London Calling

Thierry Henry. What can I say about the guy that hasn’t already been said?

He is an absolute phenomenon. Comes on as sub with virtually no warm up against Sparta and within five minutes he’s had a superb instant shot deflected over and scored an absolute wonder goal. And then the record.

The amazing thing about him (in my view) is that he’s not a goal scorer in the traditional sense. The likes of Wrighty lived purely for scoring goals and that was what his game was all about, whereas Thierry seems to get more pleasure out of setting goals up than scoring. A lot has been made over the years about how he doesn’t seem overly happy when he scores sometimes, but just watch the guys face light up when someone else scores. The pure pleasure on his face is that of a fan.

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to have a chat with Gilles Grimandi at a PR event (lovely bloke – first thing I said to him was ‘Don’t slap me – I’m not Argentinean’ and he found that amusing) and I asked him why Thierry was happier when someone else scored and I think his answer was telling. Basically, he said that Thierry felt it was his duty to score and so when he scored he was just doing what he was paid for and often was relieved that he’d got one. Other goals he could celebrate because he could see the beauty.

Actually, talking about Grimandi I’ve got to say that he’s just the sort of player we need right now. A genuine, versatile squad player who can come in and do an experienced job. I know many people didn’t rate him but players like that who know they’re going to be on the bench more often than not but give 100% when they cross the line are vital to any squad.

As you know I wasn’t in Prague so didn’t see him do it in the flesh. I’ll admit that for a second I was slightly gutted but as Thierry himself said when talking about how he wished he’d done it at Highbury ‘If I get the chance to score I have to’. Can’t argue with that.

One story from Prague though. I got a text from a mate of mine Mac after he’d arrived at his hotel. He checked in and went up to his room, and on opening the door he finds a very large room with seven beds in it rather than the single room he’d booked. Back to reception where he told them he’d booked a single room not a bed in a ‘dorm’ and was told that it was the only room available when he’d booked so he had the whole room to himself. Jokingly he asked if it was ok to bring some friends back and he was told ‘Sure, you can bring lots of girls back and have a party if you want’. If anyone’s planning a trip to Prague I’ll get the hotel name for you…

Saturday and it’s Man City at Highbury. Ironically my route down south was via Manchester to pick up Gina (her of the lucky shirt in Amsterdam) for her first trip to Highbury. As you’re no doubt aware getting extra tickets isn’t easy so it’s taken a while to get her there but as my brother wasn’t going his ticket was available for her. Mind you I’m not going to try driving down from Manchester to London on a Friday again – the traffic was horrendous.

So, Saturday and we’re off after an early lunch. Dr Dom hadn’t been sure whether he was going to make it or not so I had his ticket but I got a call from him to say that he’d be outside the North Bank around 2.00 and when he got there a bit after that he immediately started belittling my 300+ mile journey to games. Mind you he had just flown in from Washington DC where he’d been at some medical conference. Damn. How much do you reckon it’d cost me to loop the world on a space shuttle to go to a game?

There was an advantage to him being a bit late, and that was watching two rather attractive young ladies in skin tight outfits handing out cards for a lap dancing club. They appeared to be rather popular walking up and down the road!

There aren’t many teams other than Arsenal that I have any time for at all, but City (or Citeh) are one of them and their fans are about the most loyal in the country. A few years back when they were falling through the divisions they were still pulling in 30,000 in the third division! That’s special. Oh, and we do have a habit of giving them a damn good drubbing!

Originally it had been planned that it was going to be Arsene Wenger day as it was the great mans birthday, but I’m absolutely sure that he wouldn’t have been the slightest bit put out that Thierry and the record hijacked the day. Kids with flags ran in from the four corners of the ground. Each flag had the crest of a team Thierry had scored against for Arsenal and the number of goals he’d scored against them on their shirts. Ian Wright was also on hand to present him with a canon ornament and I can tell you he hasn’t gone shy on us! From the moment he stepped onto the pitch he was orchestrating the fans singing his name.

There’s a harder edge about Arsenal at the moment. The team all seem willing to battle their way to a good run if they can’t get there with silky football. I couldn’t help laughing a bit when (of all people) Danny Mills spent 10 minutes complaining to the ref every time the ball went out of play because Bergkamp had left his studs in. Mind you not half as much as I laughed every time Gina, with her Mancunian accent, was calling them dirty manc scum!

Well, I guess the game was really about two penalties. Both were a bit soft, but they were both clear penalties. After missing his last one so badly I was a little bit surprised that Bobby took it, and assumed the quick word Thierry had with him just before he took it was encouragement, but it was taken very well. Literally a minute before we got the spot kick Gina had stood up and shouted that she had her lucky shirt on so there really does appear to be something in it – certainly to the extent that we insisted she wears it whenever Arsenal are playing from now on.

As for the second penalty – oops. A couple of the Citeh players said it was disrespectful to try it but in my view that’s cobblers. If it had worked (and Thierry has said he’ll try it again) people would have been talking about it for years and that’s what football should be about – skills that stick in your mind rather than all the rubbish the media feed us. I mean by their reckoning surely any act of extreme skill is disrespectful. Just daft.

At the time no one was too sure what had happened and the full embarrassment only became clear watching Match of the Day later on. When interviewed after the game Thierry was giggling and said it was his idea to try it but he hadn’t expected Bobby to have a ‘numb leg’. Even Arsene saw the funny side, although I think his attitude would have been slightly different if Citeh had equalised! It’ll be very interesting to see what happens if we get a penalty at the lane…

So, three points (and two clawed back on the chavs thanks to their draw at bottom of the table Everton). I’ve said all along that it’s just a matter of time before everything implodes over there, so let’s hope it’s starting…

Although I obviously had to go via Manchester again the drive back up on the Sunday was pretty clear and considering I didn’t lose a tyre this week I’d call it a successful weekend!

Come on you Red(currants)!