Song: I walked for 4 or 5 hours in Snow

Arsenal welcome Stoke City to Emirates Stadium on February 22 and Alex Song hopes his journey home will be rather easier than it was the last time the Club tried to play that fixture.

Severe weather conditions caused the postponement of the Premier League clash last month and heavy snow prompted Song to set out on a long – and expensive – adventure.

“Oh, it was unbelievable,” he told the Official Arsenal Magazine. “We arrived at the stadium and everyone went to their cars and began to drive home. I got just outside and found myself stuck in a queue for about two hours.
 
“Nobody was moving. I decided that, at that rate, I would be there all day – so I turned back, parked my car back in the stadium and thought ‘OK, maybe I’ll try to walk up the road a little way and jump into a taxi’.
 
“I walked and didn’t see anything – kept walking, still nothing. I kept going and going, and there was no point turning back. So I walked all the way to Brent Cross, taking the same route as when I go by car because I didn’t know the side roads very well.
 
“I walked for four or five hours, because you have to go quite slowly and carefully in the snow. I had my coat pulled up, but nobody recognised me along the way – it was a very strange afternoon.
 
“When I arrived at Brent Cross I found a taxi company, but the guy said there were no cabs. I begged him to help and he said he’d call somebody at home but it would cost me double. I said ‘No problem, I’ll pay triple or whatever it takes, I just want to get home!’
 
“I waited about 20 minutes and the driver arrived, I jumped in the taxi and got home eventually! I’m never doing that again – if necessary I’ll sleep in the stadium! As soon as I got home I had a very hot bath and went straight to bed.”