The Marble Hall Diaries

Hello and welcome to your second blog post of the week!  "Wow!" "Amazing!" "So cool and fun!" - (Your reactions) The sun is shining even brighter than when I wrote my last post, both literally and metaphorically, because I'm coming to you following a smash and grab 1-0 win away from home at Sporting C.P.  I think the result and the way it came about with a last minute goal of real quality definitely adds a bonus good feeling onto what would have been a still slightly improved feeling about the team had we drawn 0-0 instead, which seemed very likely at 90 minutes played last night.  The line-up was announced and I don't think there were any real surprises. Injuries and form pretty much decided it pre-game and I was very interested to see how we would get on with some of our key players back. It would be a telling sign of how impactful it was to not have the likes of Raya etc in the team for our two cup defeats. Turns out, it made a lot of differenc...

Good evening from a sunny (but still too chilly for my liking) London.  Spring is well and truly underway now and everything is starting to get brighter, unless you are an Arsenal fan or in any way closely associated with Arsenal Football Club.  Two losses in a row, the first time that's happened this season, and what a time for it to happen. After falling at the final hurdle in the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City, Arsenal managed to not respond at all in bitterly disappointing fashion by losing away to Championship play-off hopefuls Southampton. We now find ourselves going from tongue in cheek quadruple chatter to praying we don't throw everything away. To be clear, almost no Arsenal fans seriously believed we would win the quadruple, but the chatter around it from rivals was a nice reflection of how well we were competing on all fronts this season.  I completely agree and understand that the two domestic cups were our lowest priorities this season, but they certain...