Written by Lindsay Melrose Thursday, 20 October 2011 19:15

GunnerTalk Blog

By Lindsay Sheehan

The venue for indulging our ‘Arsenal Alcoholism’ this week was The Eaglet on Seven Sisters Road. I was late so I missed the pre match. Apparently it consisted of this....

Then there was small matter of the game and fuck me bollox we WON!!

Most of the pissheads missed the first RVP goal. A sublime pass by TR7 (who is clearly back on the coke and loving it) found he of the Incredibly Large Spam, who in turn passed to our Centurion Captain and BANG - back of the net, thank you very much, one nil to The Arsenal.

The goal machine should have had another of those special prickly hairs on the back of your neck moments when his sublime chip was denied by the stupid post fairy. She must have been on the blob to ruin such a thing of beauty. Bitch.

There was a little bit of same old with Sunderland’s equaliser, not to take anything away from ex Gunner Seb who is a master of free kicks. But our issues aren’t going to be solved over night. We are a team low in confidence and new in personnel. We are also heavily Robin reliant on the goal front. What we need to do is slowly and quietly build some momentum, make some luck, grind some results and start with the believing. Nothing is going to change this week, nor next, or even probably even the next.  It’s a slow process and one we as fans are going to have to be annoyingly patient with.

During the break I had 2 free pints for lunch followed by a portion of prawn crackers. These came with a sweet chilli dip which of course justified their £3.50 price tag. After I picked Steve up off the floor from shock at the cost, it was time for the second half. Nate again missed KO, but this time because he was taking a shit. Took his pint in with him too. (Proper Gooner.)

The second 45 seemed to be a story we all know well, lots of possession, little penetration. The home crowd awoken from their Sunday slumber by the buzz of half time bevvys were in much stronger voice but the usual frustration was creeping into their song. Then IT happened. Just when we thought time and maximum points were slipping away, we scored another goal.

Now even as I’m typing this I have to pinch myself. The goal came from a set piece. And it was a RVP free kick. Yes I knooooooow!!! I was readying myself to catch the ball as it sailed over the crossbar and into club level as Per Mertesacker usual so I nearly done a wee when it went in. Nate lay on the floor and pulled Gav on top of him for a quick snog. Steve stopped twitching. Me and Ian hugged it out and the Emirates collectively decided it was off out on the piss now after all.

So that's exactly what we did and back to the Eaglet we traipsed with 3 points weighing nicely in our back pockets. Imagine my surprise when Ben I’m-only-having-one-pint was there after swearing he was pre-match only. Greg collector of fine and historical Arsenal shirts was also amongst us randomly not actually wearing an Arsenal shirt. The original pissed up Gooner Russ, his beautiful wife Annette, Kal, Stefan, James, Gav, Nick, Sammie, and I joined them and there in started the mess. Nate already off his bonce did some Fame style street dancing at the traffic lights, using his arse as chamois leather on some poor bird’s car bonnet.  No one was safe and after blatantly pinching a bottle of her finest Sake, he introduced a local shop girl to the delights of the Jäger bomb. Expect to see her begging on Holloway Road with only a Staff for company any day now, wondering where it all went wrong.

Me and Annette escaped the testosterone to dance to The Away Boyz and Sammie singing up a storm. Unfortunately they joined us again soon after and properly cramped our style. By far the best moment of the set was the rousing crescendo of ‘Are We Human Or Are We Arsenal?’ coinciding with Newcastle’s equaliser against the Spuds. Gooner Power! We raised a glass to The Bear (RIP) and Irish jigged to ‘The Day We Beat The Scousers.’

After they finished the pub gradually started emptying as those with their mind on the working week headed off. No such sensible behaviour from us. The Arsenal had won and damn we were gonna celebrate, “Barman a tray of your finest Jäger please.”

Taking over the jukebox we started our own Gooner Wedding party, with much dad dancing to favourites including Alice Alice Who the Fuck is Alice?, The Wonder of You and Gav’s impressive Johnny Cash mega mix. I’m not sure whose dancing was the worst. I’ll let you lot have a quick judge yourself here while I cringe.…..

LINK

Another fine day was had by all, watching The Arsenal back to winning ways in great company – what more can you ask?