Can we share Arsène’s unshakeable belief?

THE benefit of Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off was that it enabled the visiting Kerry couple and their two kids to do the rounds of the museums, before meeting up with me.

Three of the four were Man United fans, and while Mum and the eldest boy were heading back to the hotel, the definition of devotion was demonstrated by Dad, who was taking his Arsenal-supporting youngest to his first live game.

It wasn’t the wonders of the science or natural history museums but the bizarre displays at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, which were the biggest hit with the kids. And for a while there on Saturday, they could’ve been forgiven for wondering if they were still among some of the planet’s strangest phenomena, as they experienced the unprecedented sound of the more fickle members of the Arsenal faithful, begrudgingly singing the praises of Manny Eboué after the Ivorian hothead had set up our second goal with his perceptive back heel.