Stan Kroenke watched Arsenal in the flesh for the first time on Saturday afternoon. As a guest in the Director’s Box, he sat next to Managing Director, Keith Edelman, who chatted to the American throughout the match. Kroenke’s wife sat next to Edelman’s alongside their husbands during the 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

Earlier in the day, Kroenke met with a representative of the Arsenal Supporters Trust

Kroenke is presumably in London to tie up the deal clarifying exactly what he has purchased with ITV’s sale of Arsenal Broadband in conjunction with their shares in the club in April 2007. An announcement confirming the specifics of the deal is expected on Monday.

With Alisher Usmanov’s Red & White Holdings Ltd aggressively purchasing shares and now the club’s major shareholder, the relationship of Kroenke with the Arsenal board is highly significant. The directors claim to be able to call on over 50% of shareholders’ votes by adding friends, family and sympathisers to the 46% the board own in their own names.

David Dein reputedly attempted to sell his own shareholding to Kroenke a few days before selling it to Usmanov. The deal was allegedly rejected by Kroenke as part of the agreement that went with the purchase was that Dein would hold a similar role to that he has with Red & White. Kroenke, having learnt of the poor state of relations between Dein and the rest of the board before Dein’s dismissal, did not want to be represented by the former vice-chairman.

With Usmanov’s intentions unclear, at the moment, let’s hope that Kroenke ties with the existing board are strengthened after finally attending a match, albeit not one of Arsenal’s best at home this season.

Financially, the day was less profitable for Arsenal than might have been anticipated. The All Arsenal Store on Drayton Park (which normally makes a healthy profit on matchdays) had to close both before and after the game. This was due to a man, larking about on the ledge of the North Bank Bridge that is situated above the store, accidentally fell 60 feet to the pavement below, close to the entrance. Police cordoned off the area and the ambulance service spent a considerable amount of time treating the man on the scene before he was moved into an ambulance. He was still alive at that point, although his injuries were critical.