Boggs takes a minute from celebrating a brilliant champions league victory to make a point about the post-match moanfest:
Despite my obvious dislike for Arsenal, I can at least applaud their march to the Champions League final (even though they did somehow meet an off-form Real Madrid, off-form Juventus, and off-form Barca in a row – a fact most Gooners I know admit).
Everyone keeps chirping on about how Arsenal are representing English football and so we should all get behind them, but as far as I can tell all they have shown Europe, as English football’s ambassador’s, is the whinging and blinkered viewpoints that those who follow the Premiership have grown to know and love.
The moaning coming from Henry and Wenger was pathetic, accusations of a biased ref and complaints that Barcelona’s goal was offside despite the fact that Eboue’s dive was so blatant that it was recognized and applauded by one channel’s match commenatator. Henry rambled on about how Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Larsson were invisible yet 2 of those players were directly responsible for the victory.
But of course, no mention of this from Wenger…not even an “I didn’t see the incident.” I know plenty of Arsenal fans who wish Wenger would stop expressing views that have blatant counter evidence, it only embarasses himself and the club. The goons had a real chance to improve their image both in the Premiership and worldwide, had they accepted their loss with dignity and instead focused on how well they had done to be 1-0 with 10 men until 80 minutes (when Almunia remembered he’s supposed to be crap).
But no, it had to be someone else’s fault. It couldn’t have been that Wenger was outfoxed by Rijkaard, whose substitutions set up or scored both goals, while Henry screamed at Arsene to get him some support in attack. Nor was it Henry’s fault for missing two golden opportunities to score that would have put the game out of reach.
Nope, had to be the match officials or those dirty cheating Barca players.
Ambassadors for English football? I can only hope not.