What's your superstition/pre match routine?

By Andy Strouthous
October 26 2004

Welcome to the first edition of the Arsenal Times Sunday Colour Supplement, which like all great Sunday papers come out on a Saturday and has bugger all news in it.

Contents

Editorial What's your superstition?
Pre Match Preview P1
War and Peace part 1 p1
Latest Football Gossip p2
Readers Crossword p9
Malcom Glazer Pension Fund special offer
Find the hidden rabbits puzzle for Spurs fans p10
WEATHER FOR THE BIG GAME p12

what's your superstition/pre match routine?
As we drag into the 7th day(or more-some started at unbeaten match 47) of big match hype how are you the gooner coping? What is your preparation for the big game? Send in your comment below.

As for myself this season I have dispensed with all superstitions or pre match routines, besides it was costing too much. Last season I didn't dare cancel the Text messaging service, even when attending games, just in case it broke the unbeaten run.My phone bill was astronomical. Then we got beat 3-0 by Inter and I had to change headgear. I changed to a Russian hat, and team after team including Chelski fell before it. We were invincible, but I didn't realise I was dabbling with dark forces beyond my comprehension. Two days before the big Euro Cup match with the Cossacks I was cruelly struck down with a neck ailment, and the hat and me were prevented from being there. My ticket went to Darren's (see earlier log on Wenger must go campaign) brother. He was so pleased, he hadn't been able to get a ticket in years. I still haven't bucked up the courage to ask him if he had enjoyed it.Not to be deterred I kept the hat next to me on the sofa as I watched, straight necked, the awful events unfold. The hat had failed, not only that it had clearly played for the enemy. There and then I forswore the black arts,and all that mumbo jumbo in attempts to influence football matches. No more superstition for me, I don't worry about which hat, scarf or underpants I am wearing, unlike a lot of supporters I am free of all that rubbish now. The frst time I cancelled the text mesaages at 25p a go and we still won was exhillarating. And I can tell you its very liberating, well apart from the ten minute walk out of my way to get the Saturday newspapers at my lucky newsagents. Which is a real pain in the arse when it is raining.




War and Peace Stroller style
George Graham has not been affected by all the hype and his article in the Observer is probably the best provided by any pundit.

Love and Peace Breaks Out
Suddenly players and managers from both teams for Sunday's big match are rushing to tell anyone who will listen how much they admire the opposition. One very old Gooner told Arsenal Times it reminded him of WWI when peace suddenly broke out on Xmas day and Tommy and Jerry played a game of football in no mans land. (wouldn't it be wonderful if history repeated itself and the same thing happened except at Old Trafford.)
Yes I replied I had heard this story before, on my Grandpa's knee, but funny enough no one had ever mentioned the score. That was because it ended in a penalty shoot out and Jerry won replied the old Gooner. Ah! I replied I had always wondered why hostilities had resumed. Then I started getting flashbacks of last years fixture. But unlike Jerry Ruud van Nostrilhair was no good at penalties.

If we win Arsene can put on a German accent and say "for you Fergy ze war is over", if we don't win he can put on an Austrian accent and say "I'll be back"

Hype, more hype and match of the season.
According to the pundits at Sky, tomorrow's game is the match of the season , how do they know? Are they psychic? The game might be absolute crap, besides an even more crucial game where both teams are in contention for the title are playing - a real six pointer might upstage it later in the season. It's all overdone hype.

Interminable wait.
I hate Sunday fixtures, it makes Saturday feel like a Sunday, though the upside is that Sunday then feels like a Saturday. However the downside of that means going back to work on a Sunday and missing the match.


Spuds Championship hopes cruelly dashed. Mines a double.
Plans to bring back the Spuds most successful manager were cruelly dashed when the death of their last great manager Bill Nicholson was announced on Saturday. In his honour the current team lost 2-1 against Bolton.

When Spurs won the double in 1961 no one had thought it could possibly be done in the 20th Century. It had not been done since the late 19th Century when the fixture list was far less stressful. After Spurs won it in 1961, pundits doubted it would ever be repeated, Arsenal were the second to repeat it in 1971. A bit like the four minute mile, once achieved it became devalued. Nonetheless very few teams have even one double let alone three. Only one team has won one in the 21st Century and we all know who that is.

The weather for the big match
Unusually for Manchester it will be raining, plus gale force winds. The chance of the Neville brothers actually kicking the ball is more unlikely than usual.