It’s You What Won It
Nov 17th, 2012 by 'holic
It’s a long time since I got home from any Arsenal match, let alone the North London derby, before eight. Alright, it was a lunchtime kick-off and I wasn’t exactly on the wagon, but you catch my drift. What I did do was I made sure I enjoyed as much of the day as I could from the moment I was joined by a shivering Lady Arse outside the pub a quarter of an hour before opening. Martin let us in out of the rain. “No drinks until ten mind”. Drink was the last thing on my mind after my last couple of days.
Esso and Ian joined us as the first tinctures were poured. I had one to be polite. Trev wisely avoided the burgeoning round. Tony arrived and passed me a flask. “I think you might need that at half-time”. We were nervous, in truth. Ollie arrived on the boat from Belgium, or somewhere like that, and AJ sauntered in with Taytos for all. “Sod the nerves, I’ll have a bag of those sir”. Slowly but surely the Gooners arrived and took on board courage. Wind, making his North London derby debut looked wide-eyed, and so too did Silva, but for different reasons I’m guessing.
A panic call, the neighbour has had train trouble and had driven. I met him outside the pub to grab my ticket. At least one of us will make the kick-off. Mouse shared with us his new project at the BBC, a show called Strictly Come Noncing, or something like that. He is far too creative for me!
A short stroll later I met up with the neighbour’s neighbour by the Block 32 bar. Pete was in good form, but then again he always is. The neighbour himself arrived in time for the start, discussed the joys of parking in North London on matchdays, and we were away. It is probably fair to say we have had better starts to a game. Tottenham capitalised on their early dominance when Adebayor, who else, gave them the lead and avoided the card such a celebration normally warrants. Fair enough, it was THE derby after all, and the intellectually challenged former Arsenal striker made his most decisive contribution to any match at the Grove when he wrecklessly scythed down Santi Cazorla and got a card of an entirely different hue. Effectively he ensured his team’s humiliation at that point.
By the time Tony’s flask was pulled from my pocket at half-time we had all but nailed the match down with a wonderful Per Mertesacker header, a Lukas Podolski scuff via the heel of the hapless Gallas, and an Ollie Giroud effort as the visitors defence dozed. T joined us to discuss the finer nuances of the performance, and England’s recovery to 111 without loss in the second innings. “Too little, too late”, we agreed. He returned to the elevated perch of the Tuesday Club.
As the teams came out for the second half the lads across the walkway resumed their baiting of the opposition bench. They always find a target, and in the absence of Joe Jordan the Tottenham goalkeeping coach, Tony Parks, was biting like Mike Tyson under pressure. Let’s face it, no goalkeeping coach is going to earn a bonus when your man has been beaten five times with consumate ease by your fiercest rivals. To be fair to the little mob from up the road our second half strikes from Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott did sandwich a consolation effort from Bale, who nipped out of Bacary Sagna’s pocket un-noticed.
From all four sides of the stadium the home crowd roared their approval of what was unfolding before them. It was time to head back to the local to perform a joyous post mortem with And Lester, Snowy, Adam, and Steve et al.
Everybody knew it could have been so different. It would not have been a surprise if an air of negativity had crept in during the early exchanges, but the crowd knew how important their contribution was today. Which is why, for once, this review has concentrated not on the lads who did what they were paid to do, albeit magnificently.
This review is a thanks to you, and you, and yes, even you. Gooners of all persuasions united behind the badge against a common enemy today, and were utterly magnificent.
You have every reason to be proud of each other.
This was a good day. Let’s have some more.
444 Responses to “It’s You What Won It”
Arsenal News 24/7
First? Great report
Is there a Fire Drill?
the prescription is still the same….5-2 well done boys
Pic to match the post. Spot your mates
http://i.imgbox.com/abzY1v9z.jpg
What a snap that is Nonny. Thanks mate.
Brilliant day. Great to hear “Santi, Santi Carzorla” and “na na na na Giroud” still being sung at 6pm in Highbury and all the way to Stratford.
More at the Mirror, ‘h. Open gallery, right click larger images, open in new tab and bingo.
Still loving it – and Tim’s post @139 on the previous drinks:
“Adebayor’s best ever game for Arsenal?”
Wednesday can’t come soon enough.
Management not happy with me tonight Arsenal this Arsenal that but she did enjoy the night when we beat Porto few seasons back.
Im celebrating and wisniowka for everyone in the bar my cards is on Lars this time arond it’s a pleasure to be here and be Gooner Holic!
Enjoy Arthur. I’ll have a drop of that
Sorry I missed it. Glad Wind got to revel in the glory. A big drink to Clive for making it possible. Hope to put some faces to names next week.
Cheers to all Gooners. It really is the best club on earth.
And a drink of your choice ( without honey) ‘Holic for providing an avenue for us all to feel a little bit closer to the club.
Excellent result! Didn’t make it to the match – can’t rely on the nevvy’s mate not to go to every NLD. At another function all afternoon, but foolishly wandered into an electrical store just before one o’clock only to find the Addybuywhore had already put the scum one up. Tried not to worry all afternoon and finally plucked up courage to look at the teletext around 5ish to discover the joyous news. Two 5-2s in a calendar year! Is this a record?
COYG
AAAAAARSENAAAALLLL!!!
Cheers Holic and holics! Oh Holic, Delighted you fellas had a wonderful time. The atmosphere at this bar was sweet too, one I’ll always cherish. And seeing Arsene smile, really smile, made my day
We won’t let our lads off the hook cause we know what their capable of! And now, I believe they do too 
Nite all YOU wonderful gooners 
Watching MoTD.
Is it me, or is Jonathan Pearce a complete pillock? Just wondering, like.
COYG
He’s a complete pillock Oxon.
Thanks, Charlie. I was fairly sure, but it’s always nice to have it confirmed.
COYG
Keep the faith
Good stuff Holic.
A great day improved by seeing the petulance of Harry Redknapp on MOTD. It was wonderful to see the utterly loathsome Adebayor contribute to Tottenham’s demise. It was the classic pivotal moment. Lets home we can pick up from here like we did last season. We have some real talent but also have several players wildly out of form- TV,Arteta,Sagna and Ramsey . We MUST strengthen in January ( early January) given the problems of Diaby,Gibbs ,Rosicky and Fabianski but we all know Arsene.
Great to win 5-2 against the scum twice in a calendar year but there is a long way to go to reach something approaching satisfaction.
Loving MOTD.
Arry couldn’t be more twitchy even if you had put ants in his pants> Listen to Kompany, he says Arsenal are the best team he’s played against this season.
I also loved it how he made Hanson look dumb.after the Manure game;
Al H; “Did you know the score in the dressing room?”
VK; “No”‘
Hanson looks stunned as to why they wouldn’t know that.
Kompany; “They played later then us”
D’oh!
Hey ‘holics.
Here`s a question I`d like an answer from you. Would you give up the fourth place in the league, to you know who, if we manage to win the Champions league in that same year?
I hope it`s not too late for such questions.
Blimey, there’s a match report already?
Adebayor, what’s the score?
haha, H2H. What a silly boy that Hansen.
Only one word for this if true. OMNISHAMBLES
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-accused-of-only-rewarding-alex-1442525
Nonny, what sort of bitter cunt writes that sort of article on a night like tonight?
I have to say watching the game from row 2 bang behind the middle of the North Bank Goal was a special experience.
Matt Law is indeed a twat.
Good write up Holic, nice angle.
Nice ro be looking forward to watching it again on the telly.
So good to see the team enjoying playing today, everyone wanting the ball and making the runs to get involved.
@25,
I’m sure Arsenal will have disclosed the content of their contract negotiations to Matt Law, and even if he does have an inside track, £45,000 a week sounds ok for a 19 year old who is not yet a starter for his club, even if the paucity of the England squad means he often gets a game there.
If The Ox continues to improve he can have his terms revised again.
Matt Law must be a LWC.
If not, he is just a C.
True Storey @ 258, wasn’t my 1st game, but my 5th! My 1st NLD though, an incredible one for my 1st of those indeed
CoqGoon @ 276, what I’m happily doing now
H2H @ 280, I’d just left the intoxicating heat of the Tollie Brollie to the intoxicating aroma of the Kebab shop across the road at that point!
Lovely write-up Holic, truly an honour to meet you and all the Holics, I still feel all warm inside as I type this on my mobile now
Now the question is, to summarise events of the glorious day now or to wait until the morning?
The numbered posts apply to the last set of drinks, got distracted by MOTD & watching it in its entirety for the 1st time in about 4 weeks so I couldn’t post them before Holic got a new post out.
Well, as you all sleep, it is Sunday here in sunny NZ and what a Sunday to be a Gooner, wherever you may be! Fantastic result !!
Wind! I remain ever so envious, it sounds like a day you shall never forget!
Well heres to it lads, drinks on me when you wake up. I’m off to the pub for a celebratory sunday session.
Holic great article and hope your feeling better as well. From the television you could here the constant support for the lads (the entire 90 minutes) and it was especially nice to hear the chants of “off, off, off” for Addybuywhore and even better was the “are you Tottenham in disguise”.
The whole team was awesome and to make the Scum look so ordinary was great to watch.
Go you Gunners
Quite honestly, Holics. I was never in any doubt that we’d clean Spuds’ clocks today. I have a great belief in this team. They really have something special and the quality is beginning to shine forth. And, amazingly, the metronomic master of passing accuracy, Thomas (the Iceman) Eisfeld can’t even make the bench such is the talent level.
Top three. One trophy. OllieG 25 goals.
Giroud’s goal the pick of the lot for me, as Rosicky’s was last year. Inspirational.
Felt like it’s been ages since that home win against QPR. Three points was badly needed today, and even a scrappy win would’ve been welcome. Alas, as Tim said, Adebayor put on his best Arsenal performance to date. Another 5-2 win, who would’ve guessed.
Cynics will say but for the red card, the result would’ve been different. Well duh. We still had to dig deep and score as we were trailing. There was no doubt about the red card, and the better team won. 5-2, end of.
Great response from the lads, and a big cheer cheers for the home supporters as well. Enjoy the win guys. The Spurs are still shit, but there was never any doubt about this in the first place.
4 Nonny Thanks
Cockels of my heart never been warmer after enjoying that photo. Photographer deserves a bloody Oscar. Wish I’d been in that crowd yesterday. Any chance there’s a same time shot of the Spurs supporters section I can also enjoy. Nice to see them thoroughly dumbstruck and quietly wetting their pants in despair.
Made my year. Quite happy now, even were AFC never to win another game this season. (That is a trifle over the top I grant you but hyperbollix be blowed. This is a day for extreme over reaction)
Just wait for Levy to plead with the Premier League and others not to be drawn against the Gunners twice every season (or against them in the Capital or FA Cups either) Speaking behind the soundtrack of Engelbert’s “Please Release Me” he will argue the following, “We request,instead of ever playing scheduled games with AFC you give us a special dispensation allowing Spurs a rest day and you just award the Gunners the 6 points? My Board, my manager, the team and all our fans are totally in favour of this modest rule change “
I’m back, good to see the team making us proud, we havent experienced such an entertaining game recently even though i was still nervous when they nicked a second as us being us we are really not out of the woods until it is over. Abbs i also noticed arsene’s smile, sometimes i think arsenal will be the death of him. Henry’s big grin after we scored at some point summed up the night for me and looking at the other results only a couple of teams ahead of us gained points so all in all a perfect weekend!
How is everyone feeling this morning? I have just returned from my celebratory drinks! Unfortunately the very few English people I know in NZ are Man United fans. So whilst I celebrated they comiserated!! A more perfect Sunday, I couldn’t picture.
Great report ‘holic. Big shout out to Clive who made it happen for wind
A drink for him and others on here. Lars’ tab
here in sydney we had to put up with david pleat on fox sports
what a prat
you would have thought that the enemy had won 5-2
could say nothing good about the gunners
he was so annoying i had to have of shiraz’s at 1 am here
paid for it the rest of today though
go the gunners
I always knew something crazy was on the way and like Sczs “form doesn’t matter”.
We needed to have the shit after not having it for a very long time, the icing is having on LWC’s office desk.
Sydneyred, totally agree with you, Pleat is a complete tool! He couldn’t even pronounce half the Arsenal players names, and as you said, not one good word about the Arsenal.
Good to see another Gooner this side of the world!
Morning all. What a great Sunday morning!!
Sir H2H , are the BMs ready?
Now I’m just off to peruse the fantasy football. I have a feeling that Holic will be joining Snir in admiring the Rollers’ clean pair of heels…!!
Ah. It would seem that my delusions of grandeur were just that.
I have 4 scorers and still fall further behind Holic? WTF?
Are we living in Florida? I demand a recount.
Or a drink
Apparently there’s a Swede with a wallet who’s coming down to raid the Tollington on Wednesday, Dr C.
I am told we had 84% possession in the 5 minutes leading up to the sending off.So we were very much in the game .The first 10 minutes were poor ,but that can happen .Remember last year?
Great win and performance from the lads,if we can just bring the attitude to all our games not just NLD we would give ourselves a proper chance at silverware,always nice to remind them how good we are thou rednapp was laughable last night head in the sand stuff.
Morning Holic family:
Just loving that 4th goal – the perfect antidote to tippy-tappy, going nowhere, passing across a massed defence :
Woj to Giroud to Walcott to Podolski to Cazorla : bang.
Nice review Holic. It’s good to hear that the fans in the ground got behind the team and blew them to victory. Now it’s time to build on this rather than flop satisfied onto the sofa.
Let’s get on a roll Gooners.
And to start it off , this frosty morning, there’s nothing more invigorating than a Teachers and Crabbie’s Green Ginger.
You can’t always win 11 against 10.
Hell, PSG lost 2-1 at home, having played against 10 after 25 minutes, and against 9 for the last 40 minutes of the game…
This also gives Bordeaux (and Lyon and Marseille, sadly) a chance to go top. Ligue 1 is truly incredibly tight so far.
Morning Holics
It all ended in euphoria, Gooners of all generations hugging one another and giving high fives but there were periods in the game when we were given heart stopping moments and at 4-2 I was still fearful that we might not get 3 points!
Playing against 10 men gave the LFG and Santi the room to express themselves, which was not afforded them against Fulham/Man U/Norwich. Consequently, we created a number of chances which we managed to put away. Some of the attacking play was terrific,especially the Santi run to set up Giroud’s very well taken goal, loved it.
Apparently the youngsters in the Family Enclosure urged Theo to sign a new contract every time he took a corner. Maybe their encouragement will be more effective than Arsene and Ivans, stranger things have happened.
I was not intending to make it on Wednesday night but have now acquired a ticket in the North Bank Upper and can’t wait to cheer the Reds on.Let’s hope its another Milan night, one I’ve put away in the memory bank.
As always COYRs
Morning all.
So sorry to have missed TaBS last night. I’ll bet the place was upside down by the time he got their. It was rocking when I left.
One of the good days, best not poured over too deeply.
Just enjoy the afterglow.
Ooh hangover alert.
Got their?
Yeah, there weren’t many left, ‘holic, well not in our corner, the other side is always a bit more lively late on
I only had time to greet him in a haze before leaving.
He’ll blame the ‘hpad, zico
Another photo tip.
If you go to the galleries on Yahoo you get small images, about 450 wide in a slideshow. Right click the photo and open image in a new tab and you get it on its own. If you look at the URL it will be in two parts. First part is the Yahoo bit with a long load of drivel, but there’s also a second part that begins media.zenfs.com
Remove all of the first part of the URL so the URL begins media.zenfs.com and hit enter and you get the big images. It doesn’t work on everything, and sadly doesn’t work on the photo gallery of our game from yesterday but you can get some good stuff. They have a general football gallery and galleries for each competition, so Champions League matches might be worth a look.
I got this from the general football gallery but it was the only image in it
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1548/footballn00681813531638.jpg
Sometimes having nothing to do on a Sunday morning can be a good thing
Regarding the rumours that I have a slight *boilk* going on, I can confirm that they are in fact true. I have been told that this might be an effect of drinking large amounts of beer yesterday.
As others have said, that was probably the best game Adepaymemore has ever played for us.
Hopefully this can give us a bit of a boost, I watched the game again this morning and I must say that we played very, very well for large parts. The second goal was preceded by a rather long spell of heavy pressure on the swamp dwellers and in the end they just couldn’t withstand it. The only really wobbly part was just after 4-2 (apart from before 0-1, of course) where it could have gone really pear-shaped had Bale managed to score but from then on we pretty much just kept the ball.
Great win, a great day yesterday and on Tuesday I am off to London. I have had worse Sundays.
Oh, would you look at the time – it’s 5-2!
F
O
R
E
V
E
R
I
N
O
U
R
S
H
A
D
O
W
Great write-up ‘Holic and thank you for the view from within and without…
Now, don’t stop believing Gooners!
There are some players, Ramsey (yet again) not included, that have to take every single positive from their performance today – Kos, BFG, LFG, Santi, Theo – and either keep it going, sign the fecking contract or keep working that bit harder, as they did today, to keep it going.
Crest of a wave…???
The next 3 games will sort that out…
…But how exciting to see a bunch of Germans, Spaniards, Frenchmen and Englishmen clearly understand the importance of stuffing the LWCs?!??! Not to mention the satisfied (and relieved) look on Arsene’s face?!
What price 5-2?! What price a home win after yet another money-grabbing, glory-seeking, useless, soulless twat scored inside the first quarter of the game!? What price ANOTHER Giroud goal (for all the worry and desperation, as my previous betting career will atest to, I never, EVER stopped believing in HIM, EVER!)?! What price a title tilt, even from a long way back?!
But, and sorry for this but, why the feck was Santos seen in an Arsenal shirt again!?!??!
OK, nothing is perfect, but even the Steve Ts and I have to admit…
THAT WAS AS GOOD AS IT CAN GET AND THEN SOME!
Come the feck on you Gooners!!!
Now, or actually, maybe, almost, possibly, never!
But perhaps I am knee-jerking???!!!?!!?!?
‘Holic – Yet another excellent write-up capturing the mood perfectly for those of us that were unable to attend. Cheers and trust you are well on the road to full lurgi recovery.
Wind – Top man. Really glad your first NLD experience was such a cracker. Your Arsenal family loves you.
Zico – Well said at No.50. When it comes to counter-attacking and when we’re in the mood, we’ve still got it. I’d love to see more of it too.
Got taken out for a few sherberts myself last night (it would have been rude to refuse given the proceedings at The HoF) so at least I can share the hangover experience with a few of you today.
So…. UTA! & *Boilk*
If I’m lucky, see a few of you on Wednesday evening.
Nonny, great work on finding those pics!
PS: Holic – Are you expecting ‘T’ to big you-up on The Tuesday Club this week? I certainly hope so….
I shall leave my typo there
for all to see Dr z.
You would be surprised to hear the Hibee had only two arms and legs, no webbed fingers or toes, and was a proper gent and good company. Not surprised though. Any mate of Esso, and all that…
Strangely everybody seemed to enjoy being with everybody else yesterday, which made for a great change.
It would be handy if you gave us a link to all these galleries though, Nonny, rather than just the tips to best view them.
I’ll try and trawl yahoo to see if I find them (the mirror I got, but it wasn’t that easy either)
Shame on me, I completely forgot to comment on the crowd – so great to hear the team get the full backing of the supporters. Well done all of you!
Can’t find yahoo pictures gallery, see.
Although I see now that you’re saying now there’s only one picture in it
General football gallery here. This gets updated fairly often. Warning, Harry Redknapp photo on page 1.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/photos/football-slideshow/
Premier League gallery here, but most of the photos stay small
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/photos/premier-league-1308248515-slideshow/
Champions League gallery here. This one tends to work with the trick and is worth keeping an eye on for Arsenal pics in the future
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/photos/champions-league-1320079850-slideshow/
Arsenal 100 pic gallery here but most images stay small. The CL images work with the trick (nice one of Giroud v Schalke) and some of the others do as well. Hit and miss though
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/photos/arsenal-1309379026-slideshow/
Multi-links filter
Heh, just switched on BBC Entertainment and an old episode of Red Dwarf is on, and this line was just said:
“That is a load of Tottenham, that is. That is a steaming pile of Hotspur!”
Very fitting on a day like today
Lars, Shakespeare knew….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Part_1
*Still floating on a cloud of smug*
Goedemiddag Gooners.
Dr C, always a BM ready for you sir.
Zico, I agree about the forth goal being the cream of the crop, at the time I posted that it was “vintage Arsenal” because that’s exactly what it was. A sweeping movement, crisp passing that opened up the opposition and boom! Loved it.
@various. At home or even on the other side of the globe there’s just no escaping the exSpud manager or as they should be known the unemployable, due to the stench of LWCism that is just too hard to remove, their only option is to become a pundit and why not? If Lawro and Daft Crooks can get away with it then why not them? I think the TV networks may very well recieve grant money for gainfully employing these undesirables.
They sit there spouting their bitterness because deep down in thier burned out shells they call hearts they know they were always inferior, always second best when it came to the match that matters most to us the fans, the NLD, the Narf Lahndan Derby or as we should call it the Never Lose Derby.
David dePleated is so bitter he makes even Arry look like a neutral. He’s not a pundit, he’s a comedy sidekick, the brunt of the jokes and a big gapping something that rhymes with brunt. I’m truly sorry that you good folk down under were subjected to him, but the futher away he is from us on this side of the planet the better, he is truly the butt plug of analysis.
I must admit, in a macarbe way I actually enjoyed watching Arry twitch, fidget and squirm on the MoTD sofa last night, all the usual excuses were wheeled out including the classic;
I still think Sp*rs will finish ‘bove Arsenal
Why, Arry Why?
‘cos theys got a better squad.
Ha ha, no matter how many times I hear it (and I’ve been hearing it since Moses was in short pants) it never fails to crack me up. Pure comedy gold.
Not so funny, but at the same time side splittingly hilarious was the way that the jugeared ex Spud, went to the totally unscripted (yeah right) question of the QPR job, now that Hughes has lost his Spark and proved beyond a doubt, what most of us here already knew, that he has the managerial skills of a bucket of urine. The editors went to great pains to show the banner “Come save us Harry” (twats spelt Arry wrong) full in view just to show how deep in despair the QPR fans truly are. The crisp muncher asked the innappropriate question of would you be interested in the job, which at this moment is Sparkys, to Arry. Well the diamond geezer turned a bright shade of claret and twitched around like Mr Tic McParkinson from Twitchington on the Shake. To his credit he did say that it wouldn’t be right for him to talk about such an issue, but even the most guilable could surely see that this was planned in advance.
Normally I’d feel quite bad for the QPR boss, but because it’s that dispicable moaner of handshakability, I hope he saw it and had to cry at all those bullies on the sofa trying to get him tht tic-tac. Ha Ha.
Smugalicous.
Good evening holics. Hope you’re all having a good day.
I know I did
That was a really nice piece. I wasn’t there yesterday but I lived it through your writing. I could, taste, smell, see and hear it.
Bloody good.
Re: Thierry Wrightkamp @60-64. Fantastic stuff, and it shows we can beat them both ways. With width, and without.
Cheers Nonny
@79.
Hope you couldn’t smell the Spuds.
Nice one H2H.
Refers back to Delia at whatever it was (?),
Thought of you yesterday when I saw a coach load of Norfolk Gooners pass me on the walk from Finsbury Park to The Tollie. That was at 10.35 – must be an incorrigible lot those Norfolk folk !
As you said Delia, there was a distinct unease when the monkey boy narrowed the lead to two goals at 4-2, and it is a bit absurd to feel so nervous in that situation.
However, as the Guvnor said above, a victory over The filthy Scum – and they were quite filthy yesterday – is not one that should be picked at too much. We have some major defensive issues, no doubt, but there was some great attacking play yesterday too, from a front five that is ever changing and still getting to know each other.
But 5-2 will do me very nicely, even if the scorelune is becoming a bit predictable !
And a victory after a bit of adversity is always so much more fun.
Funny how even the Togolese become good guys when they are kicking The Arsenal.
The pundits were lining up last night to excuse Adebarndoor’s assault on Santi as non-malicious.
“Not that type of guy etc. etc. etc. yawn, ………..”
No, clearly not the type of guy who kicked van Persie in the head when he was still a good guy.
But even he is now “that type of guy” following his assault on Sagna.
This does get bloody complicated, doesn’t it. I’m off to pick some leaves up.
Enjoy basking Gooners.
Note to zico -
Leaves are things that grow on some types of trees, where it’s warm enough for them to drop off in the Autumn.
Autumn is what happens just before Winter, where it’s warm enough to tell the difference.
I started out my Saturday morning reflecting that we were going into the NLD on the back of some confidence sapping displays. Shrugged off the notion that we weren’t ready to fight the enemy after a quick coffee.
“We had to be ready, HAD to.”
So off to football training with the Arsenal Singapore Supporter’s Club football team and at the very last moment it got cancelled, pitch was under maintenance and I thought, this had better not be a bad omen.
The boys decided we were itching for some footy action, probably pre-NLD jitters just getting the better of us and we booked a futsal pitch to have some 5-a-sides.
Sweat. Rain. Food. Shower. Off to the Arsenal pub.
A TV crew was there. The lady on the mic was a good omen, the 2 times she’s been there, we’ve won. (Chelski 5-3, Liverpool 2-0)
Pre-kick off chats. Beers. Macallen. Tottnum went to see the Pope. AVB’s mother is a whore. Adeshitcunt scored. Adeshitcunt red card. BFG’s face. Gallas’s heel. Poldi shaking imaginary flag penis. Giroud’s rump shaker. Santi’s wrist. Ox’s assist.
Sign da ting, Theo.
There had to be a record number of high 5′s being fived last night, everyone was glad that we could all have a good Sunday, waking up to happy texts and possibly happy hangovers.
How many high 5′s? 2 many to count.
Have a good Sunday ahead (for those in the UK), all.
Really sorry to have missed you ‘Holic. Arrived at about 6 30 half cut, and according to Ollie, just missed you and Wind by a whisker.
Left 4 hours later, fully cut
A good day!
Up the Arsenal!
Leave it out Trev.
Good stuff Steve-o
Feeling better Ollie?
HEEEEEY TaaaaaBS, Wassup? Missed you all week.
Tabs, hope all’s well, mate.
Not seen you much in here during the last week.
Heh H2H, thought I’d take a little break ’til the boys massacred the Spuds and improved the mood.
Boys did us proud
They did indeed sir, they did indeed.
A round for the fine gents in the bar please barkeep, I’ll have a vodka coke please.
Alright Trev.
All fine here mate. Didn’t have a ticket for yesterday and thought that turning up in The Tollie and watching you all traipse off whilst I missed my first home NLD for over 20 years would prove a bit too much, so I opted to watch the game in the away juicer of choice in a mixed crowd (which was fun
).
Watched the Chelsea game, and when I got bored of taking the piss out of the crestfallen Spuds, made my way to The Tollie.
Carnage
H2H @#77 – Smugalicious indeed. Well said.
Trev @ #83 – The hypocrisy of that awful punditry was not lost on me either. Adebayor’s rake of his studs down RVP’s face was very conveniently forgotten. Of course, some now might think that it’s one of the best things that Ade did on the field of play. Either way, it’s all a bit of a c*nt-fest and just adds to the good humour created by yesterday’s whipping of LWC arse.
TS, even all those years ago Shakespear knew
H2H: it was funny though to see how Yappyapp was quite resolutely put in his place by Vincent Kompany with “Arsenal is the best team we have played so far”. And, surprisingly, not even Alan Hansen tried to deny that the red card was correct.
Lars, yet more proof that it is the natural order of things
Indeed Lars, I’d already mentioned that (@21).
I must admit, I thought Kompany was quite eloquent and very humble, put the others to shame.
Anyone even trying to play that challenge down should be removed from football. It was dangerous, wreckless and given the position where it was made totally unnecessary. I’ve watched it a few times now and although it’s a disgusting tackle, it’s good to see what happened in the aftermath. Jack was furious, Bale tried to stop him influencing the ref and Jack just lost it, Bale continued to monkey around by (what looked to me) pointing out his size (Bale holds his hand/paw accross his chest as to taunt Jack about his height) Jack would of layed him out if they hadn’t of been seperated.
If we can take that NLD fire into every game, we’ll be laughing (and not just at the LWC’s)
H2H , Just read your @77.
Vitriol, sarcasm and condescension at its very finest Sir.
A BM on the Bar awaits you
Cheers Tabs.
H2H – I must admit to having managed to miss that entire drink@21
Agree about Kompany, I must admit I really like him. Seems to be a rather intelligent chap.
Crosses the ball Theo-to-Mertesacker-stylee…
Boomski
Not like you to miss a drink Lars, double check your tab.
Nice assist, seemed to hang in the air for an eternity.
H2H. Poacher’s goal, with an air of Eastern European ruthlessness.
Well in H2H.
TaBS, next time you are sans ticket let me know. Can’t always help, but certainly usually come up trumps.
H,
struggling to get a ticket for next seasons NLD.
Heard you might be able to help?
Cheers ‘Holic and heh at Dr Z.
Daft bastard that zico
H2H
Re: Jack – I thought the same thing. Good to see the players showing some passion. Hopefully Jack can lead them on in that capacity – after a tackle like that we should be getting in the ref’s ear and showing the scum what we think of them.
I also hope he took the opportunity at half time to point out to the monkey featured farmboy that his flank was in a state of utter fucking collapse. I have to say, I thought Bale had a shocker yesterday. Looked semi lively going forward and took his goal well, but spent most of the 90 in Bac’s pocket and utterly failed to help his full back. The joy we got down the right was a major reason that spurs failed so utterly to preserve their early advantage.
I know that there are some doubts over Chesney, but i have to say he’s another one who brings us a bit of edge: whether it’s winding up crestfallen LWCs or mullering opponents in one on ones. He has his flaws, but they’re all curable and this team needs his combative streak.
Evening Folks,
Glad our mercurial emotions have taken an upswing again. I guess we are now Theo’s team, consistent in patches.
When will we get Wind of his match report? Ah well, you can tell me on Wednesday.
Cheers all
N7, agree completely about Bale. He looks more and more like he doesn’t give a flying eff about doing the boring stuff like tracking back and defending, like you say yesterday he only ever came alive on a few occasions where he could do his “heroic” forward bursts but his defending was utter crap. I find it very very hard to believe that he’ll be there next season, he looks increasingly like he’s already got his mind elsewhere.
Agree about Szczesny as well, he has that edge and has the potential to be part of a proper core of the team.
Lars, are you saying Bale couldn’t give a monkies?
For those who want to see lots of great pic of the team, it’s from Arsenal photographer Stuart MacFarlane’s photostream.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27453474@N02/
Sunderland one up against Fulham.
H2H@111: heh!
Where I think we’re heading update:
Because some people seemed so doubtful about us being capable of a top 4 season, on Oct 27th before the QPR match I wrote:
I think our defending can reduce our goals against by perhaps 12-15 from last year – current pace 29 GA *(amazing), last season that horrific 49. If that happens I think top 4 (4th) remains very possible. The last 4 seasons it has required 69,68,70,72 points to get 4th, I think it might be at the high end of that this season as more teams near the top will beat one another. Let’s say 72 points.
We have 12 points from 8, we would need 60 from our remaining 30 matches. Thus something like this is needed and be honest I think we will lose 4-6 more league games.
P W D L
30 17 8 5
That would give us 59 more points, 71 for the season and 4th place.
=========
Since then we’ve started conceding (and scoring) a lot more. Our goals against pace has now gone up to 41 for the season from 29. I think it needs to be around 34-37 goals against. Incidentally we are on pace to score 73 goals, one fewer than last season with ‘he who can’t be replaced’.
We now have 19 points from 12. We need an additional 52 points from the season, changing our form needed to this:
P W D L
26 15 7 4
That would give us 52 more points, 71 for the season and 4th place
Beating Villa next puts us back on the pace we’re going to need. Then the following 4 fixtures offer this:
Everton (a)
Swansea (h)
WBA (h)
Reading (a)
We essentially must win 3 and draw 1 of those matches. I like our record up at Goodison but in theory it’s that match or WBA (on current form) at home where we could struggle. Assuming we beat Villa, in 5 games from now we should pocket 13 more points which dramatically changes our ‘needs’ and could have people even looking higher than 4th. For the final 21 games it would morph to the following results needed:
P W D L
21 11 6 4
I know I’m easily one of the more optimistic gooners, I also said before West Ham that Giroud has to play 8 straight matches and I bet he’ll score score 6. He’s managed 3 in the 6 league games since but is now the focal point of our attack. These things take time.
I thought in August that this squad would be 3rd/4th when it had gelled and I stand by that. I know ‘football isn’t played on paper’ and all the rest of it – but this team has what it takes to go unbeaten in the league through new years day, especially when you look at our fixture list. Winning in Europe this week will be important as the pressure drops on one front…for a while. Sorry so long winded.
10 man Fulham equalise, proving that a red card doesn’t necassarily mean game done.
Sunderland retake the lead.
H2H: It sure has been an eventful second half at Craven Cottage. Brilliant entertainment, methinks.
Tim, all extreamly speculative, but good stuff all the same.
Oh, what a goal by Sessegnon to seal it for Sunderland! Fulham are also down to about nine and a half since Petric seems to be struggling quite a bit and can barely run and they have already done all three subs.
Was some strike Lars. Sunderland scoring more today then the entire season so far.
@H2H….admittedly so. I have a (bad) habit of doing this but I’ve just read so much doom this season, not primarily here, about where our season was heading after too few games. The same last season of course.
As much as anything this helps me feel more optimistic.
I think I learned the hard way back in ’86 or so when we were 4 points clear at the top at Christmas and my then teenage brain said ‘We’re going to be champions…it’s really going to happen’ – and then having to wait 3 more seasons.
Rennes beat PSG, playing 40 minutes with 9, Lars. No excuse
Ollie, Fulham certainly doesn’t use it as an excuse it seems, they keep attacking and have not given up.
Petric is no Thierry Henry though
Fair play to Fulham, they’re still giving it a go.
Tim @ 115. Too pessimistic, you Doomer you
Top THREE. One trophy. Giroud 25 goals.
Arsenal will win the nest five games. THEN we’ll need Gibbsy back.
Your analysis is fine but it overlooks the facts. FACT! They are:
- We lost at least six goals courtesy of Don Vito. He’s played his last game.
- BFG/ KOs is best CB pairing in EU – but have played <12 games together
- Sagna is one of the best RBs in the world but has played <5 with the CBs
- Our best back four Sagna/BFG/Kos/Gibbs has not yet played together
- The best MF in England has not yet played one full 90 mins together.
- You under-estimate the potency of Ollie/Gervinho/Santi/The Ox
- Arsene WILL retain Walcott and buy a LB in January.
- Thomas Eisfeld will feature from January on. The metronomic IceMan.
- Diaby and Rosicky will feature from January on AND stay fit.
"How do you know these things, BtM" you're probably asking. I just do. As sure as The Chip Inn Fish Bar on Holloway Road serves the best haddock in London.
Arsenal are COMING OUT OF their worst spell in the season. We're still in everything and we WILL win one this season.
The Chip Inn Fish Bar on Holloway Road.
Got that, Norcal?
Got it 8 ball.
What’s her name?
Is Haddock her first or last name?
@BTM….
Exactly…..I thought the numbers pronounced just that?
I must say you’d give my optimism a run for the money, I’d also reiterate that where are versus where we can be is HUGELY different with the returns of Sagna, Jack, Wojciech and for my money Gibbs the most important of all as we can build on both flanks again. I thought him our most improved player the first half dozen games.
There was a place in Hampstead that served better haddock though, but the name escapes me. Too long in exile from London.
Good stuff BtM, although you lost me at Diaby will stay fit…………
Watching the highlights of this weekends Ere Divisie on the box in the bar. Everyone’s asking me why Steve McLaren still can’t speak Dutch.
I had to inform them that the soppy twat has enough trouble with English.
Sho itch not Dutch he wash shpeaking?
Nice analysis Tim @115. Hope you are right.
If you prefer Spanish fare to dodgy Scots deep fried everything, norcal, then El Molino in Holloway Road is well worth a visit. If Italian floats your boat then it is Amici. For Indian go to the Indian Ocean.
If you are the sort of guy who has steak for breakfast then Garufa in Highbury Park is the Argentine restaurant for you.
Heh, nice try Ollie, I detect a southern accent in there.
Nah, he’s not even trying anymore, plain accentless English, just not very well.
Tim @ 131 – Was only giving you a hard time for your top 4 prediction when it’s perfectly clear that we’ll finish top three again
Gibbs contributed massively to our attacking prowess down the left, developed a magical understanding instantly with Poldi and Santi AND was a stalwart in defense until injured.
I have no pride. I’d take A. Hole back for two years while Gibbs grows into his body and goes on to be the best LB to play for Arsenal. There are few Arsenal players for whom I have no tolerance, but Squillacci and Andre the Elephant are two of them.
So watch Arsenal now before Bordeaux v Olympique Marseille at 8…
Ollie will be venting his spleen for a second time this weekend
‘holic, lets not forget the Tollie has an Eastern Kitchen.
I heard it was to Thai for.
heh ‘holic
I’m shaking, that scum hasn’t won in Bordeaux since 1977 (I’m not sure why that came to my attention this season and not any of the previous ones).
Hoping for a favourable scoreline. 5-2 would be fine. Lyon won so Bordeaux can’t go top of the league, but could still climb up to second.
H2H, spot on. The Thai in the Tollie is superb.
Second place would do just fine Ollie.
ALLEZ LES GIRONDINS!
Spot any familiar faces, mabye?
http://www.arsenalfantv.com/fan-talk-pub-is-buzzing/
I’ll have what BtM @127 is drinking.
Love the optimism – hope you’re a prophet and thousands worship at your feet.
Time for the second half…
Very nice one guvnor and the coincidental association between your rapid recovery and yet another spanking of the LWCs hasn’t been lost on one’s self! Feckin’ bloody marvellous!
The perspective of your piece is so apt, we, to a single Gooner at the Grove, were immense in our vocalisation yester-afternoon! Keep it up guys and gals; the lads’ll reward us accordingly!
Several top “post-mortem” drinks in the previous bar and in this, and in particular from my “glass-half full” comrade, BtM” – a pint o’ your finest ale barkeep for that eternal fella, and a rightful admirer of our metronomic whipper-snapper of a German, young Eisfeld! Oh, and another for Tim; appears like he’s got “Feo-esque” potential wrt “glass half-fullism” in his Gooner cerebrum! COYBG! Bring on OG’s old employers and come on Olympiacos against Schalke!
@ #144 – I see Ricky performed faultlessly under pressure.
Indeed, TS
Hey Holic,
zico will need a ticket and a new wife if he’s going to make next season’s Spuds game
BtM,
here’s hoping the Metronomic IceMan turns out to be a bit better than the Samba Rhythm King
And a giant ‘ppffftttt’ to all you doomers who see third place as our best possible finish. Whatever happened to FIRST around here ?
Any of the real doctors in here know how to separate a tongue from a cheek ?
Here we go. Come on Bordeaux.
Trev @151,
Heh! Try copious quantities of KY Jelly!
Trev @151,
A FULL pint of Guinness.
Holic, thanks for all the gastronomic recommendations.
I don’t believe it. Stewart ‘bitter little man’ Robson is co-commenting on the frogball on my ESPN stream. They really do dreg the depths for their football coverage
Jaybus,
a free consultation from TWO doctors in ten minutes flat !!!
Who said the NHS doesn’t work ?
In fact I have changed to Canal+ to get away from him. The names are the same in French
Bad luck, ‘holic .
Ha! well played! You will recognise Mr Dugarry.
And thanks Trev for the free consultation yesterday. You were right. It was definitely alcohol deficiency. I was fully cured this morning
Btw Holic,
noted from your main post –
“Trev wisely avoided the burgeoning round.”
You do your figure a disservice, sir !
Trev keeps the ‘carry on’ culture going
Carry on up The Arse?
Heh, nice one Trev.
Shame to see so many empty seats in Bordeaux. Can’t help but think they should bring in coach loads of English pissheads offering them cheap local table wine as finest claret, a few fried chickens and they would have a vociferous mob getting behind them
Trev & Guvnor just above,
Heh!
Incidentally, I truly hope that the young, and clearly well-raised, “Wind” was nurtured through his virginal NLD by all you veterans?!
Revel in the pleasure of it all young man, revel in it all! You’ll experience plenty more o’ that feeling I tell ya! Never ceases to please immeasurably! A double of the Glenfiddich ’37 for the newbee please barkeep; stick it on my tab!
Magnifique indeed. Good old Cedric…
We can sign Carrasso, Trémoulinas, ….
DanC, I believe Wind is still working on his essay. HE told me he’d lost a draft already and was starting from scratch again.
Right, half-time, let’s hope for brighter things in the second half.
Half-time is crumpet time
Wow Holic @168.
Finally all those latecomers for the second half are explained.
Never could understand arriving late until now.
Evening young bath
Mature cheddar, the perfect prelude to a nightcap or two from God’s personal grainstore.
I am very sorry to miss the match and the craik at the Tollie yesterday. However WoB had set her heart on a wee puppy from west Wales which I have to confess is a wee sweety. We had a 290 mile round trip to collect her and I just couldn’t work north London into the route.
@167,
Oh, what a pisser! :-/
Sorry about that. I’m sure you’ll still get it all done on time. Goodluck young fella.
Yes! Another magic cross from Trémoulinas!
Yeeeeaaaaaagghh!
Bordeaux so on top, but need that second goal they deserve.
Aye, must be careful to let nerves take over, ‘holic.
+not
Air shot, shame, great move.
Really should have been 2 by now.
Bordeaux reject off, replaced by a bloke who doesn’t even have his name on the shirt.
28 year old amateur, apparently, heh.
The pitch looks a bit cut up. Tough autumn in the Gironde?
Arsenal fans may feel digruntelled, but here’s what the Mancs are writing on there blogs:
Poor performance, poor tactics, poor substitutions, poor game. We didn’t deserve to win this game and barely deserved a draw.
Where do we start… nah. Not worth starting. Let me just say that Fergie lost this one with his insipid substitution and bench selection (4.5 CMs, 1 striker, 0 other attacking players)!!
At 30 minutes it was obvious that only a moment of brilliance from our front two would gives us a chance to win game. At 65 minutes, we were a goal behind and ineffective as h***. What does Fergie do? He takes off our two clutch players (Valencia and Chicharito) and puts on a 38 year old midfielder and Welbeck, who hasn’t scored for United in ages, in their place. Then he moves a 38-year old Giggs out wide. Congratu-f***ing-lations!?!?!
We didn’t create more than 2 decent chances ALL game and he takes off Valencia (who was poor, but can perform) and Chicharito who is our form player (who was poor but CAN score anytime) for these two geezers. Who are we kidding!?!?!?!?! The last chance of the game we had Scholes as our poacher.
Perhaps we cannot get out of 2nd gear because we don’t have a 3rd or 4th gear.
It’s also funny that the amateur bloke, from Marseille, wears Bordeaux’s department number on his shirt.
Obtainable (that’s Apple predictive text for Obraniak) was clear there
Indeed, ‘holic, and massive heh at the predictive text.
heh @ 183
and at Goufran air shot
Oh dear, look who’s coming on. At 4-0 in Lorient it was fine, now we will see.
Ah, Failkillah
OM are a touch agricultural.
Phew, that corner had me shaking.
Yep, ssend him off. Of course. Don’t complain, Dugarry.
It’s fucking cynical.
deserved red
Sane looked a bit like Rocky there.
Well played Bordeaux. Good week for all Belgiums
1-0, job done, even if it should have been a lot more.
2nd place, great weekend of football.
You have to say that amateur who came on for Marseille really looked like a fan invited to play.
You may say I’m a doomer,
But I’m not the only one.
Diaby will stay fit for a season the year that Somalia puts a man in space.
As for Gibbs, if we get more than 15 more games out of him this season, I’ll …. be astonished (sorry – no hat).
I think they are both great talents but there’s the problem of that word beginning with F. (And I think from what he said t’other day, AW is coming round to accepting the reality.)
But that doesn’t matter – even without both of them, we’ll still finish no lower than 4th – a solid, experienced left back in January would be a bonus though and I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a robust DM to allow Arteta some R&R.
COYR
‘h – there is only one Belgium (or two if you divide it between the Flems and the Walloons).
Plenty Belgians though.
Poached or fried?
And Billy, I’m not the slightest bit “digruntelled” – I don’t think so any way.
Looks like I was half baked.
Ah, too late.
Well in dk.
I saw that Ollie
Oh don’t mind me, just washing all the glasses at the bar and uprighting over turned bar stools while reading the drinks. Put up a Spurs dart board, for all to use
My imagination is taking over. Hey First Lady 
and Delia, happy to see some petticoats here 
Nonny and Ambydex, great fun provided by your visuals, THANK YOU, really enjoyed them 
Nice to see the fellas from Down Under and New Zealand strike up a conversation 
Wind, very happy for you ! 
NorCal, sounds like you’re having a blast 
A very goodnite holics wherever you maybe in the goonerverse 
Untimely work commitments meant that the Tollie stop off did not happen for me. It sounds a right old hoot was had by all. Tabs late to the party? Who would have thought that?
For various reasons my normal seat in block 4 was swapped for one in block 2. It was quite an eye opener sitting virtually right behind Arsene and the gang. The first thing I noticed was how sedate block 2 was. Very little singing even though I tried to get most of them going. Sitting with the Heart/Magic FM brigade is not something I will repeat unless I have to.
The atmosphere throughout the ground did buzz, despite the geriatric response around me. We predictably started poorly and predictably went one down to a predictable bit of poor defending. We all knew it would happen. We have as much chance of keeping a clean sheet as a 16 year old lad who has just received a year’s supply of wank mags through the post.
What then followed turned into a right hoot. Agent Ade waved bye bye after losing his head in massive stylie. LJW gave it large. The chimp came in beating his chest and was sent packing with his tail between his legs. Then up steps the BFG, Polidi and Big Ollie to send us into half time break spud laughing. A brief lapse allowed chimp boy to score but only after Santi had put the finishing touches to a glorious move. Theo finished off the rout and there was all of a sudden a massive wall of empty red seats.
The ground was buzzing. Even the prematurely aged codgers in my temporary home had come to life. The boys in red and white took the applause and we all lapped it up. The feel good factor had returned.
As I made my exit the official confirmation was received. Gareth Bale really does peel bananas with his feet.
Bring on Montpellier, and hopefully a few pre match scoops in the Tollie.
*My 6th (scratch that, 7th) Draft thanks to my Blackberry acting like a little Bastard and turning off as I made crucial amendments & additions & reductions. Not even sure I would attempt this one in a solitary sitting, so good luck everyone who’s been anticipating this, I hope I don’t disappoint!*
My 1st North London Derby.
I woke up at 8:20am or so, the same smile that was on my face 7 hours ago as I drifted off to sleep eventually soon returned as I realised what the significance of me being awake was
My phone was at 100% charge, after minutes of contemplating what the day could hold for me along with reading the latest drinks on the Blog & talking with Arse Down Under, Trev (you made sure I had no more than a half didn’t you 
) & Lars (I did enjoy the free beer 
), I began to rise from my bed only to hear the sounds of potential disaster. My Dad, moving about on the landing of the top floor of our house, which could only mean that if he’s awake, my Mum was soon to wake up after him. The two people most likely to dampen my day were only a few metres away across the landing, so after a minute’s deliberation, I decided to go with Stealth and escape the house without anyone knowing where I’ve gone. I started to kit up, UNIQLO HeatTech Thermal Undertop on, UNIQLO Jeans on, Nike Arsenal 2011-2012 Home Shirt with Arteta 8 & PL Badges on, Nike Arsenal 2011-2012 Away Colours Track Jacket on. An Anorak over that due to the foreboding grey sky. Socks on, Nike Air Forces in Black, on.
The 2012/2013 Membership Pack was opened, and the 2012/2013 Official Handbook Membership Edition was placed in the Bag of Choice (a Black Nike Just Do It Bag with the Image of London & The Thames crossing through it as a Gold Jagged Line) along with my copy of ‘So Paddy Got Up’ that I got for last Christmas from my oldest sister after pestering her until she gave me £20 for it
, (that was also my 1st visit to the Tollie going to get it, especially since the Arseblogger had signed all the copies that were being sold there on the promo night) the pristine freshly dry-cleaned Red & White Arsenal Scarf that I bought on the day of the 125th Anniversary Game vs Everton (I never had a ticket to the game), a pair of Black Gloves in case it was cold in the Emirates, a Nintendo DS in case I got bored waiting in the Tollie (In hindsight that was pretty stupid 
) & my membership card as proof that I’m a Home Supporter so the doorstaff on the Tollie would let me in. I had already placed 1/2 a pack of Tesco Basics Custard Creams in the bag on Friday with a nod towards Saturday’s Breakfast 
As I tried to run a last minute check in my head to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, I heard the sounds of my potential doom. My dad’s footsteps walking down the stairs. Desolation threatened to creep up on me, but I decided to alter the plan & just make my presence known. So Stealth was thrown out the window, and I de-kitted myself and slung my Arsenal towel over my shoulder and went to take a shower. As I attacked my teeth with my Electrical Toothbrush after it, my Mum wandered into the bathroom with a “Where are you going this early?” I thought better of telling the truth, so the standard matchday excuse of “Going to/Was at the Library” (think it will have to get another outing on Wednesday X_X) was rolled out, only because if my mum knew the truth, she’d berate me, then she’d shout for my dad to come e back upstairs and he’d berate me also with her chipping in, then they would say you should study more instead of going to watch the football and ‘running around London’ (like I’m a troublemaker, that sort of bad attitude got stamped out of me a long time ago but that’s another story for another day
), then they might say we don’t want you to go/you’re not going to the game, then I’d go to the game after they’d leave the house. -_- I understood their concerns, but not many things will stop me from going to see the Arsenal in general, let alone on a derby day, and I hope to God I never have to experience anything that will halt me from going on a matchday due to more serious pressing concerns. I aspire to a easy sort of life you see (go to University, get a good job, get married to a lovely wife, have 3 kids or so, maybe have a cat as a pet, nice house, follow the Arsenal at Home [& Away if I'm lucky]), that extends to how I may act on occasion to avoid certain situations (non-confrontational in general) and telling the truth would most likely begin to spoil my Saturday before it had even begun, making it harder than it needed to be and so the pros and cons were swiftly weighed against each other in the milliseconds before I answered her & there you go. I don’t endorse the decision, but I did what I had to do & I just didn’t want to have to deal with the grief.
Re-kitted up, Bag on Shoulder, I began to go downstairs when I was called back by my mum. “Give these to your Dad to Iron.” I guess they went out to a wedding or celebration of some sort in hindsight. Went down to him, deposited the garments, and remembered something that could go in the bag, My Travel Charger for my Blackberry. This retrieved, I went to wash my 2011-2012 Away Colours Arsenal Mug (my dad ended up doing this for me because I got the Ironing Board & Iron out for him maybe
) & left the house finally. Time at this point 8:57am approximately.
I had checked when the 343 to City Hall was coming to the Bus Stop near my house just before I left the house, 2 mins ETA so I broke into a run immediately after locking the door, ran all the way to the road the buses travel, 343 was still at the bus stop so I went along to the next one. Up the stairs, emptyish top deck. Plonked myself down towards the bag, the Arsenal Earphones were fished out of my pocket and placed in my ears, the Arsenal Scarf was wrapped around my neck and the opening Jingle of the Arsecast entered my ears.
Another check into the Blog to enquire as to whether Blogs was going to the game as I ate Custard Creams <3, Nonny said “It didn’t look like he is, which is a good thing since he’s a jinx” Didn’t know exactly what to make of that so I shrugged it off my mind, Got off at the London Bridge Underground Bus Stop, headed towards the Bus Stop where I could get a 43 towards Friern Barnet as it would let me get off at Holloway Road Station, 2 mins walk from the Tollington Arms. It eventually came & I got on, went towards the back of the top deck, laughed so hard at this week’s competition on the Arsecast, I went for the last answer even though I couldn’t spell it all due to his thick Irish Accent but all of them were true in terms of what T*ttenham are, wonder if all the answers were correct…
The Arsecast ended, and as the bus passed through central London it began to fill & the weather began to clear. I needed to get the Matchday Money out of my Account but I decided to stay on even though I knew that I was near the Barclays near Highbury & Islington Station & hoped that there would be one near Holloway Road Station, a quick visit to the Barclays Mobi website to gain a postcode and when I plugged that into Google Maps on my Blackberry, the Holloway Nags Head Branch came up trumps.
The anorak was pulled off & stuffed in my bag as I walked down the stairs, but tragedy struck. My Nike Just Do It Bag’s zip broke as I tried to close it , and I was left in a state of confusion as I tried to zip up the bag & attempt to fix it before the bus reached the bus stop. I got off at Holloway Nags Head, bag still in disarray, as I looked down the road for the Barclays. A brief thought of “Is this a sign of bad things to come?” popped up in my mind but I dismissed it & managed to zip up the bag. Spotting the Barclays Symbol down the road, I headed towards it. I was quite apprehensive about losing the money for the ticket by taking it out of a cashpoint so I entered the branch, but upon seeing that every single Banker was occupied & that there was a queue for the cashpoint in branch, I steeled my resolve (“I’m not a Pussy” was in my head) & went back outside to the cashpoints to take it out. This accomplished, I crossed the road after checking TfL Live Bus Departures again to see what bus would take me closest to Hornsey Road so I could walk towards the Tollie, a 4 going to Waterloo seemed like the best option so I boarded it for the 2 stops and got off to walk in the general direction of The Tollie again aided by Google Maps.
It appeared before me. A few Arsenal fans here and there at 10:14am in the morning. I crossed the road, before something, something VERY important that I had forgotten at home, on the table in my room or in a trainers box underneath that table dawned on me. My ID, in the form of my passport, the proof that I’m 18, the 2nd part of the method of entry that I would need in addition to my membership card if I was to gain entrance to The Tollington Arms. My spirit was temporarily crushed, but I bolstered myself and flashed my Membership Card with an “Alright?” to the doorstaff to try and blag my way in. “Got any ID?”, she said. “Oh, No” I said, “I’ve left it at Home” I said. “Can’t let you in I’m afraid”, she said. Dejection present on my face, I began to turn around, planning on heading to the nearest tube station to go get it when a moustached member of the Doorstaff piped up with, “Here, how old are you?” “18″ “Date of Birth?” “06/07/1994, 6th of July 1994″ “I’ll let you in, my Daughter’s your age and shares your Birthday” “:D” Thanks given, I entered the Tollington victorious, only to find myself lacking in what to do after all that effort to get in. I couldn’t accurately recall what Holic looked like (saw him on one of Hayley Wright’s V-Blogs although in Hindsight I now realise I saw him immediately as I entered the Tollie! X_X) & Ollie wasn’t getting there until about 11am. With no ID, I wasn’t buying anything alcoholic from the bar. So I sat down on the nearest bench, went on Twitter & watched Soccer AM & whatever Sports Show that comes on a Saturday on Sky Sports. I was hoping someone in the Tollie would be in Holic’s Bar as well, so I refreshed and I refreshed and I refreshed. Alas, it came to nothing. Then my phone died (Like it did all Sunday). Looked at the phone screen, it was on at one point, looked at it again after I’d been watching the TV, nada but Blackness. I panicked, “I thought it was 30% at least,how am I going to get the ticket off Ollie, how am I going to meet up with anyone? ” I resolved to find somewhere to charge my phone & get in contact with the Holics, scouring the entire Tollie until I located 2 sets of Plugs. Picking one, I got my charger out of my bag and plugged it into the mains, starting the charge & reboot of my phone. I was standing next to the mains to shield the cable from the gaze of the bar staff when a certain red-haired gentleman stood next to me. I know what you’re thinking, I was pretty shocked as well to be standing, randomly, next to… Ollie’s Doppelgänger. :O
I was initially put off by the funky shoes with metal balls on them, but the red trousers fit into the red haired theme with a red undertop as well. Frozen with nervousness, I resolved to not approach him & the people he was with until my phone was nearing 100% charge, and so I stood, comparing the face to Ollie’s Twitter Picture, it wasn’t an 100% match but surely there would only be 1 person in the entire Tollie with Red Hair, right? The phone was near max capacity, so I summoned the courage to tap the guy on the arm and show him the image of Ollie. Firstly, he laughed, maybe in surprise at how alike him & the person in the picture looked. My thoughts were, “what are you doing you idiot, isn’t this you?” So I asked him, “Is this you?” And he said “No.” And laughed it off with his mates. I slunk away in shame, having wasted an hour charging my phone when I could have been looking for Ollie & Holic, the dejection did start kicking in at that point, “What if I don’t find Ollie? I would of come all the way to the Tollie for no reason… ” The Pub was absolutely heaving at that point, around 11:15am, barely space to move, And at that point I saw a flash of red in one of the beer gardens, the one furthest away from the stadium. A head of red, but not all red like before, the majority of the back with the front brownish. A closer match to Ollie’s Twitter picture as well. Apprehensive due to the last mistake, I went outside to get a closer look, but went back in shortly after. I decided to wait until he went to the bar, and as he came inside, he looked left, saw me and pointed to me as I pointed to him. “Wind?” “Ollie ”
Handshakes ensued, and I was introduced to Trev (who I later remembered that I’d seen what he looked like on a picture along with Zico in the drinks once) as well & the main man himself, Holic, in his element surrounded by many at the bar in the process of telling a story of some sort. Ollie got me a pint of Strongbow kindly, and pointed out Esso in a brown jacket to me (I may have seen his face but I might not have known it was him) & we went back outside. Me and Trev had a chat about who was at the Tollie, Zico had to go to his father in law’s birthday celebration, Lars & BtM couldn’t make it although Lars is coming down on Wednesday, NorCal’s in Paris, tabs is off the grid, no idea where Snowy or Delia are. I asked him about how he thought the game would go, “No Idea” was his response, and with our form entering the game, it was a fair answer. Ollie introduced me to some of the guys on the Arses, Lee/Silva (hilarious bloke) & someone else who’s name escapes me at this time, maybe Alex or John. I’m offered a packet of Irish Chips by AJ (?), who am I to turn down free crisps? They’re delicious, go very nicely with the pint, and talk turns to the starting line-up, met with approval, bar Gibbs who’s missing it is our strongest starting 11 in my opinion. Trev disappears at this point along with Holic (gone to sort his ticket) but And Lester turns up with 2 pints in his hands (so calm & collected compared to in the drinks ), he’s bought a pint for Holic or Trev but they’d disappeared, being a fellow South London Gooner I’m intrigued to find out where exactly he’s from in South London, turns out its Bermondsey (or Richmond, although that could be someone else I met later). I’m amazed that AL got an East Stand Lower Block 1 Ticket for £68 on Thursday when he tells me, I’ve sat in the North Bank (x1), West Stand Lower & at Club Level (x2) and Clock End (x1) but the East Stand has always evaded me, the aim is to eventually get a ticket near the dugout so I can see Wenger and the Bench if possible.
Ollie hands me his Membership Card with the Ticket on it, and eventually its time to leave the Tollie for the Ems just before 12:30pm. Me & Ollie have a chat about his job, and how EE’s 4G is more like 3.8G , 3G is 3G, GPRS is about 2.5G & GSM is 2G or so. We agree that I’ll cover the Face Value at the Tollie after instead of on the way to the Stadium. We walk around to the North Bank from the Clock End, I follow Ollie in at Turnstile D, and he points me upstairs to Block 101, I depart with a “Thanks, and a “I’ll see you in the Tollie after ”
I head up the stairs, get to the concourse, its around 12:40pm. Ask the nearest Cashier where can I buy a programme as the Stadium Announcer reads out “No.10 – Jack Wilshere!”, she replies “Block 93, its pretty far…” But I’m already running and weaving, there in a New York minute, £5 given, £2 back, programme in the back pocket as I duck into a toilet, the pint was underestimated it seems haha. Back out, and back to Block 101, climb the stairs, climb more stairs, Row 18, wiggle along to Seat 300. Barely settled as The Arsenal kick-off towards the North Bank. Sandro gets away without a booking for 2 fouls within the 1st 10 minutes it seems. Adebaywhore scores, I’m just a little but surprised at the intensity of the vitriol towards him since its the 1st time I’ve witness the return of an ex-player live although I happily contribute, but I’m happy to hear “Arsenal! Arsenal! ARSENAL!” ring loud & proud as our lads kick-off again. Us and the Sp*ds have fractious exchanges until Adebayor tries to maul Santi & is rightfully given the red (Pulling out your Membership Card in its Red Casing & holding it up as a Red has a lesser effect in the Upper Tier than the Lower ) and it starts getting heated, (cool it Nurse abb ) Jack is willed to lay out the chimp boy by many a Gooner but alas it doesn’t come to pass. But then its a Walcott Corner, and Mertesacker jumps, and he has his 1st Arsenal Goal, the North Bank goes Crazy, I’m hugging and patting strangers on the Bank, although this is normal when watching the Arsenal live Arteta starts a 1-2, comes off a Spud to Podolski who has Arteta making a run on his left for the return but goes for the shot that takes a slight touch of the serial London Club Slut Gallas (soon to be at West Ham or QPR), 2-1 Santi stays up like a warrior after being fouled, crosses the ball to Giroud, 3-1. The North Bank & the Stadium erupts into Na… Na, Na, Nanana, Nanana, Giroud! And too right. 3-1 up at Half-Time. I go downstairs to the Toliet again, the pint is again making itself known X_X I come back up to have a chat with the guys sitting next to me, two of them season ticket holders. The one furthest to the left says “I don’t know who you are, but you should come more often!” That had a
on my face!
He’s got a 2 year old daughter at home and so understandably its becoming harder to justify the cost, he may split the seat with a mate in the future or just stop completely when we finally win something at the Emirates, that’s all he’s been waiting for according to him.
I explain that the guy who would be sitting here got the Ticket on Tx and that he’s in the North Bank Lower loaning of someone else since its cheaper & I’ve got his ticket, and then we have a talk about various things, Theo’s Contract Wrangles, the cost of a season ticket in the North Bank Upper (£1400!!!), that’s how much the guy on my right pays, said he got a season ticket when we moved to the Emirates as he was on the list for about 8 years before that, he was planning to stop in the 07-08 season but has renewed everytime when its come to it, I pipe in with “That’s your Love for the Arsenal”, he doesn’t disagree
The players come back out, the game restarts with the Scum now kicking towards the North Bank. Szczesny to Giroud to Walcott to Podolski to Cazorla and its 4-1, lovely combination. One of my highlights of the game occurs, the North Bank starts chanting “Are you T*ttenham, are you T*ttenham, are you T*ttenham in Disguise! Are you T*ttenham in Disguise?” :’D Just beautiful. I’m a little bit concerned when Wilshere doesn’t shoot at goal just after we’ve gone 4-1 up, maybe he’s not at 100% yet I remark to myself, I’m more concerned when the Chimp Boy is allowed to run towards to goal so freely and fire past Szczesny for 4-2. The people around me have seen it before being Season Ticket Holders since ’06, from 4-2 to 4-4 that time & I’m hoping it won’t go that way. Ramsey on, Wilshere off. Jack the Lad is applauded loud and clear, he’s put in a shift today, a pleasure to see him in the flesh. Walcott overruns it with a heavy touch in an near identical position to last season’s Home Derby to many groans, “And he wants 100k a week? Consistency is key” I think to myself. Podolski off for Santos, but he’s been immense today & he’s applauded as we stand to do so. I still do wonder why he hasn’t completed an entire game for us competitively though. The Mighty Ox comes on for Giroud, who’s been immense again, we stand and applaud. “We won the League… At Shite Hart Lane…” Is sung a few times & the shimmering hands motion happens alongside it, “And its Arsenal… Arsenal FC!” is also sung, the Scarf is unwrapped from my neck & held as a banner proudly & alternatively swung around, I think the Fire Drill Chant is sung but I don’t hear it as the Sp*rs fans start leaving their already emptying enclosure in droves as Theo gets a goal in the CF position on his 3rd attempt, him & his assister the Ox embrace, 5-2, worries dispelled, Szczesny is taking the mick out of the Spuds fans, all is good with the world again. I get a picture of the scoreboard just before Full-Time along with many others, and the game ends to an enormous cheer! Most of the team circuits the pitch to applaud, we go from “We’ve got a Big Fucking German!” to “Ohh, Santi Cazorla!” To “Theo! Theo! Theo!” To “Super Jack!” the whole time
The Season Ticket Holder on the Left departs, I get the one on my right to take a snap of me with my phone with the scoreboard and along with other Gooners we spend the time talking discussing many things such as Theo’s inconsistency (overall he was excellent) and was his body language towards Arsene during the celebration like “I’ve proved myself upfront, the ball’s in your court now” until we’re asked to leave by the stewards as the highlights & announcements have ended, “Come back on Wednesday” they say with a grin, lovely people. “I’ll be here” I say, or maybe it was said in my head with a grin on my mug. 
I’d been messaging Siân (@SianyMacalarny) from ibelieveinarsenal.arseblog.com [Me & FunGunner read her blog
] in the morning on Twitter about getting her to sign my copy of ‘So Paddy Got Up’, she messages me as the stewards are asking us to leave the seats “I’m outside the Tollie if you’re around!” My response is “Heading there now! 
” Down the stairs, “Bye” to another Steward, Down more stairs to the Concourse, Head to the Stairs & down more & more flights until I exit the Stadium, a different Steward is taking a picture of a Gooner in his Shirt with another Background, didn’t have time to read either. Broke into another run, made it 3/4 of the way towards the Tollie until I ran out of Breath & the amount of people in the street made it too difficult to continue. I picked it up again & ran past Siân until I did a double take, she was with her lovely family, her Sister Evie (@Squevvles), her Mother Teresa (@Treez28) & her Father Alan (@AlanRRan) along with some people I follow on Twitter, Ryan (@RasDamAFC), Akhil (@10akhil) & LadyArse (@LadyArse).
After a quick check of her Twitter Profile Picture to be sure, I tapped her on the Arm and she turned and smiled “Alex!” and reached in for a hug that I obviously returned
After that sort of result, The Day was made for me at that point <3 
She introduced me to her family who I've been following on Twitter for some time now (they all kind of were familiar with me bless them, Teresa said she's a fan of my comments on Siân's blog & that she's looking forward to my next one 
) 
) and all of the above people. I got out my copy of So Paddy Got Up with a Pen & Evie commended me on how pristine it looked 
Siân signed it for me 
& then Evie took a picture of me, Ryan and Siân that she later tweeted! To get it signed was my aim, but to get a hug & a picture on top of that was honestly beyond belief. Teresa & Alan say their goodbyes & go to get the family car & Zana (@r_zana) who I also follow & talk to on Twitter turned up after we'd all got to chatting with each other & after she'd greeted most of them she also recognised me with 'Alex! 
' & a hug, I was in so much shock that I asked her "How did you recognise me?" and she replied "You're one of the good ones on Twitter, of course I'd recognise you!" 
My heart swelled at that point, but I kept calm enough and kept on talking with everyone. At one point it was just Me, Siân, Evie and Zana talking about the Arsenal and I thought "Talking about Arsenal with Beautiful Girls, Life doesn't get much better than this!" <3 Pav (@pav_afc) turned up also and after a brief chat he and Zana went to do a fan interview but not before she gave me a hug & a goodbye 
Around 3:15pm, people started to crowd cars down the road & I asked Evie what was going on, she replied that the players were leaving the stadium in their cars & were getting mobbed by fans for pictures & signatures. I did a bit of Celebrity Spotting with LadyArse at that point, saw Koscielny in his training kit in a Mini (someone made the joke that if he's content with a Mini, he's never going to leave the Arsenal!), Szczesny with his Girlfriend in a Chevrolet, Gervinho with someone in an White Audi (slightly dirty at the back 
), Mertesacker in a big White Range Rover (he got mobbed by fans and stayed the longest, traffic started moving around him, the Giant he is 
Siân's Mum & Dad pulled up outside
Finally, the Captain, Vermaelen himself appeared with his lovely wife, they happened to stop right in front of the Tollie, he was the last Arsenal player I saw (someone else speed off past the lights and they had tinted windows in), I got a look at him close up and shouted "We love you Vermaelen!" 
, absolutely majestic (*o*)
the Tollie at that point and so her & Evie said their goodbyes hopped in but not before Siân gave me one more hug & said "It was lovely to meet you"
I got talking to Ryan, Bish (Paul, @pjbish), Scott (@mrmeredith88) & his girlfriend Brittany (@BrittanyAFC) about a variety of topics, Scott was going to see The Vaccines after the game, Bish used to be a Lead Guitarist in a Band, Brittany got Vermaelen's Autograph on her programme at the traffic light! Really interesting Gooners
They all went their separate ways except Ryan who stayed, but not before I exchanged Twitter Handles with them. I decided to go find Ollie & give him his membership card back along with the face value for the ticket, couldn't get into the Tollie as it was full but I met him at the gate of a beer garden, handed the card and cash through it & told him I'd try to get in if I could later. Eventually got in & was just talking with Holic, Ollie, Silva, Alex & WestStandTone (I think) when I pulled out 'So Paddy Got Up' and asked Holic to sign it for me, to complete the collection of the signatures of my favourite 3 bloggers, The GoonerHolic, Siân the Girl who loves the Arsenal & the Arseblogger 
At that point everyone in our corner starting singing "There's only 1 GoonerHolic, There's only 1 GoonerHolic!" Absolute quality it was, and Holic gave me a look that was like "Ooh you cheeky bugger, you've put me on the spot you have!" 
I hold his pint for him, he takes the book and the pen & signs it and we swap back. All 3 signatures present, I put 'So Paddy Got Up' away and enjoy the warmth of the Tollie Brollie & the excellent conversation.
At one point I saw the doorman with a moustache who let me into the Tollie on account of my birthday when I went inside to charge my phone, we nodded to each other as our eyes met
I wish I could have thanked him & explained how he helped me out but I really needed the Toilet again!
After I returned, Holic called me over and introduced me to Top Man Snowy & Snowy's Friend Kevin, Kevin offered to buy me a drink, I got a Cider & the conversation I had with each of them separately & together transcended just Arsenal alone and went onto Life in General, The Strength of 'True Hate', Snowy's Car, Kevin's Opinion on Wenger & the explanation of the 'shimmery hand motion' that the Spuds fans do at SHL and how its used to mock them
, why Kevin doesn't feel the need to wear any Arsenal gear among many other things, very profound conversations 
. I hadn't laughed so hard for so long for such a long time, the stories those two had present 
Kevin was present at Old Toilet in 2002 when we won the league, and when we won it at Shite Hart Lane in 2004 and at the last game at Highbury in 2006, incredible. Snowy travels all over to see the Arsenal, only not going when its impossible to make it, only miss 3 games recently, I think 30+ Away Travel Points attests to that, pair of legends the both of them 
I generally avoid 2nd hand smoke since I study Biology and know exactly what it does to the lungs on an excruciating level but I'd make an exception for those two 
<3 We moved the conversation inside on Kevin's advice, at this point Holic, Trev & AL had disappeared off home, and the Tollie was still in full swing, Gooners singing & chanting & laughing & recording each other, Kevin convinced me to stay and got me a Peroni ("Its not everyday you beat Sp*rs 5-2!" 
& we kept on talking, and laughing, and singing. Like for example, "Snowy, what do you do as a job?" And just before the response, the Tollie bursts into "Na, na, na, nanana! Nanana, 5-2! Giroud!" as we both join in, and then I get the response and the conversation continues fluidly. Eventually I decided enough was enough at 6:30pm, I was getting a warm buzz & turning down the offer of a drink from a completely random Gooner who looked so happy celebrating the result, I said my Goodbyes to Snowy & Kevin amidst 2 firm hugs, wandered off to the Toilet for the umpteenth time that day, getting a rub/pat of the head from Akhil who was still in full song on the way there and departed the Tollie as it was in mid song 
I saw Ollie at the gate of the beer garden and said my goodbyes to him & Silva (still makes me smile thinking about his antics) with more hugs and handshakes, went to the other garden to say goodbye to Ryan, (I should see him at the Tollie on Wednesday) and wandered across the road for a Kebab with all the works
(H2H or Lars, that's when I posted 'Are you T*ttenham in Disguise?') Wasn't the best one I've ever had, but in tandem with all that alcohol, I can't explain the beautiful feeling I felt as I polished it off over 5-10 minutes on the 43 back. (I had my heart set on some Haddock from the place tabs & BtM go, but with no one to take me I settled for the kebab, so shame on you gentlemen heh heh! 
) I'd go again 
Read a bit of the Matchday Programme on that journey, Got off at London Bridge, picked up a Sport Magazine, waited about 10 minutes for a 343 and read some more of the programme on that. Off the bus again, Running Home just for the hell of it and arrived around 8pm to both my parents still out, get in. 
After unpacking my bag in my room and placing 'So Paddy Got Up' on the book windowsill proudly, I went downstairs to polish off the rest of the Custard Creams in my older brother's room (he's got the PS3, the TV and the Sky Box
) with a Fan of Fanta that was supposed to go with the Kebab (the Peroni made a comeback, annexing that idea!) I settled in to watch MOTD for the 1st time in 4 weeks or so, we were on first of course, 'Arry chatted his usual rubbish that made me laugh, Kompany respected and rated Arsenal whilst embrassing Redknapp & Hansen, my little brother came in to watch expecting to see an United win, the look on his face when the full time result came up was almost priceless 
My older brother was in similar disbelief at the United result since he was at a Wedding all day, and was even more dismayed to hear the City result although he responded with "Well Norwich beat you guys also", what a sourpuss 
I saw the table at the end of the show, 6th, 19 points, +10GD, 9 points of the pace. "The Arsenal aren't out fof this race yet" I remarked to myself 
And that, was the unabridged events of my 1st North London Derby.
I'd spent all of Sunday pretty much recalling Saturday in as much details as possible, if you made it to the end, I salute you as this may be the longest thing I've ever written in my entire life
I'd like to thank Holic, for 'being a conduit'
and signing my copy of 'So Paddy Got Up', Ollie, for sourcing me the ticket and trusting me with his membership card & being a great mate on the day, and last but not least Clive, for giving me the opportunity to properly meet so many great people I'd planned to meet & those I didn't plan to through your kindness, generosity & compassion. I'll never forget this day or that act.
I look forward to meeting even more Holics now on Wednesday for the game vs Montpellier, NorCal with his 2 Oldest, Lars with his Mighty Wallet, True Storey with his… Stories?
, Steve T with his Width and maybe some more if I'm lucky.
Clive said on the matter of the NLD and on the matter of Saturday: "Enjoy it from the moment you wake, till the moment you put your head on the
pillow at the end of the day,hopefully with some wonderful memories to take
you into your dreams.
You will meet some great Holics at the Tollie,and hopefully they will become
firm friends and you will get to meet them on a more regular basis once you
get on your feet financially."
And I think he was absolutely bang-on, right on the money :')
Alex (Wind)
Wind, really happy for you. And the deepest tip of the hat to the Sweeper. It is such a pleasure for it all to be about the joy and camaradie of match day once again and not all the other junk that be fouls the game these days.
Who was it that was mocking me for saying after the Spurs – Chavs game that I can’t wait for the NLD because Spurs’ defence is a joke?
Obviously I got mocked, after we lost at Man U, but turns out Spurs’ defence really is shit.
Who woulda known?
We have conceded 13 in the league and scored 23. We are starting to find our attacking feet, so all will be fine.
Sometimes I think that people criticize the defence because we give chances away as if we should not give away chances in any game.
Do you realize how absurd that expectation is?
And before anybody asks – I’ll answer. Yes. I still think we’re gonna win the league. 9 points off in November is nothing. Bring it down to 4-5 at Christmas and you’re well in with a shout.
And on a personal note – Thanks everybody for the concern you’ve shown for me and my family. It means a lot to know that while this bar is virtual, the friends here are real.
Stay safe, SG. These are trying and dangerous times.
Title is absolutely up for grabs. Of the main contenders, for all the talent Mansoor’s megabucks puts at Mancini’s disposal, Citeh hasn’t gelled as a team. Man U looks at its weakest since Ferguson started wining things. Chelsea are rebuilding well but are at least as season off being the finished product, and if Abramovich decides he wants Pep after all, that could be another disruptive change to delay it further. If we can settle into a run of form, a nine point deficit should evaporate. A lot may turn on who buys or sells most astutely in the New Year.
worth a look
http://www.london24.com/sport/arsenal/arsenal_rule_out_selling_theo_walcott_in_january_1_1697725
What a weekend! Absolute top performances all round, on and off the pitch. Might not be back for a while, so was nice to have a proper sign off.
Senior supporters will well remember the Kings Cross fire 25 years ago (Nov 18) that took 31 lives.
I remember traveling/changing tubes there just 24 hours earlier on the way to Highbury (we beat Stoke 3-0 League Cup) and thinking one day earlier and it would have been me and my mates. Sad day.
Also remember tube trains going through the station at about 5mph for weeks afterwards without stopping and seeing all the damage…terrible memories….
heh Wind, I’m not even half-way through and your Blackberry seems to have eaten a lot of the text.
The transition is seemless but you seemed to have teleported from a bus seat on the 343 to…..half-time in the North Bank upper.
Confusing
Wind – terrific write up. Sounds like you really did your first NLD the right way.
Tim – a timely reminder of a terrible tragedy. Hats off fella.
Snir – I truly, truly hope you’re right re the title: would love to see yhis team win it and suspect that one trophy might set off a run of them. Be safe out there.
Roll on Wednesday night. COYG.
Looking forward to the missing bit: after all: your first arrival in the Tollie, meeting ‘holic, and the little matter of the dramatic first half, all seens through the prism of your emotions, are things to recount
Now I see why the thing took you so long to write though, fair play Wind!
Man of the Match on Saturday was clearly The Sweeper.
PS Wind, what is an iron?
Sorry all, my fears that the drinks couldn’t handle the sheer amount of characters were verified by Clive.
This is the bit missing * Another check into the Blog to enquire as to whether Blogs was going to the game as I ate Custard Creams Beaming Me
*
I’d offer a drink to Wind, but I think that he deserves the freedom of the bar!
I’m jealous of the kebab though, was quite starving when I got home!
Cheers Snir.
Good to see you again, Esso, and be able to say goodbye
. Did Silva ever manage to catch up with you in the Coronet (somehow I doubt it)?
Tim. Perspective. Well remembered.
I think there’s a bit more than that missing, Wind, check again
NBN @ 207, thank you, that was one of the best days of my life so far
Snir @ 209, I’m glad your family are safe, the friends here are indeed real
Ollie @ 214/216/219/220, I don’t know why its become so temperamental, its like I caught the Blackberry naked, without its Case On!
:lol: Freedom of the Bar? Oh no, far too kind 
Zico @ 217, oh you
Regret more & more that you couldn’t make it, you must be a one man riot under the Tollie Brollie 
To be fair, Wind, I never knew you could type such a long text on a Blackberry.
Right, now to buy popcorn and read this new ‘bit’
Wind my friend. Cheers.
You will have to tell me the secret missing part in a few days.
Wind, splendid!
And I laughed even more at the doppelgänger story now that it is in full version
-and yes Alex aka Frugal Bugle was the man, and also a_j (real name Fergus) was the man with the Irish crisps!
Looking forward to the Wednesday Tales, you’ll see, evening games are a different atmosphere :p. And more ‘holics to meet, enjoy!
Right, better try and do a bit of work, even if nobody has turned up this morning (weird….)
And no, they’re not Spu*s fans :p
How was Paris, NorCal?
*bottle of Petrus for the Sweeper is also being served*
Wind, that must have been the longest drink this bar has ever seen
But it was well worth reading it, really happy for you that you had such a great day! Clive, you sure did a good deed.
Oh, and while I was reading there was an amendment posted – now to read that one too
LArs 228: more like a row of Jägermeister shots lined up in the longest bar in the world
“I have a lot of friends in London and there are a lot of great clubs in London, so I wouldn’t rule out a return.”
Anyone else read ‘club’ in a different way in that quote from Bendtner?
Ollie@230: heh!
And heh!@231 as well
Hey ‘holics, saw this live on tv, lets sign Sagna up please.
love the frosty glare at Adebayor.
http://www.soccersouls.com/2012/11/sagna-refused-to-acknowledge-adebayor-in-the-tunnel/
Ollie @ 223/225, I did it in ‘MemoPad’
Still there, I’d like it if all of it could be centralised together, wish I did it in 2 sections in hindsight, pre game & post game X_X
NorCal @ 224, or you can read it now…
Lars @ 228/229, you can select me a fine beverage on Wednesday to commemorate it then, Top Man Snowy holds you in the highest regard
Attention, anyone who wants to read the events of my 1st NLD, it starts at #206, when you get to this sentence “Another check into the Blog to enquire as to whether Blogs was going to the game as I ate Custard Creams”, immediately go to #221 as that section was cut out when I posted it from my Blackberry last night, read on and when you are done, return to #206 to finish it, thanks!
Now I want to eat Custard Creams :p
Wind, can you check 206 is now complete so I can make 221 vanish forever. Incredible labour of love, that drink
Wind, I certainly will select you a fine beverage
That drink has just got bigger then ‘holic.
Yard of Ale? Pah
And now a few look silly, like Lars’ doing a recursive heh at 231.
And Wind’s instructions looking weird.
http://www.francefootball.fr/#!/news/2012/11/19/121655_contretemps-pour-fabregas-a-moscou.html
heh, Fabregas got the wrong passport with him. DNA problem?
I note blogs this morning has mentioned the understated importance of the Sagna contract – while everyone seems to be talking about Theo “not signing da ting”. Sagna has been such an important player for us.
When you see headlines like the ones on another Blog (that shall not be named) promoting Theo’s signature, at any cost, it begs belief and perspective.
While I was delighted to see Theo play well of late, I cannot help but notice that while his performances have somehow gained all the headlines and attention, that there were other players too that merited as much attention.
Take for example the NLD, after the match Theo is being interviewed and of course, the Sky reporter had to mention his contractual situation, which Theo rebuffed with the usual line of it being in the hands of his agent and how he was just concentrating on the football. Then of course the reporter mentions the assist he provided in the game (for Pers goal) and Theo goes off on a ramble about how it’s not just this season, but last season too………
And while I’m watching, I’m thinking, what a silly little boy Theo can be at times.
Theo has being playing well of late, but can I just say that Cazorla also scored, provided assists and generally ran midfield. And Poldi and Giroud have also been scoring and also providing assists!
During the game against Reading, Theo scored 3 goals. I would argue that the third one would not have been awarded to Theo were it not for Jenks following up to make sure (as the linesman had not flagged that Theo’s original shot had crossed the line at the time). The first goal he scored was a magnificent finish and his second was a tap in after Arshavin had done most of the work. The man of the match for me that night was Arshavin. Not only did he create 8 clear goal scoring opportunities, but he (unusually) matched his creativity with some hard running and defensive work.
Yet still it was Theo who walked from the field with the ball under his hand, his chest stuck out in unbridled arrogance as though it was he alone who had single-handedly saved us in a game where Reading proved to be only marginally more farcical than we were in defence that same night.
I think Theo is a good footballer, who is deserving of a place in the squad. But I will be most disappointed if Wenger gives him a contract over 100k a week, especially when there are far more important players at the club who are paid a lot less.
I also think that when you look at Theo’s 7 year career to date at the club – its far from being the success that a contract of 100k a week would merit and that it’s somewhat arrogant to demand it.
And still I say that for every one thing that he’ll do right on the field, he’ll scupper 2-3 other chances through poor decision making or fluffed shots. Inconsistency that IMO, does not merit a contract of 100k a week.
Of course, he will get this money at another club and chances are, that’s exactly what his real aim is. And more power to him if he does because apart from being talented, he is young and marketable. That said however, I would prefer if the club used its precious resources to pay players who will really merit that wage level in a few years time when their contracts come up for renewal. Players who are more consistent, more humble and ultimately more important to the club that Theo has ever been. That’s a lesson I hope we’ll have learned from having already overpaid some players who we now cannot shift. The last time we conceded to give a player such a large wage was after he scored 30 goals a season. And he ended up being the MOTM on Saturday!
Saw a very good letter on Football365 today, it’s a bit long but here it is:
‘I know writing in to moan about MOTD is hardly original, but this Saturday they somehow failed to meet my barely existent expectations.
Getting Vincent Kompany on was an interesting idea, and at least Gary Lineker asked a couple of questions that could have illustrated a top professional’s knowledge, attitude and expectations for the season. But it mostly just served to highlight what a horrendous, old-pros-bantering-after-18-holes joke the show has become.
Rather than analyse City’s game, they just ribbed Vincent, with Hansen actually asking him whether the City players knew the United score in the dressing room!! I hope/choose to believe that Hansen just botched a question about City being motivated by the slip in upcoming games because, well, he can’t have declined that far since the good old days, right?
The news that Harry Redknapp was on sent chills down my spine, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. An out-of-work manager who’s very much looking to get back in the game is not going to p*** anyone off too much anyway, but Redknapp is the epitome of the cosy, dumbed-down relationship between top-flight footballers and managers and the media.
He added nothing to the show but a heightened sense of ill-deserved smugness. He was, completely, depressingly predictably, f***ing awful.
In their wisdom, they decided they’d deal with the Adebayor challenge with a ‘He’s not that type of player’ one-liner (Robin van Persie might tell you different), then when Kompany introduced some actual debate by saying he felt Arsenal were the best team City have played this season there was no attempt at all to follow it up. This in a segment about Arsenal.
But the person who did most to annoy me wasn’t actually in the studio. It was Jonathan Pearce. While his voice grates, I’ve always thought of Pearce as a man who got where he was through application. From Capital Gold to the Beeb’s main commentator on MOTD, he’s put a lot of effort into getting where he has today. But like everything else connected with the once-esteemed, now-dismal show, he’s resting on his laurels.
While his ‘Chim, chim Giroud’ line was completely inexplicable, an in-joke for a grinning circle of one, the nadir was his completely ridiculous, totally invented framing of Per Mertesacker’s first goal for the club. According to JP, Mertesacker was a clumsy pariah before scoring, an inept figure of abuse who Arsenal fans had scapegoated since his arrival.
Complete and utter cobblers.
Mertesacker has been warmly received by Arsenal fans – see the BFG chant, which is more than the rest of our back line have inspired – and this season he has been far and away our best defender (even if he was at fault for Adebayor’s goal). The highlight was against Schalke at the Emirates, when he basically kept them out on his own in the first half. His height is a source of relief after seeing a succession of short centre backs toil against centre forwards and his bravery has made him highly popular. In among the nonsensical redemption narrative, Pearce’s line about careers turning on single goals was the one that stood out. This is a man with 85 caps for Germany, ferchrisake.
So basically Jonathan Pearce thinks it’s okay to just make stuff up. As opposed to actually knowing about these players’ seasons and back stories – and it’s the Premier League, he hardly has to work particularly hard to research them – he just rehashed something suspiciously similar to Alan Hansen’s embarrassingly OTT criticism of the player whenever international tournaments come round and then pinned it on the fans.
I know I wasn’t the only one left shouting at the TV either. A quick look on Twitter saw plenty of punters and a few opportunistic talking heads giving it a well-deserved kicking. Stanley Victor Collymore was probably the most vocal. A serial self-promoter he may be, but it would be brilliant to see someone who is actually interested in analysis, and doesn’t mind saying what he thinks – and he’d be a damn sight better than Henry Winter, who was being talked up by a lot of people who have failed to sufficiently consider what a self-congratulatory pillock he actually is.
But something, anything, has to change. A Sky Sports subscription and a change of allegiance to Goals on Sunday looks more tempting by the week.’
Pearce is a clunge-avoiding, fuckwitted, wankhammer who should be on TalkShite, not the witless sack of shit that Match of the Day has sadly become.
Incredible that our flagship programme has now dumbed down to such a horribly low level.
Frankly it is time the fucking lot were benched and they started afresh with input from the few people that are contributing to the broadcast game today like Lee Dixon and, sorry but it has to be said, Gary Neville.
Lineker, Hansen, Lawrenson, Shearer, now Redknapp for fuck’s sake. No other audience in Europe would put up with shite like that.
Spot on, you two @ 243.
It was Wind wot won it – fine reporting from nearishish the front, well played. (By the way 2 pints – one for drinking, one for spilling – Zee knows.)
Still basking.
Up The Arse!
Extraordinary contribution from Wind. Congratulations fella, glad you enjoyed the NLD. Good to see also that it wasn’t just the footie.
Jonathan Pearce. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Don’t make me laugh. Hahahahahahahaha
COYG
Greetings Holics
Wind, congratulations, it would have taken me a week to have composed a drink on the scale of your epistle.
Will be on my own on Wednesday night, so will drop in to the Tollie for a swift pint pre match. Please look out for me, I will be wearing a red beret!
As always COYRs
Joe, good stuff – but Walcott would have got the 4-4 even without Jenks netting the rebound. On the highlights on Arsenal Player, you can quite clearly hear the ref blowing his whistle before Jenks strikes the ball so he had already awarded to goal by the time the ball went in again.
Andy Goram, I actually don’t mind Lineker at all even if he is an ex-spud. I think that if he didn’t have to deal with plonkers like Hansen, Redknapp, Savage, Shearer and such then people would like him better.
Are you parachuting in then, Delia ?
Some write up Wind. How the hell do you do that on a blackberry !?
See you Wednesday – NorCal will be the one wandering around wondering what everyone looks like.
…..and the award for “Young Reporter of the Year” goes to….Wind.
A massive and readable tome…….congratulations. It feeds the warming glow that is still there. Glad the day was a memorable one for you.
Massive high fives to The Sweeper, ‘Holic and Ollie for making it happen for a such a deserving young man.
Here’s hoping that Norcal has an equally special night at the HoF against that French mob.
I see Gareth Parker made it to F365 Winners & Losers column.
Top work!
Without reading it Ollie it can only be in the losers.
What a write up Wind, *applauds* and I am green with envy too in the same time hehe, glad you enjoyed.
As I stated before, at the exact time of the NLD kickoff, I found myself traveling the whole span of our small republic with couple of friends who are very dear to me in order to perform some serious headbanging and pleasure our ears by the likes of Moonspell and PAIN, all accompanied by vast consumption of fine czech lager and herbal chaser in form of Jäger.
The journey took long enough to last pretty much whole game, and I refrained myself from checking the score or drinks for the reports about the game.
By the time the game ended and we were still yet to reach our destination, I could not resist anymore and checked .com site for the result, in the very first moment I was shocked, since tiny display of my phone didnt show 5 correctly and I thought we lost 1-2, but much to my delight, when I zoomed in and 5 appeared a huge grin on my face followed swiftly.
I checked drinks after that to get at least slight imagination of how to game went and I lost it to bursts of laughter when I read about Adepaymemore being sent off. Watched the game late Sunday and I can very much agree that after really shaky start of the game, this is the Arsenal I want to turn up every game from now on till the end of season. The passion was there, the skill was there and great individual displays as well, a thing which is also needed with good team performance in order to achieve something.
BRING ON MONTPELLIER!
Headbanging and Jägermeister, heh
Looks like your tennis people had a great year, EAndy.
Though that’s generally more associated with headband.
Indeed Ollie, apparently we are first nation to ever achieve victories in Hopman, Fed and Davis Cups in one year…who would have thought that hehe. The show Stepanek put on in the descisive match was just plain heroic, but fair play to Spaniards as well.
And of course Jager goes well with headbanging, didnt have Red Bull with it though this time, so I actually remember everything:P
David Luiz, on a reported row in the Chelski dressing room after losing to West Brom:
“There were raised voices. It’s normal, this is a big club and we don’t like to lose games.”
No, David, you are a small club with a huge amount of money.
I feel very sleeeeeeepy
‘It’s normal, this is a small bus stop, we don’t like to queue’.
Esso,
Don’t leave the bar as well. Love those succinct drinks of yours. They make Twitter look like a home for wafflers.
Blimey Wind, that’s one hell of a drink
, glad you had a great day and sorry I just missed you. Hats off to Clive for making it all possible.
I have to agree with the letter Charlie posted and with Andy Goram with regard to MOTD. The programme surely reached it’s nadir on Saturday night. Like Lars I would excuse Lineker from the criticism as I think anyone would struggle to elicit anything worth hearing from the barrage of embarrassing non-comedy and dull-witted smugheadery that passes for punditry on the show. Hansen has become a parody, whilst ‘Arry is, well, ‘Arry. Nor did Jonathon Pearce cover himself in glory, a dreadful commentary that mixed the over-rehearsed and the ill-researched in equal measure. Pearce also did the Fulham game yesterday, and his pre-match summary in which he shovelled in as many inconsequential and utterly irrelevant Michael Jackson song titles as he could think of was eye-poppingly misconceived. Indefensible.
Joe, you weren’t the only one who was irritated by Theo’s post-match interview. If Theo wants to leave for the kind of money that will no doubt be on offer on a free, then that is up to him, but please Theo spare us all the glib non-answers, the abdication of responsibility and the smug smile that goes with “I hope my agents can sort it out, I love playing for this Club”. Double-speak at its very worst.
As for the game, I thought it was a very different 5-2 from last season. Some brief observations …
- Defensively we remain dreadfully tentative as a unit. We were all at sea for the first 10 minutes and looked nervous for 10 minutes after Bale scored. Snir, it is not about not giving chances away, that would indeed be an unrealistic aim, it is about doing the simple things well, defending as a unit. Too often we are our own worst enemy. Hopefully the return of Schez will help with cohesiveness, organisation and authority. LB remains a massive problem in the absence of Gibbs.
- I don’t think I’ve seen a finer two-footed player in an Arsenal shirt than Cazorla. Only one I can think of that comes anywhere near close is Bobby Pires, and even he was much happier on his right than his left. Some of the things that Cazorla does really does take the breath away.
- Jack was quietly effective and had his finest game since returning. Arteta enjoyed a welcome return to form.
- Giroud carried on where he left off against Fulham. Looks a real player to me. Play to his strengths and he’ll score plenty. Poldi was far more involved than he has been of late, and again we must find a way of playing that keeps him involved.
- Walcott, 9/10 performance, 1/10 interview.
- Nice little cameo from the Ox. Still think he’s a better bet long-term than Theo.
- Adebayor is pure poison. Long may he stay at Spurs.
- Tottenham? Different kit, same shit!
What about Arshavin, tabs? Did you get any insights?
Haha, same old same old Ollie.
Started with a discussion on Santos. I mentioned that I was disappointed he got a run out and said that he had lost me because of his fitness levels. I made the mistake of mentioning Arshavin in the same breath. The “Save our little Russian” Club, led by Adam, smelled blood and went into overdrive!
I got buried
Apparently he should be Captain, should play every game, and was unlucky to lose out on World Player of the Year!
Ollie @ 235, its the way forward
@ 239, they still apply to a lesser degree
Holic @ 236, thank you, I was about to DM you on Twitter to request an enquiry into it
Lars @ 237,
Replying on you due to my general inexperience with Pubs & what Alcohol to drink 
Joe @ 241, similar stuff to what I was thinking during the game, well in.
Charlie @ 242, really enjoyed that, thanks for posting it
AL @ 245, was lovely to meet you mate, was it the former or the latter for the location in South London?
Thanks Oxon @ 246, appreciate it
Delia @ 247, thank you, and I’ll look out for you! I don’t want to arouse suspicions by leaving college to come home & change, and then coming home in full Arsenal Gear! I’ll probably come to the Tollie & the game in my School Suit with my Arsenal Scarf
*Goes to google what a Beret is* 
Hey Tabs,
Agreed.
Regards Theo, he had one of his best games for us, but I still thought The Ox looked very impressive when he came on.
He seemed fired up by the competition from Theo for that right wing berth.
He may not have Theo’s pure pace, but he has more trickery and strength.
Nothing to add about Theo’s interview or MoTD, except the former was unnecessary and the latter was disrespectful and pathetic.
Hey Trev, yep agreed. Not sure we can take too much from Ox’s cameo against ten men and the game was all but up, but nevertheless he looked great. Made a mug of Vertonghen twice.
Both players offer different things. Obviously it would be ideal to keep both, but if, as appears increasingly likely, Theo is off, then I think we are well covered.
19 year old Ox miles in front of Theo at that age.
heh, tabs. Word pie-eater of the year more likely
Trev @ 250, spirit, determination & the mighty MemoPad
Uplympian @ 251, I’d like to thank all the Holics for this award, couldn’t of done it without you all!
Hope NorCal & his kids have as great a first game as I had a first NLD
Eandy @ 254, green with envy you say?
Thanks mate, seems like you had a great weekend as well!
tabs @ 261, I’m sorry I missed you as well, was looking forward to that Haddock as well
I bet you entered as I was in the Kebab shop across the road, no worries anyway, I look forward to the day we can meet 
Heh Ollie. I did mention that I thought his shorts were now custom-made (probably out of a pair of curtains ) such is the size of his arse.
It didn’t go down well
Heh Wind, I tend to swerve the Haddock with the “Time for one more ” line, but I do owe BtM his Fish supper so I will need to find out where it is soon.
My my my, what a fine set of drinks this has been and I want to start by sending out warm waves of gratitude from the 3rd highest capital in the world to all of you who have restored my faith and then some with your calm optimism and heatwarming facts (like the one that we’re only 9 points off the top and the other contenders are not exactly running away with it).
So imagine my delight at seeing a repeat of one of the most delicious scorelines imaginable when I finally got a chance to get online (amid numerous, and highly enjoyable, meetings with my Latin in-laws and their small army of aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces). It’s certainly not cut off from technology here but when you get a nightly chance to quaff large quantities of the local beer while spending hours brushing up on your Spanish…what’s not to like?
Anyway, a buggered wrist sustained during a game of hackey sack yesterday (seriously, don’t ask…) limits my typing ability but I will be back in town after interminable hours stuck inside an Air France fuselage in good time to spruce up, grab some portraits of the queen and head down the battle cruiser for the Montpellier game.
See you on the other side Holics! Oh, and UTA as always…
P.S. Adebayore – hahahahahaha you Twat!
Wow, that was some drink Wind. Glad you enjoyed yourself son and I hope it’s the first of many NLD’s for you. Also please bring along your mojo on Wednesday evening, I’d like to see us score five again.
ps. You took a bus from the Nags Head to the Hornsey Rd? Bloody hell, it would of been quicker to walk.
—–
imissbergkamp, great vid, Sagna totally blanks Adebuybye, you can see claery that it affected Ade, he didn’t6 know where to look.
—–
Charlie/Tabs/Andy
My dislike of MoTD is well documented on these very pages, it’s not a proper discussion about football anymore it’s a myriad of cliches and the same old tired soundbytes being rolled out week after week. No wonder Lee left that lot. Unfortunatly I have no other choice if I want to catch up on the PL. My sportschannel does the Sky version (well I think it’s a Sky highlight show), but dubbed and not until five days after and then it’s usually only the Saturday highlights. I usually tape the programmes watch the highlights and ff the guff.
—–
I too was unimpressed with Feo’s postmatch interview, but I decided to bask in the smug rather then focus on anything negative, full service should be resumed very shortly.
Tabs, If I’m not mistaken, that would be here;
http://www.yelp.nl/biz/chip-inn-fish-bar-london
H2H, watching MOTD in a foreign language might be the way forward
Cheers for the directions.
Cheers Wind. Sounds like a great day.
Great pics Nonny! I think i’ve watched the highlights about 15 times since yesterday. Just fantastic stuff.
Agree, however, with the drinkers above on the Sanga situation (putting aside my … ahem … obvious man crush on Bac. there, i’ve said it. no laughing please. well, not too much laughing!)
I fear that he’s the next top class player to be sold to finance, well, … things. Would be an absolute screw up of bibilical proportions. Corp. Jenks will be good, he’s getting there. But he’s not ready and selling Bac will hurt the team again next year as we cope with youth and no cover. Bac isn’t agitating for a move or looking unhappy. He’s settled and absolutely key for the defense. When’s the last time someone scored on his watch? Its rare. And I’ve have fond memories of Sagna stuffing Ronaldo and Nani. Great stuff! (or is that Great Stuffed …?!)
Theo … hard to call that one. A bit of an odd interview. Lookit, these lads are not Rhodes Scholars. They’re pro athletes, and articulation, nuance, and communication are NOT their forte’. I’m prepared to give Theo slack.
And someone said it a while back (and I think I did as well); give this squad time to gel. There is real quality. And for fuck’s sake enough with the selling off key players!
Anyway – there are few things more exciting than the NLD.
But my new hobby comes close:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNU9WIs30Y4
Joe.
I think Arsene’s into that too;
http://www.talksport.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/ts_magazine_big_picture/WengerCoatholding.jpg
249 Trev
Lovely idea, unfortunately don’t count HM or Daniel Craig among my acquaintances, although I do believe HM is a Gooner!
See you all, including young Wind, on Wednesday.
Wind
Re: Your epic post at 2:44AM!!! (WTF???)
Your manners are impeccable. Very glad to see that the future of Arse support is in such safe hands. You’ll do us all proud.
The Sweeper needs to take another bow for making. it all happen
Hopefully we’ll get a chance to meet soon and when we do I’ll try not to have a boring stor(e)y waiting for you.
Bring on The French and allez les rouges!
Fucking hell! IS that the longest drink ever?
Heh, cheers wind. And again,big cheers to Clive
Wallpaper
http://i.imgbox.com/abn1eLvK.jpeg
Delia @ 278, I look forward to Wednesday with an even higher degree of anticipation than before
TS @ 279, looking forward to meeting you, the funny thing was that I was on course to finish around 8:45pm but my dad convinced me to include him in the Pasta with Sauteed Bacon, Onions & Mushrooms I was making for myself yesterday and so I needed a bigger pack of Pasta, and then I couldn’t continue writing up my experiences of the day whilst Boiling Pasta & Frying the Bacon, Onions & Mushrooms at the same time so I saved and put the phone on charge in the kitchen. The food ended up going around between me, my dad, and 3 of my sisters, + I saved some for my youngest sister to eat after she got back from school today & I took some for my Lunch at College today (^o^) Then after that Misfits was coming on at 10pm so I had to stop again as I was eating my dinner, after it finjshed at 11pm I went downstairs for the rest of the pasta & some Lucozade Pink Lemonade, and spent the next 3 to 4 hours or so cursing my Blackberry for losing me more drafts in MemoPad (I write a lot of my lengthy drinks in that so I can refer to other drinks with a push of the Blackberry Button without having to scroll up and down relentlessly between the drinks & the text box) band writing up the final version of the drink most of you have seen now. It was late, but it was great
And Top Man Snowy & Kevin said something similar about the future of Arsenal also, makes you feel warm inside 
Thanks for the compliment on my manners heh
Harsha @ 280, thanks mate, I’ve only been here for about 15 months, you’d have to ask someone of a more experienced pedigree than me!
Evening all,
Just chilling out for our last night in Paris. Youngest in the tub. Elder 2 zoned out with headphones. Ivana’s world is still spinning. ( anyone know a good cure for vertigo? Have tried the Epley manuvere, down Wolfie, but she is still very dizzy at times. )
Tried to watch the full match but the wifi here at the hotel does not load fast enough so the highlights and the bitesize twice each is all I have seen. Great viewing each time.
Wind, loved the story. Fun to hear what you saw and felt.
Look forward to my virgin pilgrimage in 2 days. Will be different in many ways but I am sure it will be an experience I will never forget. I am sure I will stick out at the Tollie but with Wind as my navigator I hope not to get too lost.
Holic, sorry I will miss you Wednesday I guess that will have to wait for different visit. I will still raise a glass in your honor. I feel like we are already friends. Cheers mate.
Wind. You put your dad in the pasta?
The latter, Wind. And lovely to meet you too – Sir.
Psed – apparently chelski in crisiski – do they require an owner with deeper pockets, already??? Usmanov – your country needs you.
……the Pasta with Sauteed Bacon, Onions & Mushrooms I was making for myself….
Do the women not do ANYTHING in that household?
H2H, you’re as bad as Zico
NorCal, glad to hear you loved it, hope it will go some way to appeasing your anticipation for the game & give you some sort of idea of what to expect
Wind my friend.
Haven’t read your post but promise to do so.
Jealous of you!!! Lol
Heh, Z and AL.
http://www.soccershouts.com/forum/topic/16679-arsenal-vs-tottenham/page__view__getnewpost
To anybody who’s looking to download the match.
Includes pre and post match
Snir, make sure you bring a packed lunch.
Great drink Wind! At airport going toSeattle where a monsoon seems to be in progress. Allen les rouges
Believe it or not Zico, there’s 6 of them (5 if you include the youngest as she’s only 10). I asked my mum whether she would like some or not, she told me to “Just Shut Up & give me some” in frustration or impatience -_- I looked at my dad in disbelief, he just told me in a look and a hand motion to forget about it and go and dish up for myself. Needless to say, the request was NOT adhered to. :/
And in a family of 10, you learn young, you learn fast, and I learned damn well
I won’t starve at University 
Rain in Seattle? Unheard of!
Wind,
Do you think my kids can say that they are your triplet brother and sister to get into the Tollie?
Maybe I should park them at one of the eating establishments that ‘Holic recommended while we grab a pint pregame.
10?
That’s the entire population of some of the villages here.
A family of ten would suggest that television is not what it used to be…..
Snir, have you heard from Scruz? He seems to be missing. And not like him not to say anything especially after beating the little club up the road.
Zico,
That all depends on what you are watching.
Slips ball forward for a positive augury for Wednesday…….
Rude not to.
Bang, 1-nil, Caledonia.
Well in Zicinihio
Well in Dr Z,
I thought my thru-ball was going to travel all the way to the ‘keeper. That would not have been a good omen.
3-1 for The Arsenal is my prediction. If a Caledonian scores then 4-1 with a goal from McWilshere.
Cracking write up ‘holic!
The cheeky mention…..haha, cheers!
Another fantastic day spent with mates doing what we do best. And doing them lot like that is always special. Today was a struggle at work but I cant wait to do it all over again, and agan, and agian…
Big love!
Have a great time NorCal.
Watch out for the Brolly bandits – they know who they are.
AL @ 285, thanks for the clarification my good sir
Snir @ 288, I hope that one day you get to experience the unique atmosphere of an NLD, please enjoy my take on it when you get around to reading it
Behind the 8 Ball @ 292, thanks, have a safe journey!
NorCal @ 294, we can always try…
H2H/Zico @ 295/296, haha, times are a changing
NorCal at 298 knows (Y)
Hey Silva, good to see you on here
Re: Theo, some alarming vibes appear to be emanating from his camp.
He does appear to be on the brink of taking a big step up, and I’d like it to be a step up taken in an Arsenal shirt.
However, if he’s going to go (and I’d assume the club must know by now) then he should be booted straight out of the first XI so that the Ox can get his minutes. No sense developing a player who doesn’t want to stay.
You’d kick him out of the side if you want to keep losing games.
As predicted, it looks like a compromise will probably be reached.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2235410/Theo-Walcott-contract-Arsene-Wenger-tells-Arsenal-improve-offer-Liverpool-Chelsea-lurk.html
If they let another top player go for the sake of five or ten grand a week, and like it or not he IS our most productive player despite his inconsistency, they are mental. We have never replaced Cole and it was a massive error to mess him about, despite all the shenanigans at the time.
Great stuff as usual Holic.
When I was watching the 5-2 in February from my bedroom in Pennsylvania I could only say “I would sell my soul to have been there for that.”
Well on Saturday, I got to be there for that. It was even better than I could’ve imagined. The solidarity between us and the team, just so much backing each other up and so much against them. I loved it. I’ve loved every second of this trip and following this club all over the country. I’ve got to go home here in a few weeks and I don’t know how I’m going to go back to watching every match on the TV but I’ll manage.
Saturday and that bloody freezing night in Reading were some of the best experiences of my life, and once again, apologies for nearly dragging you into the row in front of us in celebrating the 7th there!
Cheers.
Norcal, I too am sorry. I hope you have an amazing time.
Can’t get over that Wind post. A sub-editor’s nightmare, so much info, but the excitement just bubbles through.
Sweeper, I hope you can afford trousers again soon. You are a top man.
Silva, great to see you again fella.
Esso. Come back man. You will, when you’re ready, I know. If I end up coming up just to watch in the pub I know who would be top of the list to be watching and glugging with. And bring Ian and Steve with you!
James, the pleasure was mine mate. Great enthusiasm.
Are you going home before we go to Reading in the League game? Would make a great farewell party?
Nonny – I hear you and I hope we do keep him.
But I’m sick of seeing players take this great club for granted. We will make the top four with or without Theo Walcott. It’s just a few extra grey hairs the latter route.
Fingers crossed the lad sees sense. He’d need to be out of his mind to move to Liverpool.
Top four maybe but if you want to win something, this year or next, he has to stay and so do players like him.
At least the stubborn old git is picking him now
Just read Wind’s account of Saturday.
Great stuff
Holic @ 310,
, sorry if I caused you excessive trouble! 
The Neighbour @ 314, thanks
Zico,
NorCal @283, is bringing virgins with him on Wednesday. I can’t believe you won’t be there ……….
No trouble at all, Wind. I know more about you now than I did Saturday, and that is my fault…
Evening Trev, are you suggesting zico has an affinity with tight people?
Evening Holic,
A Scot …. Affinity with tight people ? Nah, can’t be.
Haven’t noticed this above, but Frimpong going on loan to Charlton until the end of the year.
Dame judied trev,twittered his chance I’d think,not to mention his unfortunate injuries.great posts above by all.
Smart move for Frimpong – I still see him as too raw to be near the fringes of our squad
Charlie@242: the standard of commentary and punditry on both BBC and Sky is just abysmal. You get neither expertise nor entertainment. Just pablum, cliches and desperate attempts to create drama and controversy where none exists. The old rule of engaging mind before mouth has gone out of the window, and cracked its skull on the pavement below. I increasingly find myself seeking out streams in the most obscure languages so I don’t have to put up with it.
Tabs@274: not watching it at all it is even better.
Let’s hope a spell at Charlton will be as educational for Frimpong as it was for Song. It makes more sense for him to be getting game time there than sitting down the DM pecking order behind Arteta and the Coq.
Tre@316, NorCal@283: will there be sacrifices?
Apologies, Trev, dropped your v above.
GoonerTerry back from the dead y’all.
Hey Holics, hope that all is well with one and all.
@ Guv’nor [or Ollie] or other admin: Please send me an email address for Goonerholic to my registered email address. I would like to speak to a few Holics off-line. Thanks.
Glad to see GT is back. Hope it’s not just a cameo. We missed your perspective.
Great to see you back Tel.
The way it works is you drop me a line, gooner@goonerholic.com and let me know who you want to email. I ask them first if it is ok to share their details.
Data protection and all that stuff.
So on friday I was intrigued to see a new telecom box in the parking lot (and the old one gone), presumably part of the new all digital/high speed/fibre bollocks, and hoped that it wouldn’t fuck up my connection. So was relieved that it all worked.
They must have activated the cunt yesterday as I got home and go no internet and no fucking television (oh I wish we still had analog then). They’d better fix it, especially before Wednesday.
Incompetent cunts.
haha H2H 277
Nonny 281 ‘untrusted connection’. I’ll look it up at home. Or fucking won’t, see above.
Silva on the drinks?!?!
That was my reaction as well Ollie!
GoonerTerry, I’ve missed you I have mate
I have tried to use the ‘online support’, where you’re supposed to ‘chat’ with a support ‘person’.
Really? I try to put it down in writing, but all I get is a stuff above with pre-programmed questions in reply, which I’m supposed to click on.
Clearly ‘Emilie’ is a robot, not a fucking person. It’s absolutely fucking appalling, and the standard questions (supposedly identified from key-words in my text?) do not cover total loss of service?
Jaysus fucking Christ, you call that ‘support’?!?
I sense you are already excited about tomorrow, Wind!
But seriously again, as Trev said and I hinted at too, I’m still bloody amazed you could type that on a Blackberry, MemoPad or not.
Truly impressive! Don’t think there was even much sub-editing to do (though I was so gripped by the story I probably wouldn’t have noticed).
Keep the faith
http://www.francefootball.fr/#!/news/2012/11/19/214713_henry-s-entraine-avec-arsenal.html
Henry trains with the Gunners (but doesn’t know whether he’ll do another stint in January)
http://www.francefootball.fr/#!/news/2012/11/20/183713_vieira-diaby-plus-complet-que-moi.html
And Vieira essentially says Diaby is better than him.
Another Henry stint in January? Please no. Turning the clock back last year was a relative success, but it won’t work one more time.
I take no pleasure in stating that Santi Cazorla put 10-man Spurs to the sword. It took Emmanuel Adebayor’s totally unnecessary challenge and subsequent sending off to provide the difference between the sides but Cazorla can’t be blamed for that. I’m beginning to think that former Arsenal and Manchester City striker Adebayor is a spy sent to destroy us!
Good to see the BBC (Garth Crooks in this instance) do not even pretend to be neutral anymore. Spudsnest.
I’m very ambivalent about this too, Lars. Plus this time maybe Chamakh won’t be selected for Morocco, so it’s only Gervinho who should be away
Wind.That was epic.
Re Henry doing another cameo, don’t think NYRB will go for it this time anyway. Just sacked the manager for a start, plus Henry had injury time when he went back to them last time. I thought it was a terrible idea last time and was wrong. This time I just don’t know, but I would be happy with a trainee trainer session for him. Not that i am biased but hoping to catch a January match at the Emirates
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20323753
One for abb
I know tabs claims solids are for softies, but I am going to have myself some lunch right now.
* Per Mertesacker has the highest pass completion rate in the Premier League at 92.9% – just ahead of Mikel Arteta on 92.8%.
* At this stage last season, Robin van Persie had scored 13 of Arsenal’s 25 PL goals. This season no Arsenal player has scored more than four of their 23 goals.
Spreading the goals.
I think I can somehow spot myself in the games highlights on ArseTV, but the resolution isn’t quite good enough.
I think I might want to have a look at a HD recording of the game.
to arsedownunder
yes there are many mnay gunners fans here in australia and sydney
of course the normal manure/liverpool and come lately chelski fans.
But the gunners have a very loyal fan base here, a number of whom went up to asia this year to see the gunners, only 8 hours flight!!.
born in london and wnet to first game in early 60′s with my dad
went to all home games ,a lot of away games, until moved to oz in 1986
will be back in Sept 2013 and will take family hopefully to a game at the emirates.
have 10 year old son who is beginning to see the power that is arsenal
One for Steve T:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/arsenal-analysis-how-the-derby-was-won
There’s a standard strategy when playing against 10 men – whatever your formation, regardless of your general playing style, you make the pitch as big as possible by playing with great width.
Gibbs back in training – excellent news – his return cannot come soon enough.
Walcott’s out for tomorrow apparently, his shoulder again…
tabs, that is excellent news. He has been sorely missed.
Wind – that, on the other hand, is very bad news. We know what his shoulders have done to him in recent years.
Time for the Ox to step up, perhaps?
Wow Wind, that was a big enough drink to cover holic’s three blog posts but was worth reading every word of it. I’m I envious of your first NLD or I’m I envious. Cant wait to visit the HOF for the first time.
Abbs good to see you too, I log in every now and then to catch up on the drinks even though I don’t post much.
Nonny we get it you have a crush on Theo but I wonder if he’d be getting the same praises he is if his contract wasnt running down. He is good but not that good.
Indeed Lars.
Wind, is that definite? I read that Theo missed training today as a precaution?
Further to yesterday’s babble about MOTD, I have stumbled upon a letter to the Beeb about the very same. Pretty good I thought.
http://magicspongers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/die-another-match-of-day.html?m=1
Wind @351,
Sod that for a game of shoulders !
Ollie @ 346,
Interesting stats. So how will Arsenal ever replace van Pussy’s goals ?
tabs: http://www.arsenal.com/digest
Walcott (and Santos, heh, how?) out, Gibbs and Forehead back.
Cheers Ollie.
Walcott a blow. Santos much less so
My guess is that he burnt his tongue on one of those piping hot apple pies from Macdonalds.
You really think Lineker isn’t part of the MOTD problem?
Think again:
http://www.football365.com/mediawatch/8262070/Mediawatch
The question remains: will Wenger drop Vermaelen?
tabs, Santos has an ‘abdominal muscle strain’. Eating muscles, right?
@361 Clearly Ollie
And heh @359, just alluded to that on Twatter. Great minds and all that …
As for Vermaelen, I don’t think AW has a choice. Thought Kos had a good game on Saturday.
Suspect Gibbs won’t play until the weekend. AW can dress it up initially as “resting” TV5, given he’s played a lot of games.
What happens thereafter, your guess is as good as mine. Injury to one of the others will no doubt probably intervene.
yeah, saw your tweet and was wondering whether you were reading F365 or my mind
Ollie, Lineker does not decide on pundits, running order, format or other stuff. And what is he supposed to say? “Yeah, I agree, Hansen’s a wanker!”?
Alright, that’s enough defending of an ex-spud!
Surely you haven’t all forgotten his ‘monkey dance’ though? And general cheesy cuntery. Although of course I am only very rarely exposed to MOTD, to be fair.
Actually Lars Lineker has a massive input on all that. Very powerful. The Producer is a mate of mine. Friend to the powerful and all that.
My mate regularly tears his hair out at the vapid punditry. Well I say that, he would, but he’s as bald as a coot
Tabs @358.
So Nickles Bendtner does not, after all, rule out a return to Arsenal.
He must be the only one.
Please.
Lars Lineker. Who dat ?
Nickles (?) Bendtner.
Oh well, every cloud has a silver lining.
NicklAs, obviously.
A bit nervy about our lads playing Chelsea today…whoops wrong blog! Go JUVENTAS!
Hi Ollie and company 
‘System Restore’ usually solves all my computer glitches 
Random thought of the day. Wild animals and Italian men don’t belong in captivity 
But Gooner Terry does, not letting him escape, ever again 
And if FunGunner ever shows up, I’m gunna let First Lady give her a piece of my mind, and then some! We miss you Fun 
Heh Trev, apologies, missing comma I think.
As for the Prince of Denmark, the only way he’s returning to Islington is if he decides to open a shop on Upper Street selling Bacon, trouser-belts, endorsed under-crackers and egos.
Hi abb!
No computer glitches thought, it’s the whole cable data access: even TV wasn’t working!
The problem, once more, is very much not on my side. I suspect it is on the building-side (some connection got fucked up when they installed the new system) even, rather than maybe just the operator. Should be operator’s responsibility though.
So Podolski went to see Rhianna in concert.
Wearing a white t-shirt.
With one word on it.
Fucker.
LOL
Wenger added: “We will miss Santos as well, who has a muscle strain in his abdomens.”
Andre Fivebellies Santos
Hey there Ollie, Don’t think Snir owns a TV and he seems to get on quite well
OUR lads, abb ?
Soap and water should do the trick.
I think Goonerholic and Martin Tyler would make an awesome Duo on Match Day. Best voices ever! And Amy Lawrence can do a cameo. Very nice
Joining our commentary team, live from The Grove: Goonerholic and Martin Tyler.
Actually, ‘holic is already the pitchside reporter, they should just give him a mike :p
Hi Trev
Hey Ollie, And Wind could provide the intro (music of Flo Rida’s ‘Wild One’) in the background
what a refreshing big dollop of excitement Wind’s post was
for that wee while i wasn’t the grumpy jaded ball of cynicism i usually am
cheers fella
From an overseas perspective – watching MOTD has become a real effort – which is why, I largely don’t anymore. And y’know, MOTD was part and parcel of every kids youth growing up and in many ways, it’s sad to see such an institution fall from grace. I know people still watch MOTD highlights – but Sky have blown them out of the water. Not only do they own the rights – but now it seems as though their standard of commentary has surpassed whatever drivel Lineker & co can muster. And if you think about it, this was one of the only ways they could still have been competitive against Sky in some small way but they’ve blown that too by sticking with Lineker.
I still think that giving Sky absolute rights was a big mistake by the FA because it introduced unprecedented levels of money into the game and this has diluted the essence of what the sport is supposed to be about. The real essence of sport is that you play for a sense of self identity, for the values of the club and the people you represent. It like playing for your mates, its about the jersey and what that jersey represents. To coin Steve’s phrase – its about “being the best you can be”. There is no such thing as player loyalty anymore. And as such – players are more prone to dive, cheat or compete in a way which at time falls short of fans expectations and club values. They don’t do the jersey proud, because they have little understanding of the heritage and history of the club. They now play for the highest bidder.
And I believe its only a matter of time before the clubs begin to offer TV rights directly to the fan base as well as to the main providers thus increasing their overall take even further and injecting even more money into the game. This is the digital business plan that underpins the Fraser investment for example. In Spain the money from the TV rights is largely divided in two and this has had a detrimental effect on the general state of Spanish football.
But getting back to the Beeb, I never rated Lineker or Lawro. I always thought Hansen viewpoints were interesting but only when he wasn’t commenting on Liverpool. Y’know a few seasons ago – he actually thought that Liverpool would win the league..! Imagine what you’d have to smoke to arrive at that conclusion! And whenever Souness has appeared as a pundit on RTE in the past – he was always amazed at the freedom given to the Irish pundits (Dunphy, Brady and Giles). There was always “a line” that you had to take when commenting on Sky. And it generally meant toned down criticism of the domestic English players. Whereas there was no such politics here, and it made for better contributions, analysis and overall entertainment for the viewer.
Football is no longer a simple game. Its been brought to a much higher art form, thanks to people like Wenger. Now diets, training, tactics, formations, work ethic and overall philosophy have a greater impact on the game. But in that evolution, the fan base has changed too: From season ticket holder to Sky subscriber; from National to International; has the hooligan slowly given way to the more thinking fan? Now fans who watch a game – want to have intelligible analysis. Even the fans who are lucky enough to attend games – want retrospective intelligible analysis.
And there’s a market for that – but no-one seems to have told the BBC..!
Drink for cba!
Hmm..no Feo tomorrow? I have gut feeling that AW will start Ramsey on the flank again for some reason, would like to see Ox there much more…the speed on flanks is must have to play to OGs strenghts.
Gibbs returning is a massive boost, and have mixed feelings about Gerv actually ..where to play him once fit.
EAndy, at least it will give people somebody to moan about
Seeing Gervinho in the training pics, he is standing alone near the goal post deep in thought…could he be thinking the same thing? After watching Liverpool, Suarez has similar problem, he makes crosses but none of his teammates anticipate them. Baffling.
Aaron Ramsey: frustration incarnate.
Sideways, back, pirouet, lose the ball. Repeat.
Hate to slag the player, but … I just can’t …. Well, i hope he rediscovers his mojo, and FAST.
Ahh, that’s what has been wrong recently! Insufficient things to moan about in the Goonerverse.. I think not…
cheers ollie
you’re obviously a good sort yerself for the part you played in proceedings
but it was arse jackeen who stood out for me :
“Greater love hath no Irishman than this, that a man lay down his Tayto Cheese and Onion for his friends”
Can’t Be Arsed 15:13
Brilliant post Joe.
Eandy – I will be astonished if Ox doesn’t start.
cba @390
tabs – as would be everyone else, that means that Aaron will surely start
371 Tabs .Unfortunately I don’t think we will see The Prince of Denmark in Islington again http://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/Islington/PrinceDenmark.shtml
“Greater love hath no Irishman than this, that a man lay down his Tayto Cheese and Onion for his friends”
Can’t Be Arsed 15:13
Haha, splendid!
What’s up, washed up?
Eandy –
Washed Up – Sad days indeed.
Afternoon peeps.
Great links above, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that MoTD really has turned a bit poo, for the record I’m with Ollie, I still haven’t forgiven big ears for his backing of the Stoke mongs with their ridiculous arm waving crap.
Speaking of ex Spuds and Orcs, does Garth Croked also refer to Stoke as “we”? If not why not as far as I know he was hatched there and played at Middle Earth for quite a while.
Good stuff Joe.
Heh at CBA
I hope those gits fix your problems soon Ollie, I know how frustrating cable troubles can be, having a dodgy reception that meant I couldn’t get digital tv here in the bar for a good three months.
And welcome back Tel.
Goal by Ollie?
Well in Ollie.
Thanks for the assist, H2H. I see now that the ball had been lying there for minutes waiting to be struck!
And cheers. My bet is it still won’t be fixed tonight, but we’ll see.
Have to find a way to give them a call if so, but they make it hard to reach them.
I fucking dispise the cable company.
Even if you do manage to get beyond the computer generated receptionist, with the endless menus (press 1 if you…. etc bloody etc) they then put you on hold hoping that you’ll give up after twenty minutes or so. The reward for your patience and staying power ends up being the chance to speak to a “live receptionist” with the IQ of a potato who are so obviously reading all their “solutions” off a troubleshooting list.
They are the Garth Crooks of telephone help desks.
Congratulations to the guvnor for scoring 100pts in the FFL, not too shaby.
Spot on at 403, H2H.
Also, generally, your only chance to speak to someone is the ‘I want to resiliate my contract’ option. Works a treat.
‘terminate’, I guess; I just anglicised a word to create it.
Works for me. Ollie.
Right, I’m off. I may not be back until tomorrow then
Quality drinking by Joe above, as usual.
Just one minor disagreement, if indeed it is that: I don’t think there is anything wrong with unprecedented levels of money coming into the game but more that it is not subsequently re-invested in the right things. The bulk of it goes to players who don’t deserve or earn it and worse still, a major chunk of the change goes to the leeches that represent them.
In an ideal world, money coming into the game could be used to benefit the development at grass roots, fund technology improvements and if we push the boat out, a contact lens finance plan for Dowd. It could also arguably be used to subsidise ticket prices so that the cost of our football was more akin to that charged in Spain and Germany.
Naively idealistic thinking perhaps, but those who know me will be familiar with my romantic visions.
Speaking of which, where are them virgins we was promised?
Never really understood the whole fixation on virgins thing.
They’re either;
a) not likely to put out, or
b) too ugly to bother with.
410 *cont’d.
Hence the whole them being virgin thing.
Can’t comment – never met any.
I really hope The Chavs get gubbed tonight. You always sense with that lot that they are only ever 2 bad results away from internal conflict.
Always thought that all the early season lauding of them was a bit premature.
Can’t deny that the Hazard-Oscar-Mata triumvirate is a bit special, but they can’t defend, have a seriously misfiring centre-forward and have an increasingly injury-prone Captain who is hated by at least a 1/3 of their squad. They have also enjoyed far more luck than any other side in the last 12 months.
Implosion please.
Heh @412
And agree with your Chelsea assessment.
Can’t be much fun for RdM, knowing that your boss would replace you in a heartbeat with Guadiola, but then again, he’s not making it easier for himself dropping two of his best performers (Mata and Ivanovich) and losing to WBA.
Agree H2H. I watched them on Saturday in between mercilessly ripping into the LWCs, and the “resting” of Mata was a very strange decision.
Can’t feel sorry for RdM here. He’ll walk into another job if he gets dumped with a massive pay off.
He’s beginning to annoy me too. Even the semi decent fellas get infected with arrogant entitlement if they spend too long at the Bus Stop.
Clattenburg decision expected tomorrow. Really hope there’s no cop out and they get buried.
@ 410 & 412
Erm, I was talking about trains
I’ll be watching thta decision with great interest too, knowing the FA they’ll probably bottle it though, but I hope not.
As for the Chavs, they’re missing TLC, not the Mihael Jackson-y tender loving care, but the evil axis of, Terry-Lampard-Cole. Maybe they’re comming to the end of their deals with the devil as far as their careers are concerned, but the Chavs are nowhere near as good as they can be without them.
Love them orhate them, you can’t deny that have a major influence on the Chavs’ performances.@ 413
I’ll see your implosion and raise you “an exploding club captain’s head” with the bits eaten by a mangy dog…
Ha Ha Zico!
Boooo @ 418.
What that did poor dog ever do to deserve that?
Hehs @416 and @418 . You win Dr Z.
I could raise your “exploding club captain’s head” but I fear that is a game that could go on for quite some time
Agreed H2H, save that Cashley is playing tonight. No Torres, no centre-forward at all. I am hopeful.
Go on Juve, you bunch of cheating, conniving scoundrels (sorry Abb
)
Firstlady @ 354, thank you, I’m certain your time to make your pilgrimage will come eventually, as I persevered with that post, you should persevere to make you watching the Arsenal live a reality, no?
Trev @ 356, oh you…
Nonny @ 374, what a LAD
abb @ 381, hmm, it could happen
cba @ 382, thanks for reading mate, I’m glad you enjoyed it
Homer @ 388, if Ramsey must start on the Right Wing over Gervinho or the Ox (don’t get me wrong, I was a big fan before his leg break by ShawCANT and still think & hope that he can return to the level he was prior to that terrible tackle) I hope I actually get to witness one of his fabled backheels come good live
Well in Ollie for the 400
Hey Tabs and Wind
Now hush, my game is on….:)
Yes, Juve! Hey it’s too quiet here…
Ashley and Petr keeping Chelsea alive.
Great post Joe – the long one.
The Chavs are indeed losing, here on Juveholic, abb.
Buffon for Xmas please, Arsene.
Hehs @zico, Tabs, H2H.
Oh dear, it’s Ashley and Petr now.
You must work on your capacity to hate, abb.
Hmm Chelsea dangerous on the break, but awful at the back. Lucky to be only one down.
Finish ‘em off Juve!
Trev, This is quite the game, I’m screaming like a banshee whenever Chelsea are on the break. Juve should be 4 up at least
Hehe…thing is that same as Vincent Kompany, Petr Cech is annoyingly likeable guy and its especially hard for me to hate him with such passion as the rest of Chelski squad considering its our national team keeper, and to be completely honest, its a shame that Arsene didnt sign him back in the days when he was interested in him.
Luiz and Mikel moaning at each other again. Can you get sent off for punching your own team mate ……
Yes you can, Trev,
Craig Levein once broke Graham Hogg’s jaw, and not just because he was a dirty Manc
Oh some lovely play by Juve, really such a joy to watch.
Terrible sportsmanship from Shakhtar for their first goal. Of course it’s bad for Chelsea, but still a shame to see that. Can’t believe the goal was allowed really.
Whoopie, Juve 2 up!!!!
Chavs need to get di Matteo aahhtt, FACT!!
Get Arry Yappyapp in and start playing high crosses in to Mata … Oh.
Jubeautee!!!
Amidst all the utterly justified criticism above of MotD, I wish to share with you the closing remarks of ITV’s coverage of Juventus 3-0 Chelsea:
“We’ll be back after the break to discuss the reasons for this result. Was it that Chelsea weren’t good enough or was it a case of a home side being just too good for them?”
There’s a difference, right?
Well done Juve : ) Gigi never really tested.
Haha excellent. What an enjoyable 90 minutes that was. The Scumbags were utterly outclassed.
Can’t any of you kids help with the housework?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So for Chelsea to qualify they need Juventus NOT to fix their last game as a draw.
Haha, good luck with that one
Unfortunately Holic my flight home is on 15 December. If I could I’d push it back a few days JUST to go to that one as I’m sure it’s going to be brilliant.
And man, I just read Wind’s post. Reminds me of my first trip to the Tollington back in September. Brilliant stuff. Our club is positively heart warming.
http://www.skysports.com/tv_show/story/0,,12384_8281501,00.html