Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Assesing Arsenal Title Chase: Lessons From Shaun Of The Dead & Why Celebrating World Wildlife Day Will Do Us Some Good

Monday blues? Tuesday’s grey? Well, today’s post is all about urging all you Arsenal Damu to assume an extra-corporeal mindset. Translation: for a change, get over yourself. 72hrs later, I have some gooner pals yet to come around over some mundane stats such as our conceding of two goals, one each, in two consecutive games from shots outside the area. I mean (!?) spare a thought for Ukraine, Egypt, Taiwan, Venezuela and The Central African Republic.

To that, add other 21st century societal struggles like the LGBT divide-that assumed new levels the past 24 hours with the Ugandan presidential assent to a law that outlaws same-sex relations. Some insist that Whatsapp recent system blip ranks up there with that. Mix it all up and you have the perfect storm. In no way are these simple ugali and  mrenda issues. I tell you, things are elephant! A friend recently quipped “gay rights and Africa…” and left it at that. I’ll follow that cue and….

Picking up the wildlife theme, do mark the 3rd of March 2014 on your Google calendars. No, it’s not the day the double whammy of Ramsey and Walcott (complete with a Diaby special) turns on its head as the duo (plus Diaby special) burst back into full training just in time for the March Madness fixtures.

This  happens to be the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as the UNEP website so eloquently puts it; in simple speak, it is the first ever World Wildlife Day.

Let’s all drum up the day, wind up your boss by naively asking if it means that there will be no clocking in the 3rd of March.  Insist that being a fundamentalist- animal- lover -environmentalist, World Widlife Day is as good as Christmas. Come on! Give it a try, besides, there is a chance to that your boss is half as asinine as you secretly think he is. I am yet to know of the ribbon colors that would signify your support for the protection of the world’s flora and fauna, but in the Utopian world of football, it’s all Mars-red.

Save for Bayern Munich, across Europe’s three major leagues, the stellar cast of Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City and rank outsiders Liverpool and Atletico Madrid, still sweat over being league champions. It‘s refreshingly tight; when admixed with knock-out domestic and continental cup football, the fixture list is a dream.

This, the more reason why we all need to step out of ourselves, take in the world about us lest we be like Shaun and Ed in the first rolls of Shaun Of The Dead: Spaced out in a zombie infested world. In many ways, Arsenal’s journey to this point in the 2013/14 season is akin to the Shaun led escape to the Winchester pub. Now that we got there; what next? Do we sit in the dark and eat peanuts?



Does Arsene Wenger have a plan?


Is it about time (just like how Shaun had to shot his zombie mother in the head to destroy her brain as besides removing her head, it was the only plausible way to kill a zombie)  that arsenal kills off beloved yet lost causes like the Champion’s league round of 16 tie against Bayern by fielding a weakened side? Or will a thrashing in that game scramble the team’s mentality in effect killing of any chance of glory after such a hard worked season?

At the end of it all, unlike in Shaun of the dead where Shaun ends up with both the prized possession (the girlfriend- read the premier league) and his zombie, hidden- in- the- backyard-life goals-derailing-sleeping on your couch-best mate Ed( read the FA Cup); will  we rather settle for Ed (the FA Cup)  and avoiding  the perennial fourth place dog fight?

Or will the imminent return of Ramsey be that God sent moment when Shaun and the Girlfriend Liz  being trapped in Winchester’s cellar and out of bullets contemplate suicide only to chance upon a goods lift via a matchbox light as they attempt to light a cigarette? What’s your take? All the same remember to commemorate the World 


Dear,Joel Campbell,
Hope you are holding up well and Olympiacos is treating you just fine. Though you are yet to don the white and red, today is that chance to tattoo yourself in all gooner hearts. Gun down united and at the end of it all,do a half-turn and with a twinkle in your eye, beneath your breath growl, "I'll be back!"
Regards,
Arsenal


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