TERRACE TALK: Reality bites for Arsenal in Naples and Manchester

I was very disappointed with the Gunners Groundhog day performance in Naples, but then I always suspected the fact we went there, knowing we could afford to lose, was bound to have a negative impact upon proceedings.

Mercifully I was able to watch the fascinating Keane and Vieira documentary back in our hotel room, where revelling in the glory days proved to be the perfect tonic before hitting the sack after such a poor showing.

I usually avoid official travel arrangements like the plague, preferring not to be herded like sheep by hostile carabinieri. But all the apocryphal tales of the Neapolitans taste for violence left us so paranoid that, not fancying being stabbed in the posterior, we ended up at the mercy of the outrageous local organisation that left us missing the first 10 minutes of the match, after the coaches took us round the houses, taking an eternity to make the short four-mile hop from the port to the ground.