FA Cup preview: the damned United

I think it may be sort of sad that I'm actually much more productive as a writer while I'm at my actual job than I am on days I don't work. Perhaps it's the lack of Football Manager at the school at which I am employed. I really need to get that straightened out, I'm in danger of becoming a real live blogger again.

Anyway, on to the cup match tomorrow, which will find the Gunners facing Leeds United. I have not been a football fan long enough to remember Leeds United as a powerful club. They haven't done much since the early part of this decade, and when I say "haven't done much" what I mean is they've gotten themselves relegated twice and they're currently in the Championship. They haven't been relevant since I've been watching football.

However, I'm still not a huge fan. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that in my research for this post I discovered that Rio Ferdinand used to play for Leeds. I hate Rio Ferdinand, so that's a strike against them. Unfair? Maybe. But he's a pretty loathsome person. Just have a look at his Twitter. Ugh.

The other reason I have for hating Leeds is Michael Sheen. Yeah, you read that right.

More stuff
My primary exposure to Leeds before this FA Cup draw was the awesome film The Damned United, with Sheen as wonder manager Brian Clough. I highly suggest the movie, especially if you watch it tonight or tomorrow before the match because it will get you in a proper Leeds-hating mood. As portrayed in the film (and I understand based on comments from present-day fans that this part, at least, was realistic), they were just the sort of team that I ranted about yesterday - they were kickers. Actually they were probably more like today's Manchester United, in that they could win playing football properly, but chose to mix in some kicking as well just because they were awful people. It worked for them, in that they won the league and played in Europe, but that doesn't mean I can't hate them.

Is it silly to hate a team because of a movie that was only half about them? Honestly I don't care, because nearly the entirety of the Arsenal blogosphere (including plenty of people who watched them play) is in agreement with me, so I feel like I'm probably on to something, regardless of how I got there.

It's going to be a tough match one way or the other. They're not quality enough to go to Europe these days, but they're improved from the form that got them sent down to League 1. They're good enough for Wenger to send Sanchez Watt there on loan - in fact, he may play Saturday - so they must not be taken lightly. This is a game that Arsenal should win, though, even with a vastly inferior side to the one that faced Manchester City this week. To lose this game at home to a Championship side would be an embarrassment, but that's nothing earthshattering in terms of analysis.

But boy, do I ever hate Rio Ferdinand. Let's win it for Brian Clough.

-----

I was going to post some links to other match previews, but evidently I'm the only one who's got one, at least out of the blogs I read. Check out Arseblog in the morning, and 7amkickoff and Short Fuse later on today, as I'm sure all three will have quite interesting opinions on the Leeds match. In the interim, I wanted to share a non-Leeds related post. Darius from A Cultured Left Foot appears to agree with what I said yesterday about Arsenal as a whole club. To reiterate, the club's philosophy as I see it is (and should be) to develop a process that can win silverware - if it doesn't (which I find highly unlikely) I feel that will be much more attributable to chance than something that can be blamed on the manager.

That's all I've got at the moment.