What happened on that day, at that moment, was a coming together of circumstances that can never, ever be repeated. It was lightning in a bottle.
Because I'm a naturally fair-minded person, and I like to look at life in the round, I can see that, for Arsenal fans, their 2-0 win at Anfield to win the title comes close to it. Let's be fair minded: that was titanic. It was immense. Liverpool had been the playground bullies for most of the seventies and all of the eighties. Arsenal had to win it by two. One wasn't enough. And it had to be done at Anfield, which was indeed a fortress in those days (I never saw us win there. Never.). But the difference — and it's crucial — is that Arsenal and Liverpool were not the bitterest of rivals traditionally. They were hundreds of miles apart. And that Arsenal's crossing of the desert had not lasted for the biblical forty (and more) years, and involved going down to the third division, and very nearly staying in it, were it not for a miracle on a certain day at Wembley that rivals the Aguero one.
And Arsenal had not been on the point of chucking the whole bloody thing away by going 2-1 down sixty-six minutes into the match, to relegation candidates, on their home territory where they had not lost and only drawn once all season.
I think that nearly all of England outside of red Merseyside celebrated when Micky Thomas's goal went in. I know I did. I did my nut. I had a very good mate who was a lifelong Arsenal fan, knew his football, always very respectful of me and my affiliation to City, and in my thoughts and heart I celebrated with him. I lost touch with him years ago, but I like to think that, like all of England outside of red Manchester, he celebrated in his heart, and thought of me at 93:20.
One of the three great moments of my life. Like seeing my son born, and the moment when the examining commission came back into the room after deliberating to tell me that I'd been awarded my doctorate with the highest honours. (A doctorate that I worked on for ten years, and during the course of which my marriage folded and both my parents died).
In all three cases I cried. And I don't cry at all easily.
Every single fucking time I watch that back on Youtube, I'm sure that Sergio's going to put it wide…