Arsenal vs. Galatasaray: Match Thread And Anniversary Celebration

Arsenal vs. Galatasaray

UEFA Champions League

Emirates Stadium, London

Wednesday, October 1, 11.45AM PT/2.45 PM ET/7.45 PM BT

US TV: Fox Sports 1 | Worldwide TV Listings: livesoccer.tv

Go back to October 1, 1996. Do you remember where you were? Were you alive? Were you an infant?  I was at work at my Large Multinational Financial Services Concern, scrivening away like all the good Bartlebys in my area, when I went to the breakroom in my work to "log on" to this newfangled "Internet" thing I'd heard so much about. Yes, kids, there was a time when the Internet wasn't ubiquitous and pocketable; when it was first widely becoming available, many companies hesitated to roll it out to their workers because they didn't know what it was.

In my company's case, that meant one dedicated terminal in the breakroom, at which we could see what all the fuss was about, internet-wise.  As someone who was used to spending his Monday lunch hours at a newsstand (def: a physical place where people bought newspapers (def: a physical document containing stories about relevant news and information to your region and the world) and magazines and other such items) reading but not buying (Cheers, First and Pike News, for your indulgence!) day-old News Of The World and Guardian newspapers in order to find out what happened over the weekend's football, this whole Internet lark was amazing. Real-time results? Actual up to date news? Yes please!

Anyway, on October 1, 1996, I Internetted my way to either the Guardian or the BBC to find that Arsenal had replaced interim manager Pat Rice, who followed interim manager Stewart Houston as a replacement for fired manager Bruce Rioch, with Arsene Wenger, "the boring one that you haven't heard of", in the words of Nick Hornby.

Endless words have been spilled since on Wenger, his effect on Arsenal and on the English game, and on the arc of his career over the years, so I won't reprise that here - you know where to go if you want to find that stuff.  What I will do here is express my little corner of the internet's appreciation for what he has achieved, my respect for how he's gone about his work, and my hope that his next however many years are as big or bigger of a success as his first 18. Congrats, Arsene, and let's celebrate with three points today, eh?