Good news for everyone’s eyes at Arsenal home matches…

Here’s a quote from a recent AISA email: “As you will know we have been pressing the Club to speed up the ‘Arsenalisation’ of the Emirates Stadium, to bring the identity and history of the Club to the stadium. We are pleased to report that the Stadium Manager has advised us that he hopes by next week’s match v Everton that this will have been carried out inside the bowl on the three rings of concrete. The top ring will feature the trophies won by Arsenal, the middle tier will have Arsenal and Arsenal.com notation and the lower ring is being used for advertising.”

Since then, onlinegooner has been told through club sources that the branding of the three concrete rings will be done in stages; one by Liverpool, one by Newcastle and the final one completed ahead of Spurs, apparently a bit later than originally suggested.

However, let’s face it, the hanging of banners has not really taken off, with some being removed for a variety of reasons (such as those demanding the re-instatement of Alan Esparza and a northern Cypriot flag offending Greek fans, threatening to turn Ashburton’s concrete rings into the territory for a banner ‘turf war’). So better even ads than bare concrete – and obviously they will be the most visible on the television.

But those in the stadium will be relieved to see the back of what was a bit of an eyesore, so well done to Arsenal for addressing this problem sooner than later, and making the place feel a bit more like home.

Wonder which ring will be done first? As I’m not wearing my cynical hat this morning, I reckon the middle tier will be ready for Saturday as that’s probably the easiest one to get manufactured, but if it’s the ads, anything’s better than bare concrete and the rest will follow soon enough.