The old North Bankers will remember the guys that referred to themselves as being the "topside of Highbury" and those that referred to themselves as being "middle of Highbury". I was one of the "middlemen" if you like and as a superstition I made a point of standing in exactly the same position about two thirds of the way up and directly in line with the right hand goalpost.
At that time I also used to go regularly with a bunch of chaps from where I grew up in Dagenham and we called ourselves the Magnificent Seven. Clyde Ellis-Hall, Tony Patten, Tony Collins, Geoff Dabbs, Jason Doughty and Rob "Jet" Ramsay were the other members of the crew. Word up to you all, fellas - wherever you are.
We had a load of good times those lads and me and that day was a particularly good one for us all as the Arsenal ran out 6-0 winners on the day with Alan Smith grabbing a hat trick.
Sadly I lost touch with all those guys over the years and when it comes to getting down to Highbury these days it requires a little help from some of the friends I have today. And when Gazza dropped me a line to say that there was spare ticket going for Saturday's game against Pompey I never needed asking twice.
It was as Gazza, Terry, Elliot and myself were walking up the stairs to our seats that I recalled the story of that day in 1987 and that sitting on the North Bank with a few of my mates was almost a throwback to the old days with the Magnificent Seven.
Just as we were taking our seats, the teams were being announced and knowing glances were exchanged between the others and myself when it was announced that Quincy was in from the start ahead of Robin Van Persie. "Looks like Van Persie has not been forgiven by Wenger just yet", said Terry.
Arsenal's class of '87 may have been well in control of Pompey long before we got to half time way back then but, in spite of Quincy's lively efforts on debut, it wasn't the same story for Arsenal's class of 2005.
Pompey held their own in the first 35 minutes or so as we struggled to get any sustained fluency into our game and they were unfortunate not to have taken the lead when Yakubu rose above a statuesque defence to crash a header against the bar from Matt Taylor's first time cross. Then, with the Arsenal defence marking fresh air rather than the Pompey players, Arjan De Zeeuw nearly punished us when he powered a header just over from a free kick.
All four of us were exchanging horrified glances at what we were seeing unfold literally feet away from us. We couldn't believe what we were seeing and at half time I said to the lads that if Wenger and his coaches had done any work on defensive (or indeed offensive) set pieces over the last few months, then I'm Zinedine Zidane.
But although I was ranting and raving about our defensive shortcomings at set pieces, my half time pint still went down fairly well because Thierry had put us in front with an opportunist strike with five minutes before the break.
The second half was generally more comfortable for us. Thierry popped up to score an excellent second thanks in part to the tenacity of an ever improving Mathieu Flamini and Patrick Vieira. I've said it before and I'll say it again; the boy Flamini is a true Arsenal warrior in the making.
Some Arsenal fans have described him as a bit of a headless chicken but the boy has a heart the size of a bucket and if Arsenal are going to win things in the future you need fellas with his attitude around to call upon.
The second goal generally knocked the stuffing out of Pompey and the only question that needed answering in my mind was whether Thierry would be able to emulate the feats of old Smudger back in 1987 by getting himself a hat trick. The answer was in the affirmative when he scored late on (albeit with a little bit of help from the rather eccentric Pompey keeper) from a free kick.
By way of conscience I remember turning round to the rest of the lads and saying to them straightaway in sarcastic fashion "the flat track bully has done it again!" because I knew that someone, somewhere in the press will throw that tedious accusation at him. I wasn't disappointed as it turned out because the News Of The World based their whole article on the game around the very subject.
I'm not going to even bother giving that old chestnut the time of day. Instead I am now going to concentrate on our game against one of the many great teams that Henry HAS actually scored against - Bayern Munich.
Felix Magath and his men have certainly been talking a good game over the last few days but perhaps the most amusing piece I read was based around some alleged comments from Ze Roberto.
The Brazilian claimed that the Arsenal lack good old fashioned English spirit because our team is so short of English players where as Bayern (notwithstanding the fact that they had only TWO native Germans in their first leg starting line up) are a true German side that play in a true German style. Mmm, I thought. Something has seriously been lost in translation here!
Bixente Lizarazu is another one who has been running off at the mouth in the press claiming that there is a gulf in class between his team and ours. Now that is really taking the urine as far as I'm concerned.
As I said last week, it would serve the Arsenal right if we find ourselves out of the competition come Thursday but if that reality happens the most galling thing for me will be that we were knocked out by a side that quite frankly are no more capable of winning this tournament than we are.
I said it after the first leg and I will say it again now. The only major difference between them and us in Munich a fortnight ago was the fact that they were professional in their approach and we were not. But, slim as our chances happen to be, the fact is that the Arsenal do have a chance to put the record straight.
What's more, for the first time in living memory, the Arsenal actually DO go into this game with something to gain and nothing to lose. If we pull off some kind of great escape then not only would it rank alongside any of the greatest results the club have ever got in Europe and suddenly the sky could become the limit. And, what if we fail? Well, even the press will find it difficult to make anyone connected with the Arsenal feel any worse than they did after the first leg.
I remember when we played this lot back in the 2000 -2001 campaign at Highbury very well. I actually taped that game and watched it all in its entirety three times over and I swear to this very day that there were parallels between that game (which was a 2-2 draw) and the game a fortnight ago. Here's what I mean.
If you took away the fact that Bayern scored three times against us the other day for example there wasn't anything between us. That was the case when we played them at Highbury just over four years ago.
Bayern actually only created one chance in the entire match and that fell to Mehmet Scholl of all people who missed when it was easier to score. Yet having put ourselves 2-0 up we allowed Bayern to reply immediately from a free kick that wasn't cleared properly through Michael Tarnat. Then of course, Scholl conjured up the equaliser direct from another free kick.
So what's my point? Well, in my opinion, we are way, way, WAY overdue a bit of luck in this competition. We may have been guilty of plotting our own downfall in Europe on many an occasion but there has been many a time also when both logic and ultimately fate have conspired against us.
It was interesting to read an article by Michael Thomas in last weeks News of the World when he talked about the current Arsenal side needing to rekindle the sprit of 1989, Anfield and all that because it really got me thinking.
We were, of course in a situation that night to the one we are faced with now and I think the key to Wednesday's game is the same as it was in 1989. We must not panic.
Instead, we must be patient and above all, we MUST not concede a goal in the first half. If we go in at half time with the score at 0-0 (just as it was at Anfield of course) I will be happy with that. We will still have 45 minutes to really have a go at them. And if we manage to build up enough momentum, who's to say that the mighty Germans won't crack?
Time will tell as to whether I am indulging in a little wishful thinking but I have to admit that I am actually far more relaxed about this game than any other we have played this season and I'm determined to maintain a steely resolve nonetheless - apart possibly from whenever Bayern get a free kick or a corner, that is!
Hang on to your hats, my fellow Gooners. We are in for a pretty scary but exciting ride on Wednesday night.