Sport Blogs
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the football season passes. So intense and all consuming whilst it is present, and yet we now enter a 12-week abyss filled only with commercial tours to far flung money pots and tedious transfer speculation. Those 12 weeks feel like an age.
The new reality
Thursday, May 25, 2017
For the first time in my lifetime, Arsenal has finished outside of the top four. For the first time in my lifetime, Arsenal has ended the season below Spurs. For the first time in my lifetime, I have had to endure Europa League taunts and Tottenham fans’ jeers. For a whole generation of Arsenal supporters, this is their first encounter with mediocrity.
A generation of Arsenal fans must deal with a season of mediocrity
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
I owe Danny Caro and the JC a debt of gratitude. To have been given the opportunity to write this blog, in this season of all seasons, has been a privilege. I now have a very personal chronicle of both a superb season on the pitch and a seminal season off it. My own personal story of the Lane, the finale.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
On Friday evening on a packed Jubilee Line tube between Stratford and West Ham I was subjected to sustained and vile antisemitic abuse.
The Jews who give a green light to antisemitism in football
Saturday, May 6, 2017
North London derbies have provided special memories for Arsenal in the past. Only seven losses in 49 have clearly shown the red side of London to be dominant. However, with Spurs four places higher in the league, and their straight-forward victory in the 50th derby, the last at White Hart Lane, it seems a sign that the power struggle is turning in their favour.
Arsenal's consistent mediocrity must end
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
A few weeks ago I suggested that Spurs weren't Spursy anymore. In the weeks that have followed, the team collected league win after league win and then lost an FA Cup semi-final, despite playing well. Old Spurs would surely have then suffered a mental and physical collapse in the aftermath. Dropping points like confetti. But not new Spurs. Not Pochettino's Spurs.
Can't smile without you
Monday, May 1, 2017
In sport, the hardest steps to take are the final ones, the ones which take you to glory. For Spurs this season there have been so many steps forward, so much promise but, for now, those final steps remain elusive.
Crossing the Rubicon
Monday, April 24, 2017
Last Thursday night, The Hive Stadium hosted the international friendly Nigeria against Senegal. With stars including Alex Iwobi, Idrissa Gueye, Kelechi Iheanacho, Cheikhou Kouyaté and most notably, Sadio Mané taking to the pitch, this was not the calibre of player with which the Barnet home ground was familiar.
The power of sport to unite us is unwavering.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has recently been in talks with LA Galaxy, discussing a move to the United States in the summer. Although he is heading towards the end of his career, the Manchester United frontman is still one of the best strikers in the Premier League, currently the fifth top scorer.
Premier League's position as football's focal p...
Monday, March 20, 2017
‘Wenger Out’ supporters were given yet more fuel for their fire on Tuesday night. There were fans chanting anti-Wenger slogans before the match, and even more after. Arsenal’s European humiliation, having now exited the Champions’ League from the last 16for seven years in a row, may be the final death knell for Wenger’s Arsenal career.
Arsenal must take one step backward to later take two steps forward
Thursday, March 9, 2017
During the pre-match interview, Arsène Wenger stood in a small room in the Sutton United stadium, answering questions next to the bed in which the reserve goalkeeper sleeps three nights a week. This was a comical affair. It was lapped up by the ex-players and pundits, who hailed Sutton for providing a 'real FA cup tie’, in which a semi-professional side can take on a Premier League club. Although 105 division places and £1.4 billion separates the two teams, there really isn't much difference between them.
Arsenal and Sutton United have more in common than meets the eye
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Spurs social media has been a fascinating place over the past eight weeks. The ups and downs of Tottenham's January and February have been the subject of quite bi-polar reactions of both the press (to be expected) and sadly even more extreme on social media - a format not exclusively but predominantly dominated by younger, often less sanguine fans.
It's all about the context
Monday, February 27, 2017
With Chelsea racing into the distance relatively unopposed, Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal looks to be finishing a thirteenth consecutive season without a Premier League title. With Gunners fans becoming increasingly restless and Wenger’s contract expiring at the end of the season, it seems ever more likely that his 21 year reign may come to end this season.
The end is nigh for Arsène Wenger
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
This season has once again exposed the top-flight referees.
Big team bias and refereeing decisions
Thursday, January 26, 2017
