tomorrow is our permanent address

So Sedric linked me to this small article, called What Your Soccer Club of Choice Says About You in London. It is just as exaggerated as the title makes it sound, which means that it is completely accurate.

The Arsenal part says:

The first to yell “Not fair, you cheated,” Arsenal is the beloved club of the North London media elite. They’re endlessly cosmopolitan, beautiful to watch, polylingual, and unable to win a trophy. The club team of the spoiled intelligentsia—even their manager has a degree in economics.

There's something he forgets to mention, but I'll forgive him for that because I'm not sure what to call it either. It's not exactly a martyr complex, and it's not exactly masochism, and it's too day-to-day (week-to-week?) to be proper Liverpool-style drama. The closest thing I can compare it to is the sort of emotional rollercoaster you only get in high school (I guess I'm more than qualified to talk about that), but it isn't, really, because it's more than just about you.

Losing a 4-0 lead to draw 4-4? We've done it. Scoring an equalizing own goal in the last 10 minutes of a game? Of course. Losing a final because your goalkeeper and your defender didn't understand each other? Check. Getting a striker sent off for being offside in a Champions League match against the best club side in Europe? Been there, done that. Conceding an equalizing penalty in the 101st minute, right after scoring your own penalty and not conceding a free kick? Yup. Still getting to play Champions League football every season? That's us.

So sometimes it's a high-speed car chase and sometimes it's burying your head under a pillow making small unintillegible noises because if you didn't you'd be yelling and the apartment complex's guard would tell you to keep it down, and sometimes it's fireworks, and even though we all say that we need to grow up and stop breaking down I'm not sure how much we mean it. We dominate possession and play in the opponent's half and don't score goals and have a defense that has a lot to learn, except when we don't, who knows why.

Well, hell, that's us too. I'm not sure about everyone else, but Arsenal makes me feel alive.

Let's do this, kids. Hope is Arsenal for the treble. Next season's treble.

Why is it that when I turned on my TV at 9:30 p.m. the first half was ending, we were two goals up, thanks to Diaby and Eboue, and JENS LEHMANN WAS IN GOAL. And now the replays of the goals are coming up and why do I get my time zones wrong when WE'RE PLAYING GAMES LIKE THIS.

Bakit ganito, anong klaseng buhay 'to, we know the drill. Don't fall apart now, Arsenal.

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ETA: 1-2 na, Blackpool I love your crowd you are so orange and so noisy, oh my gulay Arsenal ayus-ayusin nyo nga mga buhay ninyo.

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ETA the second: 1-3 THANK YOU ARSENAL THANK YOU. Thank you game for being exciting, thank you crowd for being awesome, thank you Arsenalkids. Seven points. Wecandothis.

Here are some of the facts concerning this morning's fixture:

Barcelona had nineteen shots at the goal, ten of them on target. Arsenal had no goal attempts, the first time such a statistic has been recorded in the UEFA Champions' League ever since such statistics have been recorded in 2003. Arsenal's goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, dislocated a finger in the twenty-somethingth minute and had to be replaced by Manuel Almunia. Jack Wilshere went down sometime near the end of the first half and was ignored, in the ref's opinion likely legitimately, by the ref, and in the semi-scuffle that followed Eric Abidal's hand somehow found its way to Robin van Persie's throat. No cards. When the game started again and Robin was chasing for the ball he thwacked Dani Alves in the face, probably deliberately. He earned himself a deserved yellow card.

In the closing minutes of the first half the ball was in Arsenal's penalty area and Cesc Fabregas, coming back from injury, attempted to clear it with a backheel pass. There were three Barcelona players behind him. Lionel Messi then proceeded to score the game's first goal, from an Andres Iniesta assist.

In the fifty-somethingth minute Robin van Persie made an attempt on goal, but was ruled offside. The ref blew the whistle. Robin kicked the ball- his foot was probably already on the way when the whistle was blown. The ref gave him a second yellow for time-wasting. Robin argued that he hadn't heard the whistle- completely understandable when in a stadium containing 95000.

The final score was 3-1 to Barcelona. Arsenal's 1 was a Sergio Busquets own goal from a Samir Nasri corner. It was not the sort of game you wake up at 3:45 in the morning for.

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Here are some things that seem to escape people's attention regarding this morning's fixture, and the reactions to it:

The fact that Barcelona had nineteen shots on goal to Arsenal's zero does not affect the fact that the referee had, admittedly, made several errors. If anything, it would be the other way around. If the ref does something and you think it isn't the thing a competent ref ought to be doing, then by all means say something about it. The game is over; any complaints regarding the refereeing won't change the result. But these complaints might help prevent such mistakes from occurring again (ha, occurring, like they spontaneously generate out of thin air). If listened to, that is, and not simply dismissed as sore losers whining.

Of course Arsenal ought to have given a better game. Of course Cesc ought to have known better than to attempt a backheel pass when in his own penalty area with Barcelona players all around him. Of course competent refereeing wouldn't have won Arsenal the game. (It shouldn't, not if Barcelona kept the ball with them the entire time the way they did in the first half, and didn't let Arsenal have any chances the way they didn't in the first leg.)

Arsenal is the least important part of the equation. Arsenal is only a part of the equation due to the luck of the draw. (The same is true for Barcelona.) Arsenal's problem lies in building goals and preventing the other team from building more goals than they did. Whether or not Arsenal has a problem should not affect whether or not the game's refereeing has a problem.

Arsene Wenger and Samir are now facing UEFA disciplinary charges for their confrontations with the referee. Which is expected, of course, but I'm glad they bothered. There are, of course, different methods of disagreeing with the ref, some of them less likely to get you in trouble than others, but this is Arsene Wenger we're talking about.

Okay. Breathe. Congrats, Barcelona- you won, and there's no point in going what if over Robin's red card, so let's just say that based on the decisions made during the game, you deserved it. Gunners for the double.

I'd be sitting here going Oh my gulay, Arsenal if- well, I don't know. If I'd watched the game, I guess. If the arsenalbbs comm didn't put up a no misery allowed post first thing. If the guys didn't all tweet apologies to the fans and congratulations to Birmingham. I love being a gunner.

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I would be wishing that walking to and from school every day didn't mean encountering fifty thousand books I want to buy at prices so reasonable it'd be ridiculous not to buy them, but, well. So now I have A Partisan's Daughter, A Case of Expoding Mangoes, R&G are Dead, lots and lots of Ray Bradbury, a to-read list longer than my arm, and schoolwork. This is, all things considered, a statement of gratitude.