Yesterday’s Arsenal v. Standard Liege Champions League match provides a perfect opportunity for the return of the UF copyrighted Grief Graph. There were wild swings in Gooner emotions yesterday as Standard Liege put Arsenal to the test, scoring two early goals against the favorites.
Arsenal eventually eked the victory but not without putting its fans through their paces. Ultimately, the Arsenal supporters cannot be too happy with the victory because of the poor play and their grief status remains unchanged in relation to the start and end of the match. Lots of movement in between but it appears an equilibrium resulted in the end.
Think the ‘utter despair’ at the 5 minute mark should be lower.
Anyone else find it curious that there was ZERO mention during the match, at halftime or in postgame that Jovanovic took a pretty clear dive?
oh, I certainly found it curious. But we all know that the Champions League is controlled by the Pentaverate.
I think the FT one is off. Gooners were pretty happy with everything save the first five minutes (except for a general unwillingness to shoot for long stretches at a time).
I hate the Colonel with his wee beady eyes.
u75: I would disagree with you based on the comments yesterday… lots of “fuck this” and “fuck that” even in victory
Three-two, to the Arsenal, three-two, to the Arsenal . . .
@PR: Yeah, that despair level should be fathoms lower.
I see relief and elation at full time. The various fuck phrases are in the first half.
I just watched the goal highlights. The penno wasn’t really a penno, but, eh, fair play, etc. Song definitely handled the ball on Vermaelen’s score. That 3-2 scoreline should read 2-1.
Nevertheless, happy for the victory, and happy with Bendtner showing he can play up top alone (against a shitty Belgian side, yes, yes, I know). At least I can wear my Arshavin shirt around campus today without looking like a complete fool.
@ebf — how many people would actually recognize the shirt? I have an arsenal jacket my wife bought me three years ago that I wear for three seasons out of the year. Only thrice has someone said something to me about it – a guy wearing an arsenal pin, a kid wearing arsenal shorts and a chump on my daily train who wears a united hat (fuck that guy!)
@ebf and @whizalen
It gets really tiring having to explain the suspicious looks one gets from the current sponsor ’round these parts… “No…Fly Emirates isn’t a new lure from Cabela, it is an airline from Dubai.”. O2 wasn’t much better, but no one would be too concerned if a few Catalans threw cell phones at a skyscraper. Still, it’s better than the ubiquitous Club America kits around here… BIMBO, Coca-Cola AND Corona?!?! There’s still room for Wal-Mart on the sleeves!
@hock — running joke in my house, anytime we’re booking a trip the wife asks, “should we ‘fly emirates?’” Or if I’m watching a game and she looks up she’ll ask, “are we still ‘flying emirates.’” I don’t have the heart to tell her Arsenal will be ‘flying emirates’ for what, 15 years?
@whiz: Opening day of the 2005 premiership season, I was tivo’ing the Arsenal game for some reason, and was out about with the wifey. I had my Arsenal jersey on since the morning, but wondered aloud to her, “maybe I should take this off, i don’t want anyone ruining the score for me”. She laughed and said, “no one around here knows who Arsenal is!” This was in Rockville, MD, and while out for 45 minutes I had 2 people mention how Arsenal opened up the season today, plus a Scouser with a Gerrard jersey smiling like he just farted. And I couldn’t stop saying, “I told you!” to my wife.
Up here it’s almost the other way around, lots of people wearing jerseys, but no one has any idea what they mean. Case in point, girl wearing a Croatia jersey sits next to me in a lecture (on day of WCQ with England), just making small talk, I say, “Hey big game today right?.” Met with the blankest stare I could imagine.