In regards to the Champions League, I obvious watched Arsenal last week in a game I think we all felt frustrated by. We started excellently, should have taken the lead and then disaster struck as we had Szczesny sent off, went down to 10 men and conceded two away goals.

A massive task for us to stay in the competition but we’ll find out in a few weeks time.

Last night however, I flicked over to ITV1 HD (you’ve got to watch the football in HD right?) and to my surprise Manchester United were losing 2-0 to Olympiacos after only an hour played. This is the Manchester United that always (and I mean always) get the easier draw for the group stages and the knockout stages. A quick look online and on Twitter and I soon found that the person who scored the second goal was Joel Campbell.

And another quick look on YouTube and I soon saw that his goal was top drawer, a goal of real quality.

He coolly nutmegged Michael Carrick before curling a really beautiful shot into the bottom corner, giving David De Gea absolutely no chance.

A fantastic goal on the biggest stage, against a team of real European pedigree.

As you would expect, the Arsenal fans were going mental on Twitter, loving the fact he was on our books.

He was signed in the infamous summer of 2011 after we got battered 8-2 at Old Trafford. Because of work permit issues, he went on loan to French side Lorient and then Real Betis in Spain. This season he’s in Greece and over the last few seasons, he has been getting some valuable experience in different leagues around Europe.

But the big question was, will Joel Campbell ever play for Arsenal?

Joel Campbell is one of those signings you can never tell what is going to happen. Usually when Arsene signs a player he’s will fall into 4 different categories. Either the player is a young star with loads of potential who will slot straight into the first team squad to learn the Arsenal style (I’m thinking Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey), an experienced player who automatically commands a first team place (such as Arteta, Mertesacker, Giroud), a player that goes on loan to get experience because we think he needs to improve (Joel Campbell, Francis Coquelin, Nicklas Bendtner, Emannuel Frimpong for instance) and then we have the final category, which I like to call “Arsene’s Abyss”.

It could be argued that Joel Campbell is in either of the last 2 categories, but in the latter category in particular, Arsene has a record of signing players that leave Arsenal fans completely speechless as to why they even joined the football club in the first place.

You have players such as Carlos Vela, Nicklas Bendtner, Pascal Cygan, Johan Djourou, Sebastien Squillaci, Mikel Silvestre, Philippe Senderos, Fran Merida and Jeremie Aliadiere and Julio Baptista who didn’t make the grade at Arsenal, but you understood why they were bought. They were either young players who had a lot of potential but just didn’t see it realised at the club, even though they were given a lot of chances, or in the case of Zinedine Cygan and The Beast they were just flops.

Then you have “Arsene’s Abyss” – players who you have no idea why they were bought in the first place. And players such as Junichi Inamoto, Park Chu-Young and the infamous Amaury Bischoff are in this category.

In the case of Inamoto and Park Chu-Young, you could assume they were purchased because of their brand in Asia. Inamoto was a big star for Japan and Park Chu-Young is massive in South Korea. Unfortunately for them, although they probably sold a lot of Arsenal shirts at their time with us, their careers went downhill as Arsenal refused to even give them any kind of chance to play for us. It’s hard to believe they were bought for anything other than commercial reasons which in a way is pretty disgusting. The careers of Inamoto and Chu-Young have basically been ruined because of us.

And Amaury Bischoff? Even to this day I have no idea why he was signed. The only rational solution I can come up with is that he was Arsene Wenger’s illegitimate love child and he was blackmailed into signing him got Arsenal.

So what about Joel Campbell?

Will he be another Carlos Vela or could he be someone who could make the grade at Arsenal?

He has said on several ocassions that Arsenal is the club he has supported as a child and he chose us because he has a desire to wear the red and white of Arsenal. He has also stated that he is willing to work extremely hard to make that happen, and from the evidence of yesterday he looks like he is developing into a half decent player.

The key question is, will Arsene Wenger give him his chance?

When Jose Mourinho was about to return to the Premier League, the British media went crazy. People were beside themselves with excitement, unable to wait for God himself to return to our league and grace us all with his mere presence.

But now he’s show himself not to be the “Special One” or the “Happy One”, he’s just proven he’s the “Fucking Stupid One”.

He threw his toys out of the pram when West Ham earned a draw at Stamford Bridge, with the laughable notion that Sam Allardyce’s side “parked the bus”, despite the fact he did exactly the same against Arsenal and Manchester United earlier in the season.

And I’m not a fan of Allardyce by any stretch of the imagination, but his reaction to Jose’s rant was priceless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH53mTdjvbc

And now we have the apparent feud with Arsene Wenger. You don’t need to tell me how ridiculous the “Specialist in Failure” comments are, and how Arsene has overseen a massive stadium move and had to work with limited funds. Mourinho however has spent more money on transfers as a manager than any other manager in world football. Probably, but you get my point.

Jose Mourinho has previous when it comes to being a monumental twat, and here are some of his career highlights:

His Purchases In The Transfer Market

With a bottomless pit of money, obviously you will use it and Mourinho was no exception. Arsenal fans will tell you about Arsene’s ability to buy young talent and mould them into world class players. We have Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Nicolas Anelka, Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas, Bobby Pires, Kolo Toure, Manu Eboue – the list is endless. Don’t get me wrong, Wenger has had his fair share of donkeys in his time. Remember Francis Jeffers? Remember Richard Wright?

Well whatever Arsene’s poor buys have added up to, they surely don’t even come close to the value of Mourinho’s crap purchases.

We have Mateja Kezman (£5.4m), Tiago (£10m), Paulo Ferreira (£13.3m), Michael Ballack (Free), Andriy Shevchenko (£30m) and Asier del Horno (£8m) to name but a few over the years. And Eto’o is setting the world alight isn’t he?

Great stuff.

And some of Mourinho’s best players, Lampard, Terry and Joe Cole were already there, and if you think back you will remember that Petr Cech and Arjen Robben were actually Claudio Ranieri signings.

Tapping Up Ashley Cole

Then there is Mourinho’s disregard for even the simplest rules. Because he had a so-called ‘left-back crisis’ he saw fit to meet Cashley Cole behind Arsenal’s back, despite the fact he was under contract to Arsenal Football Club. Yes, Cole is hardly blameless either but for a ‘top manager’ to even do this is completely ridiculous. Would SAF or AW do this?

This would be a damaging matter that would start from late January until late September of 2005, covering most of the season where Arsenal would finish second to Chelsea in the Premier League. Arguably one of Arsenal’s best talents and Arsenal fans would leave for Chelsea just one season later after Arsene Wenger allowed him to leave, and after playing him in one of the biggest games in World Football – the Champions League Final.

Mourinho himself was fined £200,000 for his part in the saga, which was reduced to £75,000 on appeal. Not a bad price for poaching one of the best left backs in English football.

The Anders Frisk Affair

During the 2004/2005 Champions League campaign and during a game against Barcelona and the Camp Nou, Jose Mourinho publicly accused referee Anders Frisk of ‘inviting Frank Rijkaard to his dressing room at half time’ which is against UEFA regulations.

Anders Frisk would receive death threats after Mourinho’s public tongue-lashing and after severe criticism from Chelsea fans, Chelsea players and Chelsea management. Only weeks later, Frisk would cut short his 18 year career as a referee because of death threats towards him and his family.

Mourinho on the other hand would receive a two match touchline ban.

And Volker Roth, the UEFA referee’s chief would later call Jose Mourinho “an enemy of football.”

Quite an accolade, Jose.

A year later again in the Champions League, Barcelona fans would greet Mourinho with abuse and spitting when he arrived in Catalan, and he would experience even more on the way to the team hotel.

Other Feuds & Controversies

One incident Arsenal fans will remember are Mourinho’s comments where he called Arsene Wenger a ‘voyeur’ who was obsessed with Chelsea. Jose would also reveal having a 120 dossier which was full on comments Arsene has made about Chelsea. Mourinho would realise how stupid he was making those comments and would later apologise to Arsene in the form of a greeting card.

In December 2006, Mourinho was in the headlines again – this time labelling Everton’s Andy Johnson a ‘cheat and untrustworthy’. This would prompt Everton to threaten with legal action, and force Mourinho to apologise yet again for his outlandish statements.

He then of course called Double Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo ‘ill-educated, disrespectful and immature‘, for which Mourinho apologised yet again…

And there was the goal Luis Garcia scored in the Champions League against Chelsea, where had another public tantrum about the goal being allowed in the first place. A top motion expert argued said it was actually over the line, and Rafa Benitez pointed out that Baros should of had a penalty for the initial incident anyway if the goal hadn’t of stood. Something which obviously slipped the mind of Jose Mourinho.

The ‘Special One’s’ Love For Chelsea

Before even joining Chelsea, Jose Mourinho would publicly declare how he would much rather join Liverpool, citing several reservations about joining Chelsea.

And if Jose loves Chelsea so much, surely he would just get on with his job?

Instead he managed to get involved in all kinds of backroom politics, seemingly looking for an excuse for an arguement. Well it looks like he got what he wanted, which was a £20 million plus pay off from the club he ‘loves’ so much.

Conclusion

The problem is the word ‘great’ is banded around far too much, especially with the excessive media coverage we get in this modern age. 24 hour sports news channels, endless football websites – these need to fill time and space and what better way to go well over the top about Jose Mourinho.

We have every man and his dogs opinion on how ‘amazing’ Jose was, and it’s amazing people forget someones faults and failings when they are gone.

Yes, he was probably Chelsea’s ‘greatest ever’ manager but that’s not exactly hard with their “history” is it?

But the media love him because he always has a story. They say Arsene is the king of spin but Mourinho sets his own agenda and the press love it. It’s easy having Mourinho around to create the stories and set the tone, with more and more demand for fresh, new stories.

But people are starting to see what Jose Mourinho really is – a paranoid, control freak who says things for shock value. He loves the attention but craves it so much people are realising he spouts a lot of shit.

I wrote last week that we should get rid of Olivier Giroud, because he’s just not good enough. Now, he’s managed to be an even bigger twat than I thought he could.

Less than 2 hours before the big FA Cup tie against Liverpool, he tweeted the following:

I apologise to my wife, family and friends and my manager, team-mates and Arsenal fans.

— Olivier Giroud (@_OlivierGiroud_) February 16, 2014

I now have to fight for my family and for my club and obtain their forgiveness. Nothing else matters at the moment.

— Olivier Giroud (@_OlivierGiroud_) February 16, 2014

There are several things wrong with all this.

The first is the timing of it all. Why post this moments before the big game? It’s a vital game for our season and it’s a game we need to get a decent result from, to give us momentum for the rest of the season.

The second is apologising on Twitter. He’s only done this because he’s been caught out and it’s been splashed all over the newspapers. So well done Giroud, you’ve apologised only once you got caught with literally, your pants down.

The final problem I have with it all is posting it in the first place. Surely this is an issue you should sort out privately with your wife and child? The only reason I can see for him to post it on such a public forum is because his wife hasn’t forgiven him and he’s trying one last ditch attempt to save his marriage.

Now some of you will read this and think it’s all tosh. But I’d like to think Arsenal are a club with morals. I’d be a hypocrite if I slated Ryan Giggs and John Terry but then supported Giroud – I’d be as bad as Manchester United and Chelsea supporters.

What he did for me, is a disgrace and people who do things like that show what kind of people they are. I can’t believe some of the Arsenal fans on Twitter who are actually trying to either justify or accept his behaviour. Whichever way you look at it, it’s pathetic.

Olivier Giroud is just not very good.

He’s an average striker with an average record. He is not good enough for Arsenal and certainly not for a team seriously aspiring to win the Premier League.

I joked with a friend this week that if Arsene Wenger manages to win the Premier League with Olivier Giroud as our main striker, then he deserves the football club named after him. Reflecting the gigantic miracle it would take to win the league with a rubbish striker.

The performance against Manchester United typified everything that is wrong, and quite frankly annoying, about him.

The first is when he misses chances, which is unfortunately quite a lot. He gestures and flails his arms around, punches the ground, holds his head in his hands, tilts his back and screams – you name it he does it. If he put as much effort into scoring goals as he does at performing his “distraught missed chance face” then he’d be the Premier League’s top scorer.

It’s annoying and pisses off a lot of fans.

The second is his passing ability. Against United, you had players like Rosicky, Cazorla, Özil and Wilshere all trying to play one-twos with him but his return pass was well off the mark. His main job (apparently) is to hold the ball up and keep play going but the vast majority of the time he loses possession.

He also has no kind of intelligent movement. You have a midfield like ours capable of a wide range of through balls and he can’t lose a defender and create a yard of space.

The last and biggest reason we should get rid of him is because he can’t score, which is a pretty important trait you look for in a striker. Against Manchester United his missed (by a country mile) a free header from a corner after only 4 minutes and missed a whole host of chances all night. The worst of which was the brilliant cross by Sagna late in the game which he managed to miss completely.

Any half competent striker (I’m even talking about Darren Bent or Peter Crouch in this category) would have scored at least one of those opportunities. It’s as if Giroud is trying to miss all of these chances.

The problem is when games get tight, like they will do as the season comes to a close, then we need a striker who can take that single chance when it comes.

Is Olivier Giroud that man? Not by a long shot.

Both Arsenal and Manchester United come away from the weekend with their tails in between their legs, looking to quickly forget about Liverpool and Fulham and get a positive result. The question is not which team will win, but which will lose?

Many people believed that the Liverpool game was the start of a massive run of games which would define our season, and we could not have failed more spectacularly. The game was effectively over as contest after 16 minutes and Arsenal never looked like gaining their composure and getting back into the game. As time went on things got worse and worse and we ended up losing 5-1. In all honesty, it could have been a lot more.

Arsenal and Liverpool were polar opposites. Liverpool were the ones with the drive, determination, pace, decisive play and energy to win all three points while Arsenal weren’t at the races. If the match was a race, we would have been the poor lame horse that would have been put down.

Manchester United faired little better. At home they drew to Fulham, a side who are firmly rooted to the bottom of the Premier League. Theoretically speaking they couldn’t have had an easier game but still failed to take home all three points.

So Wednesday will see two heavyweights of the Premier League to head to head. Arsenal are devoid of any confidence after the battering at Anfield while Manchester United are struggling for any sort of consistency under David Moyes. But despite that, they still beat us comfortably at Old Trafford earlier this season.

Manchester United have been poor this season, but they still have the ability to lift their game in the biggest contests. Unlike other sides in the Premier League, Arsenal won’t sit back and make it hard for Manchester United to get through. Players like Juan Mata, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney will have the chance to exploit the space Arsenal will leave and you would be stupid to think they won’t be any threat because of their current form.

The pressure will be on Arsenal to in both a performance and seal all three points. Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal fans know better than anyone that Wednesday marks a massive game in our season and Manchester United will know that. They also know that a draw would be seen as a disaster for Arsenal and a triumph for David Moyes.

All the expectation, pressure and expectancy is on Arsenal.

David Moyes will use this to his advantage and will know that if the game is still tied after an hour the Arsenal fans will get tetchy and the atmosphere will turn.

The big question is can Arsenal recover from the disastrous performance and result at Anfield and pick themselves up for Wednesday? I guess we’ll have to just wait and see.