Same Old Arsenal, Always Losing

Mission Accomplished by one of the twin terrors

Old rivalries between Fergie and Wenger are renewed but both old foxes recognised that they are battered old men too for the past two weeks. Wenger found himself kicked out of two competitions following an embarassing winning goal scored by Birmingham in the Carling Cup final and outplayed by Barca in Nou Camp. His boast of a Quadruple was silenced to a mere possible Double. On the hand, Fergie found himself outplayed by both Chelski and the Scousers at Stamford Bridge and Anfield respectively. It is clear that both needed a massive Cup boost and the loser from this knock-out round will surely be damned badly. The stakes are high. Loser goes home with a huge moral deficit to make up for. Fergie is known to have placed some of the wackiest line-ups, such as putting Fletcher as right-back, Carrick as a center-back or Evra as a left winger. But no one was prepared to see him field a total of SEVEN defenders. Brown, Smalling, Vidic and Evra in core defensive duties. Twins effect Rafael and Fabio will occupy the right and left wing. Jack-of-all-trades O Shea goes to the center with Gibson. You could say that the entire midfield is an untested combination overall.

In any case, the Gooners could not handle the makeshift midfield or the substitute striker pair of Rooney and Hernandez. It is very bizarre to see that the da Silva twins actually performed better as wingers rather than standard defenders..lol. In the 27th minute, Hernandez forced Almunia into a save and the ball spilled onto an incoming Fabio who delightedly put it into the open net. Rafael was the architect in the 2nd goal at 48th minute of the 2nd half. Hernandez was again in acres of a goal-scoring opportunity when he was robbed of the ball but fortunately another player was there to pick up the remnants again and it's Rooney this time who scores. Wayne's recovery back to the goal-scoring trail looks to be good. The Gooners couldn't find a way to overcome the score and with the final whistle, Wenger is condemned to the fact that the Gooners are kicked out of a third competition in 3 weeks. Now, all that's left is the Premier League or nothing. Incredible, from an audicious claim of Quadruple, Wenger was forced to eat his words. The mental strength of the Gooners are all in shambles now.

I believe this would be a massive boost for United in their next few matches, most notably the one against Marseille this Wednesday. I have a vested interest in this because I want to watch a Champions League match live against a massive European opponent! So, come on United! =D

Under:Stand:Up

The Christian Union meeting took a break from it's regular schedule to have an inter-faith night instead known as Under:Stand:Up which consists of students from the CU, Jewish Society and Islamic Society. No doubt the polytheistic groups are excluded since they are a minority over here, so it becomes more like a gathering of Abrahamic societies. All the sons and daughters of Abraham under one roof..lol. The main guest-of-honour of the night is the stand-up comedian Imran Yusuf and he's really really goood with his funny materials. One thing that I respect him about is that he is able to poke fun at his own heritage in a graceful way. As I made an observation, quite a number of the Muslims in Britain are Pakistanis by origin. Mhmmm..I would like to touch a little on multi-culturalism in Britain since I'm on topic about it. Recently, David Cameron, the British PM declared that multiculturalism in Britain has failed. Of course, he refers to the extremist and terrorist elements but there are some elements in the truth of that statement even in the standard British community.

As somebody coming from multi-cultural Malaysia, I find the Brit's idea of multiculturalism to be a very different form. To them, it's just migrants coming in and living in a tolerant way towards them. Little attempt is made to understand them better because they just don't find it neccessary. It is true in Malaysia that the 3 main races don't always get along so well with each other but underlying all the politicised tensions, the common average Malaysian folk actually has a decent amount of knowledge about the other races and we often infuse our cultures together to make it uniquely Malaysian. Every Malaysian is comfortable with Nasi Lemak and Mamak. We speak Malay and even adopted some Malay words into the Chinese dialects. We get to experience the festivals of different races in Malaysia too. Every Malaysian is usually accustomed to knowing more than 1 language. The Indians happily waltz into a bak kut teh stall while the Malays are perfectly alright in dining at a Halal Hainanese Kopitiam.In comparison at Britain, most of the local Caucasians know only their English culture and 1 language - English. There are minorities living among them - the Punjabis, the Pakistani Muslims and to some extent the Hong Kong Chinese. But ask the Brits about even the most simple thing about their minorities, they are almost clueless about it. The only thing they know about the Chinese is "Ni hao?" and the Indians are curries. Even among the minorities, they have little idea about each other's group. At least the two main minorities in Malaysia, the Chinese and the Indians, interact constantly and they are comfortable and do know much about each other. The new generation of Brits has little inkling about the former colonies of Britain and they don't even know that Malaysia and Singapore are former British colonies. If one loaths about racial segregration in Malaysia and how the different races actually restrict themselves only to their own circle, it's the same over in Britain. But I would say that Malaysia is better than Britain in the multicultural level because at least we have the opportunity to meet and interact with other races. We get to know about other religions and cultural practices. We are so diverse and yet we still try to learn from each other. I find the local British to be lacking in this adventurous spirit of learning about other cultures. Hence, this also contributed to the low levels of welcoming spirit by the Brits in addition of the subtle xenophobia that may be present in them.

Well, the interfaith event organised by the societies are a good first step to encourage integration and understanding. I think that it will be harder to organise something of a similar nature in Malaysia due to the sensitive nature of religion in the Peninsula. A similar idea based on inter-ethnic relations could work better for Malaysia but the inter-ethnic approach may not work as well for Britain because the ethnic communities there are not as intergrated and overlapping as the ones in Malaysia. Anyways, I'm very thankful that I'm raised up with a multi-cultural perspective attached in me in a different part of the world known as Southeast Asia xD

Kuyt and Bashed

It was another miserable away outing for United as they got their brains bashed by the Scousers at Anfield. When I saw Brown at the starting line-up, I knew we were going to have a hard time to hold the line. Brown had only played 3 games this season while Smalling is presumely still rocked by last week's performance. Vidic's absence was certainly felt as United were literally ran ragged by Suarez's silky moves. He waltzed past 4 United players to set up an easy goal for Kuyt to tap in. If Mr Vidic had been there, he would have given the Uruguay fella a nice authoritative slide tackle. The 2nd goal was one of stupidity and a giveaway. For some bizarre reason or so, Nani's header ended up directing the ball to Kuyt who promptly connected it with his head. Nobody knows what he was thinking and by this time, the United players knew that the contest is almost over. You don't go down 0-2 at Anfield and recover from that easily.

Melee is plenty and this fixture is probably more heated in more recent years because of what is at stake for United. At around the 44th minute, Carragher lunged at Nani with a horror tackle which could essentially see Nani out for quite some time. The seriousness of the injury was not apparent until after the match when pictures revealed that Nani actually had a deep gash wound which split open the flesh. While watching the match, it looked for a moment as if Nani was crying wolf again and his strange motion of getting up and falling down again looked like one of his usual diving antics. But as the medical staff rushed onto the field, Nani was clearly seen to be in real tears and I was wondering why he was sulking like a prima donna. Nani was almost on the verge of wailing as he stared back at Carragher as if he had made a career-ending tackle. Now, all that drama turned out to be quite serious in the end and I'm sure the United players were not pleased with Gerrard screaming at Nani to get up with his bleeding leg. But that was not the end of the melee, Rafael got into a bad tempered clash with Skrtel barely minutes after the restart of whistle when Nani was stretchered off the field. Red cards could have very well spammed all over the place but the referee opted to keep the players in. Well, some could have argued that Carragher should have been sent off but I reckon that still wouldn't have change the result because United was playing poorly overall.

Any chance of comeback went up in a smoke as Kuyt did what Berbatov did to them at Old Trafford - a hat-trick. The 3rd goal showed how off-duty the two center backs were and Kuyt was literally a free man to pump the ball into the back of the net. Hernandez in the dying minutes put in the consolation goal and that's about it. One would have wondered whether the situation would have been different if Berbatov's chip had not hit the post earlier.

Two defeats in a row. I felt that Fergie should have started Fletcher instead of Scholes because the old gun was not of any use during the match. They would have needed the extra physicality present in Fletcher to combat the Liverpool midfielders. United were fortunate that the Gooners did not overtake them because of the draw that the Gooners had with Sunderland. At present, it means that if the Gooners had won their extra game in hand, they would be level on points with United but United will still come out tops because of the goal difference. This makes the match at Emirates even more compelling as it could be a season decider. In any case, what's done is done and I hope United don't take long to start winning again. It's not easy when the team has the big threes in a row on consequtive weeks but it is essential that they overcome Arsenal next week to inflict psychological blows on Wenger. United really have to ensure that their season don't continue to derail badly.

CG Bonding and Guitar Debut

I've been spending some quality time with my Chinese CG for the past two days. We had a dinner at outing at Tong Palace after our Friday seassion and I can't believe we just chatted away the night till 1.3oam! We were clearly the loudest table in the restaurant especially we started discussing what medical students do during placements in hospitals. On the next day on Saturday, we gathered at Springfield for an advanced pancake day gathering and bookmark making session. The girls tried two types of pancakes, the thicker American type (which you can find in McD) and the thin British type (which is known as crepe). At the end of it, we were just bloated from the pancakes..lol. These may just be very simple gathering of dinner or making pancake but it's good fellowship time. This is perhaps something which the Brits will take some time to comprehend, which is the importance of meeting up and doing little things together outside the official allocated time.

Mhmmm..this is an overdue update and it was supposed to be included in the previous entry but somehow I forgot to. But since I'm on the subject of Chinese CG, I might as well include in here. Last Friday, I played the guitar for an entire worship session for CG! I know only the G chord family, so I made sure that I transpose all the songs to G. I gotta thank Janice for giving me the opportunity to play because I wasn't sure about it at first but nevertheless went ahead with it. I have to say the experience was great in the end and I've discovered a few new things in the process. First was that I could play C, E Minor and D in an easy way without shifting my hand position too much. Secondly was playing with the use of the Capo. And lastly was that being a drummer help alot in the rhythm strumming as I had no problems in keeping up with timing. So, the only thing I gotta work on is pressing right keys at the fret board. At the end of the session, my left wrist was literally strained from the bent position that was adopted and even prolonged hours of drumming has never strained my wrist like that! lol. Hmmm..looks like God is putting me in a new secondary musical role to play guitar given the absence of drums. I'll certainly be looking for more opportunities to serve in the guitar region if given the chance!

A miraculous return

Some of you may recall the loss of my beloved 7 year old pencil case 5 weeks ago. I've been looking at the same spot every week in a row. This same spot is the dark lost and found storeroom which stores all the things that cleaners found lying around in the conference auditorium. Every week without fail before EU lecture on Wednesday, I would pop in to rummage through the things but nothing came up so far. I did that for 3 weeks continuously but nothing was found. So I gave up on the 4th and 5th week. But yesterday was apparently the last week of EU lectures (actually it was not in the end because the lecturer couldn't finish in time and had to drag on next week too). So, in any case, I thought that yesterday would be the last time I would be at conference auditorium, so might as well try for one last time. So I opened the storeroom door as usual, with little hope placed with the same routine and bent down to start feeling some of the pencil cases on the floor. Suddenly, I felt something familiar which I recognise for years. Could it be.....

I pulled the item out and straight away I had a huge exclamation of joy. It IS my pencil case! Wooottss! Thank you Lord! Fortunately I did not fish out some Queen's pounds to buy a new pencil case yet. I did an equipment check and everything looks to be in order with no items stolen. The pencil case was once lost but now it's found. I'll definitely be more careful in the future :)

Blue-faced encounter

Chelski may be too far off to retain the title but that won't stop them in spoiling the party :(

Man Utd's bad run at Stamford Bridge continues. This fixture is a rather strange one considering that the Blues are virtually out of the title race this season. But they posed the greatest clog in United's march to the title and they have proven so. Fergie had opted to maintain the same away team that smashed Wigan 4-0 for this match and Rooney seemed to be starting a run-up of good performance by putting in a ballistic shot from outside the penalty box to put United 1-0 up in the first half. Everything looked to be in order when half-time approached with consistent pressure being applied to the Chelsea goal and Fernando ain't looking like scoring at all. And in the second half, everything just fell apart. United paid the price for sitting back even by a little. Chelski's very own energy ball David Luiz popped in an equaliser. By the time Zhirkov and Drogba came out, United's attack were almost faded away. Hernandez was outmuscled totally by Terry and Berbatov as a replacement did little to change that. Smalling, who have been performing well in all of the matches that he had started, ran out of credits in the 2nd half and commits a grave mistake by conceding a penalty. Zhirkov capitalised on his inexperience by charging at Smalling's sticking out leg and falling flat on the ground afterthat. Lampard finished the penalty and Chelsea completed a 2-1 comeback. To add a humiliating sucker punch to United, Vidic was sent off in the dying minutes, leaving United in a little center back crisis.

In any case, the away support was fantastic with their "Chelsea Rent-Boy" chants. The few thousand minority were louder than the majority Stamford Bridge fellas who were just sitting there warming the seats. Obviously many of them won't forget Fernando's association with the Scousers, so all the anti-Liverpool chants were rained on him too. Of course, the two jokers on the field are Wayne, who elbowed a Wigan player during the weekend and got away with it and Cashley Cole who shot a poor boy with his air rifle and he got away scot free too..lol.

Honestly, United didn't play too bad in this match. It could have gone either way. They had several chances which could have worked but didn't have the fire in the belly to finish it up. I can spot 2 chances where Rooney had given a diagonal pass across the goalmouth and a incoming charging player could have easily given in a tap in into an open goal. But on both occassions, the charging players did not go all out to chase the ball. Dissapointing result but the week of reckoning is not over yet. There's still Anfield coming up and the Scousers, no doubt are having some sort of erratic form under the Dalglish, could pose a similar threat. The golden question is, who's gonna be filling in the center back with Ferdinand, Vidic and potentially Evans out of the picture. Smalling will definitely have to play, and this leaves either John O Shea or Brown who are capable to take over. In any case, Andy Carroll will look forward in exploiting that soft center.

The results leaves Arsenal 4 points away with a game in hand, which potentially means a point gap in the end. And United, other than going to Anfield, still have to visit the Emirates. However, injury rocked Arsenal can also prove to be shaky where Fabregas, Van Persie and Walcott out and it remains to be seen how they will perform in their remaining sessions. The title which seemed to look like Chelsea's at first, and then to United's later, is now up for grabs again.

Fictional Law

The past week has rather been quite an uneventful period, with just classic work and work occupying my weekends and weekdays. I would say I finished up alot on the things that I have set out to do, like completing a few articles for my paid writing job, crafting out a birthday present for one of my friends and sending in a global short story competition entry which is organised by the student union. I also took some time to catch up some overdue experience farming run for one of my characters in Guild Wars. So, last weekend was one of the most relaxing and free weekends I have because I've completed lots of stuff already and I'm partially saved by the fact that my dissertation supervisor had not ring the battle calls for the 4th meeting yet. But I bet it's gonna be coming soon and I need to push myself to prepare another further 3000 words again.

The last week or so also saw me receiving my assignment marks back. I was pulling out my hair over a slight miss over the goal mouth which saw my criminology assignment falling short of 1st class by 2 marks. And I was also dissappointed in the assignment marks for jurisprudence which I had expected to get better but in the end, got less than my criminology. Well, both assignment marks are in the 2nd upper class range but I had expected better returns. It seems that after looking through my juris paper, I find it to be a little like the silly last minute goal that Arsenal self-destruct themselves in the Carling Cup Final. It started out well and superb but just couldn't hit the crux when it matters the most, and I'm lamenting the fact that I didn't spot the need to rephrase a couple of issues around to give myself a higher chance to score. But such is the nature of the Arts subjects, and jurisprudence being philosophy is the closest I have to Arts. I felt that I've presented my case which I believed was the strongest at that time of writing but the examiners didn't buy it or see it my way. In Arts, you can either be a genius on one occassion or be a fool in another. It's a random shot. One can only hope that if he's off-mark, it won't fall on the paper or marks that matters. Suddenly, my criminology marks didn't look that bad all, but a mammoth effort is gonna be needed to get my juris back on my targeted goal, especially with law and religion looming around unfavourably. I have to admit, that I get frustrated and pissed off easily whenever I don't meet the high targets and expectations that I set for myself or when things don't go the way I want.

On a brighter note, I've enjoyed a change in module for jurisprudence with the start of Law and Fiction. I've seen more of the familiar faces of Malaysians and Singaporeans joining the class instead of me sitting all alone in the class with Ang Mohs. And I foresee myself becoming good friends with this Law and Fiction module after my experience with English Lit and literary analysis. I hope I can smash as high as possible for this one to make up for the potential deficit in L&R and the assignment. And another thing to look forward to is the end of EU law lectures because this week is the last! Looks like Wednesday is gonna be a free day in the coming weeks!