An Excellent All-Round Display At Twickenham

I really enjoyed watching England beat Australia. Not just because it was Australia, but because we played an excellent game of rugby. I prevented myself from learning the score as I was at work followed by a Halloween party. I shall forever be indebted to the hosts for recording the match and preventing those that knew of the score from talking until after we'd all watched the match the following morning.

Let's start with the Man of the Match shall we? Fully deserved of the honour, Mike Brown had a game to remember. His incredible up-and-under followed up by picking the ball off the head of Will Genia was a joy to watch. A real contrast to the usual kick-and-forget rugby that we've become accustomed to recently. It was like watching Clement Poitrenaud, who I consider to be one of the best international fullbacks to have played, in the ingenuity of his game on Saturday. Special mention goes to the touch judge who didn't see how clearly Brown was in touch in the build up to one of England's tries. Although Cooper could have done better with that kick.

Talking of Quade Cooper, he is a mentalist isn't he? Great rugby player though. He plays with strength and flair. It's very rare to have a rugby player that can combine those two traits. His kicking left a lot to be desired and he seemed to attack Marlon Yarde without any reason to. He needs to control his temperament otherwise he could lose his spot. As my host for the weekend said, "If it weren't for rugby, he'd be in prison." If he carries on the way he's going, he might just end up there anyway.

By contrast to Brown, Billy Twelvetrees had a game to forget at 12. None of the excellence that he displayed during the Six Nations was on display against Australia. He has more to give and the England fans know it. He was given a very warm cheer from them when he was replaced by Toby Flood towards the end of the match. He just needs a bit more confidence.

I actually called that replacement, and my host will back me up. Owen Farrell had been struggling through most of the match but his try, and subsequent conversion, gave him confidence in himself. As a match average, a regular coach would have substituted him and brought on the more experienced Toby Flood to close out the game. I remember at the 2003 World Cup, Wilkinson was struggling during one of the knockout games. To bring him off would have knocked his confidence going forward, as it would have done on Saturday to Farrell. So, instead, in 2003 Mike Catt came on at Inside Centre instead to relieve some of the in-hand kicking duties and line-marshalling from Wilkinson. I suggested that they do the same as Twelvetrees was playing poorly and Farrell's confidence was beginning to build. I believe that decision showed a lot of maturity on the part of Stuart Lancaster and I was proud of myself for calling it.

Moving onto the forwards and the brothers Vunipola staked their respective claims for next year with outstanding displays at 1 and 8. Tom Wood showed maturity and understanding as he bounced back from all the media speculation over the England captaincy to put in a solid performance at 6. Then there's Chris Robshaw.

Since he was named as England captain, I have always championed his appointment. The only game I feel he hasn't contributed his utmost was last March against Wales. Since then, he has shown the reasons why he is England captain in the way he dealt with not going on tour with either the Lions or England in Argentina.

Then he goes and grabs a very bizarre try at the weekend. A try that was unusual in that it did not involve any forwards doing what they would normally be doing. From Billy Vunipola's charge down to Robshaw's positioning, they looked more like backs. Very pleased with that try. As I was with Farrell's try. A moment of brilliance (and luck thanks to Dylan Hartley) to spot the gap. He was surprised by the gap though.

The debutants Marlon Yarde and Joel Tomkins were certainly interesting and provide a good balance between experience and youth within the starting lineup.

Throughout all this there were a few negatives. Tom Youngs again could not sort out his lineouts and the ball rarely made its way towards either Yarde or Chris Ashton.

I'm looking forward to the next couple of tests, especially New Zealand. It will be a tough test as they will be out to avenge the record defeat 12 months ago but this England team is beginning to excite in the build up to the 2015 World Cup on home soil.

F1 Is Boring Now

I haven't watched an F1 race in full since Silverstone. It's a damning indictment for me, because I love the sport. It's not because McLaren are doing badly, it's not because the racing itself isn't incident-packed enough. It's because if Sebastian Vettel races, he wins.

I don't blame him or Red Bull, he's a great driver and Adrian Newey has designed yet another great car. I don't even blame the other teams for not being competitive enough or the tyres for being poor (even though they are). I can't even blame Sky, who have ruined Formula One for every UK-based viewer.

It's just the way of the sport. I still found the years when Michael Schumacher dominated interesting. It might be because there were still a few title challengers during those years, even though no serious contender materialised.

I actually blame Timo Glock. An odd choice of person to put the blame on but hear me out. If he hadn't equipped his Toyota with slick (or non-wet in those days) tyres towards the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2008, Felipe Massa would have won the World Championship and it would have been just as exciting as every other F1 Championship. Except he started the last lap on those tyres. The rain had fallen for the previous three laps and created a river running downhill at the final corner.

As Glock made his way around the lap, the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, on intermediate tyres, closed in but was unable to pounce due to the Toyota's superior grip on the dry straights. Hamilton needed to come fifth or higher to secure the World Championship. He was running in sixth. Massa crossed the line in first place and the Ferrari garage went mental in celebration. Then all eyes watched the screen in total disbelief as, on the last corner of the last race of the season, Timo Glock's Toyota loses grip on the wet surface and Lewis Hamilton's McLaren passes it to move into fifth position and take the Championship away from the Prancing Horse.

I can think of only two moments that can even compare on a sporting scale - Liverpool's Champions League triumph of 2005 and England's Rugby World Cup win in 2003. Both extremely nail-biting and exciting for both fans and neutrals. Many can point fingers at last year's Ryder Cup triumph but Golf is inherently boring so it has been removed. Special mention though.

As a result, everything pales in comparison. Many a football match has come and gone since 2005 and even more rugby games since 2003 but there haven't been enough F1 races. The 2004 Six Nations was disappointing to watch and I struggled to really get into the 2005-06 Champions League, despite the fact that Arsenal didn't concede a goal for over 1,000 minutes of football and contributed to one of the most highly anticipated finals in years.

I really hope next season is exciting, it should be. Raikonnen moving back to Ferrari gives them one of the most interesting lineups on the grid. The volatile Alonso racing alongside the man they call 'The Iceman.' Can't wait.

Let's All Laugh At Tottenham, United and Chelsea For The Time Being

Two penalties and my season collapsed. That's what I thought as I looked on from my new seat at The Emirates on the first day of the season. There was a lack of optimism going into the match. Then Giroud scored the first goal of the season and the crowd got behind the team.

Down went Agbonlahor and the referee, after initially playing advantage, pointed to the spot. Aston Villa's redeemer last season, Christian Benteke, steps up and sees his inital effort saved before pouncing on the rebound to equal the score.

Another penalty follows shortly after the hour mark. This time, Benteke doesn't need a rebound and slots the ball past Sczezsny and into the back of the net. Antonio Luna's first goal five minutes from time seals the victory for Villa.

All the anger, frustration and disappointment of eight seasons without a trophy and just the one signing begin to pour out after the final whistle. Chants of 'Spend some f***ing money' and 'Wenger Out' echo around the stadium. The players walked, shoulders hunched, back down the tunnel with fans screaming abuse from all four sides. This was the lowest point I had ever felt as an Arsenal fan and it wasn't because I'd just paid a little over £1,100 for my season ticket.

Then several incidents occurred. A Champions League away match provided an early welcome relief from the pace of the Premier League. A routine three-nil win over Fenerbahce caused ripples within the anti-Wenger support. This was swiftly followed by a 3-1 away win at Craven Cottage. After completing the job against Fenerbahce with a 2-0 home win, it was time for the big one.

The North London Derby is the most anticipated football match in the calendar. As several Arsenal fans said, "This is it." This is the culmination of months of nothingness. A few days earlier we had announced the re-signing of Mathieu Flamini, our former midfield general who had deputised at left-back during our 1000+ minutes of not conceding a Champions League goal while Ashley Cole and Keiran Gibbs were out with suspiciously similar injuries. It was a token signing, as we felt at the time. He didn't have a club and we felt sorry for him. Similar to Sol Campbell and Jens Lehmann over the last few years. Tottenham, on the other hand, had spent during the summer. In anticipation of selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, Andre Villas-Boas and Daniel Levy had been out hand-picking some of the best players from Europe to create a serious team that could mount a title challenge.

Arsenal went on to win 1-0. Faith was restored. Suddenly the team looked amazing. Everyone got behind the players. Defensively we looked organised and offensively we looked capable of tearing any team apart. Then came the icing on the cake.

Not content with just beating our big-spending neighbours, Arsene Wnger then took advantage of the sale of their biggest asset by smashing Arsenal's transfer record and bringing in Mesu Ozil from Real Madrid. The news of this deal began filtering through just for the Tottenham game and then hit home shortly afterwards. With the euphoria of the win still sitting in the minds of fans everywhere, this raid of Europe's best playmaker was greeted with incredulity around the world.

It took eleven minutes for Ozil to make his mark on the Premier League. As a hopeful long ball was punted upfield, Ozil showed what he can do with an amazing touch before passing to set up Giroud for the opening goal of the game against Sunderland. The touch gave him so much time, he could have texted Giroud where he was going to put the ball.

Wins agains Marseille and Napoli in this season's Champions League's 'Group of Death' followed and now you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who wants Wenger out, but then that's the fickle nature of football. That and the fact that Thierry Henry is still hanging out at London Colney and around the Emirates with former teammate Robert Pires just shows what a community Arsene has developed over the years.

When you consider that United, Chelsea and Man City have all started the season with new managers and they're struggling (actually, Chelsea aren't really but I still enjoy laughing at them) then you can see the argument for continuity standing out as the number one.

Also, Tottenham must be heading for bankruptcy if they don't make it to the Champions League within the next few seasons, which makes me laugh. Hard.

Arsenal came into this international break at the top of the league, albeit on goals scored, but with two more winnable games against Norwich and Crystal Palace coming up, the optimism will carry on for a while yet. November will be the real test when Arsenal play both Liverpool and Manchester United in the fist half of the month and Borussia Dortmund away sandwiched in the middle. Three tough games.

This year there is real optimism, and now I don't regret buying my season ticket. I'm just annoyed it has taken this long. Until next time!

Football's Silly Season

So one of the biggest transfer sagas has come to an end. Neymar has officially moved to Barcelona for an undisclosed sum of money. Excellent, so let's move on.

This period of the year always leaves me anxious. As an Arsenal supporter I'm always concerned that one of our star talents will leave. However, this season, no one player has stood out. Add to that the £70m Arsene Wenger has earmarked for new players and suddenly, I'm not so concerned.

It's been a while since we have been linked with big names. Arshavin was the last 'big name' we were linked to I think. Before David Villa of course. Now, however, we have been linked with Villa, Wayne Rooney and our former captain, Cesc Fabregas. Such a plethora of talent would seemingly put us into the spending regions of both Man City and PSG. Except it won't.

Thanks to Wenger's shrewdness, Arsenal have first refusal on Fabregas. Couple that with Barça having to pay half of his transfer fee to Arsenal and suddenly it makes more financial sense for them to sell him to Arsenal for £20m than to anyone else for £30m.

Rooney wants to leave United. That's a fact. Whether Moyes changes his mind and convinces him to stay, it will only be for one more season. As a result, he'd probably be a lot less expensive than he would otherwise have been. The only issue is his salary. Rooney reportedly makes £200k a week, twice that of Arsenal's highest wage-earner, Lukas Podolski. I doubt Arsenal would be happy to spend that.

Finally David Villa. He's 31. He's going to be less than people say he's worth. I reckon if he goes anywhere, it'll be for £16m. No-one is going to pay more than that. Especially considering that Thierry Henry who, as Leeds fans will know, can still perform magic cost Barça that amount when he moved to them.

I love this part of the season, the drama, the headlines, the mistrust and the broken loyalties all played out to an audience of billions.

Let the silly season begin!


Follow me on Twitter: @obmij1

End Of Season Review

So that's it for another season. All in all, pretty incredible. After the first few games, I said that the Premiership was Chelsea's to lose. They seemed unstoppable. Then Abramovich sacked the manager and they spiralled into free fall. Although all credit to Benitez for dragging them back up to the dizzying heights of the Europa League final.
Manchester United were sensational. He may not have won the treble, or even the double, but I feel that Ferguson went out on one helluva high. What a team. Even Rooney can't secure a starting place in it and he's one of their highest paid players.
Manchester City, on the other hand, endured a terrible season. Second in the toughest league in the world and runners up in the most prestigious national cup competition in the world. I'm surprised they didn't sack Mancini earlier.
Obviously I'm being sarcastic, but you get my point. As an Arsenal fan it always pains me when I remember the last time we won a cup and then you look over at the spoilt brats at City and you can't help but tell them to move away from you in a four-letter direction.
Tottenham had an excellent season, all things considered. They amassed a club record points haul this season which is great and, if they're able to keep hold of Bale, they will be in for a top four shout next year. I felt they missed Rafael van der Vaart though. Without his dynamism and creative influence, they relied too heavily on Bale knowing that if he had the season he did have, other bigger teams would be gunning for him.
At the other end of the scale it was a real shame to see Harry Redknapp go down. I really hope that him and his band of overpaid wannabes languish in the Championship for season after season. If I had one wish, it would be that he never managed a Premier League club again. I pray that his twitchy, smug, potato face is forced to work for jack all and earn an honest wage out of which he pays his taxes. As you can probably tell, I'm not his biggest fan. I've never liked him. I was so glad that QPR went down I started singing some Bay City Rollers. All together now! "Bye bye Harry, Harry goodbye."
So now that the season is over, I can dish out my awards. I would write some justification for them but I'm pretty sure they'll speak for themselves. If you disagree, I'd love to hear your opinion.
Signing of the Season: Robin van Persie/Christian Benteke/Michu
Manager of the Season: Sir Alex Ferguson
Worst Decision of the Season: Letting Mike Dean referee anything more important than an U10 game
Best Moment of the Season: Tottenham fans celebrating Newcastle's 'equaliser' on the last day of the season
Worst Signing of the Season: Christopher Samba
Underrated Player Award: Romelu Lukaku
Overrated Player Award: Gareth Barry
Funniest Moment of the Season: Chelsea fans' reaction to Benitez hired as manager
Legacy Award: Wilfried Zaha to Man U. Ferguson has left Moyes with another gem
The Golden Mug Award: Luis Suarez
The Silver Cock Award: John Terry
The Bronze Genitals Award: Jamie Redknapp (almost as crap at analysis as his dad is at keeping teams up)
The Biggest Surprise: Gary Neville praising Arsenal, never been so proud
Hope you've enjoyed the season. I certainly have. Coming up over the summer we have the British GP, Wimbledon and the Lions in Australia so keep an eye out for more posts.
Oh, and don't forget the transfer gossip!
Follow me on Twitter: @obmij1

News

Hello everyone!

I'm delighted to welcome my friend James Craven to the site as a contributor. I'm sure you'll enjoy his thought-provoking articles.

Always ready to argue a point, James has previous experience writing for a number of websites. Most recently for a site where Manchester United and Manchester City fans discussed/argued with each other.

In other news, I will be increasing my contribution to www.room101-102.com from this month. So if you want to read my opinions on stuff other than sport plus the opinions of other people then check it out.

Until next time!


Follow me on Twitter: @obmij1

Maybe More Mourinho?

Many people believe that when Chelsea have finally had their fill of 'interim' managers they always cry Mourinho! But do they? Since he left in 2007 his 5 year absence has left Chelsea have won 2 FA cup, 1 League title and most significantly their first Champions League in their history.

It is notable to mention however, that under Mourinho's guidance Chelsea won 2 League titles, 2 League cups and an FA cup. It isn't surprising then that the fans clamour for their lucky talisman and whatever the truth behind him leaving, be it financial, a personal spat or simply to develop his own career Chelsea do require a manager of Mourinho's enormous calibre to get them back on track. Real Madrid have already said in a press conference that they would require "no compensation" when Mourinho leaves at the end of this season because it is a "mutual termination". Chelsea will also want to secure the services of the special one because their current manager Rafa Benitez is leaving due to their own harsh treatment of the Spaniard. The Chelsea fans booed their current manager after a poor string of results early in his career, it turned out enough was enough and Rafa has decided to leave after his post season duties are over. Even though Benitez guided his Chelsea team into Champions League football and a uncomfortable third place finish, the Chelsea fans at the Bridge apologised via messages on the club website and with handwritten signs some of which said "Thank you Rafa - We Forgive You" but I believe it is too little too late.

So, will Mourinho expect the same? I believe he would be a fool not to consider the same treatment. Chelsea fans have shown their candid nature in the last season, and scared off many potential suitors, but will the 'Special One' be thinking of this if he gets into talks with Mr Abramovich's staff?

A lot of it comes to down who the new manager will sign and everyone knows that Mourinho will undoubtedly draw the biggest names to whichever club he chooses to go to. 

But what do you think?

Please comment bellow?