Tomorrow we’ll have the lay of the land, knowing what fixtures will be available for us to select. We’ll have a few days to digest the schedule and then we’ll complete a draft for games with the other ticket sharers. At this point, the goal is to pick up weekend games only, and hopefully one or two against some truly despicable teams, like Chelsea or Liverpool, or some merely pathetic teams, like Tottenham. (Did I ever truly hate before becoming an Arsenal fan? Perhaps. But my hate did not have an acceptable target, which has made all the difference.)

My husband says I will likely have regrets spending big money and my whole weekend in London only to watch my team get tonked by the likes of Chelsea, but at this point of the season I am filled with hope. One game I definitely want to attend is the last home game of the season. If Arsenal do finish on top of the league, I want to be there for the celebration. My (killjoy?) husband gently suggests that this may not be the best option either…..it may more likely be a time for introspection.

But I’m only going to be able to be regularly present at home games for this one year of my life. This needs to be the year that Arsenal takes it all.

I’ve only had one live experience at the Emirates. I made my family go to London for Christmas in 2012 and we bought tickets for two games, one of which was ultimately cancelled for the traditional Boxing Day tube strike. The second one was a match against Newcastle, in which Newcastle and Arsenal politely took turns scoring goals throughout the first 70 minutes, making me increasingly uneasy, and then Arsenal rudely and magically scored 4 unanswered goals, 3 of them in the last 10 minutes.

If Arsenal can put on a show like that for me the one time I visit, why not win the league for me the year I plan to attend many games? It seems a reasonable request.