Hand shake-gate has been back in the footballing news this week after Samir Nasri decided to blank his international team-mate William Gallas before the start of the North London derby at the weekend.
This is only the second time something like this has happened. The only other pre-match hand snub was back in February when Wayne Bridge refused to shake John Terry’s hand because he had an affair with his ex-girlfriend. Remember that?
I don’t really get why players do this. I mean, you’re just shaking hands with a fellow professional, promoting fair-play in the game ahead. It’s not like you have to like that fellow human being or anything, just shake the hand you idiots. Watching Nasri actually walk away from Gallas and hide behind Chamakh was just plain embarrassing. He looked like a weedy child trying to hide from the schoolyard bully. “Oh please William, don’t steal my lunch money.” Moron.
Gallas got the last laugh in the end after his side managed to come back from 2-0 down to win the game 3-2. Making the childish Nasri look a bit of a berk in the process. Speaking of childishness Arsene Wenger’s reaction to the winning goal was to throw his water bottle around like a toddler who didn’t get a tricycle for Christmas.
This is where Arsenal let themselves down. They’re such a great side, with an abundance of quality in their squad, plenty of youth and a great manager. But they ruin it all by acting like children when they lose, or when they head North. Arsene himself has taken part in all these non-handshaking shenanigans before, he refused to shake Mark Hughes hand when his side were dumped out of the Carling Cup by City last season. The rules are you only shake hands when you win, right? He just makes himself look like a sour grape. Shake hands and move on you pathetic idiot.
His side are very good, they have a heck of a lot of pace in there, but because of this he’s left with the by-product of being pretty weak physically. So whenever a side like Blackburn or Wolves rattle them with physical presence and stop them from playing their style of football, Wenger starts complaining again. Maybe it's this that’s gotten through to his players. Well, if it’s okay for him to do it, why can’t they? I’m not Gallas’s biggest fan, but at least he was the bigger man, he offered his hand, Nasri turned it down.
Elsewhere this week: Man City outclassed Fulham at Craven Cottage, which is no small feat. Their camp seemed a little disjointed before the match with Kolo Toure deciding to tell the media that some of his team-mates aren’t pulling their weight and that a lot of them should be paid less. Ironic, considering his brother Yaya takes home the thickest wage packet every week. Nevertheless, City left with three points and four goals.
Liverpool defeated the only team worse than Liverpool, West Ham. Wolves were left floating adrift with the Hammers by another defeat, this time dealt by the ever impressive Blackpool. Stoke continued to impress too with an away win at the Hawthorns, and Brazil defeated Newcastle at the Reebok. The toon desperately tried to take star-man Johan Elmander out of the game, but it was all in vein. Williamson cynically barged through the poor Swede, and subsequently got away with it; Coloccini wasn’t so lucky as a plucky linesman spotted his elbow to Elmander’s face and he was sent marching home. Elmander won the day, bagging his first and second home goals of the season in a 5-1 win.
Manchester United are still fumbling their way to the top, still undefeated, still playing like a broken record. Rooney received a very mixed reception upon entering the fray as a substitute against Wigan. Two headers from Evra and Hernandez finished off Wigan, who ended the match with only nice men. United currently sit in second on goal difference. They have Chelsea to thank for that.
Ray Wilkins revealed himself to be the cat from Hong Kong Phooey when upon leaving the club under mysterious circumstances, Chelsea could only muster a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Sunderland at Stamford Bridge followed by a demoralising defeat to a Lee Bowyer goal at St Andrew’s at the weekend. Chelsea’s mild-mannered janitor, Carlo Ancelotti, is now under pressure and there has been rumours he’ll be finding a P45 in the morning post sooner rather than later.
However, before the mid-week game against Zilina, Ancelotti quashed the rumours saying he’s adamant he is staying at the club at least until his contract expires in 2012, that his side’s poor form has nothing to do with Wilkins’s departure, and he still has full confidence in his team. Chelsea managed to scrape a victory against the Slovakians to break the curse of Ray. For now at least.
Wilkins’s departure is still a confusing one though. Nobody seems to know why it happened. It seems amicable at this point, although Wilkins is now seeking legal advise on what he sees as an unfair dismissal. It doesn’t seem to be a redundancy. Michael Emenalo has been promoted to assistant coach within the club so I’m still bemused as to why it happened.
In the past the Chelsea players have all held him in high esteem, now they’ve all gone a bit quiet. Though it’s unlikely any of them will side with him as they actually play for the club, so that’s hardly surprising. He speaks Italian fluently so I would have thought he would have been invaluable inside the dressing room. It seemed his relationship with Ancelotti was good, but maybe it went sour. Times change. It’s just strange that they’ve done it mid-season, rather than at the start or at the end of it.
They all just need to make friends again. Shake hands you two.
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