Merry Christmas to all AA-ers everywhere, past and present.
May 2021 bring all your hopes to glorious fruition, both personal and footballing.
And thank you to all those who have continued to support this blog through some lean footballing times.
In deference to the season, here is a re-working of the brilliant Pogues song “A Fairy Tale of New York,” from an Arsenal perspective.
It was Christmas Evening
In North London
An old man said to me, we won’t win another thing,
And then he sang a song,
“We love you Arsenal,”
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you.
God I’m a lucky one,
Born to support the Gun,
I’ve got a feeling
This year there’s lots to do,
So happy Christmas,
I love you Arsenal,
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true:
We’ll get far bigger stars
Our dead wood will be sold,
But the league won’t be easy
It’s a place for the bold
When I stood in the Stand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Glory was waiting for me.
We had Adams
We had Petit
Lined up beside Paddy
When the team finished playing
We howled out for more,
Ljungberg was winging
All the Gooners were singing
We stood in the corner
And cheered when we scored.
The boys from the Highbury North Bank Stand
Were singing Brady’s name
And the sh*t was piling up
Down Tottenham way:
They are scum
They are junk
They smell worse than a skunk
And it’s been sixty years since they’ve had a parade,
They’re bumfluff, they’re maggots,
They’re cheap lousy braggarts,
Happy Christmas from Arsenal
You’re still in our shade.
The boys from the Highbury Clock End Stand
Still singing Brady’s name
And the cups were coming in
To line our shelves.
I’d never be a Spud,
It’s just not in my blood
I have more pride than that
So I picked Arsenal,
I gave them all my dreams
And put them with your own,
Can’t make it all alone,
Together our dreams will come true.
The boys from the Highbury Upper East Stand
Still singing Brady’s name
Good times are coming back
To Arsenal.
RockyLives, with apologies to Shane MacGowan (who’s an Everton fan)
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Really like the variation. It is well done. Hope there is a Gooner musician that can sing it and record it.
Merry Christmas Rocky, you really do bring cheer to this site.
Not familiar with the tune, but like this one, full of optimism.
Have a safe holiday with whomever you are sheltering with Rocky!
That goes to all others on this Arsenal site too.
Be well people, and know that better times will be upon us all soon enough, I hope!
Merry Christmas, Gooners!! Thanks, Rocky, I know what I’ll be singing all day 🙂🎅🎁🎄⚽️
A MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.
Rocky,
You are one with me — I often feel the need to sing, and gleefully plagiarise songs that deserve better — you on the other hand have put a touch to the Pogues song that matches the feelings of many Gooners. 😁
Addendum for the Rocky;
You asked me yesterday (?) what wine I was imbibing, and sadly I have to admit that I frequent M&S and buy wine on the basis that anything that costs circa £15 or so will do, and that is about the only parameter I apply.
I do like an occasional whiskey, and if I like a particular bottle, I tend to buy 2, one for me to drink and one for storing. This caused me a problem a few years ago as I was drinking too much, and a girlfriend at the time told me I had to change, so this what happened. 😁
I checked my store cupboard, and over the years, I had collected twelve bottles of ‘good’ whisky.
I had been told to empty the contents
of each and every bottle down the sink…
or else!
I said I would… and proceeded with the unpleasant task of disposal.
So, I withdrew the cork from the first bottle and
poured the contents down the sink, with the
exception of one glass… which I drank.
I then extracted the cork from the second bottle
and did likewise with the exception of one
glass… which I drank.
I pulled the cork from the third bottle and
poured the whiskey down the sink, with the
exception of one glass… which I drank.
I then withdrew the cork from the fourth sink
and poured the bottle down the glass…
which I drank.
I pulled the bottle from the cork of the next
and drank one sink and threw the
rest down the glass.
I pulled the sink out of the next glass and
poured the cork from the bottle.
Then I corked the sink with the glass, bottled
the drink and drank the pour.
When I had everything emptied, I steadied
the house with one hand, counted the bottles,
corks, glasses and sinks with the other, which
were twenty-nine.
To make sure I counted them again… they came to seventy-four.
And as the house came by, I counted them again,
and finally, I had all the houses and bottles and
corks and sinks and glasses counted,
except one house and one cork… which l drank.
Very good 🙂
Haha – nice one Redders.
Merry Christmas to all the regulars and any visitors.
Genius Rocky … love it.
Season’s greetings to one and all.
Don’t worry, we will all wake up one morning and find this was all a bad dream and we’re through to the knockout stage of The Champions’ League just as always …..
Merry Christmas everyone
It’s been a few days now since I had that feeling of being beaten — I think I am ready for another one……………..or?
Haha
I’m taking heart from the fact that we occasionally do better against the traditional ‘big’ clubs.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/25/arsenals-problems-lie-with-kroenkes-ownership-rather-than-arteta?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR02VPupeGWRpUX9r1OkYljqJEuKLvQfebbg0fMgaiBaBYTKD8z9WtRxw0Y
New Post
Thanks Rocky, like you I always expect us to win … even this game. We’ve had so many false dawns lately thinking we’ve turned the corner after an encouraging performance … only to be disappointed in the next.
Some are saying that key players are staging a protest against the manager. If I thought that was the case I’d stop watching football altogether until those players are out of the club.
I may even make that decision if Xhaka, Willian and Elneny start today. It seems we are in the same rut that we’ve seen over recent years where a manager keeps repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different result.