London Calling

Another week, another column…

There’s been a lot of talk over here recently about the Premiership becoming boring and attendances dropping and the two have been linked as cause and effect, wrongly in my view.

Firstly, from the games I’ve seen this season the standard of play is no different to last season, with one exception – Arsenal, the last great entertainers, aren’t playing as well. This time last year we were playing swash buckling football and still on the unbeaten run and all the talk was about how good we were and all that. Now that the standard bearers of good football have been usurped by the evil that is the Roman empire in West London, the team at the top aren’t playing expansive football - perceptions have changed.

Secondly, it’s supposed to be boring because they’re running away with the league and no one can catch them this year. Well up until late October last year we were on course for another unbeaten season and still invincible. Long way to go yet…

Thirdly the argument goes that because there are areas of grounds not getting sold out for many games attendances are dropping. Well the official Premier League figures show that at the same time last season attendances were very slightly lower than this year. Basically, the spaces were there last year and weren’t mentioned. This season the press have made an issue of it so every one thinks it’s new and then spot empty seats at live games. It’s like a vicious circle. Attendances are always lower at televised matches but because people watch televised matches more and now are looking out for empty spaces it’s seen as fact.

Now don’t get me wrong, football is close to having a problem in this country because the sport has managed to alienate much of the ‘hard core’ support. Much of that is down to the amount of money sloshing around in agents overseas accounts and the like, but it’s also down to being constantly mucked around by Sky moving matches around willy nilly.

There were five Premiership games on Sunday. The main televised ones were our 1.30 kick off and the chavs at 4.00. Middlesbrough and Bolton had played in the UEFA cup on Thursday and they played games that kicked off at 2.00 and 1.00. Now you might thing those were silly times for games but Man City v Everton beats the lot. Originally it was going to be Sky’s 12.45 kick off on Saturday, but Everton put the mockers on that by not staying in the Champions League and the game was moved to Sunday. Because it was one of their nominated ‘Premier Plus’ games Sky decided the game would have to kick off at 11.15 on a Sunday morning so it didn’t clash with the Arsenal and chavski matches! 11.15 on a Sunday morning!

When the match was originally put on the Sky list someone mentioned the ‘coincidence’ that it was the earliest time slot that Sky had, it was the two teams with Chinese players, and it would go out to the Chinese market in the late evening. 11.15 on a Sunday morning in the UK is prime time in China. Coincidence? Make your own mind up but it might make you chuckle that only one Chinese player got on the pitch and that was with two minutes left!

Back to Arsenal (for the record our first home game with a 3.00 Saturday kick off is on the 22nd October).

A couple of days back home after Amsterdam (and one hell of a lot of sleep!), it’s Saturday morning and I’m on the M1 again. Got my wallet, got my tickets, only thing missing is my front number plate that appeared to have vanished at some point! Oh well, at least the old wreck is still making it up and down the motorway – I meant the car not me but some days…

It is strange driving down on a Saturday listening to all the other games and results on the radio knowing we’re not playing until the next day. I know that Sky have been doing this to us for over a decade but it still feels wrong. Stopping off at one of the motorway service stations (well they’re all as bad as each other – rip off palaces in plastic) I had a glance at the fixture list in the paper. In the other three divisions (whatever they call them this week) all but two games kicked off at 3.00 Saturday. And everyone’s saying how exciting the other divisions are and how attendances are going up…

Sunday morning I had a good breakfast and was at Highbury about 11.30. The idea had been to meet up in the 12 Pins and watch the early match but as none of us are used to that time on a Sunday morning it came as a bit of a shock that apparently licensing laws say that pubs can’t open until midday on a Sunday. Oops. But at least the 40 or so slightly bemused other people that turned up there seemed equally shocked by this news!

It’s hard to get up for a game that kicks off at 1.30 on a Sunday, especially when the opposition is Steve Bruce’s Birmingham who you know are going to put 10 men behind the ball and niggle away all match. There are some games where as I’m walking to the ground I think to myself ‘what on earth am I doing here 300 miles from my bed?’. Never stops me going though.

Well the general feeling was that if we scored early we’d spank them but if not it could turn into a turgid 0-0. A couple of bagels from the wonderful bagel shop opposite the pub (far better than the ones inside the ground and less than half the price) and down to the ground. The credit card people were there with the same free hats and three of us got them, more out of habit than desire. Wonder what the person processing them will think of Michael Thomas, Alan Smith and Paul Davis all applying for cards on the same day…

By the time we’d got to our seats there was someone being interviewed on the pitch. The PA at Highbury has never been up to much and it’s still difficult to make out a lot of what’s being said, and we had no idea who the rotund gentleman being interviewed was until the interview ended and they thanked … Kenny Sansom! We always knew him as fat Kenny when he was playing but he’s really trying a little too hard to live up to that name and looked positively bloated.

And the match. Steve Bruce had obviously not heard that the way to play Arsenal is a 6-4-0 formation and I think the players were as shocked as the fans when Birmingham came out and attacked us! Surreal. They looked quite good as it happens and it took us a quarter of an hour to find our rhythm. We were starting to get on top when Kenny Cunningham was sent off for as blatant a red card as you’ll ever see, although that didn’t stop Steve Bruce claiming he should only have got a yellow and bemoaning that refs go by the letter of the law. Well Mr Bruce, if that had happened up the other end and the Arsenal player hadn’t seen red you’d still be whining about it now. If there’s one nose I’d like to straighten…

Although they didn’t in any way crumble or try to shut up shop that was the end for Birmingham. Gradually we took more and more control of the game, and except for an amazing performance from their keeper Maik Taylor (described by Wenger as one of the best he’s seen against us – and there have been some good ones) it would have been far more comfortable.

The crowd was starting to get very tense as the minutes were ebbing away and Taylor appeared unbeatable. Even shots from 10 yards out were producing wonderful saves. After all that we should have known it would take a speculative 30-yard shot, a deflection, and a lucky bounce to beat him. I very much doubt that I was the only one that thought ‘poor sod’ as I was jumping up and down celebrating, but I guess that’s football.

Another game, another three points. The idea had been that we’d go for a meal somewhere after the game but I got a call from Newcastle and had to head straight back. Oh well, it was my turn to pay!

Come on you red(currant)s!