Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Chocolate and Salt

from the factory floor
Barclays Premier League
Arsenal 2-1 Sunderland 16 October 2011
Van Persie [.33, 82]      Larsson [31]

For the third time already this season it’s an early kick-off and our sum point total from such matches is a big zilch.  Bearing this in mind and with the fear that we’d run afoul of the fire marshal after the turn-out from the North London derby 2 weeks back, a small band of us descended upon the lower level of Legends where the football is made. I met Ed on the subway platform at that gruesome hour, relieved that we just might get a goal today if only his bladder would cooperate. Proper gooner that he is, Ed informed me of his late night water consumption and early morning coffee.  Good man. However, no Bendtner for the visitors, meaning no barn door was safe.  But it would be the first return to the Grove for Larsson in the colors of his new club, with RVP’s warnings about the kid’s quality a portent of things to come.

Barely had we settled at the bar and exchanged pleasantries with Jack when Van Persie decided it was time to get started on his second century of goals. Turns out that little pow-wow between the Arsenal players right before kickoff wasn’t about post-match dinner plans afterall, it was about, you know, football. I didn’t even have time to air my feeling that RVP would tear shreds from Gervinho if he didn’t release the ball before he did and the captain stretched the net for number one hundred and one.