Saturday Morning
There was more than a hint of spring when I just nipped out to dump the rubbish and my mood is optimistic. As we all know, tickets for this afternoon’s match are as rare as rocking-horse shit so at this moment I don’t know whether I’ll be getting one for myself. I’m hoping that a midday connection will come through but even if it doesn’t, I think I’ll head over to the Emirates and see what can be conjured. Bardsley’s out and Arshavin’s in but other than that news is very thin on the ground but it seems likely that one of our new defenders will get a game. It feels like ages since we played and I’m really looking forward to the match. In last season's encounter they destroyed us for the first fifteen minutes but we fought back really well to make it 2-2 only to lose to a late goal. I think we might get a draw today.

The Match
I went over to the Emirates but to cut a long story short I didn’t get my hands on the ticket I was hoping to get and no others appeared to be available so I cut my losses and headed home about ten minutes into the match. The occasional roars indicated that whatever was happening was happening near our goal. Fans were still leaving Arsenal Station as I entered it at 3.20. The game was nearing the hour-mark by the time I got home and got it on Century Radio. Of course I was delighted to hear that it was still goalless and clearly our defensive game-plan had paid off so far but I soon heard that we’d had a decent share of chances in the first half.

Arsenal were having much more of the play but it sounded like we were coping well enough with their attacks. Arshavin was subbed with about twenty-five minutes left and I wasn’t sorry to hear him go as he sounds like a great buy. Fulop was playing well again and Gary Rowell repeatedly said that Arsenal lacked any pace even though they were playing the ball around very well. With fifteen minutes left we made our first change with Leadbitter replacing Tainio and a repeat of his great goal in the home fixture immediately came to mind. Arsene Wenger was starting to look worried apparently. Vela missed a real sitter a minute later and I felt that our luck was going to be in.

Murphy then came on for Reid and Ben-Haim was yellow-carded to mar an otherwise good debut. We were making occasional counter-attacks but didn’t create anything from them. As the last few minutes ticked away endlessly Edwards replaced Kenwyne, who sounded well-knackered after battling away upfront by himself. With a minute on the clock the stadium was half-empty and it was looking good for a draw at least. Four minutes were added, surprisingly, and I was up pacing around in between glancing repeatedly at the clock but at least we were keeping it up their end. Then Gallas missed another sitter when it sounded like they’d taken the lead. In the final minute Fulop made a great save from Van Persie and then there was a break in play when Ben Haim was injured just to prolong the agony but finally it ended and we’d earned a great point.

This was our fourth match without defeat and the fact that, finally, we’ve managed two draws against one of the big four teams shows that we’re on the way up. “Full of spirit and no little skill” the reporter on Five Live has just said and that was good to hear. After a break in Spain we’ve got another tough game at Liverpool but it’s about time we got something against them while the following four matches are all winnable. Rejoice!

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