Fulham Away and the rest i missed

Fulham Away

A pretty much solid display in the art of goalkeeping and defending by the guys but i bet most of you like me were shitting yourself toward the end well done to Gallas, who was excellent, i wanted him to leave at the beginning of the season, but hes made me eat my words now! And Mannone was superb, keep up the good work and Almunia will actually have to try and be a keeper.

Wigan and West Brom Home

Both matches seen both Arsenal teams in cruise control, its actually hard to believe Wigan done Chelski yesterday because what i seen had them joining Portsmouth going down


Off the Ciggies

I'm off the ciggies as i mentioned early, i smoked for a good 12 years and had no medical issues, I'm off them 12 days now and Ive got fucking Bronchitis, sods law.

Below are some more Liege pics courtesy of John the Quite Man and a couple from the Cottage yesterday.
A view from the away end at Craven Cottage

The boys celebrate Van Persie's goal

Below is a few more pic from Liege

This must have been early in the day as we look grand!

What a fucking idiot in the hat, just remembered i bought them!

Fuck i didn't know it got this bad!

That guy on the right is a fucking clown

Now Ade could have been i the bottom corner if he hadn't been such a cunt


Below are a couple of vids from Fulham, a bit of a sing song and Arsene turning out late for the second half, the FA will probably want to ban him for life for that!

No blog posts for a while

There have been no post this week for a couple of reasons

1. Im on holiday

and

2.I om off the fags and if i start ranting on a blog i might want a ciggie.

Anyway i hope to update after the Fulham game, my first trip to Craven Cottage so keep your eyes open.

Im now of to fuck my television through the window to release some of that pent up aggression that nicotine withdrawl does to you.

Liege Away Report

This was more like a game of Monopoly than a game of football. Liege rolled the dice first and landed on "community chest" The card read "Its your birthday receive 2 goals from the other player". Arsenal obliged. A bit more dice rolling and the property tycoon that was Arsenal eventually out done the first time buyer, as Arsenal rolled the dice, landed on "chance" and got a get out of jail free card.

The match was a shocker, Diaby is taking the stick but Fabregas wasn't much better, in fact only 2 players stood out Rosicky and Bendtner. I don't know what would have happened if we got beat.

Anyway in typical Gunner on Tour I/we met another Goooner on the plane that took the tally to 4 of us. A small number from Ireland. Our new travelling companion was Dave, a pro golfer from the arse end of Ireland(Kerry) well that's where he lives, hes an Englishman. And he is a complete and utter head case. So naturally he fitted in well.

The local brew "Jupiler" was quite tasty but had the ability to send you to Jupiter, if you drank enough.

After checking the bags into the hotels and after a couple of Jupiler it was time to collect the tickets from the stadium. The Stadium looks like something from the land that time forgot its hard to believe that it was only upgraded a decade ago for the Euros. Tickets in hand we headed for the nearest bar, as soon as we rolled in the chairs were taken away the glasses and glass ashtrays were replaced by plastic ones, what a fabulous welcome!

Anyway we drank the fucking place dry.

As we know, the game wasn't up to much but in all my travels i havent came across an atmosphere like it. The home fans were unbelievable. At the opposite end from where we were the stand of 3 tiers was rocking for most of the match and most of the time they were bouncing up and down it was some site.

Anyway game over and it was back to the city centre for a few more Jupilers where we met a few more gooners and drank the night away.

Next up for Gunner On Tour, Wigan at home.

Dave the header on the left and the quite man john

One of the local attractions waiting on a bus kept us entertained for about 20 mins

Liege Calling

Greetings from Holland

Well Saturday was a fucking disaster, when you thought the cunt couldn’t get any worse he did. 12 match ban please. There is an unwritten rule in football; when you face your former club and score a goal you clap your hands a give your team mates a hug. Nowhere does it say run like a fucking lunatic the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of fans that are booing you. Ade you fucking muppet we pay thousands a year to watch our team and pay lazy cunts like you millions, we are then entitled to call you a greedy hungry bastard.

Any way over here in Holland I decided to cheer myself up by going to watch Ajax v NAC Breda (only €25 a ticket, premier league take note). What a one sided affair Ajax were 4 nil up at halftime and it finished 6 nil. I don’t know much about Dutch football or the players who play in the League but what I can say is watch this guy “Louis Suarez” I have no idea where he is from but he was a total menace upfront, on the left, on the right and through the centre, in fact I couldn’t figure out what was his best position as he played a blinder all over the place.

Back to Arsenal and a small matter of the first Champions’ league group match, away to Liege, it isn’t exactly a must win match but 3 points away from home would be a great start and it is just what the boys need to get the heads up after 2 very unlucky away defeats. Gunner on Tour will be there alongside the "2 Johns". Mmmm Belgian Beer......

It was good to see Rosicky get a few minutes under his belt on Saturday and also grab a goal, its one less of the injury list and with Arshavin only out a couple more games I see some healthy competition coming up in the fight for a starting place and when Nasri makes a recovery, only a few weeks away, Arsene should have a dilemma in his hands and I haven’t even mentioned Walcott!

Michael "the twat" Platini seen sense, well maybe wasnt him but at least UEFA made the right call on Eduardo eventually, better still they look like complete fools now.

Below is s pic of the Ajax Arena and the new Ade T-shirt exclusively available from Gunner On Tour

Champions League Revisited Part 2

Panathinaikos away 20th October 2004

I have an unfortunate ability to bump into people I don’t want to meet on away trips and this one was no different.

My journey from the Channel Isles required the mad dash across London between Gatwick and Heathrow to change between 2 BA flights. I made it with ease. I was lucky that when I checked in, it was a friend of mine who done it, she works for BA and a nice little upgrade to business class was given on the London - Athens flight, thank you very much. Well maybe not. Boarding the plane I was looking forward to being treated like a chav for the journey, you know free food and free bar. But as I took my seat I had to look twice at who was sitting next to me, fucking David Pleat! David fucking Pleat ex spud. Okay who’s taking the piss, I thought my mate had stitched me up, there was no fucking way I was sitting next to him for 3 ½ hours. I did ask to be moved but it was a no go the plane was full of gooners and press, I even thought of asking if I could be put beside the baggage. All I could think of was to bury my nose in a paper and hope he never opened his mouth. I got away with that much, knocked backed a couple of mini bottles of champagne and a few g and t's in the space of an hour an passed out, didn’t have to listen to him once, however I have a feeling he had to listen to my arse singing, a lot of bubbles in champagne!

I arrived in Greece and the sun was splitting the pavement, I was the stupid cunt who was wearing jeans and a woollen jumper, don’t ask, I looked like a fucking idiot. Even ITV picked it up on camera and beamed it around the world before kickoff.

Before the match a few beverages were consumed in a pub next to the stadium, I was on my Jack Jones so I had to make a bit of an effort to speak to some fellow gooners. Anyhow there was another gooner on his own so I got talking to him, this was about to be the start of something mental. Roy was from Norwich and he was quickly nicknamed Norwich and to this day still is. I was nicknamed stupid cunt in the jumper.

Well, myself and Norwich had a blast that night, starting with the game. The stadium is open air and on the small side but unlike other away grounds where you have a security ring around the ground they had a ring of kebab stands around it.

The game was entertaining and remembered as the game of two Edu’s. They had an Edu who scored both their goals and our own Edu grabbed one of ours in 2-2 draw.

Then the fun began.

I met Norwich back in the boozer after the match and we drank a fair few until about 3 in the morning we were chatting to a couple of Greeks and when the bar closed asked them to show us a nightclub, they looked at us with raised eyebrows. Nightclub = strip club in Greece, we should have asked for a Disco.

Anyway the 2 Greeks said they would take us to a club, one of them went and got his jam jar, a very impressive Audi TT that had me and Norwich crushed on the back seat. So they drove us to the night club When we rolled up at the entrance to the club there was an 8 foot penis pissed as we were we just laughed and had our photo taken with the thing, it turns out that this strip club also catered for women every 3rd or 4th performance on stage was done by Stavros the Chippendale. It was €25 to get in, they paid for us, it was a €10 a bottle of Heineken, and they bought every round all night (A Scotsman’s dream!) they also paid for the “extra services” of the waitresses! I reckon it cost them about €400 for a 2 hour drinking binge with us.

Anyway after that it was up the airport for a 7am flight, “cheerio boys!” we said they replied “see you for the return leg in London, you can look after us there!” ye will we fuck we thought, we gave you the wrong phone numbers.

And that was that, nobody ever believed this story but in the last 16 of the same year I met Norwich again and he told the exact same story to my mates, who had to eat humble pie. I still see Norwich at most matches he just a complete header like me when it comes to the Gunners. Respect.

At Last, Back to the real football

After all that mickey mouse shite during the week its glad to get back to the premiership.

But first, to all the Ireland fans who have been rubbing it in to me that Scotland didn't qualify, fuck off and think of these few points

1. I don't and have never followed International football(i may watch the odd game but not usually Scotland)
2. Ireland haven't qualified yet either and i don't fancy your chances in the play off after watching a shite performance against Cyprus.
3. Those of you who think you'll beat Italy, i bet you don't and if you do i will walk from the Twelve Pins to Shite Hart Lane with my willy hanging out.
4. Its only the English that are allowed to brag about winning the world cup after winning a game.

Rant over

Now Citeh, we all get excited about Spuds, Chelski and Manure, now we've got another shower of shit to hate, and the greedy cunt is a bonus.

Its very hard to predict a line up at the moment due, a few of the squad are a still travelling back from internationals (thank fuck we don't have any Ireland Internationals as travelling back from Thomond park is like walking blindfolded through a kitchen knife shop).
Arshavin out for the next 3 games, ye he was need to play all 90 minutes against Wales, yes Wales a team that play at a ground capable of holding 72,000 but only 11,000 turned up, that's how much faith their fans had in them in a mickey fucking mouse game. So why play Arshavin for all that time, fuck Gus Hiddink.

The greedy cunt says he feels the Citeh love.

He said this

"After just a week at City, I could feel that the supporters believed in me and were willing me to do well," he told The Guardian.
That meant " I cant believe the fans were willing to pay extra for season tickets to watch me cause I'm shite"

"They sing songs about me and they love me. I'm so happy because I'm really enjoying myself again. I certainly feel very at home, very comfortable.
Translates as "The away fans sing songs about me being a cunt and I'm really enjoying my new bank balance"

"The staff and the supporters have made me feel very welcome and I think that is being reflected on the pitch. Now I want to repay that faith and love."
Which meant " Hughes gets down on his hands and knees every night praying to fuck i score goals or he's out of a job. Now i want to repay that by fucking off in 2 years for European football"

Enough of that shit

3-1 Arsenal, greedy cunt booed of the park.

Later

Champion League Revisited - Part One

Inter Milan away 25th November 2003

This was a special one for me, I had been on many away trips to Europe and beyond before, but this time I was more or less a sole traveller. I had offered all my mates in the supporters club in the Channel Islands a chance to go to this match; but they opted to go to Fulham at home a few days later, how wrong were they!

If you remember Inter rolled up at Highbury a few weeks previous and gave us a lesson in football by spanking us 3 nil, even the most optimistic fan was fearing the worst as we headed to the San Siro. This match was critical it was shit or bust for Arsenal and even then 2 weeks later they might still have it all to do against Moscow, even if they beat Inter.

My day was long, a flight from Jersey to Gatwick, a world record bid transferring from Gatwick to Heathrow and then onto Milan. Flight to Gatwick was uneventful and landed on time at 8:15 am but my next flight was leaving Heathrow at 11 am by some magical reason I made it to Heathrow by 9:30 am; don’t ask me how even I don’t know how that was possible, I even managed a pint at Heathrow!

A lot of messing about seen me eventually arrive in central Milan at about 5 pm, I knew a lad who was also going and arranged to meet him in a certain “English bar” but when I rolled up it was packed and they were letting nobody in, I banged furiously on the window to my mate who had his back to the window but this was like bullet proof glass; alas he couldn’t hear me, so no entry for me.

Fending for myself I roamed the streets to find a watering hole. I eventually found one amidst the pissing rain (the game was nearly called off due to this 5 day down pour). I sat down and ordered some beer; I was the only gooner in site and stood out like a sore thumb. I got chatting to a couple of Italians about the same age as me, this was one of the most bizarre conversations I have ever had; I can’t speak Italian and one of the lads couldn’t speak English so we chatted in Spanish! They were AC Milan fans and the beer flowed despite me being a little cautious. Eventually I had to make my way to the ground and being completely lost didn’t help so one of the lads said he would take me to a taxi rank! Alarm bells rang but I had no choice, Arsenal were playing. I took the chance on measured calculations; I was bigger than him and if he tried it on he was brown bread. Bu no he was great, taking me to a taxi rank via many a dark alley way where he could have stuck a knife into me. That’s real football fans helping each other out.

I arrived at San Siro just in time to witness the champions league anthem, what followed was the first British club to win their in over 30 years, and boy did they win! A 5-1 drubbing! A master class by Thierry Henry and composure by Ljunberg and Pires and edu and Aliadere and the whole fucking team! Class!

But it just kept getting better; we were held back in the ground for over 90 minutes, we even had STATO (remember him from Frank Skinner and David Badiels fantasy football show?) appear on the touch line during our wait; we duly sung “Stato give us a wave” and he did!

We eventually got out the ground and all 3000 gooners marched towards the underground only to find it was closed, but the Italians had no choice an eventually opened it up and put a train on for us, or was that a sardine tin?

Back in the centre I got chatting to a couple of gooners who invited me to join them for a celebratory beer back at the Hilton Hotel they were staying in.

In the Hilton I met the late Jeremy Beadle who would have thought he was a gooner! I also got to meet the great Smudger - Alan Smith, what a night! The beer flowed and I ended up leaving the Hilton about half 4 for a 7 am flight back to London, you might have noticed I never booked a hotel or stayed at one, I merely drank in someone else’s hotel, ah the joy of a European tour!

That night changed me, it was the start of a commitment or a vow – If I could be at an Arsenal match I was going; money/holidays/work came second from that day on and still do.

Arsenal forever, forever Arsenal.

After Saturday’s mishap it takes a bit to get back into the groove. We were very unfortunate not to take all 3 points, but that’s football, and Darren Fletcher is a cheating cunt.
I don’t think it will affect their confidence to much, so lets move on an forget it

This whole diving furore is taking the piss now, a 2 match ban? Fuck me what next a 2 match ban for a yellow card, because that's all it was. Come on Arsenal take them fuckers UEFA on!
A bit of noise floating around today about a certain song sung by mancs about Wenger. Fucking disgusting and worse still you can buy it on Amazon, but don’t.

I think if i recorded a version of “Who’s that lying on the runway” they wouldnt fucking like it. Songs against opposing teams and mangers are allowed but please spare us the sickness.

All quite on transfer deadline day, probably to be expected, but wait for a couple of signings in January as that when Wenger does his main spending , you just have to look back over the years to see that.

International so nothing for me to rave about, i hate international football, but then i am a sweaty sock! So I'm going to roll back the years with some interesting posts of champions league matches from the last 10 years first up will be the 5-1 massacre of Inter Milan, stay tuned.