Time for rivals to show some table manners

THERE’S rarely been a more convincing argument for returning to the days when they didn’t bother producing a table until six games in, than the laughable image of our friends from the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road crowing from the Premier League’s top perch.

I can’t seriously envisage a threat to our humble title of top North London dog. You need only look at the midweek fixtures for undisputable evidence of the two clubs differing status.

As the Arsenal trot out in front of 60,000 fans and a worldwide TV audience of millions to take on Celtic in the return leg of our Champions League clash this evening, Spurs will be appearing at the Keepmoat Stadium, in a slightly less glamorous Carling Cup encounter against Doncaster!

Making my way to our first home game on Saturday, to watch the Gunners make hay in the sunshine, against a Pompey side that never really forced us to break sweat, I was pleased to discover the first signs of the long awaited “Arsenalisation” of our new stadium.

I’m not sure why, perhaps it’s out of some misguided sense that I’m no longer quite such an anonymous face in the Block 18 crowd, but I was quite tickled to find my seat is now right at the mouth of the image of a white cannon which has appeared amidst the lower tier seats over the summer.

!It’s interesting that at a time when the club can least afford it, they’ve woken up to the need to appease their core support, by addressing the somewhat soulless feel of the grey concrete concourses in the stadium, along with various other improvements, intended to make the place feel a little more homely.

It’s a case of too little too late for me though.

We’ve struggled for many years with the unrelenting increases in the cost of our season ticket renewals but have somehow always managed to stump up the readies, up until now.

Despite season-ticket prices having been frozen since the move, we’ve finally succumbed this summer and although being skint was a big consideration in leasing out Rona’s ticket, I’m sure I would’ve been digging out the stocking mask and the sawn-off once again, if it wasn’t for the fact that the missus no longer feels anything like the same emotional attachment to the new gaff!.

Apparently we’re far from alone, as reports suggest that Gooners as far down as number 10,000 on the waiting list have been offered season tickets this summer.

Originally, the income from the three exclusive areas of the stadium was meant to be sufficient to cover the entire overhead of the place while the revenue from the regular punters would be pure profit.

Yet as the economic downturn begins to bite, with corporate entertainment budgets evaporating and the businesses that paid for Club Level seats going bust, one positive outcome to the banking crises is that it has provided a timely reminder to the board that it is the regular Gooners who can be relied upon to continue buttering their bread.

Such loyalty was rewarded in the sweltering heat on Saturday, with a woolly (albeit 100% acrylic) red and white scarf on every seat.

I have to curb the temptation to go a little overboard, until Tommie “the tank engine” Vermaelen has faced a stiffer test at Old Trafford on Saturday. But it’s been a long time since the Arsenal backline has benefited from the sort of commanding presence that’s capable of liberating team-mates from the panic-stricken defending of recent times. Still with haunting memories of the likes of Stepanovs, Cygan and Senderos still fresh in the mind, I daren’t tempt fate in advance of what could well prove to be a make, or break encounter.