My cat is a Gunner

My cat Whisky has been known to enjoy a football match here and then, but yesterday he came out of the cat-closet to show me that he is a Gunner.

I sat down to watch Leeds versus Arsenal and Whisky was soon comfortably seated in front of the TV, something he has done before:

But it did not take long before the fat and lazy bastard became clearly upset at an initial (but eventually feeble) Leeds pressure:

But the Arsenal started to move forward, and Whisky moved forward to support his team:

I had never seen him this committed as I asked him to move aside so that I could watch the match. But as the stubborn cat that he is, he refused to move away as Leeds got a corner kick and Whisky was meowing for the Arsenal defense to stand strong.

Arsenal was soon able to put more pressure on Leeds, and it was the Spaniard Martin Zubimendi, who following a corner kick, brought Arsenal ahead, and Whisky just looked at me with his "I-told-you-so" arrogant cat-look:

Of course, like any fan, he wanted to look at the replay again and again:

The little Gunner-cat was so happy he really wanted to rub in "we are winning, we are winning".

As the reality of Arsenal's dominance became clear, Whisky became satisfied, and he cuddled with me on the couch as Noni Madueke, Viktor Gyokeres and in the end Gabriel Jesus with a splendid strike, gave Arsenal a 0-4 victory that have put the Gunners 6-point clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League, and possibly their first Premier League title since 2004.

But just as Whisky, Arsenal must learn not to become too arrogant. With 14 matches left Arsenal must keep their heads cold to take the title.

If they manage to take the title, Whisky will surely be celebrating, while I will be trying to make him shut up.
 

South American World Cup qualifiers

A new round of South American qualifiers has just taken place, with Argentina jumping to top of the table with 14 points with a 1-0 victory over Uruguay, on a goal by the returning Lionel Messi. Uruguay, Colombia and Ecuador follow Argentina in the table, all with 13 points, and if it ends as it is, these would be the qualified teams for Russia. Ecuador, who until recently had been on first spot, surprisingly lost 0-3 at home to a Brazil side for whom the 19-year old new Manchester City signing, Gabriel Jesus, scored two goals. Brazil are now taking the 5th place, which is a play-off place, with 12 points, ahead on goal difference of Paraguay on 6th place. Paraguay has gotten stronger after a shaky start, and defeated the South American champions, Chile, 2-1 in Asuncion.
Chile, with 10 points, will be looking for a victory in their next match against Bolivia, to keep up with the teams above. It is nevertheless a testament to the high quality of the teams in South America that there is only four points difference between the 1st place and the 7th, with all having an option to qualify, or running a risk of ending outside the first five spots. The only teams that seem out at this point are Bolivia (6 points), Peru (4 points), and the hapless Venezuelans, who with 1 point are disappointingly out after previous years strong showing. That said, Bolivia, Venezuela and Peru have before shown that they are fully able to defeat any of the other sides, and that just gives the South American qualifiers more flavour and drama.
Be sure that there will be much more!