A day after that painful loss…

When Rio Ferdinand won the toss and handed the ball to Cesc Fabregas I was very happy. I was thinking the UEFA title had just been handed over. The famous Steven Waugh line was running in my mind, “You just dropped the (world) cup mate!”

I saw Rio as the Gibbs (the SA cricketer) who had just dropped the cup according to Waugh, in this case he had the ball handed over. But things weren’t looking as good as that thought once the ball was set rolling.

While my TV screen read 63:37 for ManU on ball possession, I thought it was 89:11 in favour of ManU. Arsenal played like they were playing the “injury time” out, kicking the ball out of their half as if they were defending the 3 goals they had already scored.

It was ironic that the game had just started.

Except for the 19 year old Gibbs (the right back for Arsenal) no one in the whole Arsenal line-up played any serious football. The goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia effected two fantastic saves before allowing the next from O’Shea clip the top of his hands into the goal. And ManU were 1-0 up. For the brand of football Arsenal played yesterday, I am sure Arsene Wenger would have been very happy with the score line.

It was disappointing to see Arsenal lose. But it was comforting when I think that they got away with a 1-0 score at the whistle after they played such pathetic football.