I watched the first 40 minutes of Reading v Arsenal and I thought 'here we go'. A team that's really neither here nor there was giving it a go against one of the best teams in Europe, and with relative success at that. They didn't just hoof it, they really had a go.

What happened after that was nothing short of scandalous. Cesc Fabregas and his band of merry men decided they were done with monkeying around. With rapier-like precision they sliced and diced through the opposition with reckless abandon. At times they would go for minutes on end knocking the ball about without letting Reading have a touch of the ball.

At times you just figured they got a bit bored. Very bored at that. They really ran circles around the opposition,  around a team they seemed not to be too interested in playing and did just enough to get back on top. They seemed a bit interested when Steve Coppell's men scored, but they never really felt they would concede another.

'It felt worse than a kick-about. It was more a walk about really'

It felt worse than a kick-about. It was more a walk-about really. Fabregas even forgot he was in a Premier League match and got himself booked for pulling a Reading player's arm, blatantly at that.

I guess he just reflected the mood at the Madjeski. The scoreline was of no interest. It was just the Arsenal road show visiting town, having a laugh with the local lads until the next time they needed to play one of their equals.

It was equivalent to when Australia come over to the England for the Ashes. As preparation for conditioning, they have to play against one of the club sides . . . yes club, not county.