Reading (3-0) - 29th November 2005

I used the opportunity of the Carling Cup to sit somewhere different from my normal East Lower seat. Thanks to an incompetent Ticketmaster (they don't seem to recgonise Gold Membership numbers - though this is no surprise as the club don't either!) and a VERY HELPFUL Arsenal Box Office I got FRONT row seats in the North Bank Upper Tier. Made my seat seem quite poor in comparison but did give hope of great views at the new stadium. The game itself was lively with a full house (including 7,000+ Reading fans) helped by excellent ticket pricing from Arsenal and a REDaction singing section. This game may have given Steve Coppell an idea of what awaits a likely promotion side next year - we played the kids but with the addition of RvP and JAR up front the difference in class was obvious. Maybe if Kitson had scored when it was 1-0 the score would have been different but minutes later Van Persie showed his class and confidence by getting a superb 2nd goal. All in all a great night (shame I left my bag on a train!)

New Stadium Update

So got my reservation for the new stadium today. 10.00 in the morning on a Sunday! It's the morning of the Chelsea game as well so that will be a drunken old day since k.o isn't till 4.00!

Sunderland (3-1) - 5th November 2005

Remember, remember the 5th November (as the saying goes) - well maybe not this one apart from the memory of one of the poorest teams to play at Highbury in its 93 year history. They did score from the only shot they had (from a corner) but otherwise were bereft of ideas and, more interestingly, spirit & fight. The game will have continued to help build confidence and we could be ready to surge forwards BUT we have YET ANOTHER frigging 2 week break for meaningless (for the most part) international matches. I think only Jose and Phillipe have competitive matches with TH going all the way to martinique to play in a friendly! Whoppee! Still it wasn't as bad as cheering on the Mancs the following day....

Sparta Prague (3-0) - 2nd November 2005

Sorry for the lack of mobile phone photo - but they're not that good a quality anyway! I had to rush back from Paris, avoiding riots and burnt out cars, for this game and for once we had the possibility of an easy qualification for the CL knockout stage. I think this is probably the first time we have ever made this task look simple, albeit aided by a particularly easy group. This game may also be the start of a good run for Van Persie. He scored two cracking goals and is beginning to look the part. The result from the Stade de France also helped the mood :-)