There’s quite a lot that strikes you about the new stadium. The first thing, quite literally, are those bleedin’ great concrete letters ARSENAL that stretch right across the bridge. Being the avid football tourist that I am I couldn’t resist a photo shoot, only to discover that unless you’ve got a wide angle lens and/or are sitting on top of the Drayton Arms roof, you can’t get all the letters in. Never mind, a quick shot of my girlfriend with ARSE in the background would have to do. I can’t understand why I never got that job as the Queen’s royal photographer.

Once inside, the next thing that hits you is the pitch. It’s perfectly green and well manicured, but then you’d expect that. I almost felt inclined to tell Martin O Neill and Co to take their shoes off, or at least wipe their feet, before walking out onto it. No, it’s the sheer size of it that makes it different. Having been brought up with the 5 a side pitch we had at the old ground, 22 players and a ref look positively lost on it. There was just too much grass. Either that or all the players must have shrunk from sitting in the sun all summer.

In the good old days a winger at Highbury was like having an overlapping linesman on the pitch, with one leg in the Family Enclosure. Both legs if you were playing Stuart Pearce. As a result the Arsenal style was to play straight down the middle in as many different ways as you could think of. As a result, all the opposition had to do was field 4 or 5 centre halves in the side and wait for every Arsenal attack to collapse in a heap in the middle of the park. But that was surely all about to change.

Sadly, no.

Freddie had a little go down the left, but didn’t really have the pace or tricks to get anywhere. On the other side, it fell to Eboue, who got in some really good positions, and then seemed to suffer from vertigo after finding himself so far upfield. After that it was all back to strategy A, which resembled playing keepy-uppy on Euston Station, and was making them look good, which they most certainly weren’t.

The only time it really changed was when our Theo came on. Isn’t he small! He really does look like a young lad from the local comp, but what a difference he made. Not much evidence of the blistering pace we’d heard so much about, but he played with his head up. (Jose Antonio - compare and contrast). It left me thinking why on earth don’t we play with two wingers? Working on the principle that any other forward is almost certainly going to find it impossible to play with Henry, what’s the point in trying? Dennis managed it, mainly because he dropped back into midfield.

I know Wenger is dyed in the wool 4-4-2, but why not play Cesc, Giberto and Rosicky in midfield and play a couple of wingers. The Dutch have been playing that way for years. Otherwise the only time the wide bits are going to get used, is when Pat Rice puts the cones down for the warm up, and succeeds in making a complete mess of the grass. Someone really should have a word with him about that.