Sutton United began their FA Cup campaign in October, beating Forest Green Rovers in front of 751 fans and a dog named Keanu. They ended it last night against Arsenal in front of 5,000. And four dogs. Don’t know their names. Sutton’s ground, Gander Green Lane, only holds that number, even though they could have filled it 6 times last night. Oh, and Sutton are a million pounds richer for the trouble. A simply massive amount of money for that level of the game. While most of us Premier League fans wouldn’t get out of bed for less than 75 million (of other people’s money that we never see and generally resent), a million quid for Sutton is a once-in-a-lifetime event that will enable so many things that ‘big clubs’ simply don’t even think about. Things that just become minor, petty-cash type things that appear at the end of the annual financial statements. Like repairing the roof in the dressing room. Cleaning the artificial pitch. Getting some hot water in the showers.

Oddly, had Sutton won (if only) despite the massive kudos and pride and wonder of such an event, it would, ironically, have set up a meeting against the only other non-league team still in the competition, Lincoln City. Which, financially, and in terms of glamour, would have been something of a disaster. You get to the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time in a hundred years and play a team no-one wants to see. However, didn’t happen. Even though Sutton were quite brilliant on the night.

What happened was that Arsenal won. Even though I didn’t want them to. I never want them to. But Sutton aren’t Bayern Munich. Not even close. Yet as everybody seemed to imply, that ‘anything less than 5 or 6 nil isn’t really good enough for Arsenal’, the mere 2-0 win they actually produced can in fact be viewed as ‘losing 3-0 to Sutton’. If you apply a kind of ‘handicapping’ system and, generally, wish to view anything Arsenal do as bad.

So now Arsenal get to play Lincoln City. And ya know what; its hard. Because the pressure on Arsenal is simply so massive its just an assumption of ‘by how many’. And teams, particularly lowly teams with absolutely nothing to lose nor fear, can play their little, darned and holey socks off for those 90 minutes (plus extra time and penalties if necessary. No replays now). Because its a ‘funny ole game’. And Lincoln will be thrilled to be playing it at the Emirates. Who cares about home advantage when you get a hot shower after the game?

Spurs saw off Fulham on Sunday. Wonderfully. Harry Kane recovered sufficiently well from last week’s scare that he scored 3. And we now face Millwall in the next round. Everyone hates them and they don’t care. And there’s actually no reason to hate Millwall. They’re just a nice bunch of neanderthal south London thugs with swastika tattoos and Stanley Knives. What’s to hate?

Happy Tuesday

A xxxx