And, make no mistake, that celebration was golden. Even if you like Arsenal — and I love them — that image is brilliant, iconic, exhilarating.

In this age of lifeless all-seater stadiums, the interaction between fans and sports stars is not something I would like to see discouraged.  It is very unfortunate that a steward was hurt at Eastlands because of a few idiots, but I think this is the kind of moment that only augments football as a spectacle. I watched Eastbourne Borough vs. Chester City at the weekend and the ongoing banter between fans and players was an excellent addition to the game itself. (It was a 1-1 draw by the way; Boro gave away another soft penalty at home.)

The assault on Van Persie was obviously not something we want to see — I think there’s universal agreement on that — however, I wonder if we’re missing a trick here regarding Adebeyor’s gamesmanship and crowd interaction? If only people could learn than offence is taken and not given.

Against Slovenia on Saturday, Heskey did not lack enthusiasm or commitment. England demands these things, which is why we love nutters like Stuart Pearce, Terry Butcher, and Wayne Rooney. However, despite Heskey’s earnest and hard-working attitude, we can’t seem to love him.

When the ball comes to Heskey, we — and I mean “we” both in the first-person plural and in the collective sense to encompass England fans — are almost expecting him to achieve nothing positive with it. I find myself hoping that he can hold it up long enough for Rooney or Lampard to link up with him. It’s not really enough is it? I think we should be expecting more of an England player.

If Capello wants a little and large pairing up front, he has the proven option of Peter Crouch and the very exciting prospect of Carlton Cole. Or maybe he can be persuaded to revise his approach and start the in-form Jermain Defoe against Croatia on Wednesday? Either approach would be fine by me.

He wouldn’t drop Rooney. Would he?

Copa do Brasil update

In March we travelled up the coast to Rio for our Copa do Brasil match against Flamengo. As I previously mentioned, we were a goal down from our home leg and we fully expected to take drubbing at the Maracanã.

The Mengão lined up with a diamond-shaped 4-1-2-1-2, which wasn’t exactly a genius move by their coach Cuca. Against our wider and more flexible 4-2-2-2, it gave our fullbacks — Patric and Wellington — lots of space down the wings to deliver crosses. However, despite plenty of early possession, we conceded a goal when Ronaldo Angelim headed in from a corner. Sadly, it then got much worse when our in-form striker, Michel, got injured. An injury that would rule him out for the season and see his loan cancelled.

In Michel’s place I brought on unproven youngster Jean Mossoró and it was looking like a case of damage limitation for the Tigre. (Mossoró, by the way, looks to be one for the future; check our this goal on YouTube.)

No doubt thinking victory was in the bag, Cuca persisted with his 4-1-2-1-2 — but our fullbacks continued to create chances. Finally, on 54 minutes, our target man Zulu headed in a Patric cross. Our consolation goal only lasted four minutes, though; Flamengo striker Obina then dribbled around Anderson Kanu and blasted it into the roof of the net to make it 3-1 on aggregate.

At this point, I adjusted our tactic from evenly balancing the distribution of our passing to focusing it entirely down the wings. Nothing to lose, I thought.

Things then started to get weird at the Maracanã.

On 73 minutes, Luis André got on the end of another Patric cross to make it 3-2 and the Mengão seemed to fall apart all over the field, having no response to our wing play. For the last 17 minutes they barely managed to get the ball into our half, until, with 8 minutes left, yet another cross from Patric flew into their box and Jean Mossoró headed home to send us through on away goals.

Epic stuff, and I rubbed Cuca’s nose in it to the press afterwards. A few of my players were unhappy at my claims that he was “tactically outclassed”; but bollocks to that, he was!

In the next round we faced state rivals Figueirense. This was a real horror show and — with Alceu, Patric, and Zulu all unavailable — we were comprehensively beaten in both legs. A freak 35 yard goal from Wellington the only consolation in a 4-1 aggregate defeat.

State Championship update

The Santa Catarina State Championship is over and it was a breeze for us. We won all of our matches, aside from one draw away at  Avaí and a loss to Figueirense. The final standings were:

The Brazilian third division proper starts next week, so we’ll see how we fair against teams we are more evenly matched against.

You hear a lot about how wonderful Arsenal’s training ground and scouting network are, but it sounds like Liverpool can easily rival them. The Liverpool “Rafalution” includes:

• A 70-strong scouting network, with information on over 14,000 individuals (I bet he just uses Football Manager)
• Transformation of the training ground, even building a hotel at Melwood for the players to stay at before a European match
• Revolution of the players’ diets
• Building a film room and hiring staff who can source any game from the world’s top 12 leagues

Acccording to Herrera:

“Everything started when we arrived there. I signed on as assistant manager but three months later my role changed because we all realised that there were serious problems in the technical department. Liverpool was very antiquated in that sense. So Rafa asked me to change my role and occupy myself with this issue. He wanted me to become the chief scout and start organising, along with himself, the technical department.”

Fascinating stuff.

So why do I hate him?

He reminds me of the kids I used to play football with at school, who would kick the ball into the farthest corner of the playground where no-one else could be bothered to chase it; winning the ball from everyone else by sheer, mindless, attrition. The trouble is — just like those kids I played with — once SWP has the ball, the odds are he’ll do something absolutely pointless with it.

If SWP is not running head first into a centre half twice his size, then he’s playing the ball into utterly unproductive positions. Yes Shaun, if you run the ball into a tight corner — thirty yards and an impossible angle from goal — you achieve precisely nothing. Like the kids in the playground, kicking the ball miles from where the game was actually taking place, you also have the ball all to yourself. Well done lad. Unfortunately, although it is a simple game, football ain’t that simple.

Which brings me onto my next, and strongest, complaint about SWP.

What is the point of a winger who can’t cross the ball? We can forgive poor old right-footed Joe Cole, stuck out there on England and Chelsea’s left wing, having to cut inside every time he gets the ball in an advanced position. But SWP is a right-footer, cannot even cross from the right wing! His endless squandering of possession for England drives me mad, but if I was a Man City fan I would be unable to attend matches without a generous valium prescription.

The weird thing is though, people love SWP. Next time Man City are playing, check out the BBC’s player rater; I can practically guarantee that he’ll be man of the match.

To some degree, I can understand this. Even though SWP lacks footballing intelligence and technique, compared to the other twenty-one players on the pitch, at least he appears to be doing something. However, what these fans fail to realise is just what SWP is doing: Continuously wasting their team’s posession and disrupting any hope of a proper build up of attacking football.