youngest English goal

By Boris Mellor
September 29 2011

Noble Trojan rang me at 6:30 to say he had some special tickets. I thought he meant Club Level, turned out it was a box. There was him, me and two guys, we didn’t know, in a box with 20 seats. I looked around and there were plenty of empty Box seats all over, but most are paid for in advance. We didnt have time to off load our season tickets, so two more empty seats.

The seats were on the Clock End, and with two goals scored at our end in 20 minutes it seemed like Christmas. Two great goals, both with lots of individual effort from two new signings. Oh happy days. Olympiacos are the poorest team in the group so I sat back hoping to enjoy the slaughter, but Arsenal can make anyone look good.

Ox in the box

Meanwhile Syd the cabbie was getting excited as he had put money on 2.75 goals, and he had two in the bag already. I am not sure I understand spread betting, how do you score .75 of a goal? Anyway Olympiacos solved the problem, and on 27 minutes the Greeks scored the .75 goal.

Syd began to sing 2.75 to the Arsenal but no one joined in, there were lots of scares at either end but 2.75 it stayed.  So the rest of the match was squeaky bum time with the crowd praying for an early whistle.

The most exciting thing at the end of half time was that clotted cream and scones were on the menu. But not for the first time this great club had let me down and there was only lemon drizzle cake.

Whispering Gallery and booing

It’s strange being at box level, you can hear every noise from the crowd, it’s actually more atmospheric than being at the top of the North Bank where you can’t hear the away fans at all. It was quite irritating having to put up with the cacophony of the away fans, who were bouncing more rapidly than loan cheques in the Greek Banking System, but they are good fans, I just wished I could hear ours more.

As Arsenal fans chanted rudely about the refs ability, or lack of, the Greek fans probably though they were condemning the Bankers, and showing solidarity with this latest victim of international capital.

Our fans were supportive enough and tried to raise the team when they seemed determined to waste a 2 goal lead. When Chamakh was substituted on 70 minutes, a few, and it was only a very few, Arsenal fans jeered, the majority clapped him off.

Now I can understand people don’t enjoy his inability to shoot, yes he can head the ball, but he has had a dip in confidence.  How will booing help? I also think he is player who does work hard, he faded last season, but he still achieved quite a lot. He had 7 assists in the league (Cesc had 15). But I don’t remember fans booing Nasri last season, yet he had one assist in the league – I repeat 1 assist!! Meanwhile another couple of players fans like to get on at is Arshavin and Theo, they had 11 and 9 assists respectively. Thus the top four first team assists last season are, from the top, Fabregas, Arshavin, Walcott and Chamakh.

As Fabregas has gone it seems completely mad to me to boo the third most likely player to provide an assist. I agree he is useless at shooting, but if he can get his form back he will be a very useful provider. Walcott, the Ox and RvP can notch up the goals.

You want to boo the manager? I’ve no objection, you want to boo the whole team, well you’ve paid your money why not? I just find individual booing invidious, I can’t see who it helps, especially when it’s a team as low on confidence as this one is.

Mertesacker was quite a revelation, he and Szczesny combined probably were the main reason the team survived with three points.

As the whistle went we left behind a box full of enough sandwiches (no the sandwiches were on trays, not in a box. Ed) to feed the London homeless for a night. As Ian Dury sang what a waste.

Twilight Zone Part 2

The journey into the past continues as the match programme (I got it for free Syd) invited me to enjoy matchday hospitality against Liverpool on the 20th August. Hopefully we will win it in the Twilight Zone. It's great that we are being allowed to play it again. Twilight Zone Part 1