Pre-Match Nerves - 19th April 2006

I don't suffer from nerves too badly but this week will test that to the limit. When you actually stop and contemplate the significance of tonight's game against Villereal it's quite scary or exciting. Which one you choose is, of course, entirely dependent on your "half full, half empty" mentality. Football fans, in general, see life pessimistically and Arsenal fans (I believe) are more pessimistic than the average fan. As a group we were generally not bothered by the Juve/Madrid games as the role of "underdog" fits us more comfortably and now we have to look forward to a game where the public and media "expect" us to go through. All we can see, however, are the goals of Sally Forlan, the tricks of Riquelme and the knowledge that our record breaking defence has an average age of 22 and will collapse dramtically! Oh snap out of it Mark- come on you rip roaring gunners - what a six days lie ahead.