Yep. We all had high hopes considering how good we played but you can’t say the expectations were nearly as high as now, considering the context etc.
But yeah… going back to that Eduardo moment, I wana cry now… Will never forget that, it’s a permanent life trauma.
We were playing great, I think we were still 6+ on United after the game but had a chance to go +8.
But the Eduardo moment, the way we lost 3 points in the last moment of the game… Adebayor going clear on goal with Bendtner on the other side with an easy tap in, to make it 3-1… Just to miss it.
Clichy giving away one of the stupidest pens even in the last second, with that Gallas reaction at the end….
As said, still 5/6 points ahead Unitee after that but you KNEW things aren’t goig to go well after that.
Wow, the full highlights in good quality out there
Shouldn’t have watched that. Feelings all came back. The Eduardo moment, going 1-0 down, going back up 2-1 with a Theo brace just to concede a wrongly awarded penalty late on with Gallas losing his mind. What a dreadful dreadful day.
WTF in the world is he doing there going back away from the ball, as if he’s doing a GKesque run-up?! Doesn’t spot that player while he’s literally watching in that direction for a few moments…
Honestly sounds dramatic but that one tackle changed the course of our football club so much. Got me raging again after watching it.
Visible impact on the players, then screwed by old Mike the cunt and collapsed that season.
Therefore we don’t end our league title drought after just 4 years, only 2 years removed from the CL final and would basically have remained a top club rather than one slowly spiralling downwards. Wenger would have another notch on his belt while whiskey nose would have 1 less.
We were only five points ahead of United going into that day and still had to play both United and Chelsea away. That United side was one of the best all time in the PL and basically built for the run-in: Players who had been there before, really exceptional defense, forwards that could score from nothing. They were 100% a better side than us despite us playing some great stuff earlier that year.
There are a lot of parallels between that year and our 22-23 season going up against City’s treble winners. Young teams coming out of nowhere to challenge by playing some brilliant stuff for a while but without the depth or experience to really handle the ups and downs of a full league season. And being unlucky to be competing against one of the best PL sides of all time that was just totally locked in during the spring. I think even without the Eduardo injury it probably ends the same way.
The most disappointing thing about 07/08 is our failure to build on it. Signed clowns like Silvestre as well.
Not only that, next season was a shambles. We were lagging behind Aston Villa which saw the Arshavin transfer. Even in the CL Semi Final we reached was a disaster. United gave us a quick reality check that we did not belong and we would start getting our arse whopped in the big games for a long time.
If we are going to bottle this title, this game will likely be the start of it. United always raise their game against us. We have a good record against them at home but this is exactly the kind of situation when we put in subpar performance and let them break the record. Nothing less than a win will do here and we better not fuck this up.
They will obviously play on the counter with Bruno playing the quarter back role. I also expect Carrick to try and negate our set piece threats by keeping Amad and Mbuemo high up the pitch on corners. Whatever they do, we should have more than enough for them, especially given we have near zero injury concerns.
One good performance against a faltering team and look at how cocky they get. I can understand they haven’t seen their side playing that well in ages but to go from there to being sure of upsetting us at home is one long leap.
The only way to deal with this is on the pitch. Put in a strong performance and put their fans and any doubts about our title credentials to rest.
Will never forget that, it’s a permanent life trauma.
