We were living at 128 Highbury Hill when I was first taken over road to a match (do a 360 turn on 'Street View'), but as a babe-in-arms, I have no recollection whatever of the occasion. I continued to be taken to matches all through my childhood so no match ever stood out for me. As a toddler/child, they would mostly have been Reserve games or 'quiet' ones.

Since you mention him, I do remember seeing George Swindin playing in goal for us in a Reserve match, but only because somebody (probably the old man) specifically pointed out to me how odd it was for the Manager not to be with the First team who were playing away. Not sure I even knew that Swindin was our manager.

I also remember seeing Stanley Matthews playing against us, again because he was specifically pointed out to me - probably because he was older than the old man. Can't remember whether he was playing for Blackpool or Stoke though.

I remember your one well. And the fuss Revie made about the WBA goal.

Ok maybe I am being pedantic but away goals don't double. The away goals rule is that if two teams finish level after both ties the one with the most away goals is allowed progress to the next round. Officially the tie is listed as a draw.

Weirdly I remember that game because it was one of the handful of occasions that I was at the Clock End. No idea why. Their supporters were a cheery, friendly and resigned bunch.

The hard choice for him is regular play vs trophies. The regular play 'could' come with trophies depending on where but domestically, I can't see any of the top 6 clubs buying him save West Ham...maybe. Not sure a big enough continental side would want him either.

He's won everything you could as a club player, and he's only 27, prime years. Tough choice for him. Play sparingly and collect trophies or go and play more? Hmm...not sure which one I'd choose.

I assume you've seen 'Better Call Saul', ltg.

Chill TG, just pulling legs for fun

I was an Arsenal fan from around the 70s

Loved that show .... watch Billions & Homeland if you have not yet done so

Already done. And you’re right. They are good.

I think that The Wire is my favourite ever.

Willian getting racial abuse now from some knuckle draggers on Instagram.

The bending the knee stuff not getting through.

Name, shame, penalise.

It won’t change mindsets but at least it would help to reduce it. The trouble is that such ridiculous prejudices are so totally ingrained.

Breaking Bad - Not a great look for the US healthcare system AG.

Where a guy has to make commercial quantities of meth to pay for his medical bills.

This is too much .. totally unnecessary

Bloody Instagram and Twitter. Why can't the racist and homophobic morons who post this poison be named and shamed?

The government should be named and shamed first

They have the technology to stop this instantly I assure you. They could legislate, penalise and imprison but don’t and instead Nick Clegg is now employed by Facebook

It’s part of the plan and the victims are just pawns because nobody wants to stand up the US on this

Stranger things have happened.

I'm really looking forward to the City game. We'll probably lose because they are *&^te hot. And because we are the Arsenal.

But its nice that the late Wenger sinking dread feeling of 'we'll certainly lose heavily' when facing top opposition, is well and truly gone.

I sense we can beat ... or lose to ... anyone in the division these day.

Absolutely.

People are so convinced of their opinions, and care so little for the damage done.

A little bit of humility and empathy would go such a long way.

But you have made a very good point there. We were getting absolutely butchered againest those top sides. 5,68

It’s not really happening anymore

On the contrary, if there is ever going to be a rational system of regulation of social media, it will come from the US. It will also have to be very, very careful. The excesses of free speech are ugly indeed. However, the remedy is very often worse than the disease. Apart from anything, right-wingers have a tendency to squeal like stuck pigs if what they think to be their 'rights' are violated by 'cancel culture. The sequel is they then rush off en masse and vote for populist arseholes like Trump.

At a deeper level, I don't think social media is the problem, any more than seeing an increasing ugly mug in front of me every morning is the fault of the mirror or the lighting.

You can't legislate decency and respect. Once a society has lost it, its damnably hard to get it back.

Good luck to Biden trying to claw it back gradually.

I was in Cape Cod for the 8-2 Man U pasting.

My eldest son (unsurprisingly also a Gooner) was best man for a wedding and the bride was the daughter of the owner of the hotel chain (where the wedding party stayed). And there was a hurricane which put out all the power. But the father of the bride arranged for generators and a special breakfast grouping to watch the match.

I certainly won’t ever forget that occasion.


The bonus was that the hurricane was threatened to be so severe that all the Americans had fled. When the weather picked up a couple of days later we had Cape Cod virtually empty. We don’t dare go back. It will never be that idyllic again.

You’ll be waiting a long time my friend.

That 8 still draws a nasty wince. We hadn't yet become numbed to being pummelled.

But the nadir, in terms of being totally and utterly outclassed, must be that massacre by Bayern. I'd kind of stopped noticing by then.

The chelsea one at Stamford bridge on Wengers anniversary just ridiculous. It’s been going awry for years

This is very true Decaf. Those two qualities are in short supply these days.

Wilfred Zaha has become the first PL player to no longer 'take the knee" as he feels it's degrading. He states that it isn't working and will "stand tall" against racism. Nor will he display "Black Lives Matter" on his shirt anymore as he feels that it's a target.

When big Pharma, the AMA (American Medical Association that represents doctors), nurses unions, HMOs, etc, the whole healthcare industry has more power and influence with the government than the people do, that tends to happen. They guarantee themselves a healthy, often obscene profit at the people's expense with the government's say so.

The Wire is excellent. Many argue back and forth between that and The Sopranos as the best tv show ever. My view is, at its best, The Sopranos is unsurpassed but The Wire was consistently better. Nary a bad episode in The Wire but The Sopranos had some uncharacteristically weak episodes (Tony Sopranos dream state for example...???).

You may want to also take a look at:

This Is Us
Ozark
The Lie (I think its a Canadian movie actually)
Succession
Goliath
Godfather of Harlem
The Imposters
...and yes, it's a wonder I do anything but watch TV.

Bernard one for you. When we play our home game in Greece do you consider that the stadium will be one more place that can correctly be said to be our home ground like highbury, Wembley while we remodelled and Emirates. In the Second World War we played home games at WHLane. Or is it just a location where we had to play home ties in Europe. Subtle difference.

Hi Gaz, I’ve seen it called a neutral venue so I won’t be counting Athens (I believe it’s the stadium of Olympiacos) as one of our home grounds. Nor do I with Wembley or White Hart Lane either. Being competitive football was postponed for WWII I assume we only played friendlies at White Hart Lane (I haven’t checked that but it seems a logical assumption). So I think there’s even less reason for counting Tottenham as one of our home grounds.

For me classification as a home ground should mean something more than using a neutral venue, even if it is officially designated as the home match in a two legged tie. I’d say it has to mean an element of permanence.

I think WWII was actually a competitive league. I think I read it on the official site. Trick question for quizzes - name the grounds since 1920 where Arsenal have played a home game.

Was it a sort of Emirates Cup competitive league with some sort of ‘two Bob’ trophy handed out to the winners of a friendly competition?

From 1920, Highbury (or the Arsenal Stadium) and the Emirates Stadium. If you want to count Wembley Stadium and whatever Olympiacos call their ground after the game next Thursday, then them as well. Are there any others?

EDIT: Apparently it’s called the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium.

And there was me thinking I was unique by not remembering much as a child. As an out of towner my visits were rare, my old man worked shifts so his attendance was also patchy. He was of the generation that would go to whoever happened to be playing at home on a Saturday he was work free. The earliest game I have memories of, though I’d been to Highbury before, was Spurs v United. The old man felt I should witness Law, Best and Charlton first hand... they won 3-2.

My old man was a Gooner btw, like his father before him who adopted them when moving to Walthamstow as a copper.

Thanks for the tips AG. Series I have enjoyed lately and recommend:
Fauda - exceptionally good
Queen's Gambit - top stuff
The Man In The High Castle
Night Manager
Lupin
Sneaky Pete - improbable idea but it works
The Vanishing At Cecil Hotel

Also The Dig - lovely English film.

Like you my eyes are square...

Not seen the film. Super book though. I really enjoyed it.

The very first game that I ever saw was in the Delphian League. Harrow Town at home to Bishop’s Stortford. Harrow were 0-1 at half time and went on to win 7-1. I assumed that all games were like that.

He said that through Villa tinted lens. He was a childhood fan of Villa and the happiest thing for him was to play for Villa. I kinda admire that he wouldn't leave the club he loved all his life for greener pastures.

People criticized LeTissier for doing the same. Were I able to play for Arsenal as a fan of the club as a kid, I don't think I'd want to leave either. Good times or bad.

I've heard a lot of talk about Queen's Gambit. I might have to give it a serious look. As well as a few of the other suggestions.

So Calvert Lewin trips over Trent Alexander Arnold as he is about to run through and tap the ball in to an empty net.
I think there is a debate whether it is a penalty or not....but the ref decided it was a penalty and then didn’t send off Trent. This is where the rules are not applied consistently and in particular where Arsenal are concerned. Once the ref has decided it is a penalty he has to decide two things, was it a clear goal scoring opportunity and was there a genuine attempt by the defender to play the ball? It was a definite clear goal scoring opportunity as he was about to tap it in an empty net and Trent clearly made no attempt to play the ball or make a tackle so it has to be a red card if he is being treated the same as Luiz - which we were all told was the rules! of course there is a harshness in that Trent didn’t actually do anything but neither did Luiz!

A lot being made of Liverpool’s injuries and how apparently their first 5 choice CB are out injured. 3 actual CB and 2 central mids and also that no other team could have coped....now I’m not saying we might have but it is a question of squad depth
Our 5 first choice would be Gabriel, holding, luiz, Mari, chambers. If we’d lost those players then Sokratis and Mustafi wouldn’t have left in January and would be playing now, Tierney could also slot in, even Kolasinac might not have left with that sort of injury crisis. So while having that pair in central defence wouldn’t be ideal it would at least be a pair of actual CB. Liverpool have had bad luck but they went in to a potential 60 game season with only 3 CB, 2 of which had very chequered injury histories even before this campaign