Arsenal 1-0 West Ham

There are days when I go to the football and soak the whole thing in. Then there are days when I don’t go to the football but follow it on TV or on the radio and on Twitter. And then there are days when I can neither go to the game nor give it any attention whatsoever. Yesterday was firmly in the latter camp.

In the end, my understanding of the game came from @feverpitch‘s increasingly desperate text messages, in situ in the upper tier. At one point he ‘quoted’ Winston Churchill’s famous saying about something being a ‘steaming pile’ of something or other – not a quote I’d heard before – before informing me Theo had come on to “tear shit up”.

I did watch Match of the Day but since when did you ever get the whole picture from a highlights package? I did however marvel at Denilson and Song, who are clearly having a season-long Hair-Off (not sure anyone is winning).

Song though, naturally, deserves plaudits, not least because he’s got a real taste for goals and has now bagged four this term. Yesterday’s was a peach of a headed goal, coming right at the death from a lovely Clichy cross. Hopefully, the two blokes who sit along to my right missed it. I say this because they habitually arrive ten minutes late, start their half time five minutes early and never stay beyond 75 minutes. Why on earth do they bother?

Apart from the late drama, and the fact it was a delicious, headed, deciding goal, the other notable thing about yesterday was that the goal came from an infinitely punnable source. Alex Song carving out the winner is clearly a headline writer’s dream, even if coming up with something new containing the word ‘Song’ is easier said than done. As you can see, I have tried and failed dismally today. But then again, I was never going to beat my favourite Song headline, which I used (though I doubt I can claim it as my own) in August 2007 ahead of a Champions League game – A. Song for Europe.

A much better fit than my headline today is Arseblog’s Alex on Song, or a variation of the same from A Cultured Left Foot with West Ham Left Frustrated As Arsenal Are Finally On Song, and then of course the old classic Walking along, Singing a Song from Highbury House.

The Express has gone with Ice-Cool Alex, the Independent with Song’s high note but maybe we’ll leave it with the Arsenal Mania headline: [Insert Song pun here]

So a good win – albeit tougher than expected – and a clean sheet. George Graham will be affording himself a smile this morning.

Right, off to make some more Song puns. Always room for more.

Enjoy your Sunday.