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Arsenal survive the North London Derby on the strength of goals by Emannuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner. Dimitar Berbatov scored for Tottenham after the early “Baby Kanu” goal and won a penalty on King Kolo Toure that Robbie Keane lobbed safely into the outstretched arms of Manuel Almunia. Bendtner then made them pay and the Gunners held on to win 2-1. Tested time and time again, and beset by injuries in recent weeks, the Gunners seem to be showing the fortitude and resolve needed to win trophies. We’ll know more after the Pompy and Everton games, but this is looking like a solid effort.

And should the draw of AC Milan in the first round of the Champions League be deemed unfortunate, let that notion be dispelled by the inspired words from the Gunnerblog:

When Arsenal built the Emirates Stadium, it was for occasions such as these. On the 20th February 2008, Arsenal will host AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League. And on that night, there will not be an ounce of trepidation in my body. Not because of Milan’s shaky domestic form, nor our own impressive record at over-turning European giants.

But because this is exactly the kind of match that makes European football great. Only a coward wanted us to draw Porto today. The match with Milan is an opportunity for heroes to be made and for ninety minutes of football to become mythology.

In other words: BRING IT ON!!!

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England were half an hour away from qualifying for Euro 2008, putting behind their poor start in qualifying, choice of manager, team selection debates, and goalkeeping errors. Then it happened. The bottom fell out with a silly Wayne Rooney tackle and another Paul Robinson blunder in goal. McClaren reacted in a panic, bringing on Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch too late to make an impact. And now Russia
are in the driver’s seat with a 2-1 victory.

England’s Euro 2008 qualifying hopes were wrenched out of their own hands as they crashed to defeat in Moscow. The result means Steve McClaren’s side must now beat Croatia at Wembley next month and hope Russia stumble in their remaining games against a hopeless Andorra and an Israel side with nothing to play for.

The Russia substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko grabbed both of his team’s goals in a four-minute spell in the second half, cancelling out Wayne Rooney’s delightfully volleyed first-half opener.

Of course the focus will be on the ineffectiveness of Lampard, the hapless Paul Robinson and the “plastic pitch” - an advanced FieldTurf surface which bears no resemblance to the awful Astroturf surfaces of the 70’s and 80’s - instead of maybe focussing on the overrated Wayne Rooney who scores only for his club, and seems to always make boneheaded decisions that cost England. How many penalties and red cards, hot headed challenges, and ineffective play is worth his supposed special talent? Michael Owen and Emile Heskey or Peter Crouch have yielded much better results for England while Wayne Rooney tries to play left back.

Perhaps one can blame McClaren for putting him in the lineup with Owen instead of trying a better combination - as well as sticking with Paul Robinson even with his poor club play (can you remember successive clean sheets for Tottenham?). There’s also keeping the Gerrard/Lampard combination for too long. All topics for spirited debate over the next month until Russia kick off against Israel. Just don’t blame the surface.

UPDATE (10:39pm Paris time):  France’s Thierry Henry has just put 2 past Lithuania with 10 minutes to go - this coupled with Scotland doing what they do and choking against Georgia and their 17 year old keeper means that neither England nor Scotland now look favorites to go through. I wonder what this means for ESPN’s viewership for the Euro 2008 next summer. At least one good piece of news came out. The US finally won in Europe. Michael Bradley scored the only goal against Euro co-host Switzerland to win 1-0. Freddy Adu almost had another.

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Fresh off having seemingly every member of the starting 11 plus substitute Joe Cole booked against Barcelona in midweek, it seems the Blues were at it again on Sunday against crosstown rivals Tottenham at White Hart Lane. John Terry was sent off late in the match after Tottenham took the lead for good on Aaron Lennon’s winner.

Hey Mourinho - you may want to coach your guys to play without shin-kicking, rib-elbowing and shirt yanking. Just a thought.

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