Catch Up #1

It’s no secret that I haven’t blogged for a while. Thankfully, as the year’s workload dies down and the season draws to a close, I’ll be able to ‘catch up’ in time for the season’s climax, even though it’s becoming ever more predictable by the day. The last time I even clicked on this page was when we battered the enemy at the Emirates after one of my proudest moments as a Gooner. It’s funny what can happen in little over a month…

It seems I stopped posting when Arsenal hit top form – I for one, hope those two things aren’t linked. All conspiracies aside, I would never have seen us the next 5 games after Spurs, especially with the opposition we had coming up. The win against Liverpool wasn’t pretty, but it sure was satisfying – especially when you score winners like that in the last minute. It seemed like we had gained some good karma over Liverpool; firstly for that awfully traumatic draw we had against them last season when the referee couldn’t count from 8 minutes to… 8 minutes; then for the 2-0 defeat they inflicted on us in August – I paid good money for that! Not to mention the fact they had won the Carling Cup against a Birmingham-type team in Cardiff that could have beaten them as easily as Birmingham had beaten us the previous year, and Dalglish’s increasingly smug face to go with it. Their current demise has brought nothing but pleasure to my eyes and ears – the ‘Vision Express’ moment being my personal favourite.

I’m not sure how many of us Gooners really did believe we could do the impossible against Milan – although we certainly showed it was more than possible. The way we played took my breath away, so contrasting to the abysmal showing in Milan. I don’t what has happened to Rosicky but he has rediscovered something special recently and those two matches (Milan and Spurs) have made him a deserving regular – and he fully merits the player of the month award he got today. To come so close to pulling off a heroic comeback like that wins nothing but praise from me. The less said about that RVP miss at 3-0, the better – after all – Milan missed a far more easier chance that my gran could dispatch without much difficulty at all.

If anything, these matches proved to us that we can fight for everything next season, because we can beat anybody on our day. New signings will come and will make our squad even stronger (hint: no panic buying), and if we finish this season on a high, next season could be pretty special.

Come On You Reds!