Über Arsenal

By Chris Toronyi

This weekend was an uber venn diagram of entertainment: Three intersecting passions coming together for the first time this season. I think it might be ever.

In one circle of passion and emotion we have the mighty Arsenal who kicked-off the weekend on Saturday with a grinding result at the Hawthorns. Arsenal delivered its usual dosage of stress and exhausted voice boxes. Luckily (or maybe not) I was unable to watch the game live, but did have the Twitter faithful providing me with their honest play-by-play of the Arsenal. I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty sure I sprouted at least 10-20 new grey hairs during injury time – following the Club is becoming a health risk. I could easily see this becoming a question on my yearly physical. "Do you follow soccer (football)? If so, who?"

It wasn't vintage Arsenal, but there were some great elements to take away from this hard fought result. We again showed character, we showed fight, and yes, I'll even say we were focused. Playing a man down for 20 minutes plus injury time is a great ask and we delivered. I don't care who you are, where you stand in the table, winning on the road in the Prem – and a man down no less – is fantastic achievement. It was a grind.

And how can I not mention the great Tomas! What an amazing display. He showed everyone once again, to Wenger and to the supporters, why he's an Arsenal player. Why he's the quiet leader. Why Wenger has showed so much patience over the years. Those were massive goals from the Little Mozart. His display keeps the momentum going, giving us confidence into this weekend's fixture against Norwich. It's not going to be easy - see last season's home fixture against them. Gulp.

So, the final two circles in this venn diagram are Mad Men and Game of Thrones. Sunday Night here in the States truly was an overload of entertainment. It was a welcome relief. I didn't feel my chest hardening, nor see any of my hairs changing color like leaves on a tree. I couldn't wait for the final 10 minutes of the Arsenal game to end, but didn't want the final 10 minutes of either of these shows to end. Oh, how I stress about my passions. I won't say anymore about these shows as I know some of you haven't had the chance to see them - know they delivered. Not three points, but they delivered.

Yes, it was great to see the return of Don Draper to my television, but it was even greater to see the return of Tomas to the form that we have been longing for. Two beautiful sights. Forward.

Thanks for reading and thanks for listening to the Arsenal America Podcast. This week's show welcomes back Tim Stillman of Arseblog and Vital Arsenal, and Tim from 7amkickoff. It's another Tim-off. And we hope to have one more guest added to the line-up in the next few days.  Please don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes  and you can also grab the RSS Feed. Enjoy the rest of your week.

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Chris Toronyi is a longtime Arsenal supporter and the host of The Arsenal America podcast, available every week at ArsenalAmerica.com and on iTunes at "Arsenal America Podcast." You can read more of Chris' thoughts on Twitter.

The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Arsenal Football Club or Arsenal Media Group.