You can rabbit on about your cup final,
we’re off to Italy!
ADMIT it, we’ve all got a favourite Chas & Dave song. The hairy fans of Top Four Tottenham have done some great Cockney classics.
There was that one where they repeatedly holler: “Rabbit. Rabbit. Rabbit. Rabbit. You’ve got more rabbit than Sainsbury’s, why don’t you give it a rest.” (Great song – I don’t know about you but the big Sainsbury’s in Camden Road is exactly where I get my weekly rabbit dinners. Rabbit casseroles. Rabbit stews. And rabbit salad for lunch. Lucky, Sainsbury’s stock so much of that lovely rabbit).
But favourite is that one about Down to Margate or Down to Milan or whatever it’s called.
The cuddly duo sing something like: “Well I’ve been working hard to reach my targets, to earn a few bob so I can spend a day down in Milan, I’m going to blow the lot, watching the Champions League – you can keep your Carling Cup final, I’m tellin ya mate, I’d rather have a day in Milan with all the Gooner fans.”
Ok, maybe AC Milan’s maestro Kaka – one of the world’s greatest players – explained the meaning behind the song a little more eloquently.
He said on Monday – genuine quote this time – that “Arsenal play football the way we like to see it in Brazil, with style, changing position all the time. Say ‘Arsenal’ and that is what we think of.”
What he was trying to say is: nobody cares about the Carling Cup when you’ve got Champions League matches like this one.
THE champagne is on ice, the party poppers in hand, the Chas & Dave greatest hits record lies on the deck with the volume cranked up to 11.
Now all we have to do is beat a team who have been in three League Cup finals out of the previous six, and who we have only beaten twice in the past 15 or so years.
I’m nervous: but one thing I like is the fact I reckon the rest of the country – even the odd Gooner – will be urging us on.
We scared the living daylights out of them last year in the FA Cup, 3-1 up and cruising, till our former coach decided to remove our best players in Dimitar Berbatov and Aaron Lennon with loads of time left.
When we romp into a similar lead on Sunday, our Spanish magician won’t make the same mistakes, and, having collectively shed the weight of Fat Frank Lampard’s left-hand love handle – around 20 stone, apparently – we won’t fade when it matters.
On another note, there has been a conspiracy among some New Journal reporters to try and keep the humiliation their team suffered at Old Trafford on Saturday in the FA Cup out of this week’s paper. Let me remind my colleagues: the score in the world’s premier domestic cup competition was United 4, Gooners 0.
Altogether now: we’re off to Wembley ’cos we beat the Arsenal...
