Another thing. Would it be too much to ask for Petr Cech to

[World's End Stella]

****ing hell...... this really is dragging on isn't it.

Look, the fact is we are more than capable of playing that badly every now and then without being tired or lacking recovery time. It is just something we do. Tiredness is mental as well as physical and the mental side affects concentration and, almost ashamed to admit it, desire. Knowing our players the fact that Wenger went on and on about the lack of recovery probably played on their mind and gave them an excuse (to some extent). Some of them simply don't have the right attitude and focus. The lack of recovery time might have been mitigated if the group of players who should have come in (Walcott, Gibbs, Ozil) were not injured or ill. Typical...

We don't really know why they played so badly night. It could be a combination of things and we have no real way of measuring the relative significance of each factor. Lets just agree that they are a bunch of useless ****s who belong in fourth place

Its good to be back.....

Nicely stated. Welcome back, Peter.

[SWv2]

Do you not agree that fatigue is the most likely reason why a team of talented players might underperform, though? And that that underperformance in turn will spur on the opposition?

You can't just say it's all down to 'playing shït' and nothing to do with tiredness. I would suggest that that Venn diagram involves rather too much crossover for such an analysis to stand up to scrutiny.

No.

I am a very talented footballer but very often I just can’t be ****ing bothered and on such occasion my standards drop to just being better than most others.

Sometimes I am not even tired.

[Ash]

There are indeed lots of factors that can influence and decide football matches – quality of players, quality of preparation and tactics, individual moments of brilliance or indeed the opposite and even intangible things which we often like to mock and dismiss such as the much vaunted issue of desire which can manifest itself in many ways.

Jorge has gone. You can probably mention desire now without getting jumped on.

[SWv2]

Jorge has gone. You can probably mention desire now without getting jumped on.

Thank you A, he was exactly who was in my mind as I typed all that nonsense.

[Burney]

No.

I am a very talented footballer but very often I just can’t be ****ing bothered and on such occasion my standards drop to just being better than most others.

Sometimes I am not even tired.

Yes, but you are an amateur park player of advanced years with a fondness for the good things in life (and The Jam). We are talking about highly paid professional athletes in their teens and 20s who are constantly operating on the outer envelope of human physical performance. Such chaps, I would suggest, very rarely fall into the category of not being bothered.