edge of wherever you were sitting, with some decent attacking football, if the only thing you can talk about is the bad defending, you must be a really sad kind of character who fails to enjoy the good things in life.

Arsene Wenger was not one of those people and he was quite chuffed about the "big win". On being asked about the performance of his players he said, "We played a very technical game. Normally we drop a bit physically and mentally in the second half. This time we did it in the first half. That's how we fooled them." 

So what was said in the dressing room at half time?

"I don't want to comment on what was said. All I can say is we had enough petrol for the second half, which Chelsea didn't know about." 

What did you think of the Chelsea defence? 

"I thought our defending has been little bit shit, but today we saw that others can be shit too. Like John Terry."

Should Szczesny have been sent off? That could have changed the game.

"Should Joey Barton have been sent off in our first game? That could have changed little bit our position in the league table."

Diwali, Coonoor and BSNL make my day!

25/10/2011

It feels good to be back at home after a seven month gap. Seven months is well short of a million years, but at the same time it’s long enough to make you yearn for all things “local”. It’s only natural for anyone from any corner of the world to feel at home, only at home. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. It’s like the TV people advertising HD/3D television as an experience that is almost like being at the actual venue. Yes, it’s almost LIKE it, but it’s not it. 

After a couple of days in Bengaluru – the latest in the list of awkward sounding Indian cities – I arrived in Coonoor, where my folks had no idea I would turn up. My father was a bit shocked. He didn’t speak for a few seconds; he looked like a subdued Man City fan just after the 6-1 win over United – stunned, but in a good way.  Being a Gooner, I just had to squeeze this into my blog considering I've been on the receiving end of those 8-2 jokes for 4-3 weeks now, so if you didn't like it or you think its not funny which isn't my intention in any case,  well...  move on. Anyway, it was nice to give everyone a surprise and luckily so far every single response I've got has been quite positive. In other words, no one has been left paralysed by news of my arrival. The only negative response has been from my stomach – surprising – which hasn’t warmed to the occasion. The less said on this topic, the better… no really… you don’t want to know.