He's coming home

By Boris Mellor
January 24 2009

Footballers should always concentrate on the game they are playing, not look ahead to the next one. Win the one you are playing, worry about the next one and the performance can drop. Quite rightly Wenger is now refusing to talk about the league and only the next game. Hopefully now he has got his head straight so will his team.

 However although the players must only look one game ahead Wenger must look ahead to three games in less than a week. After Cardiff it's away at Everton on the Wednesday, and at home to West Ham on the Saturday. Wenger will need to keep some of his powder dry at Cardiff, his squad is small he can't afford to blow it all on one game. He will need to rotate a bit. Clichy has saved him any decisions to make about left back, he is suspended for one game. It looks like he could use a rest.

 

The return of Gallas is trickier, as he never seems to play well with any other CB. Cup games can be played at a hectic pace so it might not be the best place for anyone a bit rusty. Clearly Bendtner will be able to rest either RvP or Adebayor. It is widely believed that Song will give Diaby a rest, and Ramsey could displace Eboue. Ramsey played as a sub in the cup final last year, this time he will hope to be on the winning side, and show his old club what he is capable of. A performance similar to the one he delivered in Turkey would do nicely.

However Wenger will take this very seriously and play quite a strong team, but as I have argued above he will keep the next two matches in mind. Cardiff are no Manchester United, but they are far better than Plymouth; and in the past have knocked out Leeds and Man City in this competition. This is a banana skin to be negotiated carefully. Wenger believes that the notorious Cardiff crowd will help motivate his team, so it's a welcome for hell.

PS it's not Tottenham's FA Cup Year again. They could flat track bully Burnley (with the help of crazy Carling rules) but not Man U. So whoever wins tomorrow will not be meeting the Spuds

BBC bias

No this isn't about football, it's more important than that, and I don't care what Shankly said, yes it's a great soundbite, but it doesn't always apply. I am referring to the BBC's refusal to broadcast an appeal for the Disasters Emergency Committee. As reported in today's Guardian, "The committee, which brings together 13 UK charities including the British Red Cross and Oxfam, decided to act this week because in Gaza its three criteria have been met: aid is needed, aid can be delivered and the public want to help. The DEC, which says it "regrets" the broadcasters' refusal, is pressing ahead regardless. Anyone who wants to donate to its appeal should call

 0370 60 60 900 or visit http://www.dec.org.uk/."

The BBC's pathetic excuse is that it wants to, "avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story" .

Some 20,000 people gathered outside the BBC's HQ today to protest at this complete lack of consideration for a humanitarian appeal, and at its craven and biased coverage of the destruction of Gaza. (The BBC probably didn't notice the protest as it reporters were embedded at the Hilton Hotel.) The ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 have broken ranks and agreed to show the appeal. If you want to complain against the Biased Broadcasting Cruds, or BBC as it is known,

you can ring 03700 100 222.

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A Welcome For Hell - BBC Bias

Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 24/01/2009 19:29

Arsenal Times
24/01/2009 19:29

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:01:25:20:38:54 by Padre Pio.

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Zainy
24/01/2009 19:39

The fact that they are essentially ignoring the DEC shows exactly how far they are from being 'impartial'.

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Mr. Clock End
24/01/2009 19:41

good article padre.

Great shout on the BBC bias, they have been made to look very very silly and biased by the whole affair - apparantly concern for dying children means you are pro hamas/islamic extremist/terrorist sympathiser/ pro palestinain/ liberal lefty - delete as appropriate

as for the footy, looking forward to this one - have a good feeling about the cup this year (but i do every year) take out the last 3 seasons and he fa cup was an almost certainty. if we get to the latter stages, who would want to play us?

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Padre Pio
24/01/2009 20:48

BBC gets its bolthole ready:
Quote "A few days ago, the DEC approached us about an appeal for Gaza and, after very careful reflection and consultation inside and outside the BBC, we decided that in this case we should not broadcast the appeal. One reason was a concern about whether aid raised by the appeal could actually be delivered on the ground. You will understand that one of the factors we have to look at is the practicality of the aid, which the public are being asked to fund, getting through. In the case of the Burma cyclone, for instance, it was only when we judged that there was a good chance of the aid getting to the people who needed it most that we agreed to broadcast the appeal. Clearly, there have been considerable logistical difficulties in delivering aid into Gaza. However some progress has already been made and the situation could well improve in the coming days. If it does, this reason for declining to broadcast the appeal will no longer be relevant."

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Zainy
24/01/2009 20:58

That is not the reason they gave initially. Basically they are saying if it is a challenge to help people- dont bother.
You are right Padre, it does seem like they are basically paving the way to try backtrack in the face of the public outcry. Save face time.
Pah. Anyways, whatever happens as long as there is aid that eventually gets raised and helps the people in Gaza then i suppose thats all that matters.

As for mane,
Looking forward to seeing Ramsey in action.
Hopefully Vela starts too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:01:24:21:02:08 by Zainy.

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djarse
24/01/2009 22:47

Well done Padre for highlighting the Gaza issue.

The BBC has made a major mistake on this. International public sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians has never been stronger.

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squarepeg
25/01/2009 00:06

I commend you Padre

Great point about the BBC.... frankly the BBC's coverage of the Gaza has been poor.

Sounds like there were some serious war crimes going on in what is now essentially a concentration camp. Naturally the BBC won't be sending it's journalists in to investigate these incidents...

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Optimistic Gunner
25/01/2009 01:25

The BBC are a bunch of c.unts.

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AJ The Gunner
25/01/2009 11:27

Padre you always say it like it is.

Well we can't afford to blow a cup competition.this is a realistic trophy that we should take seriously.we should take a cue from what happened to pompey.any mess up and we are in for shocker.

For me it's a done deal. we are winning.

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Merlion96
25/01/2009 18:34

We just messed up.

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Padre Pio
25/01/2009 18:52

Not quite get the balance right

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