Age is just a word. Class is an embodiment.
Much like how it had to be Thierry Henry to break the deadlock last weekend, it also had to be Paul Scholes. Like Sir Bobby said, its the best piece of news this club has had this season. The goal was well-taken. Just good positioning and calm finishing. Typical Scholes. Admittedly, it wasn’t a perfect performance. 7 months of non-professional football will do that to you. Out of the amount of passes that he sprayed all game, he missed 4 (I counted, with a pencil). Which is 2-3 more than a regular Paul Scholes game. But give it 2 or 3 more games, he’ll be right back to the error-less passer that he is, and our rivals had better watch out. In a season where its just been injury after injury, he is a shining ray of hope, and I believe his return marks the turning point of the season where we will now win the title. I fully believe it.
The real Man of the Match was Antonio Valencia. Holy moly. If Valencia were told to cross with his left, or die, he’s probably take the noose. However, his right was more than sufficient. Sam Ricketts, who I’ve thought of as a reliable Premiership right back, got torn a new one. Now that Rafael is back, and playing better than he ever has, I fully expect Valencia to be tearing up that side every game. It’s too bad that Nani has to go left where he is less effective, but one has to play the hot hand. The following video’s credit goes to User zUTD on Youtube.
While I could not have been more ecstatic about Scholes this weekend, and could talk about how awesome he is forever, there were some incredible games during the weekend. Swansea vs. Arsenal. What. A. Game. It joins Sunderland vs City as one of the great games of the season. What did I say at the start of the season? The promoted team to watch is NOT QPR or Norwich, but the much ignored Swansea. Who is ignoring them now? Not only do they play a nice looking game, but they showed some incredible determination to win against Arsenal, and that they did. When most promoted teams would sit back and defend against Arsenal, Swansea went at them, again and again, and it really paid off. Koscielny, for all his athleticism, decided that Danny Graham was not worth marking after the striker went into a tough angle, and that really turned out to be Arsenal’s downfall. Nathan Dyer has been excellent all season, and more impressive that ex-Chelsea Scott Sinclair in my mind. Everyone focuses on the young striker, but I think its his diminutive right winger teammate that deserves all the credit. People love Sinclair because he’s scored 6 times, which is fantastic, except 4 were penalties, 3 of which were won by others. On the other hand, Nathan Dyer has been consistently playing well, week after week. Of course Wenger says the penalty won by Dyer was BS, but that’s just garbage. It was fully deserved. He got clipped on his leg as he turned. I thought the Voyeur was supposed to be good watching things.
And then there was Chelsea Sunderland. How Torres didn’t score is beyond me. It is finally evident that he is getting back to it. He played very well, and Lampard getting that goal is just a damn travesty. The fact that Torres’s overhead kick hit the bar, and bounced perfectly to Lampard’s fat ass before bouncing in…I almost threw up at the injustice. But when you make a career out of goals like that, its not a coincidence, but rather world-class positioning. (And perpetually large ass from world-class volume eating). But no complaints. I’m at least glad that Fernando Torres played his best of the season, against a Sunderland side that is high in confidence.
The only game where my time was wasted was the Milan Derby. Garbage. Slow. Ibrahimovic walking slightly slower than his mid-afternoon walk. Milito getting a goal due to some horrific defending by the always fast, but incredibly dumb Ignazio Abate. But I persist with Serie A for some reason. I can’t believe I gave up my Bundesliga watching time for this shit.
Next week looks to be an AWESOME weekend. City Tottenham. United Arsenal.
EDIT: I nearly forgot. The great Ian Holloway makes some great comments about recent weekends, of which my favorite line is as follows:
“A brilliant tackle is joyous to watch. It is as good as a goal. It is an integral part of the game and we have to be careful because we don’t want football to become a non-contact sport.
As much as I like the Spanish way of playing, they need some handles on their shorts because they go down way too easily and tackling is almost illegal. We mustn’t get like that in England. Football isn’t just about being pretty. It is about winning battles and earning the right to play.”
Read the full article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ian-holloway-i-would-take-old-timers-like-scholes-and-henry-ahead-of-tevez-any-day-6289882.html
The Beautiful Game 