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Viera looking like a dragon in this celebration

Season 04, I was 11. And it’s around the time i started really watching seriously football. At the time, from my hometown somewhere in the south of Tunisia, I watched whatever game was broadcasted on the little number of TV channels dedicated to football that we had.

So one day I was watching this game, Arsenal-tottenham. ofc Arsenal was huge at the time, and that’s what made it a big game worth watching over another. The scoreline at the end of the game was 4-5 for arsenal (highlights on Arsenal official channel, great fucking game). But what really made me fall in love with this club was a particular action, the one that led to the goal Patrick is celebrating in the picture up above.

in that play, Viera with his tarantula legs swiped the ball in the middle, but it ended up roaming somewhere near Henry who was offside. Defenders stopped. But so did Henry, lifting his arms in the air to say he isn’t part of the action. Patrick picked up on that and the ball, and went straight on to put the ball in the back of the net.

It was fucking glorious, I didn’t know that was possible and I learned something. For me they didn’t know just how to play ball, they knew how to play the rules, and they knew exactly where they were in the context of that. It was like a game of chess for my little 11 yo smoothbrain.

Anyway, just remembered that yesterday before going to bed and decided to annoy you all with this haha.

would love to read some of your stories :)

Cheers.