QPR, running out of games and floundering in the table, face Arsenal, seven straight wins and now third, at Loftus Road on Saturday.
Barclays Premier League >>> Saturday March 31, 2012 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
The first time I ever attended a QPR game was in January 1992. There had been a rule during my childhood that my Rangers-mad father would be allowed to take me to the football only if and when I brought the subject up and asked to attend myself, but in the meantime he was not to mention QPR in any shape or form to me or in my presence. My mum probably thought she was safe, and quite happy as I went off and bought comic books like a normal child and train magazines like an abnormal one.
But I find QPR have a way of reeling you in. How can we bring this lost child and his love of Sonic the Hedghog and DMU’s running the stopping service to Sheffield into the fold? Why, by beating Manchester United 4-1 at Old Trafford of course. When I asked my dad why the boys on my street had suddenly stopped teasing me about my QPR family and he explained that it was because “we” had gone and done that the previous weekend it suddenly sparked my interest. Before I knew it I was strapped into the back of his car, speeding down to Southampton to form part of the throng on the chocolate box terrace behind the goal for the FA Cup Third Round tie.
Rangers lost 2-0 that day, and rarely have I been as bored in my entire life. On the way home my father, attempting to explain how such a discrepancy between performance level and results could happen, told me that this was not untypical of QPR and if I wanted to be there for the odd occasion they did something like beat Manchester United I’d just have to come with him to every game and put up with several days like that fruitless trip to The Dell. Now 20 years later I’ve barely missed one since.
But I’m missing one this weekend, and do you know what for the first time in my life I can’t actually say I’m that bothered. I’ve waited more than 15 years for a home league fixture with Arsenal, and after promotion this is one of the games I’m sure all QPR fans were looking forward to the most just as I was. I’ve pulled stunts and made sacrifices for far lesser games than this in my time: an overnight mail train back from Milan for an away game at Grimsby Town (lost), sneaking out of a family holiday near Bordeaux in the dead of night with a secretly purchased train ticket for a trip to Mansfield Town (won 4-0), a ‘red eye’ flight back from New York and then straight to the stadium for this year’s FA Cup tie with Chelsea (lost) and a sickie pulled from work for an FA Cup replay at Burnley (lost with the last kick of extra time) all spring immediately to mind. And when I looked at my work calendar three months ago and spotted the bi-annual conference in Cannes resting horribly alongside the Arsenal home match I was devastated. Now, less so.
Last week we had one of those rare magic moments following QPR when they roared back from two goals down to defeat Liverpool with almost the final kick of the game, and then we had a more typically inept display at Sunderland. One of them was a seminal moment, the other more seminal fluid, and we’ll only know which one was which come May; if we succeed in staying up then Liverpool will seem like the game it started to go our way, if we go down then that match at Sunderland will be the point it became inevitable for all those who were at the Stadium of Light.
Had the games been played the opposite way around – a defeat to Sunderland on Wednesday followed by that Liverpool come back on Saturday – or the results had swapped between the two games then we’d have the same number of points and be in the same league position but the mood would be markedly different. That wave of optimism that swept over the whole camp after the Liverpool game was punctured by a staggeringly inept performance against the Mackems.
Last week was a week of straws and camel’s backs for many supporters. There were those who finally lost patience with Joey Barton on Wednesday night, and those who gave up their last shred of hope in the north east on Saturday. For me, the latter applies. I remain appalled and shocked at just how inexplicably bad we were against Martin O’Neill’s men and my mood was not improved greatly by watching Everton, a team from whom we’ve taken four points this season, deliver a point by point lesson in how exactly you should play against them on Tuesday evening.
Sunderland, and Martin O’Neill teams in general, succeed through a ceaseless, diligent approach to the basics of the game. They stay in shape, they pass the ball economically and sensibly, they retain possession, they work very hard, they work on their set pieces, they get the ball into wide areas and they deliver quality balls into the box. Rocket science this most certainly is not. To beat them you simply do those things a little bit better, or you match them for it and bring a bit of extra quality to the table and QPR should have been well capable of either approach last week. Instead they were soundly beaten by a 3-1 scoreline that flattered the losers and the extra quality they may have been able to utilise picked up the club’s sixth red card of the season with the score still at 1-0. To be beaten by Sunderland is more than acceptable, because they’re a well drilled, well managed, hard working and talented side. To be thrashed by them in that manner simply is not, because they shouldn’t be good enough to thrash anybody at this level never mind a team allegedly fighting for survival.
Having spent the first two hours of the day sweating in both the heat and the stress of the situation when overhead line damage brought our train to a prolonged halt and delayed our journey north, to sit and watch QPR apparently give so little toss about what they were doing really stung. People couldn’t moan about Barton and Wright-Phillips because neither was picked, they couldn’t moan about suspensions because we didn’t have any, they couldn’t talk about lack of momentum and confidence because of what happened three days beforehand - there were simply no excuses anywhere for a performance like that.
And so, for the first time I can remember since that January day in 1992, I’m missing a game this weekend and haven’t given it a second thought. I shall miss the LFW crew and the pre-match session in The Crown, I shall miss all the people I sit with at the game, and I shall miss the Thai food and post match analysis. I’ll also, no doubt, drive myself mad trying to keep up to date with the game and the score through whatever feed and information I can tune my computer to in Cannes on Saturday. But at the moment it doesn’t actually feel like I’ll miss the game itself too much.
If the players don’t give a fuck then why on earth should I?
Links >>> Fixture History >>> Opposition Focus >>> Referee
Team News: Djibril Cisse is suspended. In other news wildlife authorities have declined to comment on the recent spate of bears shitting in wooded areas. Heidar Helguson and DJ Campbell are both back in training after long after layoffs but neither will be considered for selection this weekend according to manager Mark Hughes who hopes to have both available for next week’s trip to Manchester United. Armand Traore, man of the match in the first meeting between these sides this season, misses this game against his former club with the injury he suffered against Liverpool. Ale Faurlin is, tragically, a long term absentee.
Arsenal welcome back Laurent Koscielny but Abou Diaby and Francis Coquelin are both out with hamstring injuries. Jack Wilshere is Arsenal’s long term absentee.
Elsewhere: We have seven matches in the Premiership kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday which is almost unprecedented in the modern era. Of most concern to QPR among those is Woles v Bolton at Molineux with the home team two places below us on the bottom and Bolton immediately above us. Another relegation threatened team Wigan are at home to Stoke while Blackburn must wait for their televised Monday night match with Man Utd for their latest chance to put daylight between themselves and the bottom three.
In the chase for European places the big game of the weekend is Newcastle v Liverpool on Sunday followed by faltering Spurs and their latest banana skin against Swansea City at White Hart Lane. Man City host Sunderland hoping to move ahead of Man Utd before they play on Monday.
Everton v West Brom and Fulham v Norwich appear to be dead rubbers.
Referee: Mike Dean referees this one, his first return to Loftus Road since the scandalous penalty he awarded to Chelsea in the FA Cup back in January. That had been the first QPR appointment for Dean since 2008 but he has since refereed another defeat at Blackburn Rovers. No referee has awarded as many Premiership penalties as Dean this season, his current count is 11. For a full case file click here.
QPR: Rangers have conceded seven times in their last three games and haven’t kept a clean sheet for 21 matches, conceding 39 in the process. The win against Liverpool here last time out was only their second in 11 games since Mark Hughes took over as manager. Djibril Cisse’s sending off at Sunderland was Rangers’ sixth already this season, a league record equalling five of those have come in home matches.
Arsenal: The Gunners have won their last seven league matches, and kept clean sheets in the last tow, to climb to third in the league. They’ve never won a Premiership game on this ground (drawing three and losing one) but did win 6-0 on their last visit in the FA Cup in 2001 – a result that sparked an 11 year wait for QPR’s next win in that competition which only ended earlier this team after a replay with MK Dons. Should Arsenal win it will be their first league double against QPR since 1991 having won the first meeting this season 1-0 on New Year’s Eve. Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding says…
As a fan, I really felt for Cisse after his sending off at Wolves. It was a poor tackle by Johnson and you could understand the Frenchman’s reaction bearing in mind his previous injury woes. However after last week, that sympathy has long subsided and replaced with despair at the foolish actions of yet another Rangers player. Nice to see yet again that the players are coming out with the old lines of 'season starts here', 'this is where it really counts' etc but it isn't fooling any of us. Bar 15 minutes against Liverpool, QPR have looked disjointed and unorganised for the last few games. Disjointed and unorganised is something that you just wouldn't expect from a Mark Hughes team. It looks as though it's been an ask of too much too quickly for Hughes and although I really hoped he would get the team organised at the very least, it doesn't seem to be working. I'm not sure if it's a case of mercenaries, bad tactics or simply that we just aren't good enough but now is not the time to be playing an in form Arsenal. Nothing I have seen suggests we will spring a shock here and without the suspended Frenchman, I can't see where the goals will come from. As such I recommend backing Arsenal to win 1-0 and 2-0 both at 8/1 with Ladbrokes.
Prediction: At Sunderland last week QPR looked like a team that had given up, taking none of the confidence and momentum you thought the Liverpool comeback might have given them. Arsenal meanwhile have plenty of both after a seven match winning run. If QPR play as they have been recently, and Arsenal do likewise, this could be an embarrassment.
Arsenal win 3-0, 14/1 with Ladbrokes.
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