Arsenal vs Newcastle United

We're the North Bank, we're the North Bank, we're the North Bank, Highbury..."

- hopefully me, on the 30th of August, somewhere inside Emirates Stadium.

I would love it, just love it, if I was there watching the Arse beat Newcastle United 3-0, with two goals by David Villa, a series of blinding saves by Akinfeev, and all capped off with a mazy run by David Silva to set up a screamer from 20-yards by our very own Cesc Fabregas.

But I would love it equally much if we lost 0-1 through a set piece after dominating the majority of the match. No, scratch that. I wouldn't love it that much. But I'd love it all the same.

It's the simple pleasures you take for granted. Some gooners, I'm sure, wake up in the morning, have breakfast, walk to the pub and get pissed, and then totter along to Emirates. It's not that simple for some of us.

It's the lot of an Antipodean gooner that some of your favourite moments in life are spent shivering on the couch in the middle of the night, watching a bunch of flickering images dancing on the TV. It's a stupid way of spending your emotional energy, but love is nothing if not irrational. However, spend long enough watching from a computer or a TV, and you start to believe all football is played from a flat-screen.

I've got to pinch myself to remember that it's not just a dream. Very soon, I'll be able to watch my team play in a real stadium, in 3D, surrounded by 60,000 gooners. It's fucking amazing. If, of course, my friend can get that ticket for me. Which I'm starting to doubt, considering how fucking pissed off she seems to be at me...

It won't be like going to the 'G and watching Melbourne get thumped by Hawthorn, or Geelong, or even Carlton (I've never been, but I've never much liked Aussie rules). It won't be like going to the Australian Open and watching one-sided matches between people I've never heard of, or admiring a Maria Sharapova forehand during her practice sessions (she's got quite perky footwork). It'll be something amazing simply because I've waited so long for it, because I've wanted to go since like, forever, and because it's my team and my players in my stadium.

In the words of Anne Rice, I'll be just like a little Cajun boy, arriving in Paris to see where it all began...