January 9th. The training ground was busier than I had ever seen it.
Twenty-nine players on the pitches. Eight coaching staff members were running sessions. Six fitness and performance staff were monitoring bodies. Ten analysts were reviewing footage in the suite.
And now, woven through all of it like a second nervous system, six Netflix crew members with cameras and microphones and the quiet, relentless patience of people whose job was to watch other people work.
Tomorrow was the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg. The draw had given us Arsenal at Selhurst Park.
The fixture that every neutral in the country wanted to see: Danny Walsh's Palace against Arsène Wenger's Arsenal, the youngest manager in the Premier League against the longest-serving, the story of the season against the story of the decade.
