I have had an article about Paul Newman open in a tab in one of my many browsers for about 4 days now. I don’t want to close it because I feel like it’s an interesting piece, but on the other hand I can’t bring myself to read it because I can’t convince myself that I’m interested enough in Paul Newman to do so.
He seems like a lovely man. great actor Cool hand Luke. Cat in a Hot Tin Foof. The scammer. And of course the epic Slap Shot, one of the best movies ever. Decent salad dressings, even in death. handsome bastard. But I don’t know what it is. I just can’t start the article, nor can I close the browser tab. It’s like internet purgatory or something.
Does that mean that Cedric is going to start tonight in the Europa League against PSV? Well, how would he know? And I really don’t see how the two things are related in any way. Paul Newman is not the Cedric of actors, and Cedric is not the Paul Newman of footballers. If there was a new version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, old Ced wouldn’t play either role because he’s not Robert Redford either.
He’s much more like one of those guys that you look at when they come on the screen and you’re like ‘Hey, there’s that guy with a bunch of yokes,’ but you can’t remember the name of any of the movies or TV shows. Generously, people might describe him as a “good character actor,” but everyone knows they’re just being nice. It just lacks that star quality that Newman, Clooney, Brando and Leslie Nielsen have.
He could start if Mikel Arteta is inclined to rotate as much as he can, but he has Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White to pick from at right back ahead of Cedric. It’s like being offered two delicious sandwiches, and the third choice is a Pop Tart that’s been sitting on the back of the couch for three days. And look, all sustenance is good, and if you were a hungry man you’d be delighted with the Pop Tart on its own merits, but that’s not the scenario we’re dealing with tonight.
Arteta discussed the rotation in his pre-game press conference, saying:
We don’t have that many players! We bring the players that we have and we’ve brought four kids with us, so we can’t even make the team, but we need to get 11 players out and they need to play; we can’t trade those 11 players every game.
Apparently we don’t have Marquinhos or Oleksandr Zinchenko, so I expect a relatively strong team selection. I think the manager is thinking of getting the job done tonight, finishing top of the group and then backing his players to do what it takes against Nottingham Forest at home, before rotating for the final group game against FC Zurich. the next. week, which means he can rest the players before the trip to Chelsea that weekend.
Which is the most serious football analysis you’ll get from me this morning. Kickoff tonight is 5:45 PM, we’ll have the live blog and all the post-game stuff for you in all the usual places.
Now time for a sandwich. I don’t like Pop Tarts. And since I just bought a toaster sandwich maker this week, which gives you that delicious crunchy cheese when you overload the sides of the sandwich, I know what I’m going to have for breakfast.
CORNFLAKES!
