Such a busy week!
Sitting on the Piccadilly Line on Tuesday evening, a couple of hours or so before kick-off, a Gooner I have never met before asked me if there could be extra time in our pending second leg. I confirmed that if we lost 3-0 in normal time this would be the outcome. He followed by stating how he wouldn't be able to stay for any extra time so if we were two down with 10 minutes to play he would be very nervous!
All very amusing of course, but surely he was a little more confident than he appeared!
He also asked me my thoughts on the result and I said I fancied us to get a goal in each half and win 2-0. Easy to say that now of course but did I put a bet on? Of course not, if I had the result would have been different!
The lack of confidence in my fellow Gooner was also a little strange given our excellent performance at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
The boat trips to Fulham away have almost become normal these days but this time round it was a little different. A very early start due to the lunchtime kick-off and the tides not being kind meant the trip to Putney Pier might not have even taken place.
But take place they did and with a number of vessels setting sail from various London piers, the Thames was very much red and white for most of the morning, despite the weather being a little unkind!
We were relatively lucky given the downpour that greeted all those arriving at Craven Cottage just before kick-off but it would take more than a little bit of summer rain to dampen the spirits after a superb morning's entertainment.
The mood of course increased further with the match itself, Olly and Poldi providing the goals to make it a thoroughly satisfying day out in west London.
Three big points to kickstart our league season at a ground where all teams will find it hard to win I'm sure.
Tuesday couldn't be called a 'stroll in the park', Fenerbahce made sure that was the case and with their 'nothing to lose' attitude it made for quite entertaining fare. Or big advantage from our impressive win in Istanbul however, meant anything but a complete disaster would see us through.
Rambo continued his fine form with a brace of goals, his second a quite sublime finish after a flowing move. Job done and into that group stage 'hat' once again.
It is 'draws' all the way of course, before we take on Spurs in our latest north London derby on Sunday afternoon.
Last night's Capital One League Cup draw sees us travel to The Hawthorns, a fixture we have enjoyed on a couple of occasions in recent seasons so for those of us keen to travel somewhere 'different' it is a little bit disappointing. A tough one to start with too, the Baggies will offer a stern test I'm sure.
Thursday sees the draw that determines which cities and countries we have the opportunity to visit over the coming few weeks and months. Looking at the pots I would hand-pick Atletico Madrid, Basel and Viktoria Plzen if I could, purely for 'new destination' reasons! It rarely works out that way however, so a relatively 'kind' draw would be welcome of course.
Come on you mighty reds!
Frank
@stubbsy70
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
