Well now, when it comes to football, one man has for many years been the most noticeable, the most controversial, and occasionally the most successful blogger this country has ever produced. His pithy words and abrasive style make him as famous off the pitch as he is on it. This man is Escapini. "I love football. Football she's a cruel mistress. She's, she's more than a mistress. She's a wife, she's a mother, she's a daughter, she's an errant child. She's a… she's a… she can make you laugh, she make you cry. She can bring tears me eyes. She can bring blood to me shoulders. She can bring a kettle to the boil." "Cause football is about nothing, unless it's about something and what it is about, is football."

1 min readPublished 14 Aug 2011, 13:45

Arsenal Football Club

Barton Video & Analysis

Bad boy Barton is back. Perhaps so, but two wrongs don’t make a right.

Watching the footage over and over, it seems debatable as to whether Gervinho dived. Certainly it’s difficult to imagine he would have gone to ground quite so quickly had such a light tackle come in on the halfway line.

Apologists for Gervinho will argue that he was provoked. Indeed he was. But so was Barton when Song viciously stamped on him and miraculously avoided a straight red.

In the final analysis, it might benefit both sides to focus on playing better football. It wasn’t a bad game, but with so few decent attempts on goal by either side, Newcastle at home lacked bite and Arsenal look mentally fragile. Butwho could blame them?

Nasri & Fabregas are gone yet judging by his comments after the game, Arsene Wenger appears not have been told.

newbartonincident by arsenalist