St. Totteringham's Day: 15 Years in a Row

It was the last night of the season, and while most people would have been interested in the fortunes of Chelsea and Manchester United, in the north of London, there was the little matter of ensuring that St. Totteringham's Day continued to be celebrated, and the tradition kept alive.

Fulham visited the Emirates, but with one eye on the Europa League final in mid-week, they chose to field a much weakened team. And to watch them capitulate, we were all in Modesto's, ready to give it a huge shout and support to the Gunners. Good old Sanjiv Sharma was there too, looking nifty with the scarf around him, although for a moment I felt it was so big his head would disappear in it. Nevertheless, he kept popping up for the odd sip of Tiger Beer. The latter, I must say, have shown the fans here in Singapore great support and even sponsored some prizes for the fans last night.

Arsenal fielded a strong side, with Arshavin and Walcott flanking Van Persie, and Diaby, Nasri & Eboue in mid-field. In defence we had Campbell and hopefully-soon-gone Silvestre, with Sagna and Clichy in the wing-back roles. And then we had our very own Lukasz Flop-ianski in goal.

The young Pole has given much despair to Arsenal fans, and much hope to opponents. He is so butter-fingered, that I wonder why Amul in India don't make him their mascot. He would be perfect for them. And he showed exactly why so less than 10 minutes from start, flapping to hold the ball, and doing his Superman impersonation. The only difference between him and Superman is that while people bounce off Superman, Flopianski bounces off attackers, often into his own goal. So scared were we that whenever the ball even remotely seemed destined in his direction, the crowd moaned in unison, with the occasional shout of "No No" ringing in the air.

However, the odd foray apart, Fulham were never really in the match. Possession was largely with Arsenal, and even the few tims the visitors got hold of the ball, they promptly managed to give it away. The one person in the visiting side who is a certainty to play in the final for Fulham was their goalkeeper. However, he would be the one to match Flop-ianski's antics, when he gave away the ball to Arshavin, who rounded him not once, but twice before scoring. I can tell you, if he hadn't, Van Persie would have shot him down then and there - it was such an open chance.

Few minutes later, a delightful and typical Arsenal move offered Van Persie a chance to shoot from 6 yards, but his shot struck the top bar. However, the luck which has deserted Arsenal so often recently, turned around, and the rebound fell kindly back to the Dutchman, who didn't miss. And to compound the misery, an own goal just past the half-hour mark meant Arsenal were 3-0 up, and pretty much assured of 3rd place.

Come second half, the Gunners relaxed a bit. The quality of the passing, and the ambition, diminished as the half wore on. Eboue had a decent shout for a penalty, Van Persie made some bad shot selections of free kicks, and Walcott missed when he should have scored. On came Vela and Lansbury, and with less than 10 minutes to go, the young Mexican was beautifully put through by Nasri. In a one-on-one situation with the keeper, Vela is probably one of the best chippers of the ball, and duly, Arsenal were up 4-0.

That was it then. Arsenal saw the match out, and with third place assured, the tradition of St Totteringham's day continues.

However, it was a bitter sweet ending to the season, with what it could have been. It all started so brightly, with the 6-1 thrashing of Everton away at Goodison Park - so much so that many predicted Arsenal would score more than 100 goals. Sadly, that honour goes to Chelsea who scored 103, with an astonishing 29 goals coming from 4 matches, including the triumphant 8-0 win last night. And some of you may be interested to know that Real Madrid too have already scored more than 100 in La Liga.

What let us down, in my view, was our defence, lack of cover for Song, goalkeeping woes, and most importantly, the inability of Arsene Wenger to bring in reinforcements in January. I hope he is over his stubbornness and we sign some quality players in the summer. A world-class keeper and some world class central defender would make me happy.

It also seems unlikely that I'll get to watch any Arsenal games on TV at home for the next season, due to some really pathetic service by Singtel, and an equally pathetic subscription plan. That probably means more trips to Modesto's and more beer - I can already see the frown on my wife's face...

Cheers...