Underhill on Saturday afternoon was a delight. Fantastic sunshine, lush green turf, the non-World Cup lads parading in the new strip. Best not talk about the game, eh? Oh alright then. For those of you who forewent this annual pleasure, none of the forwards were on the same wavelength as Alex Hleb. Matthieu Flamini proved why he is more effective as a left back as although he was on the field, I can’t say I even registered him getting involved in the play. I remember reading that Flamini did not have a touch of the ball in Paris when he came on for Cesc Fabregas with 16 minutes of the final remaining. Arsenal were also 1-0 up when Cesc made his exit. Now I’m not blaming Flamini for Arsenal’s collapse, but as influential substitutes go, I can think of others who have made a more positive impact. I kind of think that when the lad has to think about the football a bit he struggles. But stick him at left back where not a lot of imagination is really required and he looks the part a lot more.

Which leads us to Ashley Cole, involved in a match of his own last Saturday. There is little doubt that Ash’s brains are unquestionably located below his ankles. Never the brightest button in the box, the boy is ill-advised and has slowly turned himself from a highly-rated footballer into a laughing stock. Through his new wife, he has aspirations to become the new David Beckham. Another footballer who was never blessed with intelligence, but in fairness to Becks – at least he had decent people to take care of his affairs, Posh excepted of course. Cole has Jonathan Barnett. I keep reading that Wenger wants to keep the left back. I am struggling to get my head around this. The lad is a bad apple – get rid. He will poison the atmosphere. Patrick Vieira’s text messaging on Cole’s contractual negotiations saw him given short shrift a year ago, and Cole must be treated in the same way. If there’s a £15 million buy-out clause in his contract – sell him to whoever’s willing to pay it. He’s only a full back and with Pires gone, the triangle he formed with Bobby and Henry is now far less of a factor in Arsenal’s play.

I’d better wrap up Barnet. A few words. Strikers, banjo, cow’s, arse. Let’s just hope the big guns are raring to go come the first leg of the Champions League qualifier on 8th or 9th August, that’s all I can say. Bloody hopeless given the stature of the opposition. Most entertaining aspect of the afternoon was seeing that Paul Warhurst is still playing, as is Andy Hessentaller – although anyone who can spell the short-arsed one’s surname correctly is a better man than I.

Apparently. ‘The Armoury’ megastore at Ashburton Grove opened today for those eager to snap up the new shirt. I’ll wait until the Thai forgers start knocking them out at a far more reasonable price. After all, the ones that are sold in the club shops originate from the far east and probably the very same manufacturing process, so why give Arsenal any more money? They’ve already sold the stadium down the river and charge enough for me to watch 90 minutes of football, so I’m b*ggered if I’m going to start handing them more money than I already have to.

I’ll wait until Thursday and Members’ Day to have a gander round. I’ve had the good fortune to have a look around inside the stadium more than once as the building has taken shape and the only thing I will warn is that the number of steps to the seats in the back half of the upper tiers could require mountaineering gear for the over 40s – which is the majority of the fans that will be in attendance at Arsenal matches. I’m not overstruck by the shallowness of the view from the lower tier and there’s a weird phenomenon whereby you cannot predict if you will be able to have a decent view of a screen from any particular upper tier seat until you actually sit in it and see. So for example, if you are front row upstairs in the south east corner, you cannot see the screen directly opposite due to the roof. But turn around and 15 rows behind you is the screen you can see – a similar effect to having a 200” telly in your living room.

But the pitch looks good to the eye and the bigger playing surface should ultimately help Arsenal break down opposing teams a little easier. As for the atmosphere, we await with trepidation. No doubt the intimacy of Highbury will be a thing of memory, but the question is will the extra voices mean more volume? Will the acoustics work to keep any chanting ‘in house’ and intimidating. We live, as ever, in hope, but if I were a gambling man, I’d put my money on reflections of the good old days when the buzz at Highbury was something to behold, never to be experienced in quite the same way at an Arsenal home match again.

As for the decision to hold the Bergkamp match as the stadium opener, what a way to recognise an Arsenal legend. Dennis will go down forever in Arsenal history as the man who was celebrated in the first match at Ashburton Grove, which is no small honour. There was never any chance that this one would fail to sell out very, very quickly which proved the case. One reason I suspect the atmosphere will be a good one for this game is the 4,000 tickets issued to Ajax fans. It will be quite a party and it’s fair to say everyone is looking forward to this one. Let’s just hope the finishing is a cut above what we witnessed at Underhill, eh?!