Joyful Jesus makes it a right royal day out at the Palace
A wonderful pre-Christmas day out in South London drinking with old pals and cheering The Arsenal on from the away end at Selhurst joyously celebrating five goals to cap a royal performance
Hello,
Happy Sunday!
It certainly is after Arsenal’s royal rampant romp at the Palace on Saturday evening.
Arsenal thrashed Oliver Glasner's Eagles 5-1 as Gabriel Jesus made it five goals in four days by putting Arsenal 2-1 up, to cap a royal week against Palace as Mikel Arteta's rampant Gunners closed the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool to within three points.
Jesus’ early brace was sandwiched by Ismaila Sarr - who once starred for Rennes in a Europa League victory in France over Arsenal, in a game that I drove overnight to Brittany to cover back in 2019 - equalised for Palace.
However, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice made it a rout as joyous Arsenal fans massed in the away end at Selhurst Park sang gleefully: "Jingle Bells/Jingle Bells/Jingle All The Way/Oh what fun it is to see/The Arsenal win away..."
In Christmas week, fittingly, Jesus has been reborn. No wait, isn’t that Easter?
No work for me on Saturday as my newspaper has a very good Palace correspondent, so unlike some newspapers I could care to mention, we are only allowed one reporter per match.
So, it came to pass that I managed to get a face value ticket in the away end (don’t ask, because I won’t tell you anyway) and then managed to duck in with my old Arsenal pals in a reassuringly raucous visitors section packed with a load of familiar faces and good people.
You won’t ever hear me moaning about being a journalist as I love every moment, and have done for the last (nearly) 15 years. I literally leap out of bed every morning knowing that I’m doing the trade that I absolutely love, enjoy and savour.
But, if you were to ask me what I miss on a match day when I am in the press box, I would point to a day like Saturday.
Early beers in a boozer in Borough catching up with old pals, talking about The Arsenal, sport, music, life, making plans for the future, laughing about the past - and all before kick-off.
Then it was a quick jaunt - if jaunt is the right word when heading south of the river - and more beers in the concourse of a packed away end, before singing our hearts out, supporting the team we all love. Not to mention going absolutely mental when we scored five goals.
These days it’s a wonder any seat near me can take my weight when I leap onto it and somehow balance between a flip top seat and the equally flimsily top of the seat in front - it’s a celebration I’ve done since the day they put seats in the old Clock End at Highbury.
So, naturally I did it yesterday. For all five goals. It was wonderful.
As was - fittingly - singing the old Christmas classic: “Jingle Bells/Jingle Bells/Jingle All The Way/Oh what fun it is to see/The Arsenal win away..."
I’ve got a rule that if I’m not in the press box for any particular game, I don’t tend to write much about an Arsenal performance I’ve cheered from the away end, as I see it as my day off.
Not to mention, that today, I have a bit of a hangover, from such a joyous awayday.
So, seeing as I’ve got a few friends and family things to devote my time to over the coming days in the lead up to Christmas - as they normally put up with me spending a serious amount of time on work every singly day - I will take this moment to wish you a very, merry Christmas to you and yours.
Thank you so much for reading my work if that’s your thing.
And thank you to everyone who said hello in the away end on Saturday, and said some kind things about what I do, and also about what we all do at the Gooner, it was very much appreciated - and we’ll see you next Friday ahead of Arsenal vs Ipswich and a new Gooner Fanzine.
Come on you Gunners
Cheers
Layth
