Meet Jeremy Matthews and his partner, Janean. These lovely people, along with their many cats, were my hosts in Salt Lake City, and did a fine job of showing me around the sights in the short time that I had there.
No cats in this picture |
Q. Why Arsenal?
Ultimately the glory of Arsenal is that
we tried to do everything with class and whater issues people have
with Arsene Wenger they can see he is a man that not only wants to
win, but wants to win in the right way. He doesn't want to go to the
excesses that other teams might go down.
Q. Started Supporting Arsenal?
My sister and I were in Europe during
the Euro Cup in 2000 and unfortunately we decided to follow England
(and didn't know any better), the favourite part of the matches was watching David Seaman, we enjoyed his play but we especially appreciated the
way he shouted at his teammates after every defensive mishap, of
which there were many. At the time we didn't know of Arsenal but we
enjoyed his personality on and off the pitch. At our house we didn't
have the cable channels that were shown in the Premier League, so a
few years later we got the Fox Soccer Channel, we watched a few
games. We watched the games post-Invincebles. I remember the
Champions League Group game against CSKA in November 2006 and I
really fell in love with Arsenal at that point because despite it
being a goalless draw, we had so many chances and I just remember the
despair in never seeing a goal (but still finishing top of the group
and qualifying for the next round).
Q. Favourite Player?
Thierry Henry is a personal favourite.
During the period I was watching, he was always just a pleasure to
watch, he finished like no other and made it look so easy. He was the first legend I saw, in the making.
Q. Favourite current Player?
I love Rosicky and I'd like to see him
win something with the club, his work-rate is fantastic and he takes
our game to a different level when he's on the pitch.
Q. Favourite Arsenal moment?
The Champions League match against
Barcelona where Arshavin scored the winner. I think the reason why
it's such a fond memory is because everybody that was around me was elated. People in the pub were
saying they could go back to work and get fired but it would still be
a great day for them.
Q.Where do you watch Arsenal in Salt
Lake City?
Fiddlers Elbow, which is a 5 minute
drive or a 10-15 minute bike ride. I make pretty much every game at
the Weekend unless it's very early, where the pub doesn't open, in
which case I'll watch it at home. I travel on occasion and will like
to see the local Arsenal pub wherever I may be, the Fox and Hounds in
Los Angeles being a good example.
Q. Emirates or Highbury?
I love the history of Highbury but I
have a personal connection to The Emirates as I've been there for a
few games, so the The Emirates has to top it for me, but I will
always acknowledge that Highbury was an amazing stadium with some
great stories.
Q. League Prediction?
We're going to win the league! Looking
at the squad and looking at how our talented players are taking it to
the next level this season, we have a great future. Ramsey, Giroud,
Ozil, Cazorla, Wilshere. This is a trophy-winning team.
Q. Who will be Arsenal's player to watch this season?
There are multiple people that could be
Arsenal's Player Of The Season this year, I would tend to lean
towards Giroud because of his team-play, he scores goals but he
assists and provides fantastic link-up play, and I think that's why
Wenger bought him – not just because he's a goal scorer but because
he creates goals too.
So that's it for Utah. Next stop is Vancouver, Canada, for a 4:45am kickoff. Uh-oh!
COYG