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levityRobin should have gotten two, but I can't even be bitter about it, because hell yes. Rosa had yet another wonderful run. Bac fit into our game so seamlessly I have a hard time remembering what those months when his fibula were broken were like- it's both easy and really difficult to understand how underrated he is. Szczesny is our king. I may or may not have knocked my glasses askew in the process of punching the air when Mikel Arteta scored, because I'm dignified like that.
The Emirates was so enthusiastic today it was absurd. Football's a team sport both on the playing and the spectating side, really, so you shake your head in reluctant curled-lip commisseration when the crowd goes boo and you know at once who has the ball, and you grin like a madwoman when that one fan jumps out of the stands to run over and hug Mikel and the guys while they're celebrating the goal, never mind that your glasses are hanging off your nose. Whatever it is you're feeling, someone else is feeling too, what can you do about it.
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Sometimes it feels like I'm the only person in the world who wants Manchester City to win the title. Not at Arsenal's expense, of course, but still. Because I'm sick of all the people going on about how you can't buy class and history- are we following the same game, I will allow that sometimes the time comes that there's class in football, but most of the time, nope, sorry. And look, your club didn't spring from the ground fully-formed complete with a title-challenging past, everyone has to start somewhere.
And I never in this world want to be the sort of person to cry poor little rich misunderstood Manchester City, just because they have lots of money and flaunt it doesn't make them football's great enemy, but, well, they have lots of money and flaunt it and it's okay not to like them and it's okay to think they're being completely irresponsible, but the Premier League's kind of a crazy almost-completely unregulated business. Not everybody throws their money around like City and Chelsea- not everybody has the spending power of City and Chelsea- but your team is running this race, too, after their own fashion. And so is mine. And they're doing it to compete and they're doing it because you need the spending power to maintain football clubs. But it's really hard (understatement again) to break into a league's established top ranks without the money to- to stay out of debt and to keep and attract good players and to basically be secure without the advantage of large chunks of ad revenue, for starters, and not even the clubs with that advantage are safe for sure- so who am I to begrudge a hundred years' worth of Manchester City fans their chance at a title challenge, just because Sheikh Mansour picked them? City's is a really irresponsible business model right now, sure, but don't dislike them for being upstarts. Football may yet have one great enemy, but it's not Manchester City.
The Emirates was so enthusiastic today it was absurd. Football's a team sport both on the playing and the spectating side, really, so you shake your head in reluctant curled-lip commisseration when the crowd goes boo and you know at once who has the ball, and you grin like a madwoman when that one fan jumps out of the stands to run over and hug Mikel and the guys while they're celebrating the goal, never mind that your glasses are hanging off your nose. Whatever it is you're feeling, someone else is feeling too, what can you do about it.
---
Sometimes it feels like I'm the only person in the world who wants Manchester City to win the title. Not at Arsenal's expense, of course, but still. Because I'm sick of all the people going on about how you can't buy class and history- are we following the same game, I will allow that sometimes the time comes that there's class in football, but most of the time, nope, sorry. And look, your club didn't spring from the ground fully-formed complete with a title-challenging past, everyone has to start somewhere.
And I never in this world want to be the sort of person to cry poor little rich misunderstood Manchester City, just because they have lots of money and flaunt it doesn't make them football's great enemy, but, well, they have lots of money and flaunt it and it's okay not to like them and it's okay to think they're being completely irresponsible, but the Premier League's kind of a crazy almost-completely unregulated business. Not everybody throws their money around like City and Chelsea- not everybody has the spending power of City and Chelsea- but your team is running this race, too, after their own fashion. And so is mine. And they're doing it to compete and they're doing it because you need the spending power to maintain football clubs. But it's really hard (understatement again) to break into a league's established top ranks without the money to- to stay out of debt and to keep and attract good players and to basically be secure without the advantage of large chunks of ad revenue, for starters, and not even the clubs with that advantage are safe for sure- so who am I to begrudge a hundred years' worth of Manchester City fans their chance at a title challenge, just because Sheikh Mansour picked them? City's is a really irresponsible business model right now, sure, but don't dislike them for being upstarts. Football may yet have one great enemy, but it's not Manchester City.
