Arsenal 4 Galatasaray 1

Watching last night’s win at home against Galatasaray was a mix of 80% pure joy and 20% anger at the sheer stupid & unnecessary act that left the Gunners with 10 men to defend almost 30 minutes of the game. Danny Welbeck scored his first professional hat-trick as 10-man Arsenal swept aside Galatasaray in the Champions League. The England striker, excellent throughout, stabbed in a first-half opener before side-footing in a second. Alexis Sanchez then curled home before Welbeck clipped in his third. Burak Yilmaz scored a penalty after Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off for a foul, but it was to be nothing more than a consolation. The win was Arsenal’s first in this year’s Champions League and means they have three points in Group D.

It was also the perfect way for manager Arsene Wenger to mark 18 years to the day since he was appointed Arsenal boss, and the Frenchman certainly deserves credit for naming an attack-minded side. With Welbeck playing in his favoured central role and the former Manchester United striker ably supported by the pace and creativity of Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, the Gunners simply had too much for a Galatasaray side who have now failed to win in 10 visits to English sides. Unlike previous games where they have dominated possession but failed to convert the key difference in this game was they posed a greater threat going forward. They pulled apart the Galatasaray defence for the opener as Sanchez raced on to Kieran Gibbs’s pass down the left, cut inside and slid a clever ball for Welbeck, who got around Felipe Melo before poking a shot through the legs of Fernando Muslera. Galatasaray rarely ventured forward as they tried to contain the Arsenal front four, and their nervousness perhaps contributed to a poor defensive error that allowed Arsenal to score a second.

After the second goal a section of the Turkish fans lit flares in the stand and threw some onto the pitch causing a brief stoppage of play. But once the action resumed, so did Arsenal’s dominance and Sanchez effectively put the game beyond Galatasaray when he ran through the defence to chase Ozil’s ball before curling home from 15 yards. After the break the Turks increased pressure but Arsenal increased their lead further as Welbeck, now brimming with confidence after his first-half double, grabbed his third of the game, timing his run for Oxlade-Chamberlain’s pass to perfection before lifting the ball over Muslera. And now the stupidity – Szczesny took some of the shine off the victory when he was sent off on the hour, bringing down Y?lmaz and the striker picked himself up to send substitute keeper David Ospina the wrong way from the spot, but by then the damage was done.

The Possession Of Michael King

Recommended highly by horror movie fans in this Facebook group that I am a member of The Possession of Michael King is a 2014 American found footage horror movie which is also the directorial debut of David Jung who also wrote the script. The movie stars Shane Johnson as Michael King along with Ella Anderson, Cara Pifko, Tomas Arana & Julie McNiven.

Michael King is an atheist film maker who decides to make his next project a documentary on the supernatural and to disprove the existence of god & the devil. Already a non believer he is spured on by the accident that cost his wife Samantha’s life, leaving him to raise their young daughter on his own with help from his sister Beth. His first interview is with a psychic who he confronts as giving false readings and hope to her customers. He reveals to the psychic that she had done a reading for his wife and told her that she would get a big break in her acting career. This prompted Samantha to postpone their trip to Europe. The break never happened and while the family was at a picnic at the park, she went to get something from the car and as she dropped her keys she runs into a car that couldn’t stop in time to avoid hitting her. The pychic asks him to leave.

He then speaks to a Priest about exorcisms, ofcourse which are always denied when in front of camera and to a man who claims he prayed to God with no response, and got better results praying to the Devil. Eventually, he ends up in a basement, on LSD, tied up in part of a Satanic ritual by a satanic couple. He visits a cemetery and has himself dosed with a toxic drug that induces a near death stage by a mortuary man who is also a chemist. This is one freaky incident and that’s when things start to wrong for Michael. He is visited by all sorts of demons who want to posses his body and soon the changes start happening. He become possessed and starts doing weird things. He kills the family dog, although he doesn’t know that he did it. He goes to his sister’s room at night as she sleeps and puts his hand in her crotch and the camera (which he is holding while possessed) shows a demonic looking Michael enjoying it). He loses sleep and is unable to concentrate. His work suffers as does his relationship with his family and his sister takes little Ella to her friend’s house for a few days. Michael tries to reach out for help but gets none from the priest or the satanic couple and the mortician has him thrown out for disrupting his work.

Finally Michael faced with the reality of being possessed is sitting disheveled in his house when his sister visits and brings Ellie along. As Ellie goes upstairs a possessed Michael strangles his sister to death and then stalks his young daughter. She hides in the closet but is caught by him but his wife’s spirit reaches out and gets Michael to snap out of the possession for a few moments, just enough for him to take control and jump out the window – killing himself and also ending the demon’s possession. At the end of the movie is when we see how Samantha dies.

Good little film with some awesome acting by Shane Johnson who gives a rather compelling performance. And that is vital as the entire movie hinges on him as he is the main focus; Beth is always shown at a distance and her face is never focused upon. Still the scares are cliches and you can pretty much tell what’s going to happen. I’ll  give it a 7 outta 10 more for the performance of Johnson.

Indian Goalie In Norwegian Top League

While the ISL seems ready to start with a blast later in the month and provide the hordes of football fans in the country with some much needed pride of having a glamourous league (albeit with foreign top players in the twilight of their career and the season only being 2 months long and only 8 teams) one Indian youth is creating a name for himself in a foreign land. He is the fifth Indian footballer to play in Europe after Mohammed Salim (Celtic), Bhaichung Bhutia (Bury FC), Sunil Chhetri (Sporting Lisbon ‘B’) and Subrata Pal (FC Vestsjaelland).

It was a proud day for Indian football on August 15th as 22-year-old goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu completed his signing with Norway-based club Stabaek Football. The Mohali-born youngster spent time on trial with the club before signing a three-year deal. Despite being the first Indian to sign for a top league club in Europe (granted that the Norwegian league is in no way comparable to the likes of the English, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch or Belgian leagues and even the ones in Greece or Turkey) his achievement has been in the sidelines due to the pomp and sparkle of the ISL. Sandhu has arguably gone farther in Europe than any Indian ever has. While Baichung Bhutia spent time in England’s third tier and the likes of Sunil Chhetri and Subrata Paul have been limited to reserve team action, Sandhu has been on the bench for five consecutive Tippeligaen (Norway’s top tier) games for a 102-year-old club that has been a fixture in the Europa League in recent years.

He has started 6 reserve team games and the only thing standing between him and a starting berth is Sayouba Mande, who was part of Ivory Coast’s 2014 World Cup squad. The youngster does not expect to break into the starting eleven this season, but at 22, knows he has time on his side and believes his decision to choose Norway over the Indian Super League was right. Hope he goes on to nab the top spot for goalies and goes on to better things.