Marcus East

The Emirates project has been a huge success for Arsenal - it just goes to prove what good management can achieve when they have the right strategy and good execution - what a shame that we cannot seem to run public infrastructure projects as well - the Public Sector could learn a lot from projects like this.

Arsenal is currently generating about £3m per game at the new stadium, with near-capacity attendances, which must make Roman Abramovich choke on his pelmeni because Chelsea can barely scrape together 30,000 visitors these days.

All of this has lead to Arsenal become the richest football club in Britain and has secured our position as one of the world’s premier sports team - the turnover for this financial year will be over £200m.

Oh, it’s good to be a Gunner!

You know, at the start of the season, us poor Arsenal fans got a lot of stick, particularly from those Tottenham lads on the wrong side of town.

Of course, the thought of losing the inimitable Thierry Henry filled me with dread, but, as we have seen before, the Arsenal whole is greater than the sum of the parts and great players just don’t seem so great any more when they’re not in an Arsenal shirt. (Viera? That’s a brand of Sony TV isn’t it?!)

Our faith in Wenger is paying-off - Fabregas stepped-up when Viera left, and Adebayor is the new King of Highbury.

According to Spurs ‘fans’, he is a donkey. Well, we’re at the top of the table with a game in hand and a GD of plus-16 versus Spurs in the bottom three not even able to beat Bolton with a GD of minus-2 - and some of their points were earned against relegation favourites, Derby! Perhaps Martin Jol needs to get himself up to Blackpool and gets some donkeys for the not-so-Hotspur?

Jol is still smiling. I’m not sure why. No one wants him - not the fans and not the Chairman and this has got to be Spurs’ worst start for a decade. (Of course, it’s a false position according to Jol and it will come right soon.)

South of the River, things are even more amusing. Poor Mourinho. Damian tells me that Daniel Levy put in several calls to Jose and that he might be moving up North to join the Hotspur. Can you really see Mrs. Mourihno shopping on Tottenham High Road?! Or his kids kicking it at Edmonton Green with their mates on Saturday afternoon? Spurs’ fans capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me.

What we have at Arsenal is team spirit and a passion for winning. When one big name moves on, another picks up the challenge. That’s what a real football team is about. We’ve proved it time and time again.

Roll on the rest of the season. I predict that we will be three points ahead at the top at Christmas, and in the race for the title with Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. I also predict that Reading will finish above Spurs, although it will be close.

If only I could have convinced Chris to part with some cash and participate in our annual ‘Who will finish higher - Spurs or Arsenal?’ bet. Alas, he’s running scared after the last couple of years, so I’ll have to find another source of income!

Come on you Gooners!