Arsenal Are Coming To Town

It’s been a very long time since Arsenal played a game in Ireland, but I will get to see them play in my home town of Dublin on Wednesday night. Of course I get over to London to see them as often as I can, but it’s a heck of a lot easier just to pop on a train and get off 10 stops later at the stadium rather than setting off at 3.30am via the Air Coach, a plane, a train and finally the tube. Without doubt some of the joy is in that pilgrimage and it’s always a bigger buzz to see them in a competitive game. Having said that it will be great to see them play in Dublin and I can’t wait to meet up with some of my fellow Arsenal fans over a beer or two.

With the new season only 10 days away I expect to see a fairly strong Arsenal team on display and the pre season games have gone pretty well so far. We drew with Atletico Madrid before losing on penalties and went on to beat PSG 5-1 in Singapore, but from here on the games are a lot closer to home. Of course pre season games don’t count for an awful lot and it’s all about building fitness and preparing for the start of the season. There’s more scrutiny on pre season this time around for Arsenal though with a new man at the helm for the first time in 22 seasons. 

I would imagine we’ll see a pretty similar team to the ones that played in Singapore and I’m not sure if the players who have just returned after World Cup duty will make the trip. Of all of those I am anxious to see Lucas Torreira the most because he looks like he has the potential to be the player this team has been missing for a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make an appearance against Lazio on Saturday in Stockholm though and hopefully he’ll be ready to go for our opening game against City.

The player I’m looking forward to seeing most of all is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and I can’t wait to see what his impact will be in a full season at Arsenal. He has scored goals for fun everywhere he has played so far and I expect him to be one of the top scorers in the Premier League next season. For the moment though I’ll be more than happy to see him put a few goals past Chelsea.

Besides Aubameyang I’m looking forward to seeing Mesut Ozil in action and I imagine he will get a great reception from the Arsenal fans after his recent trials and tribulations. For me there are few players in the world with his ability to make chances for others and we might just have the players at the club now who can put away a higher percentage of those chances. The final player I’m excited about seeing is Aaron Ramsey and I hope it’s not the last time I’ll get to see him in our colours. His future is still uncertain, but hopefully Unai Emery can convince him Arsenal are the club where he can make the impact that his talent deserves to make.

I’ll be going with my youngest son after his sister and him chipped in to get my ticket for Fathers Day. My eldest son will be at the game too as well as my brother in law and my nephew. It’s going to be a real family affair for me in more ways than one as my actual family will join me at my football family. It’s been a long time coming and I am really looking forward to it.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.