Spent the day in London yesterday with Paul who wanted to walk the whitechapel ripper trail. Its a great place whitechapel - always changing, so many different faces and something new to see. naturally we weren't alone on the ripper walk - you never are - a group of school kids looked (mostly) bored in Mitre Square as their guide (a teacher? Im not sure..) told them about Catherine Eddowes' murder and the bizarre writing on the wall. He kept saying 'they' when referring to the murderer/s which irritated me as we are not at all sure who Jack was let alone whether it was a team effort. I wish people wouldn't be so lazy with history. Paul seemed interested in the sites and particularly the Ten Bells pubs which (naturally enough) had a Polish barman and lots of weirdly outdated atmosphere. If you've never been you should - hasn't changed much in years, even the graffitti seems ancient.
We ended up walking most of the way back to Highbury & Islington - getting lost and rained on a few times - to meet Jennie by the station (well in the pub... it was a long walk after all). Well fed with chips and veggie burgers in a local greasy spoon (honestly the most underrated way to eat well - if not healthily - in London) we headed into the crowds making their way to the Emirates. Paul was impressed - with the ground and the football (well Arsenal's if not his beloved Newcastle's). I thought we were ok first half but it was quite even and there were only a coupel of clear chances. But Wenger must have had a word in the break because the boys (and this was largely a youthful reserve side against United's first team) stormed out second half. At times they played sublime passing football but looked unlikely to score until Bendtner met Traore's cross with about ten minutes to go. The ground erupted! But then Martins should have equalised: he split the defence and beat Fabianski (who had done fine up until then) but his shot was tame and Swiss Tony (captain for the night) was able to scrape it off the line. With a few minutes to go Denilson made certain of victory with a wonder strike for 2-0. Newcastle were buried and Alladyce deserved nothing more for his defensive tactics against an under strength Arsenal team. However, once again Wenger's youth system and his determination to play them in league cup matches was vindicated.
Arsenal team:
Fabianski (6)
Traore (7) Senderos (7) Song (8) Hoyte (6)
Eboue (5)[replaced by Diaby s/half 7] Denilson (7) Diarra (9) Walcott (6)
Bendtner (7) Eduardo (7)
oh and Cambridge were held 1-1 at home by Aldershot, but they are still unbeaten and third in the conference..c'mon you U's!
Burma is revolting - the monks are on the streets and the story is being broascast to the world via utube. This could be a defining moment in the history of alternative communication