Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » 2010 » April » 03

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Arsenal 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Welcome to Zero Football.  It wasn’t anti-football, which has something in it – a style, an approach, a way of life – all negative but at least something measurable.

But this was not football at all.  Zero football.  So far removed from what football is about that it was nothing.

Just nothing.

Arsenal 16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 – that was the result in terms of shots.  For shots on target it was 8-0.   This is not what football is about, although it was advertised and called a game of football.

There was no serious intent by the opposition, other than to try and sneak a point by any means possible, and to jeer and laugh at a club that tries to play football.  Rotational fouling and rotational time-wasting – we have seen them before, although not taken so far.  Add the cynical jeering, the fouls and the behaviour of the manager, and you have Zero Football.

When a keeper takes 30 seconds to take a goalkick, and when contrary to all the rules he holds onto a ball for 15 seconds – three times the amount of time the rules allow – you know what you are getting.  Why the ref colluded with such action is another matter.

As for the foul for which Henry was sent off, it could have been another dreadful career ending affair, and given that, it was right to send off the player.

But what was not right at all was McCarthy then applauding the player off the pitch, putting his arm around him, applauding the player away from the game, and then sarcastically turning to the crowd and applauding them.

If ever there was an incitement to riot by a manager at a major game, this was it.  For the sake of safety, with 60,000 in the ground, no one can do anything to whip up anger and disdain in this way – it is just far too dangerous.  Indeed it was only the discipline of the crowd – something of which the Wolverhampton manager was singularly lacking – that stopped there being any trouble.

Deliberately provoking people in a crowded situation so that they might well riot is incitement and is a criminal offence, which is why the matter has been brought to the attention of the Met Police.

It is also a matter for the FA and EPL and they should certainly be taking action against the manager for behaving in this way.  Should they fail to deal with the manager’s behaviour they will be guilty of bringing the game into disrepute.

On Friday night three Norwich officials were dismissed from the touch line for far lesser offences – and it remains to be seen if the official bodies will now take action.

We were without most of our star players, from those like Van Persie, crippled playing for their countries, to those like Ramsey, crippled playing for their club.   Plus of course those given time off in between the two Barca games.

The fact that we can see keep going against Zero Football and such disgraceful managerial activities is a tribute to the club.   The joy at the end was great, and those supporters of Wolverhampton who had not been escorted from the ground earlier by the police and stewards could do worse on reflect on the disgraceful behaviour of the club they purport to support.

No one thinks badly of a club where the players come out and make a game of it, even if they are poor players.  But this Zero Football is appalling – a cynical and disgraceful way to try to bring football to an end.

Certainly the keeper should not have been on the pitch after half time, and should have been sent off before Henry.  However the manager would only have applauded his play and jeered again at the crowd, and maybe in not sending the keeper off the ref was trying to stop a riot.

It was all fairly dispicable, but it does make clear just what Wolverhampton Wanderers are about, just as Shawcross revealed what his club is about, and just as the Birmingham supporters who chant Taylor’s name, reveal the true nature of their club.

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