Well, I’m back and more or less in one piece after my first trip to our new home. Let me just say thanks to Tom for keeping the blog running so well in my absence. I’m glad he got a ‘good blog’ to write after having to do the post-Paris blogs.
What a fun day Sunday was though. Me and the mug smasher arrived in London around 10am, got a big, dirty fried breakfast then checked into the hotel and wandered down towards the ground. We wandered too far down the Holloway Road though and got a bit lost but the exercise did us some good and certainly worked up a thirst for the pints. It was the Bank of Friendship for some pre-game Guinness, a good chat with the man from East Lower, watching Sp*rs get turned over by Reading and meeting some more opprobrious characters.
Then down to the ground to meet up with the man who had the tickets (thanks again, J!) and up we went to our seats. Despite seeing many, many pictures the ground is a seriously impressive piece of work. The pitch looked beautiful and best of all we heard that Liverpool were playing Zenden in midfield instead of Steven Gerrard. Benitez must be mad. You get the feeling he’d play Dudek there rather than let Gerrard play where he wants to. The initial dread of seeing them put the ball in our net was replaced by relief and laughter when it was ruled out for offside.
Mug smasher’s reaction to van Persie’s handball was to stand up and shout “You cheat. Handball you cunt! Book him ref!”, before he realised where he was. heh. He was relatively quiet from then on.
The rest of the game you all know about already. We played very well, Hleb and Eboue particularly impressive for me and at the back Kolo Toure really is a legend. Flamini showed how useful a player he is and what I like is that when he was given a chance in midfield he took and it and really contributed. He says he wants to play there on a regular basis now and with Clichy back and looking good and Gallas able to play left back he, hopefully, won’t be needed there.
By the time the third goal had gone in the game was already won, Gerrard and Riise scrapping shows the discontent in the Liverpool camp and the ‘master tactician’ had got it all wrong today. Mug smasher went off for a piss or a smoke and the bloke behind me said:
“Is he a Liverpool fan? I saw him put his head in his hands when we scored!”
When he came back the fella behind said:
“All right, mate? Couldn’t find a piece of rope long enough?! Har har har!”
Splendid stuff. I think I can probably now forgive him for smashing my mug. Tom said yesterday I might be a lucky charm but we can’t rule out the possibility it’s the mug smasher. I’m not sure he’d go every week though. He’s not such a glutton for punishment.
Afterwards it was the Tollington for some post-match pints with the Arseblog crew and it was a pleasure to see you all again and meet some people for the first time. It’s a great testament to the quality of the Arseblog readership that none of you are cunts in the traditional, Graeme le Saux, sense of the word. Thank you for the great welcome you gave my brother. It has even bridged the divide between southside and northside of Dublin! Next up it’ll be Israelis and Palestinians.
The rest of the night went something like: More pints in the Big Red, great food in a tapas bar on Holloway Road (I think), more pints in the Big Red, some shots of Jaegermeister, a bar on Upper Street, an Aussie that looked like Russel Crowe, a quick fall down a set of steps on the way down to the toilet, more pints, back to the hotel, three double gin and tonics which were absolutely unnecessary and then sleep. I woke up with a salt and pepper shaker and 50 packets of sugar in my jacket pocket. Oh, and a hangover.
Another big, dirty fried breakfast then we went back to the airport to hang around like chumps for our 17.10 flight home. Hurrah. A tremendous day.
It was great to see the new stadium and I was very impressed with it on lots of levels. We passed by Highbury on the way down and it was a bit sad looking, I have to say. The new place, for me, lacks something though. I’m sure it will come with time and when we’ve had more big matches at the place. With respect to the other teams who’ve played there this season this was the first ‘big’ game.
Some people said to me that the early leavers weren’t as bad this week but I really was quite shocked at the amount of people who started streaming out with 5 or 6 minutes left. By the end there were great swathes of empty seats and maybe it’s just me but the players deserved a fuller stadium at the end of that performance. I know people have their own reasons for getting out and on a midweek game which doesn’t finish till late I can understand it to a degree but where does anyone have to be in such a hurry on a Sunday evening or a Saturday afternoon?
I’m probably not one to criticise, I don’t get to anywhere near enough games and I don’t have to suffer the poor transport that definitely is an issue for some people, but it just looked a bit embarrassing at the end when the players were applauding the support they got during the game. Hopefully if the transport issues are sorted out it will make people more inclined to stay where they are until the final whistle. At the end of the day though people will say they pay their money and they can do what they like but leaving before the end, perhaps because I’m not there week in-week out, is something I don’t understand.
Anyway, that aside it was a very memorable trip (bar the last couple of hours of the Sunday night which I don’t really remember at all). It’ll have to be repeated as soon as possible.
I’d just like to comment on Arsene’s post-match statement and his reference to the Alan Pardew incident. It was well thought out, considered and intelligent and that is what we’ve come to expect from him. The silence led to speculation and rumour but the manager has killed it all stone dead and after being portrayed in the media in one light has turned it around in one fell swoop. Well played, Arsene.
Looking briefly at today’s stories Thierry says he has no regrets about staying with Arsenal and will be here for life. He also talks about playing as a lone striker (although on Sunday it looked like van Persie was switching between the left side and the middle just to confuse Liverpool).
Reserve captain Matthew Connolly trained with the England team who ran out of defenders as they prepared for their midweek friendly at our training ground.
And finally some young scamp has been around to Ashley Cole’s house and spray painted his walls with charming graffiti. Graffiti is wrong kids, as is throwing rotten eggs and bags of poo at his house. Wrong, I say.
Right, that’s it. We have players away midweek for pointless internationals. Fingers crossed they come back safe and sound. More tomorrow.
