Source: team_talk
Mark's Monday Moan: No boos problem
Mark Holmes dismisses the booing of Aaron Ramsey as a 'non-story', has a pop at Joey Barton, and blasts the scheduling of Newcastle v Chelsea.
Ramsey booing a non-story
Before Stoke's game against Arsenal had even kicked off yesterday, I tweeted the following: "Arsenal fans already booing Shawcross. But no doubt it'll be the Stoke fans that have disgraced themselves when we retaliate."
Predictably, I was right. Nothing has been said or written about the booing of Ryan Shawcross before, during or after the game, or the claps Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain received from the Stoke fans, but the retaliatory boos Aaron Ramsey received as an 80th-minute substitute have made it to the top of the Guardian's talking points of the weekend and been discussed to death everywhere else.
I'm sorry, but I just don't understand the furore. Visit any football stadium in the country and you will see a bunch of blokes acting in a way they wouldn't dream of acting in the real world. Stoke fans are no worse or no better than any other set of football fans, and I neither condone nor condemn the booing of Ramsey.
It shouldn't happen, but to me it's a complete non-story and I would prefer not to write about it, just as I didn't write about the booing of Patrice Evra, the booing of Anton Ferdinand, or the countless other examples of football fans acting like typical football fans. Unfortunately, I'll get accused of bias if I don't mention it!
Seriously, though, nobody should get worked up by it. Many will say it is ridiculous that Stoke fans boo Ramsey (and it is, just as it was ridiculous that Evra and Ferdinand got booed), and some Stoke fans will claim they have good reason to boo him, because he did not accept Shawcross' apology back in 2010 or because of the recent drama regarding Shawcross' possible Wales call-up.
In reality, though, they boo Ramsey purely because Arsenal fans boo Shawcross. It's childish and I wish both sets of fans would move on, but football fans behaving like idiots really is not a talking point.
Instead, the focus should be on the best Arsenal performance I've seen in five seasons at the Britannia Stadium. More will be said about their lack of a cutting edge, but defensively the Gunners were excellent and, for once, were caused very few problems by the Stoke attack.
Per Mertesacker dealt with Peter Crouch superbly in the air, Abou Diaby was terrific in the midfield, and Arsenal in general matched Stoke physically and were not overawed.
Once Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud settle, which they will, I stand by my pre-season prediction that Arsene Wenger's men are in for a very good season.
Barton moan unbelievable!
We should never be surprised by anything Joey Barton says, but I can't believe he has had the cheek to complain about his treatment at QPR. "I can only take so much," he said on Twitter, referring to Mark Hughes making him train away from the first team and stripping him of the captaincy. "Enough is enough."
This is the player, remember, that is currently serving a 12-game suspension for elbowing Carlos Tevez, kneeing Sergio Aguero and then shoving his head into Vincent Kompany's.
And he reckons he's been harshly treated? Goodness me. The ridiculous thing is, Barton claimed in one tweet that he accepted his punishment from the FA and his club "like a man." Saying nothing about it, working hard in training and repaying the club for his mistake would be taking it "like a man". Moaning about it on Twitter and moving clubs at the first sign of trouble is definitely not.
Premier League must help its clubs
I have sympathy for any English team in the Europa League. It's a good tournament, but the travelling can be a nightmare, and the Thursday-Sunday routine can be difficult for clubs to cope with.
To ask a team to play on Thursday and then Saturday is plain ridiculous, and that Newcastle's game against Chelsea was arranged for less than 48 hours after their trip to Greece is a joke.
The Premier League should want to help all of its clubs competing in Europe, but Newcastle are the latest in a long line of Europe League contenders that have been treated disgracefully.
Let me know what annoyed you over the weekend, and remember you can follow me on Twitter @Homzy
