da spicy bet：
da aposte e ganhe： Paul Scholes has been in scintillating form so far this season, and he has been receiving plaudits left right and centre from virtually everyone involved in football. Just like Ryan Giggs last season, Scholes is showing some great form and if he keeps it up he might just have a chance of repeating the Welshman’s award winning capabilities at the end of the season. One man who has not gone out of his way to praise Paul Scholes however, is Arsene Wenger. The ‘Professor’ has never been short of a controversial word or two and his latest quotations may not be to Manchester United fans taste, the Daily Telegraph quotes Wenger on Scholes,
“You ask me ‘was Scholes a fair player’? I say ‘no’. I’m sorry, for me he was not a fair player. There’s a little bit of a darker side in him, sometimes, that I did not like. I respect him highly as a quality player but I did not like some things he did on the football pitch and I have the right to say that.”
When one thinks of ‘dirty’ players over the past years, Paul Scholes will generally not be at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Scholes of course is infamous for his poor tackling abilities, but it would seem this is not through maliciousness but through over-eagerness. That is not an excuse for a horrific tackle, but I cannot recall Scholes ever intending to go out there and break someone’s leg.
Arsenal themselves have not been short of a hard player or two during Wenger’s 14 years as manager. Patrick Vieira particularly springs to mind, the midfield general was tough in the tackle but never seemed intent on doing harm. When Arsenal won titles, they had players who were dominant figures on the park, and in some cases perhaps had a bit of a ‘darker side’ about them. Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira, who both captained Arsenal to titles, were titans on the football field, and if someone on the opposing team was trying to bully one of the Arsenal players, Adams or Vieira would not stand for it and would make that firmly known. Patrick Vieira was sent off ten times in his Arsenal career, but he drove the Gunners to great success and is nothing less than a legend at the club.
A simple solution such as just bringing in a ‘hardman’ will not do. But in recent years Arsenal have been guilty of getting bullied on occassion, and you get the impression that had Vieira or Adams around, this might not have happened. The current Arsenal squad does not have a dominant figure in this mould, and they may find they get bullied again in certain grounds this season. It is possible to play beautiful football and have a dominant player, Barcelona have Carles Puyol for instance, who is not afraid to stamp his authority on a game. Perhaps as Thomas Vermaelen matures and gets more experience in the English game, he can become a one of these players for Arsenal. But for now, Arsenal will need to rely on their supreme footballing skills to overcome aggresive opponents.
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