There’s no better feeling than beating Spurs at home. It’s never quite as exciting as beating Man U at home: mainly because I expect to beat Spurs. Nor is it as exotic as beating one of the big guns in the CL: let’s face it, getting one over on Tom Huddlestone doesn’t rank as a major footballing achievement. But beating the shower from up the road is about as satisfying as it gets.

Even more so when you don’t play well. And when you effectively win the game in an 11-second period. I don’t know anyone at the game who wasn’t caught out by the speed with which the second goal came after the first. Not since ‘Boro at Highbury have I found myself celebrating one goal whilst another is being scored.

For the record, I think the 11-second-game on Saturday masked the fact that, until that point, we picked up where we had left off at Upton Park. Sloppy and without any urgency, it was Spurs who looked the more comfortable and, worryingly, the more up for it. I don’t like to moan about our own players but in this instance there really is no alternative: what the hell did Diaby think he was doing out there on Saturday? It was one of the worst performances I’ve seen in an Arsenal shirt since… well, since Diaby really. At times he reminded me very much of myself in the workplace: often I find myself at work daydreaming about what I’m going to have for dinner that evening or where I should go on holiday next. On Saturday, Diaby was about as much of an asset as I am on a Friday morning with a serious hangover when my boss is away and I know I can surf the internet until lunchtime and then clock off.

This got me thinking. How many of the common work characters can one identify in our modern footballers? Overly-keen-try-hard-office-junior-kiss-@ss? Theo Walcott. Riding-out-till-retirement-adds-nothing-but-too-institutionalised-to-fire? Gary Neville. Office-pest-with-high-STD-likelihood? Marlon King.

The win on Saturday really set up the weekend and the Halloween celebrations that evening. Now, my American friends feel that Halloween parties are the best of the year. Of course, they tend to put more emphasis on it than we do. My view has always been that Halloween is the most inclusive party of the year. Let me explain: On Saturday evening I was struck by the number of odd people that were out and about. Even beneath the make-up and costume, it was possible to identify a number of people who clearly don’t get out much. Folk who seize the opportunity, in fact positively pray for the opportunity, to fit in by dressing scarily and acting weird (which I would guess come pretty naturally to some). It’s the party equivalent of care in the community.

What I do like is that, like out American cousins, it’s now acceptable to deviate from traditional horror characters with your costume. Anything that is genuinely odd is acceptable. I didn’t make an effort to dress up but I was annoyed that I missed out on the following opportunities: 1) I could have put on a Wigan ‘King’ shirt with ‘I’m a millionaire’ printed on the front. 2) An Andre Agassi tennis outfit (the multi-coloured 90’s Nike style) with a necklace made of vials/syringes. 3) A Sol Campbell shirt and straightjacket 4) Although it came 24 hours too late, a Paula Radcliffe marathon outfit (scary enough in itself) and a limp.

I watched MOTD when I got home (is there a better invention than Sky+?) and was furious to discover that we were the fourth game to be featured! The North London derby?! Two top five teams!? How can it be fourth on the bill!? Clearly the BBC are taking the Liverpool free-fall rather hard and you could tell that Hansen, Lineker and the show’s producers were finding it hard to hide their pain and disappointment – unlike the rest of us. The title seems like it’s Chelsea’s to lose already so the game at our place in a few weeks is going to be a whopper in terms of our title challenge. Clearly Chelsea are a different proposition to Spurs, and Diaby will need to be awake (or preferably not play) to avoid a repeat of last year’s humiliation.