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Man City vs Arsenal 2nd Feb 2008 - Premier League - City of Manchester Stadium It’s a Saturday and I’m up at the crack of dawn. Funnily enough I start the day off running late. I wanted to leave for this early kick off at 7am but I don’t get out of bed until 5 minutes after this time. A shower and a brew and I finally get in the car at 7.45. Thankfully I there’s not a lot of traffic about with most of the sane people still in their beds. I make it to the M25 and then to the M40, M42 and M6 motorways with no problems and in no time at all so we decide to stop for a breakfast at one of the services once we have around 100 miles under our belts. We pull in to one of the smallest services on the M6 and as we find somewhere to park about 3 coach loads of holiday makers pile out in front of us so we decide to go and get some petrol instead and then get food in the next services instead. As I stop at the fuel pump my oil light comes on, that’s ok though, as at least I’m in the garage. I jump out of the car and as I close the door behind me IO hear a shatter. I turn to look and see the remains of my PDA/Sat Nav car charger all over the ground. Fuck. I pick up the pieces and chuck them in the foot well. I get Fuel and oil which I poor in the engine. I get a stack of the “free” disposable gloves and chuck them in my boot as they are a handy thing to have, no pun intended. We go on our way again and after about 30 miles we stop at next service station. It’s full of West Ham fans who are making their way to Wigan and there are a lot of Liverpool fans there too. I go to the Mobile Phone store but there’s no way I am paying £16 for a car charger, if the battery run outs we will use the excellent map of Manchester provided on the Man City website. I’ve been there before so sort of remember anyway. My match day ritual is to listen to The Clash when I’m on my way to the ground. It started when I went to Spurs away in the league earlier in the season when we beat them 3-1 and I continue to do it for every game. I actually forgot to do this at the Birmingham home game and we got a draw so I’m not going to forget again. The only thing though is that I play the music from my PDA which I can connect to my Car Stereo and the battery is now very low. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. I stop the tom tom to reserve power but it’s not looking good so I’ll just have to play it now. London Calling, Radio Clash, Kasbah and my favourite Bankrobber and then the battery dies. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. We have no problems at all getting there and we park in the stadium car park for £5 (same as most grounds). The stadium is different then I remember it and how it looks on TV, much smaller. We take our seats, very close to the Home Fans and with little segregation. I’m sure it will be OK though with just the usual banter between the fans and nothing to hostile. The match starts and Arsenal have a slightly slower tempo than usual, but then again Man City don’t look like a team that could finish 4th in the league if they win today either. It was only a nervous start though and after ten minutes we stamp our authority on the match. We are in total control but as the minutes pass I start thinking that we could get punished if we don’t turn the dominance into goals. I don’t have to wait long for what seems like a really strange goal. From our seats, which weren’t sat in for the duration of the match, we saw the ball go high in the air and then there was total silence. People were looking at each other but no one had a clue what had happened until Adebayor was seen running past the Home fans and the rest of the players followed him. Everyone then started cheering for a goal which I am positive that none of the Arsenal fans actually saw! I joined in! There are no TV screens inside the stadium showing replays, well not that the Away fans can see anyway so there was no way of seeing how it was scored. We continue to dominate the game, with Man City’s only really attempts coming from Petrov’s runs but he lacked a final ball or a killer touch. We then score a goal which everyone does see. The ball is crossed in to the area by Cesc and is headed down to Eduardo by Adebayor. The Croatian striker has his back to goal but somehow manages to make the shot with a semi-scissor kick and it goes into the left corner of the net for 2 nil. Easy. Just before half time, and against the run of play, we let Man City back into the game. Clichy makes an unusual mistake and loses the ball in the box and City score. This is flattering for them and the half time whistle blows on what has been a very good game of football. Half-Time I am still in shock that a match that we dominated so much is so close in the score line. We need a third goal now so that we can relax a little bit. We continue to play well in this half and have lots of efforts on goal but we still can’t get that third goal. Man City play better in this half too and it’s nervy every time they get into our half. As the final whistle approaches and the goal finally comes and it’s Adebayor once again who slots home from 6 yards after some excellent build up play and passing around and inside the area. We can finally relax as the Man City fans stream out of the stadium. It’s their first home defeat of the season but most decide not top hang around to see it. With the exception of the 45 minutes it took to get out of the car park the 230 mile journey home went without incident. We even had the Spurs vs Man Ure match to enjoy which finished 1-1 and gave us a two point advantage at the top of the Premier League Table. Another great away day. |
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