Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Tickets and stuff

As a Red member, it is often difficult to get tickets - most league games sell out before they become available to Red members. You usually have better luck with Champions League games, and of course in the past, Carling Cup games have never usually sold out, despite the reduced prices.

Anyway, I was able to get tickets for tonights 2nd leg of the Carling Cup semi final against Spurs, which has now sold out, perhaps surprisingly. We all know Arsenal won't field their first choice eleven, which is why they wanted to reduce the ticket prices (which was vetoed by the Football League at Tottenham's behest). However the draw of a semi final against our big local rivals has ensured a demand for the tickets.

So we can sell out a 60,000 seater stadium even though everyone knows we won't see our best players. But how long for?

At the weekend Chelsea were advertising tickets on general sale for their home Premiership game tonight Why do they (regularly) struggle to sell out a 42,000 seater stadium when they are Champions? As unattractive as their football is, you would have thought enough good time charlies would turn up while they are in a successful spell to help fill the place up.

Most other teams in the Premiership are also suffering from reduced attendances - whether this is due to over saturation of Football in general or high prices I'm not sure. But paying £30 to watch Wigan v Aston Villa seems high to me. Hopefully this trend won't reach Arsenal, as reduced attendances could have a major impact on the club's finances, and we can barely compete in the transfer market as it is. And we don't want to have to pay more for our Fish & Chips at the Emirates!

Anyway, hopefully my attendance tonight will ensure another victory, as I have never seen Arsenal lose under Arsene Wenger.

Book Review: On This Day

A relative of mine was kind enough to send me this book shortly before Christmas. It was a nice surprise of course, but I was actually unaware of this book, as I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere before.

It is a simple premise; each day of the year is listed with half a dozen Arsenal facts each. The facts go all the way back to 1903, so there is plenty of history provided. I suppose the older you are, the more the book will trigger memories of old. For me, I struggle to remember anything before the cup final of 1979.

There are a couple of negatives to this type of book. Firstly, when it comes to the months in the close season, the facts are limited to signings/departures or International appearances by Arsenal players. Secondly, it is not the type of book you pick up and read from cover to cover. It is more of a 'lying' around book, that you pick up from time to time, to see if anything interesting happened on whatever day it is when you pick it up.

Overall, this is probably only a book for the real die hard fans. But it is useful for triggering long forgotten memories, and if you really want to know when Willie Young made his last appearance or when we beat Chester City 5-0 in the Rumbelows cup, then this is the book for you. And it is fairly cheap at £6.99.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Comeback Kings

Well, that's two great comebacks in 4 days. Two late, late goals against Ferguson's old timers, and two second half goals against the Tiny Tots in the Carling Cup semi.

It seems to me we have got that never say die attitude back that served us so well in our 49 game unbeaten run. It has taken us a while to get there this season, but I now feel we have turned the corner. Of course, these two results came at a price with the injuries to van Persie & Hleb (or 'Helb' as Graham Taylor insisted on calling him last night on Five Live), but I think we have the strength in depth to cope with it.

Now I'm looking forward to the second leg of the Semi Final at the Emirates, even more so now I have booked my tickets this morning :-)

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Is it a surprise Lauren is free to leave?

No sooner has Lauren got fit after his year out with Injury, then Wenger announces that Lauren will not be offered a new contract and is free to find another club. While this came as an initial shock, it shouldn't come as a surprise.

Back when Lauren signed his last contract, he was only offered a 1 year deal. This was a big surprise back then, as Arsenal normally only do this for players who are over 30. Lauren was understandably annoyed at this, and Arsenal eventually relented and offered a two year deal. At the same time, Arsenal offered Justin Hoyte a three year deal, so it was apparent at the time who Wenger saw as the long term option. Since then of course, Eboue has also established himself (although he seems to have gone downhill a bit recently, what with his rolling around antics getting more coverage than his game).

So while I'll be sorry to see Lauren go, it is not a real surprise. I do hope he goes abroad, as I don't want any of our forwards to come up against his no nonsense style of defending!

The other problem I have with him leaving now is that we will get next to nothing for him, as his contract expires in the summer. Why we keep doing this is beyond me - players like Wiltord, Kanu, Pires have all left for free, and now it is going to happen again - but then again, perhaps it is all compensated by the cost of the food/drink at the Emirates!

UPDATE: Lauren signed for Portsmouth last night, so our boys will come up against him. Lets hope he continues to save his best tackles for Ronaldo.

One Billion Bulbs

One thing every one can do to help fight Climate Change is replace standard light bulbs with low energy replacements (either Compact Flourescent or LED).

If you go round your house and add up the total wattage used by all your bulbs, you'll probably be amazed, especially with the current fashion for Halogen spots. I recently replaced a number of standard bulbs with CFLs, and calculated the total wattage used would be reduced from something like 370 Watts to 60 Watts. If you want to know what that equates to in energy saving/money saving terms, check out the stats on OneBillionBulbs, where you can create an account and track your C02 and cash savings.

Also, if you have your own computer, why not check out LocalCooling, who have an application you can install on your PC to optimise it's power use. The application provides a few extra options than the standard Windows Power Saving settings, and again, it will also keep track of your energy savings.