Arsenal DNA

'Are you extra busy this afternoon?'

'No, why?'

'I'm on a bus to London. Do you want to see the Arsenal under-21s?' 

So we went and were surrounded by dads taking the kids out for the afternoon. It was sweet. It was also cheap - £4 for adults and £2 for children. 

Photo tricksed up with ToonCamera to anonymise faces.
I have a thing about privacy.

There were just short of six thousand on the Arsenal side and about a hundred Blackburn fans, who fascinated me. Had they travelled down for the match or were they expats on a nostalgia visit? Was this a Lancashire Bar/Bat Mitzvah in which London-born children learnt about Northernness? 

The Arsenal lot cheered every time one of theirs did anything (though the loudest cheer was when Fulham scored against Man United) and booed when the Blackburn players were announced. Perhaps they shouldn't have booed, but I doubt the players minded. It felt almost affectionate, like a collective 'you're a proper footballer now'.

Chicken nuggets as praised by the Secret Footballer.  

I'm not even going to pretend to do a match report. There's one here. Arsenal beat Blackburn 3-0.