Tag Archive | sport
Arsenal Versus Spurs: Credit Where It’s Due
I understand that in the knockabout pantomime jeering between rival football supporters it is necessary to deride the success of one’s adversary and inflate the prowess of one’s own chosen team. I get it. It’s the reason fans of Mansfield and Crewe can, without any discernible trace of irony, both sing that they are watching ‘by […]
Arsenal Versus City: Cloudbusting
A season which I have been reliably informed is a disaster, best forgotten, a total shambles, and a sad the end to Arsène’s reign has somehow contrived to find Arsenal in an FA Cup semi final. I had to check the fixture list twice to see if I was dreaming, but it appears that while […]
Arsenal Versus Bayern: Be A Lady Tonight
Ever since Mills explained to us all how the concept of luck is one we ought to abandon I have attempted to remove it from the arsenal of verbiage which I bring to bear on these pages. The problem I’ve discovered is, as with all proscribed words, one simply finds new ways to say the […]
Arsenal Versus Watford: Back To Reality
As all the excitement and furore of the cup draw fades into yesterdays chip paper and the giddy delight of our unexpected routing of the Saints dissipates, so normal service is resumed this evening. Arsenal in the Premier League, at home, expected to win. The fear of a come down after a big cup victory […]
Arsenal Versus West Ham: Esprit De Corps
I was lying in my bath last night reading a yellowing, dog eared paperback when something unexpected popped up. The tome in question, I should add, is the rather excellent To Sea In A Sieve by Peter Bull. First published in 1956 it is an unvarnished account of the author’s experience in the Royal Navy […]
Arsenal Versus Basel: More Of The Same Please
I tend to avoid giving the idiots among us too much oxygen, the great leveller that is social media already ensures their vapid discharge receives more than enough attention. One theme which has somehow made it into the office past my secretary is the idea that as Arsène paid a lot of money for his […]
Arsenal Versus Chelsea : Mentioning No Names
I was hoping to get through this morning’s epistle without mention of Chelsea’s erstwhile manager. Not the interim incumbent, I don’t mean him, I mean the one in charge when they started their title defence last season. I told myself that he is no longer there and is therefore no longer relevant and is the […]
Arsenal Versus Forest: Keeping The Plates Spinning
I’ve just discovered what EFL actually stands for. I’d long since given up paying too much attention to all the names by which the League Cup has styled itself. I never warmed to the Milk Cup, Littlewoods Cup nor the Rumbelows Cup, and by the time Coca-Cola got on board I’d had it with the […]
Arsenal Versus Paris St Germain: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
What is the greatest of all human qualities? Charity? Self sacrifice for the greater good? Giving with no expectation of personal gain? I suspect these and variants thereof would figure pretty highly on everybody’s list. How about humility, modesty and a humble willingness to allow one’s good deeds to increase anonymously the water in the […]
Positively Arsenal 