Cor blimey I’d almost forgotten how much it sucks to set an alarm for work in the morning. I’d also almost forgotten how cold it is, plus the fact that food doesn’t come in a variety of beige and deep fried, such is the indoctrination of the American way of life that I’ve been living over the last couple of weeks.

But here I am, back in Blighty, back to the grey weather, the cold, as well as early morning commutes on the Met Line.

I’d love to at least have some Arsenal stuff to talk about, but what with it being the international break n’all, it appears I’ve missed little. Well, little from an Arsenal perspective, anyway. Because the big talking point from the latest set of international matches is the deplorable racist chanting of a small section of Bulgarian fans, who decided that it was appropriate to make Nazi salutes and monkey noises whenever English black players touched the ball. So bad was the noises that the game was stopped twice and by the sounds of it this isn’t the first time Bulgaria have been involved it seems.

How are we here? In 2019, that this stuff happens, because quite frankly it’s disgusting and unpalatable for anybody with even half a brain. I feel like I’ve blogged about this before but some of the pictures yesterday were disgraceful. What’s more appalling is that most of the people who were in that group of “ultras” looked like they hadn’t even hit their 30s yet. Somebody give them a f*cking history lesson because if they had any kind of educating or experience of what it is like to feel oppression in any way, shape or form, they would all realise how horrifying it is to be doing what they are doing. Punishment has to come now, it has to come swiftly, it has to involve repercussions for the Bulgarian FA and international team. That’s sad because it isn’t the players and there would be a vast number of Bulgarian people who would be punished because of the few, but that’s the only way situations like this get dealt with.

It would have been nicer to be talking about Arsenal international players and how they are getting on but once again football has become embroiled in the dark world of racism. Football, and the governing bodies, need to up their game now and prove that they are willing to take tougher measures than are already in place. Bulgaria can ban those pictured last night, they can investigate people and the Sears that they were sat in – because it was clearly a collective of individuals all together – but these types of organised idiots are like a hydra; if you remove one from the equation another two will appear for the next game.

Which again emphasises how nations need to be punished. Because if that happens then those normal people who want to go and watch football for the football will turn on the idiots. They’ll realise that it is this small minority that are ruining it for everyone and they’ll start to take action themselves.

The English footballers themselves reacted in the perfect way to that provocation. They utterly hammered Bulgaria and whilst I’m not so much an England fan and make my disdain for international football clear, that was pleasing to see last night, because the players themselves did themselves proud with their reaction.

It will be nice to get back to talking about The Arsenal over the next couple of days. The international break will be over soon and we focus on that thing that brings us all together:

football.