I am using this blog post to capture moments from not just this EPL season but the club football season at large, focusing fully on my club from North London. I will try and stick to a chronological order but may need to reference my Twitter/X feed to get the exact timelines in order.
Game recognises game. This is a tale of two Daves. My best friend, David Jones (the England fan living in North Wales), is a CPFC fan and has been waxing lyrical about Eze for a while. I noted his excellent FA Cup Final goal in last year’s victory over Manchester City, but as a player, he was not on my radar. I did a bit of research. My former neighbour in Wycombe was also Dave (Dave M in this case but affectionately referred to as Trigger) – now living in the Beverley Hills of High Wycombe (Flackwell Heath) having moved from my childhood home in Cressex in October 2004. (He had been my neighbour since 1997, and we have been through the life milestone of his eldest son being born in 2003) Fast forward some twenty-three years, and Nathan and Dave (Trigger) are season-ticket holders at Adams Park. They witnessed that ‘wonder goal’ Eze scored against Cambridge (they also follow the Buckinghamshire club on the road), and I wish I had been in the stands to watch them stare at each other and smile – “we got a player” on our hands. Surely this young lad with such God-given talent was destined for greater things. (No disrespect to my League One hometown club) Then you realise he had worked up through the Arsenal academy at Hale End. The story was written like a Hollywood movie script; the prodigal son would return home. Please Let It All Work Out. Arsenal signing Eze (back) just felt like a big moment, and this was the first time so early in the season I felt Arsenal were truly going to fight for the title, but my mind was changed later in the season, the following month in fact.
I had to make ‘do’ watching the Nottingham Forest match on my tablet and being permitted by the ‘boss’ to switch to the TV. The boys had been watching something on YouTube, probably (it was unlikely to be CBeebies on Freeview). Almost as soon as I got my TV on and the device connected to the correct TV channel (I believe the match was – it was the early kick-off so that contract is with TNT Sports. Zubemendi scored a screamer for his debut goal at the Emirates. I had my friends James and Chris at the ground (but they had not told me they were attending; it was actually Uncle Clive that informed me of this fact, on a catch-up phone call, the night before!).
Walking down the stairs at Wokingham Leisure Centre – Newcastle score – was it going to be another year of empty hands for The Arsenal? Listening to FiveLive in the car and putting the TV on by the time I got home for the second half. Who books a children’s birthday party for Sunday afternoon? Obviously a Manchester United fan! Michelle thought I was going to be disrespectful to be watching the match live on my tablet using an alternative to the Sky Go service, via VPN of course on my own 5G signal. This was the ‘moment’ I felt that Arsenal were on a different trajectory to previous seasons. It was a feeling in my bones that was extremely difficult to describe. Call it a Sixth Sense if you will – I knew there would be ups and downs over the remaining eight months of a long and tiring season with a World Cup in US, CAN and MEX at the end. But another player scoring against their former employer, just felt like some kind of strange destiny forefilling itself.
After a birthday lunch in Eden Shopping Centre for my Mum, we rushed back to Stokenchurch in time for KO. Or so I thought, while trying to sort out Amazon Cube PIN (note this is my youngest sister Julie’s Amazon account), we finally get the media box working and as we switched over to Sky Sports – literally the next moment Eze scored against his former employer. Yet they say this is written in the stars.
Scrolling through Facebook reels as you do on a random Saturday morning, I discover Harry Redknapp is from a family of Gooners. I listen to the story – obviously knowing my sister grabbed me his autograph when she worked as a waitress for a well-known hotel chain. (Please, under no circumstances, look up the year that I posted that entry onto my blog!!!). I had to look up the player he mentioned – Jimmy Logie. (Coincidentally, the nickname we had adopted for my eldest in the early stages of his life!) Jumping across to his Wikipedia, I had to lie down when I discovered his DOB. We were born 62 years apart, but more than this, he died at 64. He passed away when I was aged 2 years and 5 months. My Dad finds it difficult to comprehend the superstitions we football fans have. When I took him to the Emirates, I had to get my programme from the same guy I had had ever since we moved to the stadium in 2006 (remember this was six years later – that programme seller may have also passed on by this time). Harry Redknapp’s Dad would walk over to Finsbury Park and always buy a paper from Jimmy. The great Scottish international had fallen into hard times, post-football, but Harry’s Dad, who had seen him play in his heyday (1930s), did not forget the legend. Just like the streets will never forget the soldier we needed at the moment, the club were at a low (but not an all-time low). More importantly, this does give me an amazing story to now “retrospectively” tell of why Logan is called Logan. Even though the story my dear wife uses is from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Slight tangent, but Aaron was named after one Arsenal Welsh legend, but the little input I had was into his middle name, Lucas – you might remember the German with a powerful rocket of a left foot. But also the solid goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale before we got a Spanish upgrade from the other side of London (just a bus stop in Hounslow apparently), but I digress.
Where do I start with my unsung Spanish hero Mikel Merino? Maybe because when he joined the club on 27th August 2024, he was bestowed the great number 23 – worn by Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner and David Luiz. Plus, remember Romford Pele himself wore the same shirt from 1993 to 1995 before switching to his beloved 15. I believe the reason many players pick this number (including DB7 when he joined Real Madrid) is the direct association with the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) – Michael Jeffery Jordan. A born winner. Maybe that is why some of that magic start dust from the NBA legend, perhaps, fell into the boots of our nimble Spaniard. Or he also took inspiration from the previous Arsenal legends to wear that shirt, all the way back to Sol Campbell. He deserves a blog post in his own right, and I will make that happen in due course.
The backheel against Brighton in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup I have watched countless times. Such an intelligent, versatile football player in an agile mode, able to play in midfield, attack, and link the play together, while also, I believe, for the first time, captaining the side for that midweek match. It was done; for my birthday I would treat myself to a UCL Away match shirt and there was only one name and number I was going to have added.
View on Threads
The NLD took place on my birthday – also number 23 as you already know, and it was to show Eze at his lethal best. Anything for victory against the other side of North London, whose season seems to be going from bad to worse. Thanks Agent Frank. The NLD home leg has generally always been a fixture in November; I remember all the way back thirty years ago it took place the day after my birthday in 1996.