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Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom
I'm a director of Maidenhead United Football Club. For ten seasons one of my roles at the club was to produce the match programme. The aim of this blog was to write football related articles for publication in the match programme. In particular I like to write about the representation of football in popular culture, specifically music, film/TV and literature. I also write about matches I attend which generally feature Maidenhead United.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Nostalgia for an age yet to come

Nostalgia fest yesterday. With a ticket to the New Order reunion concert in the obscure location of Stepney and a friend travelling down from Scotland to see it I opted for the safe bet of tickets to Arsenal's 125th birthday and an easy day in London.
The day hopefully set the seal on the Arsenalisation of the new ground which has now become a cross between a museum and a football theme park. Putting the dates of trophy wins around the stadium was the first stage in removing posterity from the current squad as the achievements of their predecessors lurked ever larger in the new environment. The dates also hang like something of an albatross round the club's neck, a constant reminder of the growing time since the last trophy. I really don't like the burgeoning trend of football statuary, and feel that people should be only commemorated in this way once they have shuffled off their mortal coil.
Certainly the fact that I was off to see arch modernists New Order concentrated the mind on  the future and led me to ponder what the Gunners great visionary Herbert Chapman would have thought. Although a listed building now the old Highbury ground was state of the art when it was built and the worry is that the futuristic nature of the new ground may be strangled by the past.
The game itself long looked like it would be overshadowed by the pre match celebrations, the nadir of which was MC Tom Watt's babbling inability to turn his stream of consciousness into a question for the legends he introduced before kick off, most of whom would have been at the game anyway in a PR/media role. At least "Good Old Arsenal" replaced "The Wonder of You" as the warm up music and the embarrassing call and response of the team line ups was dropped. Unfortunately I guess the club is contractually obliged to play the indie rock dirge of the Premier League anthem.
Still it was good that Everton with their pleasingly simplistic all blue kit and unbroken top division status (only beaten by Arsenal), were the opposition particularly as despite their lowly position manager Davie Moyes set out to win the game. Early on the unusual Arsenal defence with centre backs filling the wide roles looked as though it might be undone by the powerful wing play of the likes of Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman. This focus on attack forced the blue defence up the pitch and Arsenal had ample opportunity to exploit the high line only for Gervinho (again) and Theo Walcott to be especially profligate when through on goal.
As the game wore on Everton's confidence was symbolised by the way Marouane Fellaini played progressively further up the pitch but the game was won with a moment of quality to reflect the historic occasion. Alex Song's delightful pass found Robin Van Persie to fire home and take everyone's breath away with a strike which was executed when the Dutchman was fully airborne, a move that was ripe to end in farce perfectly carried out with a volley that rocketed into the back of the net. As usual any hope that Arsenal would quietly see out the win were in vain as Everton went for broke, but there was to be no match for Van Persie's coup de grace so Arsenal completed their comeback from their early season turmoil with a win that lifted them into the top four.
If Van Persie stays fit maybe this season will see the Emirates see silverware for the first time, the quality is evidently there to achieve it.

3 comments:

Lenny Baryea said...

Think the “(again)” should apply to Walcott, as much as to Gervinho.

The former should never have attempted to pass to the latter, when clean through on Howard in the first half.

Hopefully "Good Old Arsenal" as the warm up music, and the lack of the tannoy call and response, are permanent rather than temporary measures. Shows that the club are, at least, listening to the supporters?

Quite like the dates of trophy wins around the stadium.

Stars above badges on club shirts (signifying ten league championships, a Berks & Berks Intermediary Shield, or whatever) I definitely don’t like.

Amazing strike by RVP (and another notable assist by Song).

Steve said...

I think Walcott is much more consistent now. He didn't have a great first half but after Van Persie hit Arsenal's best effort in the second half.
I think all things considered whilst far from perfect Arsenal do respond to supporters, just sometimes comes out wrong like the cringeworthy banners along the lines of "who needs batman when we've got Robin".
Just think the dates set the club up for a fall and holds back the new era since the move.
I agree about the stars - they should only be for World Cups or European Cups. Even Ipswich have three stars now.
Van Persie will be in the Bergkamp class if he stays fit and continues his form for the rest of the season.

Lenny Baryea said...

“I think Walcott is much more consistent now. He didn't have a great first half but after Van Persie hit Arsenal's best effort in the second half”

He did indeed. Good save by Howard. No other player frustrates me more than Walcott, however.

“Just think the dates set the club up for a fall and holds back the new era since the move”

I definitely get your point. Perhaps they should’ve held off until the first trophy of the Emirates era, before adding all the other trophy dates. Maybe that was the plan, and they just got fed up of waiting?!

“I agree about the stars - they should only be for World Cups or European Cups. Even Ipswich have three stars now”

Yes. World Cups only. Possibly European Cups. I caught a glimpse of Barnsley v Ipswich on Saturday evening, and had to stifle a laugh at the stars on the Ipswich shirts.