SFW If They Don't Like It Up 'Em?

Afternoon all. Not much in the wonderful world of T'Wanderers today as most of the players, barring our English contingent natch, are away on international duty. However, to spare us writing long, dull, interminable passages about swallows and amazons, along comes the manager to stick it to The Arse. Unforunately, he has stuck it to them wrong. Very, very wrong.

If they say that it only takes a second to score a goal, then Bolton had the Indian sign over Arsenal for a very, very long time. Although those days have passed, and we miss them dearly, the artisans of Highbury were beaten using a mix of some skill (players like Okocha, Diouf, Youri and Anelka do not come at you with a big stick) and tactics straight out of the Big Sam playbook; hit it long, play it close, don't give them time to settle and, most importantly, they don't like it up 'em. Be a little bit forceful, give them a little kick (copyright Fat Kev), don't be afraid to get stuck in. It will help even more if they have a pantomime villain, let's make it their German keeper so the fans have someone to rile.

For four or five years, this worked. Arsenal, for the most part, just could not buy a win and Bolton, playing within the rules, riled Arsenal so much that they, on occassions, tried to play the same tactic, culminating with Big Sam's last game at Highbury when Flamini tried to take Ricky Gardner off at the knee. All things shall pass.

However, other teams saw this as a way to play Arsenal and so, as Bolton bought players who couldn't tackle, other teams took the mantle up and started to become overly physical when Arsenal came to town. Press them hard, give them a little kick, do a bit of blood and thunder. I am not saying that players go onto the pitch and say that "today is the day I get me some Arsenal pussy", but being overly physical at home has been proved to be the way to get a result against Arsenal and the injuries to Diaby, Eduardo and now Ramsey are simply a by product of that. So when St Owen comes out and says that there

"is no way in the world that anyone would go out to intentionally hurt or maim any player"

he is dead right, as we have left the days of Chopper and Bite Yer Legs long behind. But he has missed the point of what Mr Whinger is actually saying.

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that there had been an assassination attempt on Mark Davies by William Gallas? This was a badly timed challenge that should have been a sending off and Mark Davies was lucky to escape serious injury. No one had sympathy for Gallas, badly timed challenge or not. It is now OK to say in hindsight that Gallas didn't mean it as Mark was up and about two weeks later and back on the pitch. Would it have been the same if one of our better talents had been put out until Christmas? Somehow, I think not. This is exactly what has happened to Ramsey. So whether Gallas meant it or Shawcross meant it is a moot point. The fact is it happened and the injured party has to deal with the consequences. So please, spare me the 'he didn't mean it' speech. Those players meant to tackle hard, they knew what they were doing, it's just that one got away with it and one didn't. And our manager, for once, has spoken out of his arse.

For once.

Until tomorrow, chew on that asshole.