I meant what I said in my preview to Wednesday night's game, which was that I didn't care whether we won 1-0 or 6-0. What mattered was seeing us win and that's what we did and so therefore I was delighted with the way that things turned out. As they say, better late than never.
Now, I know for a fact that there are plenty of Gooners out there that would say to themselves that I'm having a laugh and that we only managed to scrape a last minute 2-1 victory against a jumped up bunch of part-timers from the middle of nowhere.
But, it was a fact that this "bunch of jumped up part-timers from the middle of nowhere" were good enough to see off Dynamo Kiev (as well as Malmo) just to get into the tournament proper in the first place and given the problems we encountered as recently as two years ago against the Ukrainians, we Arsenal fans, of all people, should know damn well how difficult it is to beat them on in a one off match never mind over two legs.
And, credit where credit is due, Thun showed to an extent why they were good enough to account for both the Ukrainians and the Swedes when the came to Highbury. Thun were well organised and above all determined not to disgrace themselves at Highbury. And, as Northern Ireland showed against England, a little bit of organisation combined with a lot of good old fashioned blood, sweat and determination can make what seems a formality on paper look anything but.
That's not to say that I wasn't beside myself with frustration at times whilst watching the game because, God only knows, I was. In fact, I will also go as far as admitting that I was so angry I couldn't bring myself to bring myself to speak to my old mate Gazza when he rang me on my mobile immediately after the final whistle went.
But I wasn't angry about Arsenal's performance. I was angry that the Polish referee and his so-called assistants who did their best to handicap the Arsenal with some baffling decisions for most of the night and not least the one that saw Robin Van Persie giving his marching orders.
Now, this was the classic case of a referee (a relative rookie apparently of 32 years of age refereeing his first game as I understood it) who has not got a clue about the game reacting over zealously. People both in the game and on the terraces can argue, with some justification that young Van Persie is someone that appears to be one sandwich short of a picnic at times (even I wouldn't argue with that).
But whilst I had absolutely no sympathy for him when he got sent off down at St Mary's last February, I had every sympathy for Van Persie on Wednesday night. Even when I watched the incident as it happened from my own living room it was clear to see that he was watching the ball and only the ball as it was coming over his shoulder and the fact that he ended up catching the Thun player was a complete accident. When the ref scuttled over to the scene and pulled out the red card, I initially thought that he had done it purely by accident such was his haste to get in there before things potentially boiled over into a melee between both sets of players. But when he actually brandished it at Van Persie, I went berserk. At that point, I got a call straight away from Gazza and all I remember at that point is screaming down the phone at him and hardly allowing him to even get a word in edgeways.
Of course, Van Persie's dismissal didn't prove to be costly in the end thanks largely to a significant intervention right at the death from some bloke we brought off the bench by the name of Dennis Bergkamp. Now, I have to admit than when I initially saw the Dutch master put in a block tackle on the Thun defender, I thought that he had committed a foul. But the presence of mind he showed to put the ball into the back of the net was typical of the man.
So the Arsenal got out of jail if you like. But I thought it was pathetic for certain Gooners to come out and slaughter the team for that. I am an avid reader of the BBC 606 website and some of the comments I have seen on there from some so-called Gooners were nothing short of amazing.
There was one guy on there who claimed to be an Arsenal fan for over 30 years and he swore that the performance against Thun was the worst he had ever seen from the Arsenal in Europe. In truth, he was by no means alone in saying that but unlike that particular person, I like to think I have a fairly long memory. And I can certainly remember quite a few performances from Arsenal that were considerably worse than the one I saw last Wednesday night. For example I remember when Deportivo came to Highbury for a Champions League game back in March of 2002.
For those of you that do not remember that game particularly well, trust me when I say that the Spaniards were terrific that night and the Arsenal just couldn't get anywhere near them. We lost to them 2-0 that night in the end and, to coin the famous phrase of the late Bill Shankly, the Arsenal were luck to get nil that night. But the one game I will never, ever forget was the one in which we played Auxerre in the quarterfinal of the old Cup Winners Cup back in 1995. I have to say that the French outfit put in the best performance I have ever seen from a visiting side at Highbury – ever.
Auxerre absolutely murdered us that night and it's no exaggeration to say that they could, and should, have scored seven or eight against us that night. Their centre forward was a guy called Lilian Laslandes, a big blond fella who once had a brief spell up at Sunderland a few years ago and I remember him missing no less than FOUR absolute sitters on his own.
Somehow, the Arsenal not only managed to get a 1-1 draw out of the game, they went on to win an equally fraught return leg in France with a 25-yard wonder goal from Ian Wright completely out of nothing.
What I'm getting at is that you have to put things into a little bit of perspective. In the two games I have talked about the common denominator between both was the fact that we were totally overrun by those two sides. Now, my fellow Gooners, can any of you say that happened against Thun on Wednesday? No, of course you can't. In those two games I have talked about, it was the Arsenal that had to work overtime in defence just to keep the score down. Was that the case against Thun? No, of course it wasn't.
So, what DID Arsenal actually do against Thun on the night? Well as far as I could see, we took the game to them, we made chances, we asked questions of them, made their keeper work – and we won the game. In other words, considering that the Arsenal were in as big a no-win situation as you get, we just about did all the fundamental things that could have been expected of us. How on earth can people grumble about that?
I know I have seen us play better first up in the Champions League group stages. I remember us starting successive campaigns with trips to Lens and Fiorentina and playing both of them off the park in their own back yards. But the fact was that we failed to win either of those games and we paid for it later on when both of these sides came to Wembley, beat us and knocked us out of the competition in the process.
At least we have a platform to build on straightaway in the Champions League after beating Thun last Wednesday and this is something we have not always been able to say in the past even with Arsenal sides that have arguably been stronger on paper than the one we have at the moment.
This, my fellow Gooners, is fundamentally what this season is all about for the Arsenal. It's not about jumping on some bandwagon driven by those who either don't respect or give a damn about our club who happen to be going around drawing all sorts of negative conclusions about our club both on and off the pitch. And it's not about us holding inquest after inquest into Wenger's spending policy.
The fact is, whether we all like it or not, the chance to strengthen our squad in the summer has GONE- and it's about time some Gooners started to deal with that, take stock of what we have got, move on and be level headed enough to take things day by day, step by step in the hope that the youngsters Wenger has put his faith in come good in the near future.
If you are an Arsenal fan of long-standing as I am you will understand what I'm saying here. We spend almost every waking day reading about our club being slagged off over this and that. Hell, it's been going on since the 1930's when we first given the "Lucky Arsenal" tag. But, time and time again we have bucked the odds over the years and that's the reason we have won half of the things we have over the last 75 years. It's that ability to defy the odds and our detractors that what makes us we are.
And no matter how bad things may appear at Arsenal or how many arrogant, financially doped regimes pop up elsewhere in this country, I will never lose sight of that or rule out the possibility of Arsenal Football Club achieving anything.
Anyway, it's time to look forward to Monday night's home game against Everton.
I have to admit that I was absolutely delighted to see Everton do so well last season. I am a bit of a traditionalist for my sins and in a time where we have middle of the road clubs getting a leg up from billionaires to elevate their status in the game, it was great to see one of the genuinely great English clubs looking like they were on the up again.
But, as has been the way of things at Everton (ever since the break up of the great side of the mid-eighties really), one step forward has quickly been followed by two steps back. They were unfortunate to miss out on the Champions League proper after losing controversial losing over two legs to a very decent Villareal side.
Still, having fallen into the UEFA, nothing would have prepared the Everton faithful for the disaster that unfolded in Bucharest last Thursday and barring a Lazarus style comeback, the prospect of seeing European football at Goodison well into the autumn and beyond is now a remote one. I really feel that would be a shame because I believe that a club like Everton should be in Europe on a more regular basis.
Mind you, that sort of thing will not happen whilst they continue
to be a Jekyll and Hyde outfit on the domestic front. Their opening games against ManUre and Bolton were classic examples of what I mean. I thought they held their own for the most part but they went and shot themselves in the foot and allowed ManUre to win the game comfortably in the end.
But they then went to Bolton, put in a really resilient display and beat them by a goal to nil. Then, having picked a up a great result at the Reebok they went and got turned over at home by Portsmouth side that have invariably been out of sorts themselves and then by Fulham down at the Cottage.
Everything is relative I suppose but some would say that there are huge dark clouds hanging over both clubs at the moment. I don't' quite see it like that certainly from an Arsenal point of view but I can't deny that this is a bit of an intriguing fixture in the sense that both sides will go into the game with something to prove not so much to anybody else but to themselves.
Moyes will be looking for a reaction from his players and I expect his players to come out, get in our faces and make the game ultra-competitive. There are times in football when you need to earn the right to play. If Arsenal are going to win have a feeling the Arsenal will have to do just that first and foremost on Monday night.