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Favorite Arsenal Player Bracket: Hale End and London Colney Region Fourth Round

Decisions, decisions!

Club Badge - Arsenal Football Club Photo by Visionhaus

Sol Campbell, Freddie Ljungberg, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Ray Parlour have been sent packing. As with the Emirates and Highbury regions, in this round, we’re going with quotes by and about the remaining guys.

Voting is open on the other side of the bracket. Ian Wright has a 30-vote lead over Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp is hammering Lee Dixon, but there is still plenty of time for either of those matchups to swing. You can vote through this coming Wednesday. For those of you on AMP and Apple news, you’ll need to go through a browser to be able to vote because our polls get stripped out by those services.

HALE END REGIONAL

FOURTH ROUND

#1 Thierry Henry vs. #2 Santi Cazorla

Henry: “Sometimes in football you have to score goals.”
Henry: “I’m obsessed by the idea of making my mark on history. And Arsenal is my paradise.”
Zinedine Zidane on Henry: “[He] is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game.”
Jamie Carragher on Henry: “When he hit top gear and ran past you, it was like trying to chase after someone on a motorbike...A great goal-scorer, not to mention a scorer of great goals, he is the finest player I have seen in the Premier League. His game didn’t have a weakness.”
Henry: “I am a believer in passing the ball on the ground, I was lucky to be part of teams like that at Arsenal....I know you can win in other ways, but I believe that is the way football should be played.”

Cazorla: “I like to smile. I try to bring happiness on and off the pitch. I don’t understand how you can play football without joy.”
Cazorla:Being tall isn’t what makes you a good footballer.”
Per Mertesacker on Cazorla: “His skills with the ball are absolutely amazing to watch, but to play alongside him is even better.”
Arsene Wenger on Cazorla: “Santi is one of the best players I’ve had in my career and when you lose a player of that stature, it’s an absolutely immense [loss]. He is the player where everybody on the pitch could give the ball to when they had a problem, and he transformed a normal ball into a fantastic ball. He’s a magician, Santi Cazorla. When you lose a magician, you lose some happiness in your life. Santi Cazorla smiles every day, he’s a happy man and we all suffer for him.”
Cazorla: “I don’t know if it’s possible or not, but I want to play one more game for Arsenal before I retire. It was a deep regret that I could never have a proper goodbye. Arsenal was the biggest club I ever played for.”

Poll

Pick a winner

This poll is closed

  • 81%
    #1 Thierry Henry
    (160 votes)
  • 18%
    #2 Santi Cazorla
    (36 votes)
196 votes total Vote Now


LONDON COLNEY REGIONAL

FOURTH ROUND

#1 Patrick Vieira vs. #3 Robert Pires

Vieira: “I love Arsenal. I really love this club. They’ve brought me a lot.”
Vieira: “I think football reflects our society. Our society changes. The evolution of society dictates the evolution of the game.”
David Dein on Vieira: “I talked to Patrick in fluent French and before a game I asked in French, ‘could you speak a little bit of English to me?’ He nodded and said, ‘Tottenham are shit.’”
Roy Keane on Vieira: “I don’t think we’ll ever be bosom buddies buying each other a drink in the pub but out of everybody I ever faced as a player, he drove me to become better. Obviously Arsenal were the team that really challenged Manchester United and, for a short time, went past us. And as their leader Patrick was immense. Without doubt I’d put him...as one of the very best I’ve ever played with or against, he was that good. On his day, when he was driving Arsenal on with the sheer force of his personality, he was unplayable.”
Vieira: “I would never play in England in another shirt other than Arsenal’s.” (at least he got the sentiment right)

Pires (on his return to the Emirates with Villareal): “It was wonderful. The fans were incredible – they sang before the game, during the game, after the game. Unbelievable. There was a moment when I thought – a bit of me, at least – ah, if only I had stayed.”
Pires: “I did not dive and I am not a cheat. That is not the way I play.”
Arsene Wenger on Pires: “To me, before his knee injury, [he] was the best left attacking midfielder in the world. With us he was just flying.”
Thierry Henry on Pires: “[He] has shown proof of his intelligence. Technically, he was always there, but his game has become more direct. You feel that he has become liberated on and off the pitch....When you have technique like his, you know you can come out of things well anywhere on the field.”
Pires: “I heard what Ashley Cole said about kicking me if he has to, but he will have to catch me first. When we step out onto the pitch on Sunday, all friendships will be forgotten.”

Poll

Pick a winner

This poll is closed

  • 69%
    #1 Patrick Vieira
    (134 votes)
  • 30%
    #3 Robert Pires
    (58 votes)
192 votes total Vote Now


For reference, here is the entire bracket.