The First Ever London Derby!

This weekend saw the 111^th anniversary of the first ever First Division London derby when on 9^th November 1907, Arsenal were the visitors to Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea.

Stamford Bridge pictured in 1905

Arsenal were the first London club to enter the top flight of the Football League in 1904 and remained alone among those nasty northerners for 3 years until the Blues joined them in 1907.

Previously in the season Chelsea had struggled, so it was something of a surprise when Chelsea took a 2-0 lead with a brace from George Hilsdon. Arsenal narrowed the gap to 2-1, but could get no closer and suffered their fifth defeat of the season. Various reports suggested the crowd was somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000, which was a new league record.

By the end of the season, Chelsea finished in thirteenth, one place ahead of Arsenal, with whom they were level on points, by virtue of a superior goal average.

An Anti-Frog Blog!

Good morning everyone

I hope I find you all fit and raring to go.

Bit of a change on the blog front as of today. Instead of the daily horse racing tips as before, I am going to concentrate on my more opinionated comments. This will mean posts will not be every day as before. I will only write when I have something to say (or moan about).

The tips were not doing too well over the last week or so, mainly due to me not having enough time to devote to them. I am of the opinion that if you are not going to do something properly, then don't bother at all.

Please still keep an eye on Twitter for updates and if there are any nags I like, I will be sure to let you know. This is to the degree that I posted a couple on Thursday this week that both trotted in at sp's of 7/1.

http://twitter.com/uncletatty

Six-Nations Rugby

This afternoon brings us the possible grand slam decider between England and France at Twickenham. I hear on the radio that the French coach, Marc Lievremont, has been commenting about how much the French dislike the English. Well, listen here mon ami, the feeling is bloody reciprocated. He goes on to say that he has recently been reading a biography of Winston Churchill, where he had started to like the English a little, so he's left it at back at home.

Well just note, Monsieur Lievremont, we won't be wasting our time reading any such Froggy offerings about the likes of Charles de Gaulle, Asterix the Gaul, Sacha Distel or Hergé and those damn stupid adventures of TinTin (hang on, they were Belgian weren't they? Oh well, I don't bloody like them much either). The one things you can guarantee about the French is that they will need us to bale them out every time there is a war and that they stink of garlic.

COME ON ENGLAND!

Carling Cup Final

On Sunday the Carling Cup Final takes place at Wembley between Arsenal and Birmingham City. Surely it is high time this cup was scrapped and melted down. None of the major clubs seem to take it particularly seriously in the early rounds and it is just an excuse to give fringe squad players and youngsters a run out. Saying that, the FA Cup sadly seems to be going the same way.

Just a thought, Arsenal's manager is Arsene Wenger. What do his friends call him? Arse maybe?

OK, that's all for today. Bye for now

Tatty