Good to be a Gooner

Good day, Gooners

Well, @ArsenaLIND and I have returned from UK and whilst we were gone the Arsenal won 3 matches, and we were able to see the match versus Wigan and WBA LIVE. All in all a good bag of Ws for us and the Arsenal. Basically, our love of the Arsenal pushed the lads to their potential and they delivered. Wink.

We were fortunate to have really good tickets for both matches at the Emirates. For the match versus Wigan we had upper tier tickets, which gave me an opportunity to watch the match from TV view. I prefer this view to being right up close to the pitch for the reason of being able to visualize tactical movements and formation. @ArenaLIND doesn't seem to mind one way or another but i think she prefers pitch-side as to see the squad in the flesh. Must be a bird thing.

Unfortunately, the upper tier is very expensive and with expense comes yuppies and WAGs. Many of the "fans" came in late, and not fashionably late but flat out it's-nearly-half-time late. Sad. Both of us felt sick because for those of us across the pond who have to travel nearly 14 hours just to London...it's not worth missing even a minute of play! I guess if you live in North London and have access to the Arsenal whenever you want you can afford to come in and out without affect. I get that...but for me, I'm a die hard fan and I guarantee if I lived in the area I wouldn't miss a minute if I paid for it.

Worth noting is the complete and utter silence in the same tier. I think we spent the majority of the match sitting in our cushy, soft seats with an occasional song sung our way from the Red Army's area. And, of course, there was some random American businessman who sat in front of us who left just into halftime to head to his other match across town, West Ham v Liverpool. Must be nice to have money and not have an allegiance to a particular side. Overall, the return to the Emirates was very nice and we got a sound 4-nil result with the "Verminator" as @ArsenaLIND calls him scoring two, Eboue Kablooie nicking one from Dudu's tally, and our capitan Cesc getting the last. Enjoy the after match photos of our walk about of the internal "Arsenalization" of the Emirates. It reminded us a lot of the Arsenal museum's murals but it certainly is an improvement from the gray, concrete walling.


Now, the second match we saw was the Carling Cup clash v West Brom and admittedly I was more excited to see this match than the Senior team. There's just something about watching free wheeling football, and "kids" playing without a care in the world. Again, we had excellent tickets for this outing, too. Note: we come across these tickets not because we are lucky or have contacts overseas...we do so by waking up at 2:40am on ticket sale day, logging into the Ticket Hub and scouring the tickets right as they go on sale. If you only go maybe once a year...it has to be done!

Again, the match was a convincing display of our future players; we were able to witness Sanchez Watt's first Senior goal. Oh, and my favorite player Vela also scored. It wasn't much of a goal but it still counts.

On Jack, I feel that Wilshere is still quite away from first team regularity as he too often hurries his passes and also tries to force the pass to catch up to players runs that have already gone awry. Eventually, he'll learn to retain possession and let those failed players' runs go. Also, strong in the tackle but short in stature he lacks the physical power to win the ball back after he loses it. JW19 isn't like Cesc...he doesn't let the ball go without a fight. As long as he continues to chase down the lost balls like he is a holding mid he'll continue to get shrugged off the ball. Fret not: with time and maturity he'll come around but I don't feel he'll see much time this season.

It was also a pleasant surprise to see Senderos back in the team. Not the best CB in the world but truly a Gooner. I don't think any fan would question his commitment to the Arsenal but I think we all understand that in a World Cup year he needs playing time and if he can't unseat TV5 or WG10 he may need to move on. I wish him the best either way.

So, 2-nil in our final leg of our trip and we headed back to New Mexico with pleasant results. It was a good run even though it went too fast! If you haven't been to the Emirates yet I hope you get there sooner rather than later. At least while the crowd still sings.

ArsenaLOS