NICK FEINBERG: LUCK SEEMS TO BE ON ARSENAL’S SIDE

HELLO my good football people! I trust all is well your side… it felt like it was always going to be a great footballing weekend following my Saturday afternoon down at Royal Road in Maitland.

I popped into my old club FN Rangers to watch them up against Ubuntu. I hadn’t seen the lads play that well in a long time. They scored five goals in the second half after going 1-0 down in the first. If you want to see how well local club football is doing, pop in this Saturday for a top-of-the-table clash (versus, Hope).

Straight after that I watched Chelsea get past Wolves quite comfortably, while Arsenal recorded another easy win! The Manchester United, Spurs game p****d me off, that idiot Cristian Romero seeing red early on and handing another victory to Michael Carrick. It was made worse when realising he’ll now miss the north London derby in a couple of weeks…Just feels like injuries, suspensions, wins, draws, losses and VAR decisions are generally all working in the Gunners’ favour?

I know there isn’t some kind of conspiracy, or spiritual interference, but why is this edition of the Premier League literally being handed to those whiny, entitled, in-stadium drum and trumpet w*****s? I think we’re all feeling it, right?

Ironically the only fans I know who aren’t sure are Gooners themselves! They’re listening to the likes of Pep Guardiola (before Manchester City’s trip to Anfield) say, “there’s a long way to go, anything can happen in 14 games” and of course he is right (now 13 left to play). There are 39 points at stake and while Arsenal are competing in the league, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup, it would be unrealistic to say “it’s done”!

Interestingly one of the UK’s biggest bookies, Paddy Power, announced (following Arsenal’s win against Sunderland) that they’re paying out all bets on Mikel Arteta’s team winning the league! Crazy right? I guess either way, they’ve counted the potential payout and measured it against the cost of a marketing campaign that would give them so much exposure and positive perception!

Anyway, onto Sunday and wow… Wow, wow, wow! Man, I haven’t seen drama like that in a long time. For me personally, a fantastic result. It keeps them damn Scousers behind Chelsea in the race for a top-four finish. And for all of us, the title race stays alive.

What a goal from Dominik Szoboszlai… It had Gooners celebrating all around the world, only for a mad finish, including a world-class Gianluigi Donnarumma save quickly followed by City’s “third” goal, which saw Szoboszlai sent off and the score pegged back down to 2-1. All-in-all a great game of football. I enjoyed the full 103 plus minutes.

Liverpool (owners, coach, players and fans) will be wondering why they are stuttering for large periods of the game, when they up the tempo and intensity (in typical Jurgen Klopp fashion) they look so dangerous?

It’s hard to put your finger on it and this result will be another psychological blow as Arne Slot and the team work for consistency. It’s amazing how football can turn on its head so quickly.

At Royal Road on Saturday, there was a noticeable increase in United shirts around the field. While that post-title Liverpool euphoria has been somewhat muted! Mind you, with Ricky van Wyk relentlessly screaming out United songs (he studies to get every word right) I’d be a bit embarrassed to publicise that I support the same team! Nice one Ricky…You get most of them right, just need to work on the tunes a bit.

The league continues on Tuesday and Wednesday, before Arsenal face Brentford on Thursday.

Come on you, Bees!

Chat next week, bye bye.