Let’s talk about the suit…
Forget the football a moment, can we just talk about Tony Adams’ suit?
As Gary Lineker said on Twitter, it would have been a surprise if it hadn’t had its own Twitter account by the end of Arsenal’s FA Cup Third Round match with Blackpool.
The team were delayed getting to Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road because there was a Blackpool fan on their bus roof. Yes, you did read that correctly.
I have to put my hands up at this point – I am not an Arsenal fan. Therefore when scanning the FA Cup fixtures for potential upsets I happened upon this match – a look at the odds on Bettingtop10 shows a potential shock and with Blackpool as far out as 18/1 with some bookmakers I decided this was the match to have a punt on.
Why? Call me soppy, but I bought into the narrative.
Blackpool, the club that could actually tell some of the #WengerOut brigade what it’s really like to follow a club run by idiots. Blackpool, former greats of the English game now languishing in the lower levels. Blackpool, on live TV in front of a passionate crowd. It had to have crossed your minds as well, no?
Would Arsenal take this match as seriously as they should? Would Unai Emery put out a full strength side? Would they even be up for it? Koscielny getting injured in the warm-up was one of those FA Cup signs, something that would have given Blackpool genuine hope. I mean, Carl Jenkinson? I, stupidly, thought he had left the club last season. How bad do you have to be to not be first choice in this makeshift Arsenal defence, after all?
We all know that Champions League qualification is the priority and even though Emery loves winning a cup competition he knows that his debut season will only be judged on whether they finish in the top four. The Europa League is how Emery normally spends his post-Christmas European football but the Emirates crowd want to be having a pop at Bayern Munich once again.
Eddie Nketiah missing a couple of good chances early on a pitch that could only be described as a “leveller” gave Blackpool some hope. Petr Cech still being asked to play the ball out from the back under some false assumption he is able to pass it more than five yards to someone in the same team as him gave them more.
That hope lasted ten minutes.
Joe Willock headed home after Ramsey’s free-kick hit the post and I stopped spending the £1800 I’d expected to win. By the time he’d tapped home his second I was scanning the other results to see if we’d get any upsets anywhere.
Ah, Cardiff. I doubt Neil Warnock was that bothered though.
