Before
I’ve just got my internet connection back on after six days in the cyber-wilderness and all it took was switching the router off for two minutes and then switching it on again. This has bucked me up and put me in a good mood for this afternoon’s match. I know bugger all information at this stage apart from Fulop being in and Kenwyne being out but surely Cana will return. We didn’t do badly at all at Spurs despite fielding a weakened team and I think we can get a draw or maybe more today. The Gunners have impressed this season and I’m not sorry that Van Persie is out but they’ll still take some stopping. Our home form speaks for itself so Arsenal will be taking nothing for granted. Match prediction 2-2.

The Match
It was almost dark as I got Radio Newcastle on, preferring this to Five Live’s commentary. I’d forgotten about Turner’s suspension but I rate Mensah and wasn’t sorry to see him included in the back four. I didn’t know that he raised his hands in prayer before each match. We started with a 4-5-1 formation with Richardson a little behind Bent. The first real action came in the fifth minute when Fulop saved well from Rosicky. Arsenal had the better of the first quarter of an hour but then we bucked up a bit when a good McCartney cross was hit just wide by Malbranque. Two minutes later Steed blew a great chance when he blasted it way too high following good work by Reid but things were definitely pepping up. Gallas was getting a few boos; a hangover from the France v Ireland debacle. I’d have the video-cameras at every game. We’ve had our beach-ball bliss but have had more dodgy decisions against us than for us in recent years. As the half-hour passed it was all sounding very tight with neither team allowing the other much space. I was pleased to be reminded that the African Cup of Nations would be coming up again in January as it’ll give me an excuse to revisit the Manjaro Bar in Holloway Road to cheer on Ghana and slurp those huge bottles of Club Premium Lager. Following a great one-two Eduardo fortunately failed to chip Fulop and it stayed 0-0. I’d heard very little mention of Cana but as usual these days Reid was at the centre of most of our good moves. It remained 0-0 at the break and that sounded a fair reflection of the play.

Arsenal had Arshavin and Walcott on the bench, which didn’t bear thinking about, but neither was on the pitch as the second-half kicked off. I presumed that if necessary Campbell would come on later to give Bent some support. The crowd was announced, just short of 45,000 which left a fair bit of slack. Tickets for our away games are very hard to come by these days and I missed out on getting one for the Fulham game even though I called a few hours after they went on sale. If anyone’s got a spare, please let me know. Reid, again, provided a good chance for Bent but it came to nothing and that was the first drama of the half after ten minutes. This was the start of a good period for us and the crowd really came alive. Around the hour-mark Arshavin came on for Ramsey and five minutes later Campbell was on for Malbranque to much applause for both. With twenty minutes left we took the lead through Bent following a Reid corner. Bent made the initial header and when it came back to him he hammered it home. Arsenal immediately used their last two subs with Walcott and Vela replacing Eduardo and Rosicky and we were under the cosh for a good while. Reid had played a stormer, again, but he was sounding worn out and was replaced by Zenden as we entered the final fifteen minutes. As usual I could hardly sit down and paced around occasionally staring out through the rain and gloom at the Christmas lights on the Westfield Centre in the distance. Ferdinand replaced Mensah and Bardsley got his fourth yellow-card. With five minutes left Arsenal continued to keep the heat on and then Fulop was injured after we’d used all our subs. Fortunately, he was able to carry on and with a minute or so left we had another great chance when a Zenden cross went begging. There were four minutes of added time just to help my blood- pressure and then Richardson picked up his fourth booking too. I was like a bear in a cage doing circuits of the room as those remaining seconds finally ticked away and we’d won a great victory with an impressive all-round performance.

We’ve now beaten Arsenal and Liverpool and were close to beating Man United too. Our goalkeepers are making great saves, our defenders are defending well, our midfielders are winning the ball and creating chances while our strikers are scoring goals. You know something? We’ve finally got a good team.

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