Over and over and over again...

I have two inexplicable passions in life, my dog and the English football club, Arsenal.The logic behind both gets stretched quite quickly.

Arsenal's biggest game of the year is the north London derby against local rival Tottenham Hotspur. After 15 years of dominance by Arsenal the recent matches have been much more balanced.

Last March I arrived in England at a nadir in Arsenal's season. They trailed Spurs by 10 points and 30 minutes into the match Spurs led 2-0. The fans were baying for the manager's head and chaos ruled the stadium as hope for Arsenal's season (and business model) expired.

Arsenal then scored 5 goals in 30 minutes for a season-transforming 5-2 win. Spurs collapsed and Arsenal powered to a 3rd place finish.

Just listen to the crowd noise in this video.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcj_00LQzBI

The player Arsenal fans hate the most is Emanuel Adebayor. Nurtured in the Arsenal youth system, made a star in the Arsenal team, he left for Manchester City's lucre but didn't make the grade (he did pick up a 3 game suspension for taunting Arsenal fans and another 3 game suspension for raking his cleats across a former teammate's face). Adebayor ultimately moved to Spurs and scored the second goal in last year's 5-2 trouncing. The last half hour of the game was dominated by chants of "Adebayor... What's the score..., Adebayor... What's the score." I'm not a vindictive personality (in contrast to most English football fans) but I frankly enjoyed this one.

Arsenal got off to a horrific start in this year's derby as Spurs dominated possession. In the 10th minute Adebayor swept home and celebrated wildly. Spurs looked fully in control and a seismic power shift in North London looked on hand.

Imagine the glee of 60,000 when he then flew in uncontrolled and studs up...

 earning himself a red card and a walk of shame in the 17th minute.

From there Arsenal dominated (mostly)- our big f------- German headed home 5 minutes later and more goals followed until last year's 5-2 score line was matched.

Every Arsenal fan's favorite sight- the away section clears out long before the final whistle...

You couldn't write a more perfect script from an Arsenal fans perspective. Our problems remain but for today at least there's only one team in London. One team In London... One team in Looooondon.... There's only one team in Londoooooon....