London Calling

 

International breaks haven’t been kind to us and we came out of this one with another knackered left back. Add to that the fact we haven’t won an away league game this season and we’re travelling to the team with the best winning run around who are sitting second.

When the fixture lists came out last summer Wigan away was one of the first fixtures that most travelling Gooners would have looked for. It’s always nice to add an extra ground to your ‘history’ and not one pundit was expecting anything other than a one-season visit to the premiership for them so it was a ‘must do’. Now they’re looking a damn good bet to be around for us to make a return trip next season.

They really are living the dream. A (with all due respect) nothing club who somehow got an entry to the millionaires playground of the Premiership. Pre-season every time they were mentioned it was about how great it would be for their fans to visit the palaces of the Premiership even if they were likely to have the worst premiership season ever. Two games (and no points) into the season all the doom that had been forecast appeared accurate but their superb young manager Paul Jewel didn’t panic, stuck to his game plan and reaped the rewards. The most important fact going into the game was whoever we were playing, they had won eight or nine straight games and any team on that sort of run must be respected.

Now you may have noticed over the last few months that I often manage to couple travelling to games with visiting people. I’m never quite sure if the football is the excuse for the visits or the visits are the excuse for the football, but either way this trip was no different. A couple I used to do a lot of work for now run a business in Liverpool and live a couple of miles outside Wigan in a beautiful old house in the middle of nowhere. Well, let’s just say arrangements for my stay were made the same day the fixtures came out!

So teatime Friday I’m sat in this 500 year-old lodge house in front of a roaring fire. The house itself is stunning. Built in 1515 (ok – nearly 500 year-old) it’s obviously been extensively modernised, but with a respect that such a venerable building deserves. And an excellent games room, which was well used after dinner.

The obvious advantage of my ‘policy’ of staying near where the game is being played is that I can spend a lot longer in bed in the morning, and despite the 12.45 kick-off I didn’t need to get up until after 10. Sheer bliss. And to make the day even better Bill had an appointment in Wigan at 1.30 and had agreed to take me to the ground and pick me up after!

I was at the ground (another of those identikit grounds so much in vogue over the last few years) just before 12. In some ways it was like one of those early round FA Cup games where you’re playing a team from the division below. Their fans had the same cocky respect that you get in those kind of matches, and the more I think about it the more sure I am that their success so far is down to the fact that the players and fans treat every game with the intensity of a cup match. Having said that I also think one of the worst pitches I’ve seen in a few years helps them as well. They play egg chasing there as well, and it shows. Not exactly conducive to nice, flowing football!

As for the game itself we looked imperious and inept in equal quantities. Cygan has got loads of stick (and it would have been nice to see him on the left flank occasionally) but the whole defence was all over the place – particularly Campbell who I thought had an abysmal game. Over the whole game I don’t think we could have had too many complaints if they’d got the draw their performance probably deserved, but maybe lady luck is starting to look more kindly on us. On the plus side, however, Henry and van Persie are starting to look like a real partnership. CageBoy is probably more of a point striker than Henry and I think that playing beside him is going to make Thierry even more dangerous than he is now.

In fact the dynamics of the team have changed a lot this season. The sale of Vieira has allowed a more subtle player (Cesc) to come into the team. The other side of this is that Cesc also supplies the kind of through balls that Bergkamp loves to play. And Reyes (for my money) establishing himself at left midfield is a very different player to Pires in that in terms of passing he can play the whole pitch rather than Pires’ more localised style of playing the ball. Not knocking Bobby, but it does add a different dimension and it’s no coincidence that Reyes has so many assists either. And who knows what progress Hleb would have made if not for injury (did you forget about him as well? Due back around Christmas).

Strangely whilst the Arsenal fans were leaving the ground relieved the Wigan fans appeared to be delighted with what they’d seen. I chatted with a few and to a man they were raving about Henry and how he really was the complete article. Sometimes people call him arrogant but for me it’s the confidence of genius rather than an expression of arrogance. Unfortunately the Anglo-Saxon adoration of the plucky loser makes people rather suspicious of the assurance that genius gives to you but you only have to see him interviewed to see how humble a true genius can be.

The only good thing about the early start was that I was back in Newcastle for dinner rather than getting back late like I normally do. And of course living in a city like Newcastle, and it being Saturday night, I felt obliged to visit a few hostelries!

Thun. Now that’s in Switzerland. Oh dear. Well I knew when the draw was made that I’d be watching that one back home! Unfortunately, I once had a spot of bother in Switzerland and am, er, banned from the land of cuckoo clocks and pen knives (not to mention Nazi gold!). Basically, I had a bit of a disagreement with a copper over littering. He said that the paper I’d dropped on the floor was litter and he was fining me for littering. I refused to accept this and as at the time the piece of paper fell to the floor I was rummaging through my pocket looking for that very piece of paper and was still looking through my pocket when the copper came over I thought I had a good excuse. To prove I wasn’t throwing it away I even showed him how it had the address of the place that I was visiting two streets away. Apparently that’s ‘aggressive littering’, I was arrested, cautioned, kicked out and told I wasn’t allowed back in the country or I’d have to serve a sentence for it! Now I do what I can to follow Arsenal but I’m not going to do a few weeks in a Swiss prison – and how gutted would I have been if I’d gone through that to be at the game and saw that match!

Lady luck may have smiled on us at Wigan but I think Arsene may well have given her a place on the bench for this one! It’s funny that with all the talk about goal line technology no one seems to be talking about using technology to help with the offside rule. Once or twice a season there’ll be a call that goal line technology would help, but every game you’ll see at least half a dozen wrong decisions by the linesman. To be fair to them regardless of the rules it’s impossible to get them all right because it’s not humanly possible. I can’t remember what it was on but a few years ago they proved that there was no way the lino could see the ball being kicked and the last player at the same time in something like 75% of cases. Personally I’d change the offside line from the halfway line to 30 yards and make offside absolute (none of this ‘interfering’ cobblers).

Back to Thun (or not in my case). It truly was an awful game but we nicked three points. Five wins out of five. Six consecutive European wins. Twenty-one consecutive scoring games (one short of equalling the record). This European lark does seem to be quite easy at the moment. Let’s hope it continues through the eight games left before the final!

Come On You Red(currant)s!