Ivan Gazidis's blanket club at - The Emirates Cup (Arsenal)

After getting off one of the worst Ryanair flights ever on  Friday evening. Which consisted of me paying $5 for some chicken bites and chips, in which they gave me 5 undercooked nuggets and about 7 soggy chips. I found myself waiting 15 minutes for our taxi to pick us up. Of course it was late because of the typical English weather... During that period I spent most of it sitting on the floor browsing twitter on my phone, that was until my mum tapped me on the shoulder and said "Which football team's that Dan?" immediately I leaped up and recognised the famous "W" on the players Blue and Green tracksuits. It was the entire Wolfsburg squad. I managed to get a few pics with Ricardo Rodriguez, Andre Schuerrle and the one and only Lord Bendtner, who thought he was the coolest guy around because even though he had a Starbucks straw in his mouth... Genuinely one of the weirdest personalities in football...

This was also incredible considering I was going to the Emirates Cup on the Sunday to watch those players!!

Personally I've been to every single Emirates cup since it started in 2007 apart from the 2013 competition, because the tickets are cheap and the rest of the family are big Gooners. I used to go to the Arsenal fairly often back in the day, so iv'e still got a few shirts, scarves and other arsenal stuff laying around the house, including one scarf which I was wearing today, so there was no need to buy one. Except my brother, who bought a half and half scarf... which I have explained before is the thing I despise the most about modern football, it cost him £5 and looked ridiculous... He wasn't alone though, about 2/3rds of people there were wearing them...

The Abomination.....

Other people in half and half scarves...

We arrived fairly early at the ground, therefore we couldn't get it yet, and of course it was pouring down with rain outside... The Arsenal staff eventually opened the gates and we finally entered up the escalators to club level (Oh yeah living the big life) and in to the emirates lounge to get something to eat, my uncle got us all Burger and Chips which tasted pretty nice (he also got a pint for the cheap price of £4.50....) and afterwards we made our way to our seats to watch the first game of the afternoon Lyon vs Villarreal. 

Let us in!!!!

Emirates Lounge

Prices for Beer.... Rip off frankly...

Food was delicious to be fair.

Both teams started well with equal chances, Lyon hit the bar twice in the space of 15 minutes and Villarreal had some good shots as well. Deadlock was broken by Villarreal from the penalty spot, which the keeper should have saved if I'm honest. at it was 1-0 going into the break.

Video of the Penalty.

Getting ready to take the spot kick.

During the first half we noticed opposite us, we could see some Arsenal players sitting in the executive seats, at half time I decided to walk around to see if I could see any. I was hoping that some of the players would still be up there and hadn't gone down to get ready, but unfortunately all I found was chairmen Ivan Gazides getting blankets from a blanket bin, After taking the pictures of him I went inside and immediately started bursting out laughing because I thought it was the most pathetic thing I'd ever seen at a football match.

Are you ok there Ivan??

Arsenal selfie.

Executive seats.

The second half started very differently, Lyon did a full u-turn and let in an easy 1 on 1 chance in which the Villarreal striker chipped over the keeper into the goal. Lyon were terrible in the second half really, Villarreal had shot after shot, and could have gone 3 even 4-0 ahead but couldn't find the net any more.

View from the seats.

At that's how the first game ended. 2-0 to Villereal. 

Going into the second game between Arsenal and Wolfsburg I thought 2 things: First, I was wishing that we had gone to the emirates cup the day before because that day it was nice weather and I could have seen 6 well worked goals from 6 different players. and Secondly looking at the Wolfsburg players and thinking, "I saw you at Stansted Airport 2 days ago!!" Also I was glad that Arsenal were wearing their new home kit this time, rather than their horrible away kit.

Arsenal and Wolfsburg warming up.

Not much to my surprise the game started off a little dull not many shots from Arsenal, but a few well worked runs and shots from players like De Bryune and Shuerrle. Arsenal were just lazy, none of their players seemed up for it in the first half, supposedly they'd used all their energy up the previous day.

In the second half that all changed though, with Arsenal quickly scoring a well worked 1 on 1 goal which was scored by Theo Walcott who put it passed the keeper down to the right hand side of the goal.

Wolfsburg had a few shots in the second half too, including one which new goalkeeper Petr Cech saved a well drilled low shot from outside the box. 

Arsenal had a few more chances as well, including a free kick from Santi Cazorla which was held by the Wolfsburg keeper.

That's how it ended though 1-0 to Arsenal, and by winning the game they had won the competition, so we got to see them lift the cup.

Arsenal Lift the cup.

Overall the day was fairly good, quality of football was good but I would have liked to see a lot more goals, it would have helped if it was hot and sunny like the day before instead of pouring down with rain. but that's English weather for you....

I got to meet Lord Bendtner though, and that's special in its own right.

 Rest of the photos: