Football Focus

[atila the gooner]

From his dear mama, who is a true English Rose.

[Ladygooner]

I blame the 3-0 prediction on the jetlag I am suffering! Entertaining game although ref seemed a bit biased (well I wiould say that wouldn't I!) and some of those italian boys seemed to fall down in a puff of wind!

[atila the gooner]

The Italians seem to go down clutching a leg everytime we were about to break and for some reason instead of playing on we kicked the ball into touch!!! Far too gentlemanly and sporting for my liking!!!

[Jah Lush]

Never mind all that...Spurs are on tonight and I've got my ticket for the Cup final on Sunday. Yeehah!

[SimonM]

>> some of those italian boys seemed to fall down in a puff of wind!<<

Just remind me which "Italian" got yellow-carded for a highly unconvincing dive in the penalty area? :))

[Keef]

Ha, tuche Simon ;-) Jah you're quite right, good luck to the Spurs tonight!

[Jah Lush]

Just seen this in the Standard. How very sad.

Gazza Sectioned Under The Mental Health Act

[atila the gooner]

The Gazza thing is very, very sad. I still remember when he burst onto the scene as a bright, chirpy geordie lad full of life, and with a god given talent. It is one of those stories where you stop and take stock of yourself, and think well my life ain't so bad after all.

[atila the gooner]

Birmingham 0 v Arsenal 2

Fulham 0 v West Ham 1

Liverpool 2 v Middlesbrough 1

Newcastle 0 v Man Utd 2

Portsmouth 2 v Sunderland 0

Wigan 1 v Derby 0

[Ladygooner]

Birmingham 0 - 3 Arsenal

Fulham 2 - 3 West Ham

Liverpool 2 - 1 Middlesbrough

Portsmouth 2 - 0 Sunderland

Wigan 2 - 0 Derby

Newcastle 0 - 3 Man. United

Reading 1 - 2 Aston Villa

Blackburn 2 - 2 Bolton

Man. City 3 - 2 Everton

[Jah Lush]

Birmingham 0 - 2 Arsenal

Fulham 1 - 1 West Ham

Liverpool 2 - 1 Middlesbrough

Portsmouth 2 - 1 Sunderland

Wigan 2 - 0 Derby

Newcastle 1 - 3 Man. United

Reading 1 - 2 Aston Villa

Blackburn 2 - 1 Bolton

Man. City 1 - 1 Everton

I don't really want to make a prediction for Sunday's Cup final which luckily enough I have a ticket for but I rather feel that Spurs will repeat the result of '67 FA Cup final score of 2-1. There I've said it. Hope I'm right.

Come On You Spurs!!!!

[SeanMacGabhann]

Unsurprisingly I guess, this thread has been quiet.

I'm still in shock after seeing that incident yesterday - the poor guy. Wenger was over the top calling for Taylor to be banned for life - but he was correct to say this has been coming the way people set out to hack Arsenal. And yes I know people will say it's a mans game, robust tackling this and that - but in those first 2 minutes yesterday I saw a lot of studs. I don't believe anyone set out to do deliberate damage - but it's become so accepted now that something like this was bound to happen. And yes also, some Arsenal players can be a bit handy - but if it makes clubs everywhere rethink some of their tactics then at least some good may come out of it

But anyway - all the football talk seems trivial compared to what Eduardo will be facing in the future.

That said I'll be supporting Spurs today - come on ye Spurs

[Ladygooner]

On the good side at least Walcott has started scoring goals and Bendtner should get more starts now Eduardo is laid up. Lets hope Eduardo's career is not over.

[Annasfield]

Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur - Nice one Mr Lush :)-D (Good prediction too)

[Ladygooner]

Well that was quite an exciting match wasn't it?! Well done Jah - hope the hangover doesn't last too long! Hear from you again about Wednesday I reckon!

[????]

Now if you were a betting man Jah........

[SeanMacGabhann]

congrats to Jah and all Spurs fan - enjoyable game too

Now -punditry in the UK - pretty poor IMO - can we have more of this please?

[citizenED]

Hats off to the Spurs - so glad they beat Chelski. After miserable Saturday afternoon it made my weekend, oh, that and the England result against France.

[lozzyloz]

Well done Spurs, although that was a very lucky deflection. I'm not bitter.

[atila the gooner]

I'm very annoyed at the reaction by that prick Terry Christian on Talkshite radio to Eduardos injury, all he could so was say that the challenge was deserving of a yellow card and nothing more. What an absolute see you next tuesday( Im sure you can work out what that means) this guy is. God how I hate that guy, a talented player gets his leg broken horribly and that is what this guys stoops to, and says if it had been Fergusmoan, he would not have made the comments about having the player banned for life. You know what F**K Fergusmoan, and F**K Terry Christian. When he should be saying how sorry he felt for the guy who may possibly be facing a career outside of football because some journeyman footballer is too slow to make a proper challenge, all he could do is try to goad fans. I'd love to meet him on the street!!! It's idiots like him that leave a bad taste in the mouth.

On a brighter note well done Spurs, you deserved the win. F**King Terry Christian, lets hope nothing untoward happens to him and his beloved Man Ure players and if it does, let's hope it's nothing trivial. Bastard. My wishes for a speedy recovery go out to the man. Sorry Forumites but this whole episode has really pissed me off big time.

[atila the gooner]

Martin Taylor will serve a 3 match ban for his f**king awful challenge, how long Eduardo will be out for is anyones guess. Ban the f**ker for as long as Eduardo is out. That's justice.

[Keef]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> but he was correct to say this has been coming the way people set out to hack Arsenal.

I'm sorry, but I think that's absolute total f**king bo!!ocks, just a victim complex.

atila the gooner Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm very annoyed at the reaction by that prick Terry Christian on Talkshite radio to Eduardos injury, all he could so was say that the challenge was deserving of a yellow card and nothing more.

I couldn't agree more with everything you say about Terry Christian. However, Steve Bruce made the same arguement. For me it was just a horrid accident, and I'm sure Taylor must feel awful about it. It's not like f**king Roy Keane purposely hurting someone just to teach them a lesson.

Anyway, here's to a speedy recovery to the lad!

Good stuff from Spurs yesterday, for me the best bit was seeing Terry's face as he collected his runners up medal >:D< Thought Drogba was going to get himself sent off too, petulent fool.

Aaaaanyway, best bit of the weekend.... Torres' second goal in his hatrick!

[SeanMacGabhann]

I thought it WAS Atila responding there the way that response started off Keef!

I'm not saying Taylor intended it either - nor was it, by general standards in any way a specially horrible tackle. What happened was freakish and an accident and no way should he be banned for life

BUT - just because those tackles are common-place (and someone like Arsenal's Ebou? is someone who does em too) doesn't mean it's ok - when Ebou? did it to Terry people were saying that before long something more serious would happen. It has. I'm not being a victim-mentality.. er.. victim here - it could have happened to any of the teams who rely on speed rather than muscle. I'm not saying it could only happen to Arsenal

[Jah Lush]

I really feel for that poor lad Eduardo. He has been terrific for the Arsenal this season and they will miss him. I sincerely hope he makes the speediest and fullest of recoveries and is able to resume his playing career as soon as possible. Oh! and he's 25 today. What a way to spend your birthday.

I've seen leg breaks like that in my playing days and it really is horrendous. You can hear the bone crack from a mile off when that happens. I don't think it was a malicious challenge at all, just mistimed and clumsy and very unfortunate. Eduardo was just that little bit quicker to the ball and managed to get a touch to it while his foot was left in the air. When a challenge comes in like that and the foot is in mid-air there is much more chance of a serious injury happening and that's what happened. An unfortunate challenge that deserved a booking. I think the player was sent off because the referee reacted to the severity of the injury. If I'd committed an injury on a fellow player like that I wouldn't have wanted to stay on the pitch either so I think the ref did him a favour by sending him off.

I can understand the emotional outpouring from Arsene Wenger straight the match when you've just seen one of your players with a career threatening injury like that but he was quick to retract his statement and apologise.

All this talk about teams getting over physical with Arsenal is bollocks. They aren't the only team to play quality football with the emphasis on passing and movement, although they are currently one of the finest exponents of the art they are also perfectly capable of dishing it out too.

Okay, let's move on. Fabulous day at Wembley yesterday and my voice is perhaps a little hoarse this morning. I paid my respects to the late great Bobby Moore by having some pictures taken by his statue. I can't believe that this man was never knighted while he was alive. A World Cup winning captain, a fabulous player and a perfect gentleman.

Spurs were fabulous and fully deserved the win and Chelsea so boring in every way. The were outplayed, outfought and their fans were outsung. Frankly their support is shit!

It was the 28th minute before Chelsea threatened our goal with any sort of shot. (Lampard's effort from 20 yards going over the bar). As you can imagine I'm happy as Larry this morning and hope and feel that this will be the first of many more trophies to come under Juane Ramos. The players did us proud. If only we'd had Woodgate and King at the back at the beginning of the season we certainly wouldn't be languishing where we are in the league now.

Enough said about Spurs. Obviously I'm very happy but my thoughts are with the boy Eduardo. When things happen like that it puts it all into perspective.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

"Frankly their support is shit!"

Steady on, old boy, my lovely maiden daughter was singing her heart out for Chelsea. She did however think Spurs deserved to win. Surprisingly, she was quite underwhelmed by the Wembley experience.