We won! Hooray! If someone had said to me before the game that Derby would score two, I would’ve been quite scared; it was one of those games that you expect to win but in the back of your mind you have that horrible thought that we could just lose.

My day started at half two when I was picked up from Watford. My mate and I thought we’d make an early start, get up there early and beat the traffic; lucky we did we found out there was an accident on the M1, phew. So we got up there about five-ish and had a little drive around the area of the stadium.

Pride Park was in the middle of an industrial estate, surrounded by JJB Sports, Frankie & Benny’s, KFC, Burger King etc. There was even a Starbucks built into the outside of the stadium. Quite surreal and characterless when we’re used to our stadium in Central London between houses.

So we got parked up and waited at one a little local’s bar for our other mates making the trip up. We headed over to the stadium after a few beers and a discussion about the recent 5-a-sides tournament, our slim chance of winning the league and what we thought of the game. Had another quick beer inside the ground before kick off.

I found out that my seat was right on the edge of the Arsenal fans. I was on the right hand side, the edge next to the corner of the singing home fans. I thought ‘this’ll be fun’.

The strange evening began when the 2 minute warning. Their Wonder of You
was some dance track I can’t remember but this was interrupted by: “RAMS FANS, THIS IS YOUR TWO MINUTE WARNING!” In the style of that movie previews guy. Me and my mate just stood there rather confused.

Anyway, we started with pretty much the team I thought expect Denilson started ahead of my choice, Gilberto. However it soon came clear that the young Brazilian was not the right choice, fair enough Wenger was giving him a game but he was being bullied all over the park.

The game took a few minutes to get underway, simply because Derby decided to push us over every time we picked up the ball. However to be fair whenever we didn’t manage a little time in possession we couldn’t do much with it.

In the first 20 minutes, wither side could’ve been one up. We’d smashed it over the bar twice and thanks to some poor defending we allowed Derby a couple of chances too. However we took an unsurprising lead after 25 minutes. It was a defensive error when a clearance went straight to Bendtner; he played a one-two with van Persie before slotting it home. Fair play to him for scoring under pressure and having quick reactions but it really was a simple goal.

However the lead didn’t last long, 6 minutes later we’d conceded. Savage took a free kick out wide and swung it in dangerously. We failed to clear it and McEveley kicked it into the back of the net inside a busy area. It was a sloppy, sloppy goal and really quite embarrassing.

We needed to score quickly and we tried our best, van Persie and Fabregas both had decent shots but I was dreading going in at half time tied at 1-1. However we regained the lead 6 minutes from half time. Toure’s long ball into van Persie was perfectly weighted and timed, unlike Derby’s offside trap, Robin took a touch, was one-on-one and slotted it in nicely past Carroll. Quite a nice goal really but if their defence was any good; he never would’ve been allowed that time and space.

So we went into the break leading (thank God) but I wasn’t all too convinced. Derby had been playing their socks off, this was their last hurrah before they went down, their last chance to do something special. However their football was more special needs. We hadn’t been playing well though and if we were playing another side on the night we could well have been loosing at this point.

The Derby fans had spent the final part of the first half chanting, “Adebayor, Adebayor, his Dad washes elephants and his Mum is a whore.” He wasn’t even on the pitch. Not only is that a crap insult there was nothing to provoke it, apart from maybe a hat trick against them in the home game…wankers.

However he came on at half time, replaced by an injured again van Persie. Jesus Christ! Apparently the substitution was only precautionary, but still!

Adebayor’s inclusion inspired the team. His work rate and energy is invaluable to us and it was making a telling difference. We had a few chances as the second half got going. However we were taking control of the game, we were like the bigger kid holding the little kids head at arms reach while they tried to run at us, we broke no sweat.

It took until the 59th minute for the next goal to come. Walcott drove to the by-line and cut it back for Eboue, he slid it across to the back post and Adebayor came sliding in for our third. He quite clearly had heard the chanting from the Derby supporters and ran over to that corner holding his hand to his ear. They in return booed him and started up that song again. Meh.

So it was 3-1 now, and it looked like game over. We should’ve added a 4th soon after When Walcott went clear through on goal but his curling shot into the far bottom corner went inches wide. Eboue had a decent chance after that too, but, you know…

In the 77th minute it all went Pete Tong when Derby made it 3-2. Earnshaw had only been on the pitch a few minutes when he broke clear and slotted it past Fabianski. He proceeded to do some stupid little dance when any other side would’ve ran the ball back to the halfway line hoping for another goal.

The Derby fans were in full voice now, they thought they had a chance, but we were having none of it. Less that two minutes later Walcott was down the other end of the field and with a little bit of skill he found a second of space in the box and curled a shot into the far corner. He certainly made up for his miss a few minutes earlier, a well-taken goal. The best thing is, which my mate pointed out, that he didn’t lose his confidence after that miss and wanted another chance to score, this boy really is improving.

4-2 now, with just over 10 minutes to go. The announcer proudly addressed the fans with the 33,003 attendance, another sell out at Pride Park. Fair enough, it’s not the easiest thing in the world going to Derby. However I lost any respect for the fans when they answered this with: “Loyal Supporters! Loyal Supporters!” Seriously?! I mean it’s one thing to be proud of the support but you don’t go singing about it, it’s not very humble. What a bunch of cunts directing that to us when we’ve sold out every single match home and away this season and there’s all us Gooners standing behind the goal on a Monday night after losing the title quite embarrassingly to be honest. Go fuck yourselves.

Seconds after this, we made is properly game over with Adebayor making it 5-2. He went back to the corner of the Derby fans and he and Eboue mocked Earnshaw’s stupid little dance 3 minutes earlier. The home fans started to leave, and we sang them off with their: “Loyal Supporters! Loyal Supporters!” chant. Not as loyal as they make out then.

On the 90 minute mark Adebayor completed his hat trick. That’s three goals in each game against Derby this year, a feat that’s never been accomplished in the Premier League before, nice one Ade. He went clear through on goal past a tired Derby defence. For the first time in the game Carroll decide to come out and Adebayor skipped past him slotting it into the empty net. It was another little celebratory dance with Eboue and then an acknowledgment of the Arsenal fans that’ve supported him so well this season.

So the final score was 6-2, a nice little thrashing but I feel bad that we let in two goals against these useless pricks. We didn’t play really that well but it just shows you how fucking awful Derby are. It was sort of played like a friendly, we never really got into top gear but to be fair we never really needed to.

We got back to the car and headed back down the M1 and I arrived home about half 12, not bad little day out. I’m definitely going to miss these away trips; I’m not going to Sunderland so it’ll be my last for a little while.

Finally, I’d just like to mention that Derby are a bunch of cunts. The team themselves are a bunch of slow, old bullies whose only tactic against a team like ours is to kick them off the ball. We were simply a class apart and there wasn’t anything they could do to stop us. However their fans are even worse. It seemed like they’d studied a Spurs song-sheet before the game and tried to insult us as much as they could. Half of their songs didn’t even make any sense or were completely irrelevant to what was going on in the game.

They are the Tottenham Hotspur of the north and I fucking hate them. Before, I felt a bit sorry for Derby this year. I’d never seen them play before as I missed the home game and never followed any of their other matches, but their quality of football is shocking. They’re on course to set a record for the lost points achieved in Premiership history and I hope they fucking do it, they totally deserve their position in the league. Good riddance.

Right I really need to go to sleep now, thanks for reading.