Greatness Lost in the Oversized Seats at the Emirates.

It is difficult to know sometimes whether a game is great or not. The recent Liverpool versus Arsenal game was great and one got the feeling it might turn out that way the whole way through. Anfield is like that. The atmosphere generated there is such that it seems to force otherwise seasoned professionals into costly mistakes while bringing out the best in the very best.

There was no such greatness on display at the Emirates on Tuesday night. It was a horrendously inept display from Arsenal on what was surely one of the biggest nights in the club's history. In a way it brought to mind the team of '89 which won the championship at Anfield. That was the sort of night which people come to define their lives by. Everything either happened before it or afterwards. If you weren't there, you know where you were when you heard (I was 6, at home and straining at the wireless. I was an Arsenal man in those days).

Whatever spirit that Arsenal team possessed has well and truly been eradicated and disappeared in the intervening 20 years. Football has become nothing more than a great day out. When you think about it, that's all it is now. You go to the Emirates with their large extra comfortable seats. You sit there for 20 minutes before kick off soaking up the "atmosphere" which you are doing absolutely nothing to create. Why would you, you paid good money for that ticket, it's part of the deal is it not?

If ever evidence was needed that people in Britain are being paid too much, it was seen on Tuesday night. Presumably tickets for that game cost in the region of £50.00 yet with half an hour to go the stadium was half empty. Who can afford to splash out this sort of cash and then leave in the middle of the match. These are the same people who will be moaning about tax increases, yet they will happily piss away the money they have. One way out of this recession would be to realise that in fact people don't need as much money as they are earning.

Am I going off the point? I don't think so. If you earn the money yourself, then feel free to waste it any way you want. If you're in the public sector (which let's face it, most of North London is) and you place so little value in your cash that you will walk out of a European Cup Semi Final with half an hour to go then you don't deserve it.

It wasn't just a few people, it was majority of the crowd who left. They may have needed to score 5 goals (5! that's quite a lot alright) but in football, do you ever actually know? That fat little Russian fella for instance, scored four against Liverpool. Liverpool fans are sometimes criticised for being a bit too blindly in love with their team but Arsenal have lost that.

The atmosphere at the Emirates is as the name suggests more akin to a that on board a long flight than a cathedral, a theatre of dreams or to give it it's proper title a football stadium.