Now that's a proper afternoon out. Despite the bitter cold and the rushing about due to various children needing to be at swimming lessons and parties 10 miles away that was a thoroughly entertaining show.
For so long now we have failed to do to teams what we should. We've played countless poor sides over the last few seasons and stumbled into wins, fought out frustrating draws or worse. One such trip up was at Bolton, a game I've ignored. I chose not to spend ages finding a stream and watched the TV while following on Twitter. I've not seen Walcott's one-on-one miss or RVP's affairs with the woodwork. Unlucky? Twitter told me otherwise. We were shit. Top 4 a dream. Wafer cup a thing of the past. Wenger out. RVP will leave. It's over. Bin bag protest. Take to the streets… Twitter is a strange beast. I was not looking forward to Saturday.
Yet a few days later it's all back on! Blackburn arrived right on time. We shuffled into the ground with our newly washed season tickets. Mrs Pitch had left them in her pocket and given them a quick 30°. The box office helpfully told her they had no idea if they would work. They did! The crap was washed away, the turnstile clicked and the newly laundered team were a goal up before many were there.
The atmosphere lightened. No sign of any bin bags. A good start all round. We were all over them. Attack after attack opened them up yet we stuck at one. We looked hungrier than we had for ages but the failings up front were showing. Talk of the missed opportunity to strengthen started. Then it happened. 1-1. It was a stunning freekick. Nobody was to blame as our collective shoulders slumped. I tweeted that we were unlucky to be 1-1 as we were all over them. Twitter suggested we were shit. And that's the problem. We were playing well. The scoreline was shit but to be conditioned to criticise the team just on the score is worrying. Yet, I guess the score is everything. 0-0 at Bolton is no good however you play. We've dropped too many points to be unlucky. That luxury is gone.
However, as we sighed, the team stayed perky. Less than 5 minutes later the first goal was replicated and we were back on our feet. Where was the famous collapse? I was ready for the huffing and puffing. Yet before I could finish my beef baguette The Ox had skipped round fatty spudboy to give us an unfamiliar half time score. We were shit no more! As half time approached Givet decided he'd had enough and introduced our captain to his studs before apologising to Arsene as he took the shameful walk away. Steve Keene, to his credit, apologised to RVP too. A welcome sight.
Half time was surprisingly upbeat. More people than usual due to the freeze jumped around to House of Pain as we anticipated goals. It was like the half times of old.
The second half was more of the same. RVP completed his hatrick, Arteta scored again against Blackburn while The OC did what we wished Theo would do more often. The day was rounded off when T scored after a game of 'after you' with Robin. 7-1 and richly deserved. They were worth 1 and we were worth at least 7. This is what should happen and it, for once, did.
I know we thrashed a team who will probably go down who were missing their better players and spent nearly an hour a man short but you can only beat what's in front of you and so often we've struggled to do that. Everyone put in a decent performance. We looked good. No more, no less and as we are in a right old battle to keep our top 4 'success' going looking good will do me for now.
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