Nicked it

How close was that? It seems to me that this team is either going to win the league or die trying and you know what? They may take a few of us with them. When Theo Walcott prodded Samir Nasri's pass wastefully wide of the near post in something like the third minute of the five alotted for injury time was up, I thought that was it. I should have known better. The feeling of relief, euphoria and, yes, ecstasy, when Bendtner headed home Sagna's cross in the final minute of injury time was like nothing I've experienced inside the new stadium. But bloody hell, we left it late, how did that happen?

Well, we need to go back to the beginning really, as I suggested might happen yesterday afternoon, Eduardo came in up top for Bendtner. With Walcott, Eboue and Rosicky forming the attacking trident behind him. Denilson and Song continued in midfield whilst Campbell and Silvestre came into the defence alongside Sagna and Vermaelen. So it was clearly a line up with Tuesday's trip to Catalonia in mind, but even so you would hope a team comprised of such players would be good enough to beat the men in black and gold in a fairly straightforward fashion.

At this stage I should make a confession, it seems only fair. Having stayed in the Pins to watch the conclusion of the United Chelsea match (and Drogba's ridiculously offside winner) I arrived outside the ground at about 2.55pm and then was faced not just with a massive queue to get into Block J, but also the realistation I had no idea what row I was in or where Jo was, we'd arranged to meet outside. She wasn't there, I couldn't get her on the phone so I got myself in- when I remembered to use my membership card and not Gabs' and then promptly tried to get into the wrong area, what an amateur. Anyway, I found Jo and then found a steward who directed me to the nearest information point. Row 21 was the call and by the time we took our seats, I think we'd already missed the first of several chances.

And we started as we clearly meant to go on, one of the best moves of the match culminated in Eduardo turning onto his left foot before screwing the ball wide, we had Sagna well played in by Walcott and a good shot well saved by Hanneman in the Wolves goal, there were a couple of Vermaelen free kicks lifted over the bar and just general Arsenal trying to thread the eye of the needle stuff which I think Wolves dealt with relatively well. It was certainly a novelty to see a goalkeeper catching crosses so easily whenever we went wide. We were also treated to lovely little moments from the old men in our team, first a Silvestre spin in the box and then a fizzing cross which obviously nobody had read and so bothered to try and get in on the end of. Then, just before half-time Sol decided he was going to have a go himself and went barrelling off up the pitch. He ended up, having lost the ball, chasing down about three Wolves players by the corner flag to great cheers from us all.

Rosicky was the man trying to drive us through the centre and he did some good bits, but I think there was one tackle on him in the first half where he went down expecting a free kick. He didn't get one and stayed on his backside for a while before climbing to his feet. I thought he made quite a lot of it- he obviously wasn't injured- and it was a tackle on Rosicky that was perhaps the pivotal moment of the match. Twenty minutes left in the second half and it was getting tense, Wolves' Henry went through the back of Rosicky at speed and without playing the ball. I said to Jo, "I bet he doesn't even book him".

How wrong was I? Andre Marriner took him to one side and despatched him with a red card. I thought at the time, it was a clear sending off, though Irish Mike told me in The Pins afterwards that it was harsh (He was watching on tv as he'd been unable to get a ticket), when I saw it on Match of the Day later that night, it still looked like a sending off to me, although AW disagreed. Anyway, for the second time in 4 days, Arsenal fans had the chance to wave goodbye to a man named Henry. Only this time was a little less affectionate, yeah, just a little.

Any suggestion that this was going to make things easier for us, well as we'ver seen recently, it isn't always that simple. Bendtner had already replaced the ineffectual Eboue by that stage, then we got Nasri for Song and Vela replaced Eduardo (just for Jo- she's his biggest fan outside of that Carlos Vela News website). Nasri improved things with his willingness to carry the ball and open up the space, not that Wolves with their ten men defence were giving us anything to play in. It was a black and gold wall on the edge of the box. Time ticked away and I was beginning to wonder if this was where it ended for us; at home to the ten men of Wolves. Funny how time races away from when you're chasing a win, isn't it?

And so we get to Walcott's prod wide deep into injury time, I want to kick the metal at the back of the upper tier, but have presence of mind enough to realise that not only am I wearing my nice Trimm Trabs, but I also have a dodgy ankle. So I punched instead and the Irish guy with his little boy in front of me (who had been giving me little looks all afternoon), turned to me and said, "That about sums it up". But wait...

When Bendtner's goal went in, I must confess I lost it. I screamed, I kissed Jo, I went and had a little dance in the gangway, I kissed Jo again, screamed some more and leant over for a hug with the Irish guy and high fived his son. Us Arsenal fans had ourselves another stranger hugging moment before we split up to into small groups. Long may they continue. And isn't it great to see team full of opponents prostrate on the floor again? Mick McCarthy appeared to be unhappy about something as he went down the tunnel waving to the Arsenal fans either side of it.

The news that Tottenham had gone down 3-1 at Sunderland was a nice little comma on the day. The full stop was a Twelve Pins rendition of the Vieira song as he headed home City 4th goal after just 20 minutes of their "match" against Burnley. Well, okay, it wasn't a full stop as we drank more beer afterwards, a lot more beer. Or ginger wine and White Russians in Jo's case.

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