@JPMc99

I’m at 640 days and thought I was doing well 😂 my target is 4.5m steps this year, after hitting 4.1m last year. 2026 target is 5m. I work from home, so I’ve made it a real thing to do at least 10k every day regardless.

You could see him grow from the moment he had that first successful take on. Brilliant tonight - deserved that late goal that was flagged.

Cluster injuries have become our thing this season and it’s something I’d like to stop. A lot. This Gabby one really takes the shine off tonight. Gutting.

I often put myself through it but was at parents today and it was on but no sound. I think it’s way forward now, good call.

Just an elite decision from me to have the sound down

Shrinking, lol

It’s a genuine shame that the bottom three are just a little bit too shit or they would actually be in real trouble

The 1999 Majors deep dive from @nolayingup.com is beautiful podcasting. Three hours of straight nostalgia from my childhood. The Peter Alliss comms on Jean Van Der Velde are as good now as they were then. Weird how clearly I remember that and Payne Stewart. Loved it - roll on the 2000s.

I didn’t link it on purpose, but am glad you have found it and agree. It’s a complete shower now - the blessed days of Stanger and Storey and Gill are long behind us. Real shame what’s happened over there.

Seeing as this is where the sane Arsenal fans live, has anyone else read Dave Tickner's piece on F365 this morning? Quite incredible honestly. And by that I mean a large, horrific amount of shit shoved into one article about a team who've not played a match for eight days.

Haha we need to. I think my mum has her on Facebook - I’ll ask. Would love to see them again!!

And go to the new ground 😅

YouTube video by Athletic Club Athletic Club 4-4 Real Betis I 2004-05 - San Mamés

I cannot believe now how empty the ground looks in these highlights!! I don’t remember that about it at all, but I do know my dad later said it was the best €100 he spent the whole year!! And Yeste did look like Eminem, watching it back. ALIRÓN EL ATHLETIC!!! 🇪🇸
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP2u...

Sadly, we fell out of touch with Nerea over the years and we’ve maybe only seen her once or twice in the two decades since. I don’t even know if she is still with Gorka or if they live in Bilbao anymore. But I’ll never forget him/that night. The greatest game I ever watched live, purely by chance.

Eight goals, an odds defying comeback, a red card, people nearby getting high… this game had it all. It was just an incredible experience and to date one of just three La Liga games I’ve seen live. The other two were at Nou Camp, involved Messi and didn’t scratch the surface of this blockbuster.

When Betis were reduced to ten men shortly after, it felt like the epic comeback would end with three points. But Oliviera had other ideas, completing his hat trick and nicking a point for Betis to go home with. Gorka, shattered, begrudgingly accepted they were worthy of it and we went home.

The game now level for the first time since the 4th minute, it settled at 3-3 until the 70th when Francisco Yeste, a player Gorka had raved to us about, cut inside and put the hosts 4-3 up. From where we were high up, he looked like Eminem. We couldn’t believe what we’d seen/Gorka’s emotions.

On 32 mins, Athletic legend Ismael Urzaiz bulleted a header home from a corner. Three minutes later, he did it again. Game on; Gorka naturally delighted. The original Set Piece FC then equalised from a third corner almost immediately after half time. ‘Scenes’ or ‘eszenak’ as they say in Basque.

Within ten mins, Betis were 2-0 up, by the 25th it was three. Brazilian striker Ricardo Oliviera had a brace while a young Joaquin got the other/was running riot on the wing. Gorka was head in hands and apologising; we didn’t care, we just felt really sorry for him. “If this was Arsenal…” we said.

Anyway, we went in and I remember a distinct smell of weed coming from a group nearby us in the upper tier. Being 15 and with my dad, I had to pretend that was a smell I hadn’t been accustomed to at Friday night house parties I’d attended back home. On the pitch, disaster quickly struck…

Basque natives both, Gorka, the husband, was a big Bilbao fan. On the Sunday we were there they had a home game at the old San Mamés against Betis. He asked if we wanted to go, although my dad was aghast at €50 tickets on the door. I was paying £17 to CL ko games as a Junior Gunner at the time!!

15 years old, I was there for half term with my parents and sister. We were visiting a woman who’d a foreign student that stayed with us in the 90s. Initially, Nerea was supposed to be with us for three months. She stayed for 18 and became like family. By 2005, she had a husband. We went to visit.

Because Bluesky is a ‘nice place’, I thought I would share the story of how I watched the best game of live football I’m ever likely to see, 20 years ago to the day. This was not one involving The Arsenal. Randomly, I was in Spain, Bilbao to be precise, and Athletic 4-4 Real Betis was the game…

This is it for me. Get through the last 16 tie and maybe get Saka back for the quarters… now it feels over before it’s even started.

100% this. Top four is the aim now in my eyes. Trossard and Merino as the centre forwards on our depth chart? Yikes. It’s over… Sad to say but it’s the truth.

All I can see looking at this is we will never get this lucky with Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Saka, Odegaard and Havertz ever again. And we didn’t win it. That four of these eight have suffered long term injuries this season was probably in the post.

It was literally the first thing he said about the goal. It couldn't be any clearer that he views analysing the game as secondary to creating talking points (and tempting to suggest that's, at least partly, because he doesn't really know how to analyse games properly nowadays).

I imagine we’ll be reminded how much yesterday didn’t matter the next time they beat us.

In a season that's been largely miserable, that win felt so cathartic. We've been second best to City (and again to Liverpool this season) but what's the point of being a fan if you can't love days like today.

We put FIVE past them on our own turf, with two Hale End boys scoring. Beautiful.

Where’s that thumb bloke from The Overlap?

1-1 really woke us up there. I thought we were sleep walking to some dropped points but we couldn’t have been better after that point, capitalising on every error and winning every loose ball that we hadn’t been previously. Pleased for Havertz because that first miss was a sickener.