To the Arsenal 6-1 !!!!

A long day today.  Thom and I left home at around 8.30 a.m. and drove to Surbiton to catch a train into London for the Arsenal v. Southampton match.  We arrived at Surbiton at around 10.30 a.m. to find that none of the car parking machines were working and when I tried to pay via my mobile phone, the automated system at the other end could not recognise my number plate.  In the end, I had to walk over the railway bridge to the other side and buy a ticket from the ticket office.  Eventually, after all that, Thom and I caught a train which got us into London at around 11.20 a.m.  We took the Underground to catch a Northern Line train to Leicester Square, only to find that trains terminated at

Charing Cross on that Line today.  We retraced our steps and caught a Bakerloo Line train to Piccadilly Circus where we went above ground and walked to Leicester Square through China Town.  This gave Thom an opportunity to see and experience London Theatreland and China Town and I think he was very impressed by the vast number of Chinese restaurants and Chinese businesses in that small area of central London.  We took a Piccadilly Line train from Leicester Square to Holloway Road and after a quick lunch at McDonalds, arrived at the Emirates Stadium.  what a massive and magnificent structure it is!  Holding over 60,000 people it is truly enormous.  After visiting the shop we took our seats about an hour before kick-off.  The seats are large and padded and we were right at the back of the stadium.  Consequently, it didn't feel so much of a footballing experience as a trip to the theatre.  The less said about the game the better.  Arsenal were awesome and destroyed Southampton in a 6-1 goal fest.  After we had conceded four goals I felt that all we could do was to sit back and enjoy watching superior football from Arsenal.  The fans on both side were good humoured and in a week which saw the revelation of the terrible cover up at Hillsborough, it was really good to feel the good naturedness of football today.  All the tube stations surrounding the stadium were closed as we left and saw we walked about two miles to the Angel from where we caught a bus back to Piccadilly and then a tube to Waterloo.  We eventually arrive back in Winterslow at 8.45 p.m. where we watched the whole horrible match again on Match of the Day.  We footballing fans really are extreme masochists!