We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
That's what Sir Alex Ferguson has called it. It's Arsenal and Manchester United. It's live from the Emirates. And it's live on FSC. How could you not be watching. Join me for the usual LOB coverage.
posted by The Blue Devil @ 8:25 AM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
284 Comments:
But first up we've got the "Have v. Have Not" match up of Citeh v. Pompey. Pompey's players haven't been paid once again, so goodness knows how they'll be performing today against Citeh's moneybags.
Good stream up through VSS for the match, which has just kicked off. Mancini has taken my advice and shipped Robinho back to Brazil and Santos, so it's Carlos Tevez and Benjani up front today.
Fifteen minutes in and Pompey have weathered the opening rather well.
I hear some bloody jingle bells, even in the crowd at Eastlands!
Good morning Bob
I am just about to look for your link
As for the second match, I think I might give it a look!
Play up Pompey
Wilson picks up the first yellow for a trip on Tevez. Good free kick opportunity for Citeh here.
Morning, Dave! Feeling confident about today?
Citeh starting to pile the pressure on. And there's some trouble for Pompey's skipper Herman Hreidersson.
I am confident that we will play well but not confident about getting the win
Just like United dominating Chelsea at SB and losing, Arsenal did the same to United at OT and lost
Steve Finnan on for HH now.
Blimey - it's 10F outside here. It was 3F when I went to bed last night. Brrrr!
Free kick chance for Portsmouth.
Comes to nothing
It is the same here
For Tony
32 F is freezing... you do the math
I'll leave you to do the math, ta very much. I was never very good at it.
Pompey will be rather pleased if they can hold on til half time and regroup.
3f should be about -16c
Good morning guys .
Nosebleed Zabaleta is coming off.
GOAL! Emanuel Adebayor, fresh back from the African Nation's Cup, shoots Citeh into the lead. Simple goal - ball over the top and Ade slotted by David James.
1-0 Citeh!
I miss a Citeh goal
Matt tells me it was Adebayor
I am off to walk Shadow in the Frozen Tundra
Be back soon
Avram Grant looking even more like an undertaker now.
Citeh are up into sixth now, level with Pool on 41 points but behind on GD.
GOAL! Citeh 2-0 up! Kompany with the goal. You'd have to call that game over.
Half time then. Pompey weren't able to hang on to half time after all. 2-0 Citeh. Two more goals in the second half and that'll be my prediction spot on.
I've just checked the GD between Citeh and Pool. Pool on +16 and Citeh on +15 now.
Jamie Redknapp and Andy Gray are pointing out at the half that Citeh really haven't started clicking yet. Scary, eh?
I am back and thawing out
You won't be happy with that scoreline then.
More from the Pompey point of view than Citeh
I'd like Citeh push Costa
As you said yesterday, I can't believe where they are considering how bad they have been
Of course, Costa won't win the league and that will be TWENTY years. United went 26 years... I am rooting for Costa to beat us in that one
David Platt has such a monotone voice
It drives me nuts
The worst of the color guys is the guy Mark Bright on TV sometimes. HE NEVER SHUTS UP and you can hear his moaning all the time
Of course, Leeds have been Champions more recently than Costa
Platt is terrible. I don't actually know why some players are chosen to do the color work. Alan Smith, for example. He's really boring and he's got a noticeable speech impediment.
An hour gone and there's no sign of a Pompey come back.
Weber makes a complete mess of a rebound chance
Pompey need to take those
Boateng with a long-range free kick. No chance of a goal there.
Did Shadow enjoy his walkies?
Yes he did Barbara Woodhouse. (was that her name?)
According to my calculations, if Citeh score two more they will go ahead of Costa on goals scored
"Barbara Woodhouse?"
Mancini wants fourth spot
Belamy is coming on
Apparently, Craig reminds your brother of me!
I hope I was a jerk!
The old dog lady
Siiiit!
That was her name... I just googled it
That's my calculation as well. And that would be my prediction. I'm hoping for a 4-niller. Sorry, Pompey, but you're already doomed.
I should have said... hope I WASN'T a jerk
I would love Portsmouth to survive in the Prem but the main thing is to survive as a club!
Oh, yeah. I get it.
Here comes Craigers - on for Martin Petrov.
I don't like Citeh or Chelsea's nets. They are black!
They need to be nice and white
Oh, Tevez nearly in there for a third.
Tev hits the post
I'm okay with a variety of colors. The only goals that I don't like are the really shallow ones like used to be at Upton Park, where the ball goes in and bounces straight back out.
1509: Team news: Thomas Vermaelen starts for Arsenal - Sol Campbell is not even on the bench for the Gunners. Alex Song and Samir Nasri are back in too. Man Utd bring in Park for Ryan Giggs and Wes Brown for Rio Ferdinand, so no Nemanja Vidic either.
I thought Vermaelen broke his leg?
I don't like those either
Upton Park and Loftus Road come to mind
I've lost my link.
lost my link
Full line ups
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Fabregas, Song Billong, Denilson, Nasri, Arshavin, Rosicky.
Subs: Fabianski, Walcott, Ramsey, Silvestre, Eboue, Traore, Bendtner.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Rafael Da Silva, Jonathan Evans, Brown, Evra, Scholes, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani, Rooney, Park.
Subs: Kuszczak, Owen, Berbatov, Giggs, Valencia, Gibson, De Laet.
No - apparently it was a false scare for Vermaelen.
atdhe's first link is working.
Arsenal as usual playing without any strikers. How do they expect to score with that lineup?
Got it - cheers!
Weird how Fergie picks Park for all the big games!
I am surprised that Nani and not Valencia is playing
Although, Nani has been playing well
I am not sure about Scholes either. He will surely get a yellow and probably another
Eastlands is completely empty on the top tier above the sparce Pompey players
Well, it seems as if Citeh couldn't be bothered to push on for more goals. 2-0 will suit them fine.
Citeh still have two games in hand on Spurs and Costa
Those are odd choices. What's going on with Hargreaves?
I was wondering about that because Citeh have been doing very little else but winning in the past six weeks and yet Costa are still ahead of them. Of course, they've been playing you lot in the Carling Cup and such.
Didn't have a link but the match is over
Citeh stroll 2-0
Now for the big one
Full time at Eastlands then. That loss leaves Pompey mired at the bottom on 15 points. It's hard to imagine them picking up the requisite 25 points to take them to safety.
I have a pregame from MUTV on Justin
Hello again . I thought I had better
send another comment seeing as you
both ignored my first one (9:10) .
I'll take the same result as the Champions League Semi Final please
Sorry Tony
Completely missed that one
Good morning
Speaking of the semi... they are showing highlights of the match right now!
Some Norwich fans in the Emirates... well anti Glazers!
Teams are in the tunnel about to come out. FSC still no where near on yet. Her they come
Evra is United's captain.
Morning, Tony!
As usual FSC have decided to go to the wire with their Serie A coverage, so that we're two minutes from kick-off now and they're showing adverts. What a bunch of plonkers.
I hate it
My MUTV link was switched to Sky
They are still on comercials too
A minute after 11 and they're doing the preview.
11:02 and the teams are finally coming out of the tunnel on FSC, only four minutes late!
What 'saves live"
I think we do have an HD picture!
We're off
COME UNITED!!!
And here come Arsenal kicking off at 11:03. How far behind are they?
That was almost in for Arse
Do you really want to see Wayne Rooney in HD - don't think so!
Decent chance there for Arshavin after a nice break for the Arse.
Phew
Arse Shaven( he he he) should have done better there
Was that the "almost in" moment? If so, I'd guess that FSC are about two minutes behind.
Arsenal are getting a lot of space on their left
Knock it off
No, I as talking about the pass that almost hit Arse Shaven
Nani wearing some really flash yellow boots today. Makes him look like a pixie.
Morning everyone, hoping for a fine match today.
United finally getting some possession
Morning, Someone. Welcome!
Let's hope he has some magic pixy dust to work with
Good morning Someone
ooh
Great break by United
Evans to Nani to Scholes
not scholes... Fletcher
FSC... get your sound sorted out
Some decent United pressure in the early stages.
ooh
Well done Nani!!
Two chances in a minute
COME ON UNITED!
Oh, straight across the area and then cleared by Song. Very fortunate for the Arse.
The Arse backline looking a wee bit shaky at this point.
What happened with that corner?
Was that a free header inside the six?
There's an excellent cut and thrust to this match so far. That's what we the punters want. The Orange did well there.
On the replay it almost looked like Roon cleared that out with his left peg. Why couldn't he scoop it in with his favored right peg?
Just showed the header in the box
It was almost an og!!
This has the same feel as United at Chelsea
Did Robbie Earle just intimate that United play "Route 1?"
oooh
Arse Shaven hits one just wide
It sounds like the sound is slightly ahead of the picture!
Oh, Arshavin made a monkey of the Orange there but still couldn't hit the target.
Arsene won't be pleased.
Did you hear him complain about Villa?
No - what was the complaint?
Welcome back from the ANC, Mr. Song. Here's your yellow card.
That must have hurt Nani. Right on the ankle
Very True
1611: We've already had more quality football than we got at Eastlands. Ten minutes gone, still Arsenal 0-0 Man United.
Arsene having a bit of a chat with the fourth official. Why does he bother?
Villa played Long Ball!
True - the earlier game was a bit rubbish. Citeh not really clicking and Pompey hopeless.
Yeah, that's typical Arsene. He always imagines that other sides are just going to allow Arsenal to play their zippy little passes through them and rack up a cricket score.
Interesting shot there from Andrei. He forgot to put on Billy's Boots today.
phew!
A miss clearance from Verma but Arsenal break
Fab... not fouled by Scholes... breaks and finds Arse Shaven but his shot is hopeless but still finds Fab
Phew... cleared
I agree, i am sure he like playing United because don't sit back.
Free kick oppo for the Arse now. Rubbish.
Yeah, true. But you can't really expect sides who don't have the kind of resources that Arsenal do to just allow Arsenal to play without any kind of strategy for shutting them down. Arsene should concentrate on making his side a little less predictable.
Scholes gets caught in possession.
Arse get a cross over but a player in red just lets it run past. Why? Thank you, but why?
Gallas with a rugby conversion.
ooh, United almost in there twice
I thought Park should have found Roon instead cutting it back and then Scholes almost in
Now Rooney.. ooh
Come on ManU
Come on ManU
Come on ManU
Park seems to have switched back over to his favored right side. That means, though, that United have nothing going on the left. Do you have any left-footed players at the club at this point?
Park and Nani have been lively
Nani hits one wide
Oh, Nani should have hit the target by going across the goal. He was never going to beat Almunia at the near post.
A certain bloke named Ryan. Ryan Giggs
ooh Nani found brilliantly but fails to get the shot off
I disagree with Robbie there. Gallas and Vermaelen are really unbalanced as they're essentially the same kind of player: slightly shorter, ball-playing defenders who can play their way out of trouble. I'd swap one out for a big, English-style defender with presence in the area. But that's never going to happen.
Oh, yeah. The old geezer. Where's he today?
Look at that. Clichy goes streaking out of the defense, plays a ball wide to Arshavin and there's no one bombing into the area for a cross, so Arshavin has to jink back. Very frustrating.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nani with a brilliant move
Park gets it in a the back post
I think it was a Nani or OG
GOAL! A bit of brilliance from my man Nani on the right, who jinked his way through the Arsenal defense and then flipped a ball over that drifted over Almunia. Own goal? I think not. That's Nani's.
0-1 United!
Who would you give it to?
Nani or Almunia?
Isn't the test of an o.g. vs. giving it to the forward player whether the ball changed direction? If that's the case, the ball was going in anyway, regardless of whether Almunia touched it in. That's got to be Nani's goal.
Again, at OT the away team took the lead and still lost
On the strength of that goal, United are a point behind Chelski and Arsenal drop back to 49 points.
Let it go Raph!!!!
Hope it doesn't hurt us from a gifted corner
Almost!
Here goes Nani again, he lays off to Roon who sticks it in!
United 0-2! Wow!
When did the Arsenal defense turn into a bunch of turnstiles?
BRILLIANT!!!!!
WHAT A BREAK!
NANI IS THE MAN
ROONEY HITS HIS TON!!
Did you see that run by Roon???
Keep your heads United
To my mind that was all about William Gallas being out of position. What on earth was he doing up in the nosebleed area? When Nani broke, you had Traore trying to deal with Nani and Roon running on.
Arse Shaven almost gives one right back
Come on United!
Still plenty of time for the Arse here!
Oh, Arshavin should have hit the target once again.
What was that about Vermaelen and Gallas being a rock solid combination, Robbie? Two goals in five minutes shuts him up but proper.
Way to give away a corner Raph. You almost got an assist
From the Beeb
United goal: Sometimes you have to just stand up an applaud. That is as magnificent a goal as you could wish to see. United break with alarming pace - it's like last season's Champions League final all over again. Wayne Rooney starts it just outside his own box, feeds Nani and then the pair both sprint forward - they get to just outside the Arsenal box and Nani tees up Rooney to sweep a devastating blow past Manuel Almunia. What. A. Goal.
Who has always said that Nani would be United's new Ronaldo, Dave?
oooh,
Rooney sets up Scholes and then Nani
Should have been THREE
Should have been three there.
That better not come back and bite us
Four minutes of the half to go
No goals by Arsenal please
Terrific match so far. It would be even better if Arsenal had struck at least once. They've had their chances but United have been more clinical.
United are at their most dangerous when Arsenal have possession in our box
You're like my Red Sox loving buddy in Florida who never relaxes until the ball goes into the glove at the end of the 9th inning regardless of the score. Come on, Dave. You're walking this one.
I agree with you.
Robbie with more nonsense. Arsene "a re-think at half time?" Does he ever? Arsenal only know how to play one way.
What was VDS doing there? He did see him.
Just give a foul. No card needed
Well done Mr. Foye
Arshavin might have got into trouble there but the ref was lenient.
Arsenal are double teaming Nani
Ronaldo who?
My only question about United is, "What would they do without Roon's goals?" 14 in 14 games - blimey!
Great move by the twin but the cross just doesn't reach Roon
Two minutes of added time
I never hear about Ronaldo anymore. Do you?
phew
I thought was going to hit the back of the net
Oh, Song misses the target. Have they made VDS work yet? I don't think so.
644: NO I'M NOT A UNITED FAN BUT THOSE GOALS WERE STUNNING.
BBC Sport's Phil McNulty at the Emirates: "Manchester United have just taken Arsenal to the cleaners in two moments of brilliance - and Nani has justified his selection with a blistering display, forcing Manuel Almunia to palm into his own net after a run Cristiano Ronaldo would have been been proud of and setting up a second for Wayne Rooney. Nani has been erratic so often, but this is end product par excellence. And Rooney sprinted from deep inside his own half to finish the second. Arsene Wenger is slumped back in his seat - and no wonder.
BBC website has said it is halftime way before FSC
Half time
Well done United
More of the same please
Half-time: 0-2 United.
Were those boos from the crowd at the Emirates? Devastating five minutes from United leaves Arsenal with a lot to do in the second half.
Second half is underway
The old adage is true here.... next goal is VERY important
Come on United
Keep it tight BUT don't sit back
Second half starting up with United kicking off. A lot of work for the team in red to do in the second half.
Bob thinks I am a nervous nelly but I could easily see Arsenal getting back level.. We have to score first
Get up, Wayne!
United could have done better there
Scholes and then Rooney
Rooney is hurt. He was kicked on the knee
Hope he is okay
I think it is just a bruise
You are a nervous nelly.
Useless short corner!
You don't think I am right?
Can you see Arsenal getting one back
ooh
Roon takes a pop!
Crikey! I didn't even see Roon come back on and he hits one from wide and Almunia nearly bobbles it into the net!
United need to score soon
That'll be a heartening sight for Arsenal fans - Nicholas Bendtner warming up. Why isn't he on yet?
YES!!!!!!!
PARK with the goal!!
ANOTHER GREAT BREAK! HE HAD FOUR OPTIONS!!!
One was to put it in!
GOAL! 0-3 United! Wow!
That's why Park's on the park. Slotted home easily. Again the Arsenal defense were, in Someone Said's words, "like a turnstile."
Still nervous, Dave?
ooh
Fab just over
Not so much
Still, don't give up a goal
Arsenal had Villa followed by United. They follow that with Chelsea and Costa next
I want them win both of those
Fab should have passed it Rosicky
Thomas complained that Park and Nani were in the team... Boy was he wrong
The Beeb website is really slagging Clichy
It was his fault for the goal. I know there were men over but he has to stop the ball!
We need another to catch Chelsea on GD
Song hits one wide
They have had some chances
Keep it tight United
Walcott about to come on for Denilson
Here comes Theo on for Denilson. Intersting. That's going to allow some space for United to counter.
Six goals in our last two visits to the Em
Wot - 0-3 at the Emirates isn't good enough for you? You're incorrigible!
How much more space do United need?
0-0 in the AFC Final at half time
To be honest, I hadn't even noticed that Denilson was on the pitch today. It means that Arsene played two defensive holding midfielders in Denilson and Song and they still conceded three bloody goals at home!
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