Bootroom: Bestest Friends Edition

@hank – it was a soft penno, but his hand was well away from his body so it’s the correct decision

Good for vermaelan! He looked most gutted by that attack/tackle.

THat’s the f**king way!

Nice reaction from the boys. Back up in Chelsea’s ass with the resurrection.

Yeah, of the three 2nd half penalty shouts, the one given was the least of them

This could be the game that propels us to the title. What a response.

Arsenal beating Stoke on the road, Britain and Argentina bickering in the Falklands? 1982 all over again.

@Jape: Yes. Completely gutted by Ramsay’s injury. He needed that.

What was that f**king bulls**t by Stoke on Cesc. F**king c**ts.

What is Fabs doing? Games over. Walk away.

@Ryan: My mom tells me 1982 was a good year.

I think Cesc may have done that intentionally…

that’s a second yellow Cesc should have picked up. . . f**king classless.

@HL – love Fabs putting down a bad tackle coming out of the box in revenge, though, and then giving the Stoke bench the “ssssssh”

Excellent win. Emotional win. Now, go see Ramsay in the hospital.

LOook at them gathering round together. Love it. This may be the win that propels us forward to the title.

Keith yes: Poor reaction. But he was f**king forearmed to the ground late just moments before and the ref did nothing.

That doesn’t excuse it and Fabs has to stay cool and walk away. But he lost a lot of moral high ground as that was late and intentional.

Note to all: Do NOT load soccernet for a bit. The front photo is not pretty.

@NYK I don’t think he would have done that if he hadn’t been bulldozed at midfield a few minutes earlier.

@Keith Go get kicked around all game, watch your teammate suffer a gruesome injury, and tell me you’re not going to react. Get real.

@PR & Keith: Most definitely. Just walk away, but he’s Spanish and we all know about the irrational Latin emotion.

HL: Yeah, but you got the win. Let that do all the talking. Fabs could have gotten a straight red there. It was late and intentional. Then you’ve hurt your team for the next three matches.

HL: well, considering he touched off all the chippiness himself in the first half, yes, I’m calling him f**king classless. Just because he’s Spanish and silky doesn’t mean he can’t be a dirty player.

Yeah, pretty horrible late tackle by Cesc, but I think he lost his head in the moment….We’re getting roughed up, we go down, we equalize, we need this game badly, one of our players might not ever play again thanks to these guys, now we’re winning, and some f**ker just shoved me over for no reason……I’d be ready to throw down personally

the fa needs to do something after this. teams just cant continually approach games against us with the intention of just kicking the s**t out of our players. this is the second truly gruesome injury to happen to one of our players in 3 seasons. an example needs to be made. the referees and the fa have done a criminal job of protecting the arsenal players while on the pitch. i cant recall another team in the prem that has had an injury like that to one of their players in the last three years yet the gunners have two promising players clattered. truly preposterous and devastating

Fabs is the captain and needs to act like one. However, he is sending a message to other teams – don’t think you can go in hard on us and expect us to lay down – we will get ours back. As much as I condemn that late tackle, I understand why he did it for the team’s mentality.

I need to go shower. I just felt like Cheney or Thiessen defending torture.

@Keith perhaps you missed all of the other chippy tackles before Cesc’s. He was hardly the first one to start tackling.

If we were United, or an “all-English” team, there would be massive outcry. But, we are French, so we don’t matter. No matter Ramsay is Welsh.

he was the first one to put in a potentially season-ending tackle in the match. end of.

Fabs also showed how a captain should act in a situation like this. Don’t sit on the pitch and pout; stand up, score the game winner, show the other teams that you’re mad as hell and you’re not going to take it anymore, and then rally the team together. You win together, lose alone.

Arseblogger says Stoke fans are c**ts. What were they singing after the foul?

Agree 100% machine gooner funk… Players are going to play to the edge of what’s allowed. Knowing that, the higher-ups need to do something so that teams whose strategy is to systematically foul don’t succeed. Physical play is one thing. Serial fouling is another. Teams who consistently employ the latter should find themselves consistently relegated.

@Keith. You’re wrong. Have fun in Europa next year. I’m out.

@EF, Ditto, I hate dirty play, but it’s about time we dish it, as we’ve been taking it for years…..and saying that makes me feel dirty

Can’t win. Either Arsenal are soft and won’t get stuck in or we are classless. F**k it – you stay classless, Fabregas. Yeah, I know there is a difference but f**k it anyway.

@Jape, Wac: We had an edge in our game after the injury. We didn’t back down, and that’s all due to Cesc’s reaction. He was masterful after the injury, and willed everyone on. If we can couple our skill and panache with a hard edge (a la Vermaelen) we will be more successful.

EF: I like playing Rosicky for similar reasons. He pushes back.

I’m not looking for any video of any sort from this match but if anyone can get me a shot of Pulis screaming “f**king Fabregas” after his bad challenge in stopping I would love it. F**k you, Pulis. You instruct your team to go be thugs.

Reading Arseblog’s twitter, Bendtner reacted the best to the injury. Called for the stretcher. Him and Ramsay are close friends – I remember reading that a few months back.

Can’t wait to see Cesc’s interview.

Vermaelen looks ready to kill in that soccernet front page pic. Avoid if squeamish.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!!

Arsenalist has the pic of the injury up.

@PR: Yes, and Rosicky will be used more and more following today’s game.

We have Burnley (home), Hull (Kingston), WHU (home), and Birmingham (St. Andrew’s) in March. We need all 12, and after today’s performance, I see us getting it.

ef: We’ve struggled at KC the last two seasons, and Birmingham away could well be a repeat of today. The only upside is that after Ramsey’s injury I don’t forsee teams being able to hack at us with immunity.

Not to dwell, but some commentators on TV are calling for the red to be rescinded. I’m attempting to remove emotion from this issue, but if you get tackled, and the tackle breaks your leg, there was something wrong with the tackle.

Shawcross just got called up tho the England squad……..nice timing

343 comments?

Hl: have fun when your dirty, classless captain f**ks off to Barcelona. But of course, “you did not zee” his awful play.