Back in 2008, I did an item on this blog asking for help in choosing a Premier League team for whom I could be a fan.

Many of you were quite helpful in that respect, making impassioned and almost convincing cases for a variety of teams.

I eventually did an entry on how I had decided not to decide. And then I did an entry about how I had decided, but mentioning it on this blog is not quite like getting it out in the wider world.

Well, now I have made my preferences known in good old-fashioned print, writing about it this morning for The National.

And the winner is …

Arsenal’s Gunners!

Those of you who check in here regularly remember my announcement on the topic a couple of years ago. But this is the first time I have mentioned any preference in the newsroom here in Abu Dhabi, where allegiances are deep and Arsenal is roundly reviled. An English editor who went through the piece declared, “You are a brave man.”

Yes, I am aware that I have tapped into these guys as they go through a particularly uninspiring patch, when they seem heartless and feckless. But, hey, I am a fan.

In the column today, I explain how I reached the point I did.

Much of it was about eliminating everyone else … and then one chance meeting that brought the whole concept into focus for me.

Is there some song or chant I’m now required to learn? I already know the words to “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” but Liverpool has that one nailed down …

Has anyone written a ballad about “blowing a lead in injury time”? That would be quite handy about now.

And if Queens Park Rangers are promoted, they could become No. 1A on my “favorite team” list. Which I suppose is an oxymoron. “Favorite team” and “list” don’t match, do they. Hmm.