16th October 2004: One Sweet Day

The 16th of October 2004 wass a good day for many Arsenal fans but it was a very special day for me. Firstly, Foxtel are telecasting Arsenal v Aston Villa live and I finally get to watch a live match with my girlfriend for the first time.

11:30 PM - Finally arrived in the city. Walked towards the cafe that shows the match on a big screen television and saw the last fifteen minutes of the Birmingham v Man Utd match. My girlfriend tells me how boring the match is while playing a game on her mobile phone.

I can see some Man Utd fans watching quietly, jumping up and cursing everytime Man Utd miss a chance to score. The best part was when Alan Smith shot from outside the box and some of them jumped up and screamed, "GOAL!" prematurely. They sat down and banged the table in disgust. "Barbarians," my girlfriend muttered, which put a smile to my face.

12:00 AM - Before the match began, I met a Norwegian bloke who supports Arsenal sitting next to our table, We shook hands and talked a bit about Arsenal. Arsenal show their starting lineups and I have to explain formations and introduce the players to my girlfriend.

A man sat down on a table next to us with a beer in his hand, with a grin that makes you uncomfortable. After a while I recognise this fellow, he was the same guy that watched the Old Trafford brawl. He was the guy that screamed "YES! RVN could score it with his eyes closed! Arsenal are going down! YEAH!" while almost everyone in the cafe got annoyed at him.

The look on his face, the huge applause throughout the cafe, the jeers people gave him when RVN hit the post was priceless. He is his usual annoying self again today, making fun of Arsenal's attempts on goal, "What a crap shot!" "What a miss, is that all Arsenal can do?" I was annoyed when he laughed when Vieira went off the pitch injured. Annoying bastard.

My girlfriend did not pay much attention to him, but was watching the game, this time interested and even told me how fluent Arsenal were playing. She also noticed how Aston Villa were trying to kick us off the park and laughed at Lee Henrie's pathetic attempt to get Reyes sent off.

In the end, when the match was won, everyone in the cafe clapped except for the guy, knowing that you can't diss Arsenal. My girlfriend felt very impressed with Arsenal's young midfield, as I introduced every substitute and revealed their age. She was very impressed with Fabregas not only for his ability to hold and pass the ball but also his good looks. David Beckham? Your days are numbered! Here comes the sexy Spanish Fabregas! Heh.

It is interesting when you look at the age of our midfield at the end of the game: Pennant (21), Flamini (20), Fabregas (17), van Persie (21) - a promising and talented midfield which could be the envy of many Premiership clubs.

On occasions when our regular first teamers are injured or off form, we have a lot of talent in our ranks to come in for them, even replacing them permanently. Cesc as usual was brilliant and I saw instances when he lost the ball only to win it back within a second. His passes are very well executed; he even made several long passes, one over the Villa defence that nearly resulted in a goal if not for the brilliant performance of the Villa keeper.

Lehmann had little to do but he did well gathering the ball from Villa's corner kicks. Reyes had the most chances and was unlucky not to find the back of the net but still played well. Overall the team did very well to come back from one goal down to score three goals, would had been 6 or 7 if not for heroics of Stefan Postma, the Dutch keeper.

So it was a special day indeed. My girlfriend liked Arsenal's sexy Wengerball, met the embarassed bloke and Arsenal shut him up again, and the extra icing on the cake was that Chelsea lost to Man City. Don't we remember Mourinho's jibe at us for saying that Arsenal have it easy because we played easier games than Chelsea?

Is Man City an easier game now? Wrong penalty decision? Stop playing for 1-0 victories then, with such an expensive squad with so much talent, shows how capable you are.

Bring on Man Utd for the 50th match of our unbeaten run.

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