The chance to make your first senior start in professional football is what any player dreams of – unless you’ve been up partying all night.
That’s what happened to Jermaine Pennant after Arsene Wenger sprung his full debut on him.
Pennant was a young, talented player in north London and had made six substitute appearances under Wenger.
But with intense competition for places from Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and Ray Parlour, starts were always going to be hard to come by.
The history books will tell you that the winger’s first start for the Gunners was a memorable occasion after netting a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Southampton in May 2003.
However, speaking to Jamie O’Hara, Pennant revealed that this wasn’t the whole story after being invited to a glamorous FHM party the night before.
Speaking on The Sports Bar, Pennant said: “If you don’t know, FHM was a fantastic magazine – top notch, top tier. Unreal.
“They had a party on the Friday and you can just imagine what type of party it’s going to be and all of the boys are going.
“All of the boys went – Ash (Ashley Cole) went, but he wasn’t in the squad. He was being rested for some reason so he wasn’t in the squad to face Southampton and had the weekend off.
“I was in the squad and that’s all I knew. My name was on the list and so I had to report at 11.30am at the hotel.
“I haven’t ever started so I’m thinking, ‘Nothing’s going to change here’ – best-case scenario I’m going to be on the bench and come on for the last five minutes.
“I was thinking, ‘Is it worth it?’ And then I thought ‘yeah, it’s the FHM party – it’ll be worth it!’
“The boys are telling me, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it – you’re going to start’ and I’m thinking absolutely not – they’ve got Ljungberg, they’ve got Pires and they’ve even got Ray (Parlour) there so there’s not a chance.
“I thought, I’ll be in by 12 – I wouldn’t be asleep by 12 anyway.
“So I went out, they (my teammates) were fuming – they ignored me for a bit because they were raging.
“I went in and it was bouncing and I thought ‘I’ll have one cheeky one’ but the next thing you know it’s 4am and the shots are out – tequilas, sambucas and I get in at half six.
“I’m in at half six and I’ve got to report at 11 so I’ve got about three hours’ sleep before I have to get up and I get there and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what have I done!’
“Arsene’s trying to talk to me and I’m looking the other way just so he doesn’t smell the vodka, but I was 21 – although I wouldn’t advise it.”
Asked how he felt when he saw he was starting, Pennant said: “I felt sick.
“I thought I’d sit on the bench, drink a load of Lucozade and get some electrolytes down me and some water and recover that way.
“He pulled the whiteboard out and it said ‘Pennant’ and I did a double-take because I thought it said ‘Parlour’ but then I thought ‘no, not this week!’
“So Patrick Vieira is sitting next to me and he always looked after me and said ‘Jermaine, this is your time’ and I was like, ‘No Pat, it’s not – it’s not, leave me out!’
“I was thinking what can I do to get subbed off because I couldn’t play 90 minutes in that state – I thought, could I pretend my hamstring has gone after 20 minutes, but then I scored so I thought I’d wait until half-time.
“Then I scored a second and then got a hat-trick and thought, ‘I’m staying on’ and no one was any the wiser – sorry Arsene!”
Pennant went on to make 26 appearances for Arsenal – 12 of which came after being named in the starting XI.
Incredibly, the winger netted just three times for the Gunners during his career, meaning that all of his goals for the club came during that afternoon when still feeling the effects of that night out.
Maybe he should go out partying more often!