Life’s too short to stay sober

There is only one Aaron Ramsey.

This dude has the fans singing the Arsene Wenger chant with his name in it, and quite rightly so.

It's a classic example of taking chances. The opportunities for him in the first team came and so far he has taken them in style, showing everyone what a big player he is going to be for us.

He became the darling of the team when he first arrived when Alex Ferguson and United legend Welshman Ryan Giggs couldn't convince him to join them and he chose us instead.

Look at how far he has come, this time, popping up at the right time to score the equaliser to set up a grand stand finish for Eduardo's header, which was nothing short of fantastic.

The game was pretty evenly matched from the start. Both sides created very little but eventually, West Ham got the goal they deserved for all their hard work. I'm not sure we needed to give a game to Silvestre who really isn't the player he was at United. He was slow to react and Diamanti managed to keep onside thanks to him and got the goal. I don't see why Traore couldn't continue in the first team since Wenger chose to keep 3/4 of his back four intact.

He shuffled the pack in front of the defence somewhat but Song kept his place to play one last game for us before catching the plane to Angola. Ramsey kept his place too with Merida completing the midfield trio. Up front Wenger brought in Vela and Wilshere but chose to play Vela in the centre and dudu on the left. I think Eduardo should be primarily deployed in the centre. He's not new to playing centre forward and is a natural striker while Vela has been mostly deployed on the wings. If Vela's in the centre because of height then there is not much case for that since there isn't a very great height difference between the 2. Overall, before Diaby and Nasri were brought on, we struggled to get behind their defence to create anything.

West Ham came out after the break and started to settle in a little more. At 1-0 against any Arsenal side there is simply no time to sit back. Behrami and Kovac continued to match us like for like in midfield and were doing a good job at that. Then Wenger, who has been really smart with his substitutes as of late, brought on Diaby and Nasri for Merida and Wilshere. I think before, if you mentioned Diaby as a sub late on to change the game, I would have laughed it off and expected things to stay status quo. But he came on and did really well and if he manages to stay injury free and consistent, he can make a difference this term.

So the draw for the 4th round has happened and looks like we'll be travelling to Stoke City. It's so early in the Cup and we're facing all the premier league sides already.

Sp*rs entertain Leeds United. Heh. I'm wondering if they'll learn from United's lesson or simply be Sp*rs.

So, this was quite the eventful 3rd round of the FA Cup. Man Utd crashed out to Leeds at mighty Old Trafford and Hull City, who created all that drama from nothing last season are out as well.

Ferguson has declared that the peeps who took the pitch tonight are not fit to face City in the Carling Cup semi final coming up in midweek. I think that'll do the youngsters' confidence a world of good. So much for youth development.

Labels: Aaron Ramsey, Abou Diaby, Carlos Vela, Eduardo Da Silva, FA Cup, Man Utd

A Little Drunken Madness @ 2:20 AM