IF you even needed proof that the Premier League had finally imploded on itself, leaving the everyday football fan so far removed from its sheer pomposity, then look no further than last weekend.
During a teatime clash between old foes Arsenal and Manchester United, an angry home fan was so incensed as the away bench celebrated a goal that he threw something at them.
It wasn't a missile, a bottle or a dart such as those of us of more advanced years would oft see or hear of during the dark days of hooliganism in the 1970s or 80s.
It was a plastic cup filled with red wine.
That's right, not a steaming cup of Bovril, a curled-up corned beef sandwich or even a match day programme (£3.50 on the day, £2.99 to download online, a quick Google tells me).
A plastic beaker filled with merlot.
Firstly, it begs the question how the "fan", who was later arrested, was able to get the alcohol into his seat as I know there's a ban on alcohol in the seats and on the terraces of most of the matches I go to.
And then, if you are allowed to drink alcohol in the seats at the Emirates, I imagine it isn't exactly cheap, bearing in mind the price of a seat at the North London ground.
As such, wouldn't you now rather drink it rather than launch it towards Louis Van Gaal and his cohorts, however angry you might be that his team have just gone 1-0 up against your beloved Gunners?
A colleague and I were laughing about the whole scenario at work one morning this week.
"Imagine that happening to one of the away managers at the Baseball Ground," we laughed to each other.
"Like you could have got red wine in the Pop side. You were lucky to get a cup of tea that was any hotter than lukewarm."
We joked that the only place you would have been able to find red wine during our formative years following our clubs on the terraces was in the directors' box.
And knowing how tight a lot of club chairman were rumoured to be at the time, you would probably have been lucky if you were offered a thimble full of cabernet sauvignon.
Arsenal say they have launched an internal investigation into "Grapegate" as we have jokingly been calling it this week in the office.
They say that, if they catch the fellow that threw said wine, he would be banned from the stadium.
And quite right too. However annoyed you might be at a referee's decision or a rival team celebrating a goal, there's no place for such shenanigans inside a football ground.
Last weekend, my own team, Notts County, lost at home to the bottom of the league after one of the most bizarre refereeing decisions I've seen in near 40 years following the Magpies.
One of our midfielders was sent off for kicking the ball out for a throw-in in the first half by a former Premier League ref who was far too eager to reach for the card.
And, as such, we had to play the remaining hour of the game with our backs to the wall losing to two late goals.
But did I wait behind to angrily shout abuse or berate the ref at full time?
Of course not.
I went home for a glass of red wine.
