Arsenal vs Dinamo Zagreb - Emirates Stadium, London - Wednesday 23rd August 2006

With Arsenal holding a healthy 3-0 lead from the first leg, this game was widely expected to be something of a formality. The main questions were around who would actually play (no Henry, no Cole, but who would be there?), as well as the first chance to see the new stadium under floodlights for a night game. Which, to be honest, was a more exciting prospect for me than the game itself.
In pouring rain just before kick off, I managed to get in and remain relatively dry, and even had time for a wander upstairs before the game started. The corner I was in did not have the best of views (a panoramic over Finsbury Park!), but the windows on the outside of the stadium are a great feature in the Upper Tiers.

The game did not really go according to plan, Arsenal were not really seeming interested, and Zagreb took advantage to score in the first 15 minutes. One of the major Arsenal criminals in terms of their performance was Adebayor, confirming the view of many that he is rubbish, and not close to being an Arsenal quality player. The awfulness of his performance made that of Van Persie even more impressive, as he had to deal with misplaced passes, crap control to make his good passes look bad, and generally carrying his strike partner through the game. He must have the patience of a saint not to have killed Adebayor.

At half time, I went for another wander around the ground, and encountered hideously long queues at every food and drink counter. This seems to be the major thing that Arsenal really need to sort out - the queues before the game and at half time are FAR worse than they were in the old North Bank. The longer it goes on without being sorted, people will just abandon the idea of buying stuff in the ground.
Amusingly, as it was raining, the roof started to leak! In the concourses in both lower and upper tiers, they had positioned big wheely bins to catch all the water that was pissing through the ceiling. £350 million very well spent, obviously.

In the second half, things seemed to continue as they were in the first. Some good chances created, but not a great deal of urgency, and some awful play in front of goal. Eventually, we equalised through Freddie, to go 4-1 up in the tie. Then Theo Walcott came on, to huge applause again. As on Saturday, he looked fantastic, admittedly against tired defenders though. And also as on Satutday, he set up a goal in his short time on the pitch - putting in a cross on the stroke of full time, which Flamini bundled in for a winner. So, our first competitive win at the new stadium (although we weren't really playing like it was a competitive game).

After the game, it came through just how big the stadium is - the flood of people down Gillespie Road lasted for a good half hour afterwards. We are in a different league now, welcome to the future!