Written by Mean Lean on Wednesday, 17 October 2012 11:46
I flicked on my twitter application on my mobile phone last night on my way back from playing football, for the first time in some time, I felt like I had missed out on a night of International football.
Germany 4 Sweden 4 was the obvious match, especially given that Sweden had done an Arsenal at St James' Park. I didn't see the highlights but I am guessing that Per Mertesacker didn't have his best game defensively along with his team mates. It just goes to show that even the best of teams can suffer the type of shame that we witnessed on that eventful afternoon in Newcastle a few years back.
Psychology is such a big part of the game, emotions rear their heads that are very hard to deal with at the time. I am sure Germany felt invincible at 4-0 up, probably played like it whilst the Swedish players may have wished the final whistle would blow after Germany had struck their fourth.
But that responding goal has such weight behind it, for both teams but in different directions. A serge of adrenaline goes through your body when you pull a goal back, you gain an extra spring in your step and a whole new mind set while at the other end of the pitch that invincible feeling vanishes and is replaced by the smallest of doubt.
I cannot say that I have been involved in a game like that but I guess after the first few responding goals, a comeback almost feels inevitable.
Professional players or not they still have to deal with normal human behaviour.
Anyway, where on earth am I going with this? Rambling about human psychology when all I wanted to do is sum up the madness in Germany.
Per Mertesacker did get on the score sheet and I am looking forward to his first goal for us. Someone as big as he is really should be more of a threat on set pieces and I hope he is doing all he can to gain some more aggression in those situations.
Another goalscorer for the Arsenal last night was that of Oliver Giroud and I guess I can make use of the previous waffle by continuing the psychology theme.
Giroud scored his second goal for France after netting a very late equaliser. Watching Giroud celebrate at the end was great to see. That will do him the world of good back at Arsenal. Can we just please start crossing the ball properly, like onto his head rather than over to the opposite flank. Cheers.
After his first miss against Sunderland he had been starting games in his mind with the opposition pulling a goal back to make it 2-1. I tried writing that a few different ways and it still sounds like mumbo jumbo, hopefully you know what I am talking about.
You could see it on his face, the anguish every time he missed, I will come back to Giroud in a second, I don't know if it annoys anyone else but it really gets my goat when a player whacks the ball behind for a goal kick when in a good crossing position or smashes the ball over the bar when team mates are better placed only to look blank faced and jog back as if nothing has happened.
I like the fact that Giroud is upset with himself when he misses, shows a willingness to accept responsibility, a few Gooners past and present should take heed.
Back to Giroud his flicked header against Spain should take him back to 2-0 against Norwich this weekend. The shackles looked looser after he turned in Lukas Podolski's near post cross and I wouldn't be surprised if he was to hit the target again for us against the Canaries.
Laurent Koscielny wasn't at his best last night from what I hear which prompted the usual twitter overreaction from Gooners with severe memory lapses. Koscielny was far in away our best defender last season, in fact he was probably in our top three performers last season. He hasn't had the luxury of having regular football thanks to his early season injury so is playing catch up on the sharpness front.
There I was thinking that his season last term would give him a few games leeway to get back up to speed. I guess not.
I wanted to talk about two topics last night and the fact that it is international football week should make me grab the chance with two hands, I actually do not want to go there today. One is the behaviour from Serbian supporters to the black English players at the under 21s game. Under bloody 21s. The second was Cesc's comments. For different reasons I do not wish to get into it all because I will end up ranting and it veers too far away from football which ultimately is the reason why I write this blog.
I do not wish to write about how much Ivan Gazidis is paid and I do not wish to write about idiots in a crowd. In some ways, I don't even blame the Serbian supporters too much. Why? Well what else can ignorant, stupid people do apart from being stupid and ignorant?
But when UEFA hand out larger fines to Nicklas Bendtner for revealing his sponsored pants than to countries who in large numbers clearly racially abuse players then you know the footballing world has gone mad. It is way beyond the footballing world unfortunately but like I said, this is not football.
I mean how is anything going to get done when the head of FIFA Sepp Blatter is going around saying this:
"He should say that this is a game. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we shake hands, and this can happen, because we have worked so hard against racism and discrimination."
He also said, on Al Jazeera: "During a match you may say something to someone who's not looking exactly like you, but at end of match it's forgotten."
It is a ridiculous and would be laughable if it wasn't a serious matter but I shall leave that for others to delve into. I don't fancy smashing my fork down on my plate during my lunch so I shall give it a miss.
As for Cesc Fabregas, do we really want to know how he would have stayed for life and how good he had it here? Unlike many who leave, I do believe that he loves the club but once you jump ship, I would rather he focused on swimming and not about how much he enjoyed the boat.
And on a brighter note, Mikel Arteta has spoken about a potential future in management. Which instantly reminded me of this wonderful blog by the ever impressive Poznan in my pants.
Please take the time to have a read when you can.
And with that, lunch is calling me.
Back soon.
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