MO2H 6: Arsenal

For this episode of Match of Two Halves our team of the week is Arsenal, and we discuss their season not just in terms of the Premier League, but also the Champions League and the FA Cup.

We’ve recently moved hosting solutions (having reached the download limit on Podbean – an achievement so insignificant that it happens without anyone even noticing. Like winning the Capital One Cup) so it’s now slightly better to download the podcast rather than listening in the in-line media player on this page. Download it for free here (follow the link, then right-click and save) or via iTunes, where you can also subscribe to make sure you get access to the latest episodes as we make them. Comments/questions/answers to the football trivia(l) questions all very welcome on the blog or on the Facebook page.

To sing along with us, click on “Continue Reading” for the lyrics.

“Alex Song”

It’s a little bit funny to play your old side

I was the one Barcelona wanted to buy

They paid a fair bit of money and took me to Camp Nou

I was signed for five years, but dumped after two

If I’d come back to Arsenal, but Wenger said no

Now their midfield’s like the Coquelin show

I’m on the wrong side of London now that I’m at West Ham

My name’s Alex Song and this is who I am

And you can tell everybody I am Alex Song

I was at Arsenal, but now I don’t belong

How can I not mind?

Well, wouldn’t you mind?

If like me you had been

An Arsenal player since aged seventeen

How can I not mind?

Well, wouldn’t you mind?

I should be at Arsenal

Instead I’m hitting long balls up to Andy Carroll

original song and music by Elton John and Bernie Taupin (“Your Song”)

“La Vie En Rose”

Hold to the plan, hold to it fast

Play each game like the last

This is La Vie En Rose

Though my choices make fans sigh

The Emirates rolls its eyes

This is La Vie En Rose

Adapt my strategy? How strange

There’s no need to make a change

Except perhaps to strengthen the squad with another creative central midfielder

And when our best players all leave for Man City

I just say “c’est la vie” and refuse to feel shi- inferior!

Nobody can change my mind

We’ll aim for fourth, that’s fine

And life’s La Vie En Rose

We’ll play the only way we can

It’s all going to plan

This is La Vie En Rose

Dites-moi pourquoi alter perfection

Let’s keep the same selection

This is La Vie En Rose

Adapt my strategy? How strange

There’s no need to make a change

When it’s all going so well

And when people say “pas mal” is not good enough

I just give a Gallic shrug and I say to them “Bof!”

Nobody can change my mind

We’ll aim for fourth, that’s fine

And life’s La Vie En Rose

original song and music by Louis Guglielmi, Marguerite Monnot and Edith Piaf (“La Vie En Rose”)

“Bastian Schweinsteiger”

Staying put, at Bayern Munich

A reliable player for the Germans

He seems an okay guy both on and off the pitch

Just a man with a normal personal life (I assume)

He is Bastian Schweinsteiger, and at the World Cup

His team beat all of their rivals

His name means “pig climber”, but what the pig’s climbing up

I don’t know – anyway, never mind,

He’s Bastian Schweinsteiger

original song and music by Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik (“Eye of the Tiger”)