Justice

Good morning from usually-sunny New Mexico,

How sweet was that result yesterday? The result felt justified and even though neither myself or my wife are Barca fans we enjoyed United's loss. Why? Well, I think we felt that over the course of their reign many things have gone their way whilst the luck went the opposite direction for us, Arsenal. For instance, Arsenal's season was riddled with injuries at the most inopportune times; United never really had to struggle with key figures missing for long periods of time. In addition, we've felt that whenever Cunaldo gets the ball he is a very dangerous player...but he is also a massive cheat. There are numerous examples of his deception so I won't bother you with that right here (do a Google search) but we felt that he might get another one yesterday when he lost the ball right outside of the box and quite literally jumped into a Barca player. Of course, direct kick awarded and Giggs sent a ball over the bar. RVP was the victim of a similar account a few weeks back and Cunaldo hit the ball nicely and caught Almunia out. We've seen it all year. Since we felt that United was lucky throughout the season and used a lot of deception to gain an advantage the result certainly was justified.

Now, what happened? I was fortunate to predict the result. Unfortunately, I was dead wrong by saying that Eto'o wouldn't play a part. In all fairness, besides that one break he had on Vidic that led to the goal he was mostly anonymous. One go at goal at this level is all that is needed and he finished. After that goal it almost looked like United gave up. In fact, they did give up. I wonder if his heiness Alex told them, "if they score early, we're fucked". It's almost as if some sort of sad, lowered-head behavior followed right after that goal. A team that looked dangerous for the first 10min suddenly looked fallible. Over here in NM, we were very, very happy. And after that goal everything turned for Barca and the game progressed in their favor.

All in all, I felt United were outplayed and the best team won. I am hoping that some things are learned from this match and Wenger will deploy similar tactics this upcoming season. More importantly I hope some of the Premiership teams, no matter their size, realize that if they play United they can get a result. I believe that a team that pressures their players, and does not allow their midfield to distribute can earn a result. It is increasingly hard to do this for 90min+ as United's bench is so stout but as Barca and teams before them have shown it can be done.

Lastly, I don't think most of us Gooners should be happy that Barca won just because Henry got to lift the trophy; in fact, we should be disgusted. Henry is a player who did lots for the Arsenal but fucked off after pledging his future to the club. I found it absolutely sickening to see tweets coming in from supporters who were absolutely chuffed that he won it. Fuck that! For us, Arse505, I would say that we are quite happy for former players who were released from the Arsenal a la Pires, Gilberto, Vieira...but we have no room in our heart for players who left for money or personal pursuits. Unfortunately, Henry is one who broke many hearts when he left after sounding like he was ready to work hard for our team; we'll never forgive him for that betrayal. At the end of the day, let's hope that the Arsenal are in this position next season and I am blogging about their triumph. So, until then...let silly summer begin...

ArsenaLOS