91Èȱ¬

Editing Match of the Day tends (not unreasonably) to involve working on weekends. However, for the first time this season, the rota allowed me to go to a Saturday afternoon game.

For the second time this season (Darlington on the Friday of an international weekend was the other) I was able to move one ground closer to seeing games at all .

The Emirates took me to 89, with just Swansea, Hull and Accrington to go. That is until the likes of Shrewsbury move, or someone new comes up from the Conference, and the number goes back down again!

Once Sky have chosen a weekend's live games, we at the 91Èȱ¬ pick three of the Saturday afternoon games for Outside Broadcast coverage.

We try to vary which grounds we choose, but this week we had OBs at Bolton, Liverpool and Watford. The remaining games (such as Arsenal on Saturday) are then covered by .

However, now that multi-camera coverage is a contractual requirement, the quality of coverage is (we hope) pretty consistent everywhere. Sky and ourselves pool resources and pictures to cover every Premiership game between us.

For example, on Saturday, I sat with our John Roder on the gantry just along from Tony Jones of Sky while they both commentated on pictures directed by Tony Mills of Sky. Our post-match interviews were conducted on Sky's cameras; it was the other way round at for example, Bolton.

I was bowled over by .

Highbury was my favourite English stadium architecturally, but both economically, and in terms of the number of fans who could never see a game, a 38,000 capacity was no longer practical for a top European club.

The new ground is without doubt the most impressive of all the new English club grounds, and manages to be distinctive in what is largely an identikit era in ground design.

I was also impressed to see that links with the past are not forgotten - the elderly gentleman in front of me in the queue was collecting the free match ticket he's entitled to as a retired Highbury steward, which I thought was a nice touch.

Anyway, to the game: a Groundhog Day third 1-1 home draw of the season for Arsenal and one which seems to have divided opinion long after the game.

I caught a short burst from an outraged Gooner on 606 last night, and I doubt he was alone! I have to declare an interest here in that my team, Middlesbrough, were one of the three teams so far .

I was editing the show that day, but saw it as an excellent rearguard action marshalled by Jonathan Woodgate. So, I can't complain about Everton's tactics on Saturday - they defended superbly, and played to their strengths particularly given their injuries and illness.

Of the five man midfield, Carsley and Davies stayed put in front of the back four while Arteta, Osman and Cahill occasionally supported Andrew Johnson, but mostly curbed their attacking instincts in a really disciplined team performance.

As a neutral, watching one of Wenger's Arsenal teams fire on all cylinders is amongst the great sights in English football. When they score an early goal and pick the other team off as they try to respond - as at Reading the previous week, or once in a pleasurably painful 6-1 win at the Riverside - they genuinely do play the epitome of the "Beautiful Game".

However, teams like Everton, Blackburn and Bolton are entitled not to lie down and be rolled over, and it's good for the competitiveness of the Premiership if the top teams come unstuck occasionally.

I seem to remember , having been on the back foot for 120 minutes. I doubt their supporters rang 606 to complain that night!

My team did something similar in Italy to put , and frankly, I've never been so proud of them. If you're a supporter, those backs-to-the wall results are indeed "a joy forever".