Five Thoughts: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Top song from 1975 (most weeks at #1):I think this was stuck in my head for over a decade.

1975 also produced this guy. Hey, I hate ManU with the heat of a nova (sports-hate, that is, so calm down, fans of the red menace) but I'm also a Galaxy fan so, yeah, I'm conflicted.

I’m not at all conflicted about my gratitude for the serious hotness brought in by that year: her, her, her, her, her, her and her. Aphrodite was working overtime in MCMLXXV.

And we need not dwell on 1975 much longer than this because one of the more annoying streaks in the history of our beloved Citizens is now done. Arsenal got waxed eight ways to Sunday and five things stood out to yours truly:

I. Our best 30 minutes of the season. Were you as shocked as I was that the first 30 minutes of football, our best effort of the season in my humble opinion, occurred without the services of YaYa Toure and Sergio Aguero? Mind you, this was at the Emirates, site of our biggest meltdown in year of our lord 2012. It was a horrible night that put the season on the brink of disaster and Mancini & Co. turned it into our greatest joy. And I’m wondering now if Sunday’s match doesn’t trigger a similar run of wins. Again, we haven’t looked that good without YaYa and Sergio ever; quite literally, every single Citizen was playing extremely well. And the MD’s had a lot to do with it.

II. MD’s mean media darlings and that is what James Milner and Gareth Barry are. And I get I, I really do. You’d be hard pressed to find more perfect symbols of the English footballer than James and Gareth. Both were banished to the bench for various reasons this season (Milner especially so) and Barry has the distinction of playing what I believe to be the worst game a Citizen has turned in this season. But the love never stopped—did you catch John Gregory reporting that one City official said, "I wish we had ten more like Milner and Barry" and this was before Sunday’s contest? Milner’s contributions to the win were obvious (either he or David Silva gets my MOM vote) but Barry was extremely effective as a holding midfielder. For a long while Sunday, I honestly forgot YaYa wasn’t playing and as most of you know, YaYa is my favorite player on Terra Firma. If (huge word, that) Milner and Barry continue with this form, the Citizens will be extremely difficult to beat in any stadium. Welcome back, MD’s.

III. Replay? Yeah, Replay. We need it, people. I spent the weekend watching football (notice how I'm not calling it soccer anymore? Yeah, I'm growing) and the NFL and I am ready to address the objections of those who say that, like the NFL, replay in football would take too long to decipher; minutes would be added on to a match and it would interrupt (wait for it) the flow of the game. And this, dear readers, is all my balls. In the NFL, it can be very difficult to tell where the ball is on a reviewable play whereas in football (not soccer, dammit), it’s not so tough. How long, really, would Mike Dean or a sideline official need before seeing that, yes, Dzeko was fouled and a red card plus a PK was the correct call. That’s if Arsenal challenges using SB’s Replay Rule. And how long would Dean need to look at the replay of Kompany’s red card before deciding, yep, from the angle it looked like a dangerous two-footed lunge but in reality, it was a good tackle so no foul (or at worst a yellow)? And this would come after Mancini’s challenge of the call. For each play, 60 seconds tops. That’s two minutes of added time. Worth it, in my opinion. Let’s get the calls right with the help of the technology that is right there in front of us. I say this for the thousandth time and there will be a thousand more until we get it, people: Calls of enormous import are getting missed. These calls can be corrected by replay. Therefore, we need replay.

IV. Ya Pays Your Money, Ya Gets To See Your Players! I don't know why I can't make the letters bigger but trust me on this--click the link. And not for nothing--62 quid? That ain’t cheap.

V. Poll! You know what to do.