Divine intervention
Mon Feb 25 08:26AM
Matthew 20:16: 'So the last shall be first, and the first last'
Time was, the only sense in which the Carling Cup final could be described as 'first' was chronologically. It trailed in last for importance, interest and usually quality, as anyone who sat through Middlesbrough versus Bolton in 2004 will tell you.
Everything about the Carling Cup screams "second-rate". The competition is sponsored by one of the most nondescript beers in the world (not the most nondescript, obviously, for it does not even excel at mediocrity). In fact, if you Google "Cooking Lager", a page about Carling is, appropriately enough, second.
The Premier League uses swish Nike balls; the Carling Cup has to make do with Mitre. Champions League shirts have snazzy logos stitched into their arms - the Carling Cup logos look like they are stuck on lopsidedly with Pritt Stick.
It was in that spirit that Sky trotted out a reserve commentary team featuring Alans Parry and Smith, while Richard Keys was given the afternoon off and sent to an exclusive health spa to get the backs of his hands waxed.
But, lo, the occasion produced an excellent game that overcame a slow start to become - and Early Doors doesn't use this word lightly - engrossing (Early Doors probably shouldn't use the word in any context since it doesn't fully understand its meaning).
The only thing second-rate about the game was the goalkeeping. Paul Robinson was probably pondering the demise of 'Doughnut Day' under Ramos when Didier Drogba's free-kick whizzed past him, while Petr Cech picked the worst possible time to unveil his Jim Leighton impression, punching the ball right into Jonathan Woodgate's grateful mush.
Given the somewhat biblical nature of Tottenham's underdog triumph, it was appropriate that their winner was scored by a man who looks a lot like Jesus.
Will this herald a new era for Spurs? Of course not. They are still Spurs, after all, the kings of the false dawn. It is all part of the cycle, and will probably lead to unrealistic demands of Champions League football from the board, followed by the inevitable sacking of Ramos.
As for Chelsea, Early Doors imagines a brooding Roman Abramovich watching the game aboard a yacht in the Caribbean, contemplating the reality that half a billion quid only gets you a team of runners-up.
Add yesterday's result to their defeat in the Community Shield, and it really has been a miserable season in the minor silverware stakes.
Half-time in extra time provided an interesting insight into the Stamford Bridge dressing room, as John '*******' Terry delivered an expletive-filled team talk while Avram Grant lurked silently in the background.
You can hardly imagine Jose Mourinho missing that kind of opportunity to address his players in front of millions of people.
- - -
It was a bad weekend to be French - so bad, in fact, that Early Doors suspects Kevin Keegan might have some hitherto undiscovered Gallic heritage.
There were glum faces aplenty at the Stade de France, where England's Rugby HeroesTM completed their transformation into France's bogey team.
And once again we all forgot about the easy kicks Jonny Wilkinson missed and focused on the slightly less easy ones he made.
Earlier on, William Gallas performed a one-man sit-in at St Andrews at the end of Arsenal's 2-2 draw against Birmingham, after ranting at fellow Frenchie Gael Clichy and stamping on an advertising hoarding.
Arsene Wenger defended Gallas's action on the grounds that they merely show he is a winner. If kicking an advert to within an inch of its life is the measure of a winner, then it might be time to reassess Temuri Ketsbaia's contribution to the English game.
Wenger himself got into quite a strop over Eduardo's horrific broken leg, claiming that Martin Taylor should "never play again" and comparing the admittedly rotten tackle to murder, although he later acknowledged he had gone a bit far. Early Doors wishes Eduardo all the best for a full recovery.
Nicolas Anelka's pout is, of course, a thing of legend, but he looked even more sullen than usual after being stuck on the wing for the Carling Cup final. He's quick and he's skilful, but Nico is no winger and he made his displeasure abundantly clear.
It was left to Younes Kaboul to make up the French smile deficit, and he grinned like a Cheshire cat as he came on for Robbie Keane at Wembley, seemingly oblivious to the 20 buttock-clenchingly tense minutes remaining.
Given Kaboul's previous, Chelsea would have fancied their chances of nicking an equaliser, but fell narrowly short despite referee Mark Halsey adding nearly six minutes for stoppages during extra time - possibly a consequence of the bizarre Spurs tactic of running the clock down by trying to get all their outfield players booked.
As for honorary garlic-muncher Le Keegan, the worst thing about Newcastle's 5-1 drubbing at home to Manchester United is that it surprised precisely nobody.
It was down to Edith Piaf impersonator Marion Cotillard to show her sporting counterparts how to vanquish Les Rosbif, beating Julie Christie to the Best Actress Oscar.
- - -
QUOTES OF THE WEEKEND: "It needs a bomb on the b******." The groundsman is sure to appreciate Steve Bruce's assessment of the pitch at Wigan.
"The worst performance I have ever seen from a so-called Premier League team." Paul Jewell gees up his Derby players. Worth remembering that Jewell recently signed six of the 14 no-hopers who played on Saturday.
FOREIGN VIEW: The Spanish press lay into Real Madrid after a calamitous blunder saw them lose 1-0 at home to Getafe. Arjen Robben had a strike disallowed for offside and, with half the Real team still celebrating the 'goal', Getafe took the free-kick quickly, raced down the other end and scored. Both Marca and As describe Real as "Pardillos", which Early Doors can only imagine translates loosely as "Idiots". "It was a schoolboy error," admitted Guti.
TODAY'S TALKING POINT: Your Gazza tributes recall burping into microphones and showing the ref a yellow card, not to mention cracking goals against Arsenal and Scotland among others.
But this comment from martinday caught Early Doors's eye: "I saw Gazza in a testimonial at Spurs in oversized hobnail boots; he still outplayed everyone." Can anyone confirm or deny this story? Is martinday playing Early Doors for a chump or did this really happen? Plus your views on the Eduardo injury and the rest of the weekend's action are most welcome.
COMING UP: Manchester City take on Everton at 8pm this evening in what ought to be a decent game - we'll be covering that live of course. Otherwise, stick around for our Monday feature-fest including the internet's most scientific Team of the Week.
Hi,
Does Early morning hate Arsenal so much that all he had to say about the tackle is to criticise Wenger and Gallas. It is disgraceful. what is bad is bad. Taylors tackle should be condemned not given as a footnote like you did. early morning is disgraceful. i will stop reading it
From gregodutayo on Mon Feb 25 09:23AMJust what I need on a Monday morning yet more Boro beating by the early doors team! It seems that early doors does not like finals that have exciting starts with 3 goals in the first 21 mins followed by end to end nail biting football for the other 69 mins! Or is it that if a Southern team (or in fact a top 4 side) are not involved in the final it is infact not a quality competition. Liverpool aside everytime a top 4 side makes a final I am sure it is too be a yawn fest! Www.rantover.com
From amarzy on Mon Feb 25 09:26AMI was obviously devastated for Eduardo as he looked like he had just found a bit of form and with no sign of RVP returning soon he was getting plenty of 1st team footie and starting to form a partnership with Adebayor. This injury unfortunately over shadowed the terrible mistake by Clichy and the fact the Theo Walcott actually scored in the Premier League .... TWICE!!! Not mentioned anywhere or by anyone, "wonderkid" who was taken to the World Cup and not played, "wonderkid" who was transferred to Arsenal from Southampton at 16 for a ridiculous amount of money scored and after a nice chest down from Adebayor, could have had a hat-trick!! Slightly dissapointed to not have seen this brought up BUT after reading
'Will this herald a new era for Spurs? Of course not. They are still Spurs'
you made my morning Early Doors
Cheers
From willbenrayn on Mon Feb 25 09:34AMstop @#$%. Early Doors has probably offended every football fan in the country at one point or another.
Reading "boo hoo, i'm not reading early doors anymore" made me laugh. Did you miss the words "early doors wishes eduardo the best for a full recovery"? As a neutral Early doors has the right to knock or celebrate any club and just because your team of red @#$% lost a man to a horrific injury does not require any1 to give arsenal a moments sympathy. I'm surprised wenger even saw it, does the man have eyes or are the pickled onions in his sockets?From acr85 on Mon Feb 25 10:00AMpah
From acr85 on Mon Feb 25 10:00AMaaah early doors team!!! You guys should write a book soon. Sure its gonna be crazy enough to make the bestseller's list
From oluwaponlek on Mon Feb 25 10:08AMspurs comment --- classic and I agree with acr85 .... stop crying dude!
I too wish Eduardo a speedy recovery.From freestyler_micraponer on Mon Feb 25 10:27AMGive spurs a break, there always the under dogs!!! I say well done to spurs!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From d.white594 on Mon Feb 25 10:30AMThere's actually not a lot wrong with the Carling Cup balls, I actually prefer them the Nike one, I have to agree that the sleeve patches just don't have the class of the Premiership or Champions League ones though. Here's wishing Eduardo a full recovery, just as long as it ain't this season - let the trophy stay at Old Trafford first!!!!
From beef_cake74 on Mon Feb 25 10:41AMI, like a lot of people in this country would willingly pay double for their TV licence, Sky subscriptions etc just to see Keegan's face at the end of every game his team plays against the top 4. How on earth did they think a man who doesnt know how to succeed anymore could make it better for them? They had the right man in Allerdyce but demanded too much too quickly. Well done Early Doors in making sure none of us get carried away ...... unless you're called Eduardo. He'll be back next season, and he'll be a major force in Arsenal's team.
From robert.mcconnell10 on Mon Feb 25 11:00AMactually,
carling is 3rd when you google 'cooking lager'..LOL!
baydo12
From baydo12 on Mon Feb 25 11:07AMEvery manager who plays Arsenal will have said get in their faces and bully them. Eduardo's horrific injury was the accident waiting to happen. It will be a magnificent achievement if he ever returns to top flight football. Everyone must wish him well in his reovery from a double compound fracture.
OrthopodFrom robert.stewart on Mon Feb 25 11:16AMI am horrified at the number of times I have to squeamishly look away whilst MOTD runs a slomo replay of a potentially leg-breaking "tackle". There have been so many already this season. So thanks to the TV stations for stopping short of showing the full grisly details in their replays over the weekend. I am also horrified that managers can get away with the "he's not normally that type of player" gubbins. Clearly Taylor is that sort of player, or he wouldn't have lunged like that, studs leading the full impact his body weight onto Eduardo's standing leg. What other walk of life could you get away with possibly destroying a colleague's career, albeit through hyped-up overexcitement rather than malicious intent? It'ss supposed to be a game, for goodness sake.
Personally, I think the punishment should be clear. I am sure Tayor must be gutted and is full of regret (after all he probably didn't mean it, so his reckless disregard for a fellow player's health does have some aspects of being an accident), but there can be no tolerance whatsoever for such an outcome. I think he shouldn't be allowed to play again until Eduardo can - if Eduardo never plays again then neither should Taylor. Wenger was right to be upset, and I say this as somebody who does not really care for Arsenal. Fingers crossed for Eduardo.
From garethcoletranslations on Mon Feb 25 11:20AMI think it was a bit cheap for Wenger to sharply criticise Taylor for the tackle which, in this era is a red card but, to quote a friend who doesn't support a premiership team, "would probably not have even got a yellow in league 2". There have been far worse this season and it is just unfortunate that he caught Eduardo where he did. Wenger does, however, neglect to mention that after his showboating last week, Nani had malicious 'near-misses' from Gallas, Flamini and Clichy, which could've ended his career. Did anyone ever fly into Le Tissier in that way when he showboated? No. So why do these players have an excuse? As a fan of none of the clubs mentioned, I do wish Eduardo all the best. He was, arguably, one of the most clinical strikers in the premiership and I hope he's the same player if/when he returns.
From bazzabazb on Mon Feb 25 11:43AMdear gregodutayo stop crying... you're just as bad as Gallas.
From samuelmanley on Mon Feb 25 11:44AMWell I say "Come on you Spurs" a well deserved win, they were the better team after all. I am sick of all the "well we didn't put our best team out" rubbish. Spurs can only play who they are put against and they did well. Is everyone so jealous that they can't just offer congratulations for their win - whatever the trophy/cup is. Re: Eduardo, as a spurs fan (clearly) I am totally opposed to Arsenal, however, all credit to the team on Saturday, seeing such a horrific injury to a team mate - meant or not, and then to carry on playing. I work in A&E and still felt sick watching the injury on MOTD, so can't imagine how it affected the team. I wish him well. I read that he is hopeful at getting back and hope for him that miricles can happen - not sure it will though. Finally! Well done Spurs! you did it!
From samedwards53a on Mon Feb 25 11:51AMI am bemused at the way everyone is now going on about the injury to Eduardo, yes it was horrific and no one wishes that on any player, but if we take a step back we would realise that this sort of play is allowed in the premiership everyday of the week. The premier league is littered with fouls and referees are told to let the game flow. Commentators and coaches alike call it strength and aggresiveness. i can pick out so many occassions where people are bundled off the ball and this is called strength instead of being called for a foul. This injury was waiting to happen and its not going to be the last, until the game is played fairly nd skillfully like it ought to be played. We want fast furious and competiveness hence what we have now.It should be replaced with fairness skill and thought.....
From sbyron992000 on Mon Feb 25 11:53AMObviously everyone is concerned for Eduardo, but to say the tackle was bad(garethcole) is an injustice. It was merely miss timed as Eduardo got a touch to the ball as Taylor made the tackle.Also to say that they should not have show the tackle on MOTD is ****ocks, they showed this so we could decide for ourselves if it was a terrible tackle or not and not be dictataed to by the media as we are so many times. I was also discussed with Wengers comments after the game calling for a player to be banned for life from the game, although later he retracted the comments(must have seen the replay we did). I wish Eduardo a speedy recovery and hope that he does get back to football again.
From maxzorren on Mon Feb 25 12:02PMI think we all saw what can happen through bad challenges. This one was more clumsy than malicious (I hope) and almost ended a players career. I know this might be harsh, but I feel that any further challenges that go in with studs up should recieve a straight red card regardless of the result. I know sliding tackles are an accepted part of the game, but considering their potentialy devastating outcome, they should probably be punished much more severely. At least, players might have to think twice before diving in like that.
From tor_yvresse on Mon Feb 25 12:17PMSo, maxzorren, are you saying it wasn't a bad tackle then? Presumably the ref was wrong to send off Taylor as well?
From garethcoletranslations on Mon Feb 25 12:19PMIf Taylor managed to hit the ball at the angle his foot went in, he probably would have hurt his own ankle. He went in with his studs up, with the whole weight of his body behind the tackle. He was going for the ball, but he did so without any thought of what might happen. He wasn't trying to hurt the player, but tackled horribly clumsy and miss-timed with no regard for safety. Players should be intelligent and fair enough not to even try tackles like that.
From tor_yvresse on Mon Feb 25 12:27PMIf Taylor managed to hit the ball at the angle his foot went in, he probably would have hurt his own ankle. He went in with his studs up, with the whole weight of his body behind the tackle. He was going for the ball, but he did so without any thought of what might happen. He wasn't trying to hurt the player, but tackled horribly clumsy and miss-timed with no regard for safety. Players should be intelligent and fair enough not to even try tackles like that.
From tor_yvresse on Mon Feb 25 12:28PMspurs are 'lucky'...Chelsea was rubbish...Arsene wenger is turnign to Jose Mourinho...complaining about everything...Micheal Carrick is the best midfielder in England right now...play breaker..good passer...lovely contacts too...lol...Keegan is rubbish...Newcastle is rubbish...absolutely!!!...Paul Jewell is a @#$%..so are his players..at least he admitted dat...Gallas' look on Sat was the most stupid gesture and posture ever...silly for a captain and player...dont blame Clichy..blame adebayor...Walcotts' gaols became a forgotten thing..poor boy..probably have joined Manu..
From omobobo on Mon Feb 25 01:33PMThis Type of tackling should not be permitted, every week we are seeing tackles like this , it was only a matter of time before some poor unfortunate got badly injured. I honestly believe that the FA have an important role in resolving this, and I believe that the offending player should be sidelined until the injured player is fully fit and back playing. This will probably make these over paid primadonnas sit up and take notice, that their actions on the field of play have to be justifiably punished. Best Wishes Eduardo for a speedy recovery. (A Manchester United Fan)
From a.p.m.1 on Mon Feb 25 01:42PMIf Eduardo had not had such a horrific injury then i doubt it would have been a yellow card shown gareth cole. And if ur a arsenal fan gareth you should take a close look at some of your players making two footed tackles week in week out..its amazing that they have not broken anyones bones yet.
From maxzorren on Mon Feb 25 03:16PMYou all talk as if he intentially broke Eduardo's leg. I'm not saying it wasn't an awful tackle, but things like that happen sometimes. We just all have to hope for the best. Djibril Cissé recovered from a broken leg twice, so it's quite possible.
From g_tande on Mon Feb 25 03:20PMAfter thier "take 'em out to the woodshed" preformance vs England, anyone who had Croatia pegged to win Euro 2008 is probably more irrate at Martin Taylor than EarlyDoors,Wenger,Eduardo, and the rest of Croatia combined.
From jasondharrison on Mon Feb 25 03:21PMEduardo is a diver. lol
From justinpmorgan on Mon Feb 25 03:22PMBest of luck to Eduardo. A horrific injury indeed and the sad thing about it was that some may have considered it to be payback for knocking England out of the EURO 2008. The style and agressiveness of the English style of football has been brough up by this, similar to what we have heard about foreigners as well (I remember this being mentioned by a Celtic player during the champions league). Perhaps we should have a UFC type of fight to determine once and for all who does a better job on sending players to the physio's treatment room, the english football hooligan or the untrustworthy foreigner.
Also weren't Chelsea defeated in the Carling Cup final yesterday or are they still feeling the humility of not getting a peantly shot past Van Der Saar in the Community Shield? Better yet both cup finals are pretty much the same since Chelsea lost in both of them and no one really cares who wins it.
From alihatefi on Mon Feb 25 03:35PMmaxzorren, you have a point in that I couldn't bear to watch the replays, so my judgement of the tackle is heavily influenced by the horrific nature of the injury rather than a result of watching the incident properly. Nonetheless, the fact that there are so many terrible tackles which don't normally cause this much damage is no excuse not to eradicate them from the game. Players fly in all over the park, I really am surprised there aren't more injuries. I am most certainly not an Arsenal fan, thank you very much ;o) I always support my local side, so over the years it has been Brighton, Hamburg, Newcastle and now Chesterfield (!) Accidents always will happen - I saw a guy's knee snap above the knee in a Sunday league match I was playing in, and that definitely was an accident - but too many players are too reckless. I think some rugby-style discipline and respect for the ref wouldn't go amiss either.
From garethcoletranslations on Mon Feb 25 03:41PM
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