New season,same old problems

Just like the FA Cup final, Hull City was denied by a late Arsenal strike. This time though, even if they felt so, the Tigers were not beaten after Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal’s remaining ray of hope, finally found a way through and set up Danny Welbeck. Relief, not joy, was the overriding Emirates emotion.

 

Until then, it had been an afternoon in which Arsenal’s failings, and those of their manager, were exposed. Hull, despite the rancour of home fans toward referee Roger East, deserved their lead right up until the first minute of stoppage time, when Sanchez’s quality ripped them asunder. Arsenal had dominated possession but did little with it. It was not until the dying moments that momentum was built up.

 

Arsene Wenger is paying for his inaction in preparing for a defensive crisis and his team are already 11 points behind Chelsea, a position from which the Frenchman does not hide.

It beats statisticians that a team can have an overall possession of 70 per cent and still having nothing more than their inferior competition. To add salt to injury, this was not a one-off; this has been the story, every weekend. Wenger’s refusal to add another defender in August now looks exceptionally rash. This time last season, Arsenal were front-runners in the Premier League but began on Saturday in eighth place, having been taught a lesson in pragmatism by Chelsea a fortnight ago.

 

In the last ten years, we have been fed team development as the bitter pill that all Gooners had to swallow, some pain in the short time for a better and brighter future.

Most Gooners had thought that we had finally arrived at Canaan, when German’s Mesut Özil arrived but Wenger’s reluctance to take back Cesc Fàbregas when he had the chance is looking more like an abdication of duty rather than a minor oversight.

On Monday night, Manchester United trailed West Brom in the first half. To spice things up, they were in a see-saw game with arch-rivals Arsenal for that seventh spot that has been their most enduring perch in recent times. In the end, the Red Devils just like Arsenal, had to rely on a late equaliser to salvage the point and jump ahead of the Gunners.

As for Sunderland, if the sun shines and it shines so brightly to the extent your players do not even get to see the ball perhaps it was written that it would be that way. There are precious few things of which you can be sure in football. In fact, at times you suspect that even the very laws of the game have been created to be deliberately ambiguous.

However, even in this crazy modern footballing world, there is one incontrovertible certainly: If you get stuffed 8-0, there is going to be a messy inquest. Sunderland may be quick to forget the annihilation by Southampton, but well, it is already in the history books.

Southampton sold nearly all their best in the summer with big clubs swarming around the club, the way back in high school, boys would swarm around a girls’ school bus during trips. But still, they are doing much better than even the so called big clubs that raided them and caused the fans much distress.

At least, it is enticing to see that our very own Victor Wanyama is making a good account of himself and representing the Jamhuri quite well.

As for Chelsea, the Blues have taken one step at a time like a camel in the desert, slowly trudging towards the grand prize. Like the determined camel, neither the rocks nor the heat has dissuaded the animal from the ultimate goal of reaching the oasis. From the looks of things, either the oasis will dry up or the camel will get to quench its thirst.

 

 Local rot

 

For many years we have become accustomed to the mighty Gor Mahia aka Kogalo being the mastermind of missiles and projectiles. But it looks like their shemejis have been paying close attention to this trend.

On such a glorious day as Mashujaa, when we celebrate our heroes and heroines, the fans of AFC Leopards decided to throw all that out of the window by rioting during a GOTV knockout match.

Ingwe fans descended on referee Davies Omweno in the 87th minute after Anthony Ndolo scored Batoto ba Mungu’s second goal that sealed the game and ended AFC Leopards’ lingering hopes of silverware this season.

Sofapaka will now take on Nation Super League side Posta Rangers in the final of the competition, whose ticket guarantees automatic participation in continental football - the Caf Confederation Cup. Rangers eliminated West Kenya.

 

This belief that you can avoid certain defeat by forcibly causing a postponement of a game is becoming cancerous in our local game and this must end. The local football high priests may not have much moral grounds to mete out moral justice. But again I do not believe they are so mired in sleaze and graft as to allow this malady to continue in the beautiful game.