The EPL is back!

Well, this might sound like 8 games overdue (with my snail pace blog updates and all) but the English Premiership season is back yet again! And my team Arsenal is making a good start to their season too, despite not being able to strengthen their squad like the other favourite teams to the League title. The odds might be against them this time around to finish the season triumphant as champions but as a loyal fan, I have faith that they’ll do fine to the end. Over the weekend, Arsenal maintained their position at the top of the league with a hard fought 2-1 win over Liverpool, with Chelsea very hot at their heels with a win over Middlesbrough which ended with the same scoreline.

For the record, I’ve been a Gunners fan since 1987, back when I was 10. The story behind the beginning of my support for the red and white team is rather unique (at least I think so!) It was the 1987 FA Cup final and Arsenal were playing Luton Town that year. And in those days, my brother and I just loved to placed ‘empty’ bets on who would win games at final. Empty meaning we would place big bets such as a million dollars or so with the idea that one of us who loses the bet would pay the other much later in our lives. Or the bet would be nett off if the one who wins the bet this time loses the next one (I know, it’s kid stuff :-p) And on a hunch I chose Arsenal, probably because the name sounded groovier then just a Towner team. Well, Arsenal lost the final that year and I lost a million dollar bet to my younger brother (which would have made him the youngest millionaire ever, had I had the money…). But my allegiance with the Gunners had begun, and I’ve become a loyal fan since. It helped that Arsenal won the League title the year after (1989) and another in 1991, when Man U were still scraping in the mid table. In a space of 16 years, Arsenal are still there among the teams chasing for the title. I could have done worse and chose Luton Town in that historic moment in 1987, and God knows where they are now. And what about my brother? He’s now a Gunners too!

Well, I think every guy would celebrate the return of the English football season. To those who are single, there is now something to look forward to during the weekends. And to those who are not single, it’s time to look up the internet or survival kits on how to make up excuses to your spouses to avoid making arrangements on football nights. Who’s your pick to win the EPL this time? Will it be Man U again? Will Arsene Wenger’s men be determined enough to win it back from Man U after last year’s fall at the last hurdle? Will it be only one season for the Roman army that is Chelsea to build the beginning of their new empire in English football? Or will it be Liverpool’s year to end a drought that has lasted 13 years now since they last won the League? The drama and suspense will unfold come May 2004.

Go Gunners!