We had an immensely busy day before the match against Hull on Saturday and got there with just a few minutes to spare. Arsenal discourages people from bringing bags to the stadium because they have to be checked and tagged which supposedly creates delays. The true secret is that going through the bag check line is remarkably faster than entering the stadium any other way. Without the tiny line I had to enter for the contents of my purse to be reviewed and to endure a half-hearted body frisk, I would have probably missed kickoff.

As it was, I was in my seat in the North bank, kind of in the northwest corner even with the goal line, when the teams entered the field. My seat was quite low in the upper bowl, with a great view of the field. My husband’s tickets were in the northeast corner in the first row of the club section. Although you are technically in the stadium “by yourself,” it feels anything but. You are part of the crowd and not lonely. In my case, I often seem to be sitting near someone who initiates conversation and mutual emoting about the match that continues throughout the 90 minutes. There are often hugs or high fives after the match as we go our separate ways at the end. This was the case on Saturday. The seat to my left was empty but the seat next to that held my designated match buddy for the day.

Britain’s Remembrance Day honoring war dead was on Sunday and each of the Premier League games included a brief tribute in advance of the official Remembrance Day. There was a tribute before Liverpool’s match with Arsenal last weekend and there was one before the Arsenal/Hull City match on Saturday. The tribute features a military unit presenting the colors, a horn playing a tune called The Last Post, and a minute of silence. The thing there was not, much to my satisfaction, was the playing of “Good Old Arsenal,” which you know is my least favorite Arsenal tradition. I wasn’t sure whether that is a new development at Arsenal matches this season or whether it was not done because something had to be cut to accommodate the extra time required for the Remembrance Day tribute. (A new theory emerged the day after the match because we heard the tune played at the wreath-laying ceremonies at the Cenotaph the next day. “Good Old Arsenal” apparently borrows the tune from a patriotic song called “Rule, Britannia!” Perhaps it would have been considered disrespectful?)

Hull City were promoted to the Premier League at the end of last season and so far have been the team with the least ball possession in the Premier League this season. It hasn’t harmed them terribly. They were in 13th position out of 20 teams in advance of the match, having won a few matches and tying most of their matches. In recent years it’s often been the case that newly-promoted teams finish in positions 18-20 and are relegated within one season. 13th is not bad if they can maintain it. The expectation coming into the match was that Hull City would likely perform the dreaded low block that Arsenal struggle to overcome so much. Mikel Arteta selected the players who are most believed capable of picking that tactic apart.

Hull City had a surprise in store and started the match pressing Arsenal. They dominated Arsenal over the first few minutes and looked pretty dangerous. Arsenal grew into the match and had long periods of domination and ultimately Hull often did deploy a low block. Lots of good things happened, but Arsenal just didn’t seem uniformly sharp. Good passing sequences ending with that one wayward pass. That one extra touch before shooting that caused space to close down too much. Being pressured off the ball. Our striker, Kai Havertz, finding himself offside before being on the receiving end of a pass. Some badly errant shots. Our new left winger, Christos Tzolis, received a beautiful pass from Jurien Timber right in front of the goal and skied it into the Club seats. My neighbor said, “It looks like it’s going to be one of those nights!”

Arsenal were attacking the goal farther from me in the first half and Kai had a few falls that looked like dives even from where I was. A guy sitting in the row behind me was in apoplexy about the falls. “This is embarrassing.” “This is every week.” And so forth. It was not lost on the away fans either. Like the visitors so often do, every time they think Arsenal have gotten away with something–or tried to–they sing a super annoying song: “Same old Arsenal, always cheating.”

Have to say I love the way Brits enunciate the “t” in “cheating.” It’s very clear.

You’ve watched soccer so you know there can be exaggeration to get a referee’s attention. And referees get stuff wrong. Arsenal did not invent or perfect this. Nor do Arsenal players do it more than players of other teams. However, the chant is for sure Arsenal-specific. Supposedly, the origins of the chant are in Arsenal being controversially promoted into the first division in 1919, possibly via bribery, and at the expense of Tottenham. Yes, more than a century ago. The wronged have long memories.

Some people have speculated that the chant became more frequently deployed after an incident in 1999 when a Sheffield United player went down injured during an FA Cup match against Arsenal. So that he could receive treatment, a Sheffield United player kicked the ball out of play. The established sporting behavior for an opposing team’s subsequent throw-in is to throw it toward the goalkeeper of the injured player’s team so he can then start play with a kick. In this instance, an Arsenal player threw the ball toward the Sheffield United keeper, as custom encouraged, but one of Arsenal’s foreign players (who later said he didn’t know there was such a custom), ran onto the ball and scored a goal. It couldn’t be called back by the referee because the throw-in regimen was just a custom and not a rule. Arsenal won the match 2-1. In the aftermath of a bunch of on-field drama, Arsene Wenger suggested that the teams play the match again, which did happen. Arsenal won that match, same score.

There are people that consider the many goals Arsenal scored last year by set plays a form of cheating. Ridiculous, of course, but hey. Fans chant. That’s our job.

Anyway, every time Kai hit the dirt, the Hull City fans raised the “always cheating” chant. Also every time Arsenal were fouled, or Arsenal fouled Hull City, or a Hull City player simply collapsed on the grass. Arsenal fans responded without a second’s delay: “Champions of England, we know what we are.” Such a nice, all-occasion chant to have in your back pocket. And so much more satisfying than “We are top of the league.” Top of the league can be taken away from you.

With about five minutes left in the first half, another incident happened where Kai Havertz fell in the box and remonstrated that he’d been fouled. The Arsenal fan near me who was not having Kai today yelled, “He’s fallen like a sack of shit every week!” Quite a bit of time went by and Hull City had a rare moment of play in our end. And then, quite suddenly, the referee stopped the match. We understood there was a VAR review but were wracking our brains to understand whether that was possibly a penalty against us. We couldn’t think of a time a Hull City player was near the goal. At some point, it dawned on us in the stands that the play being reviewed was the one where Kai said he was fouled, long ago. When the referee is called to review a play onscreen, the result is almost always a penalty being declared. All the fans near me started ribbing the fan who’d made the “sack of shit” commentary.

While the officiating team took their time reviewing the monitor showing the play over and over the stadium became very, very quiet. Like a tennis match, everyone whispering. As it turned out, the referee and VAR ultimately concluded that Kai Havertz had been fouled by being pulled back by his shirt but that he was in an offside position when he was fouled, so no penalty was awarded. Many people think the referees got that call wrong. Kai did not make a play for the ball while in an offside position, so technically he was not offside. And a foul in the box is a foul in the box.

There was a part of me that was a little relieved Arsenal weren’t rewarded a penalty only a week after Jurien Timber committed a similar foul against Liverpool that we were not penalized for. Then again, it’s easy to magnanimously give up a clear penalty when we ultimately managed an undisputed goal far into the second half. Noni Madueke had a pretty good match, finding ways to drive past his defender. He hit a hard shot and the keeper spilled the ball. It was slammed into the net by Martin Odegaard.

Not the prettiest goal but it was a goal. We enjoyed it as much as a pretty one.

At this point the hope was that we would now challenge for a second goal and that is what Arsenal apparently decided to do. But the same little niggles that kept the game tight persisted during the period after the goal. It was good to see us not just try to defend and waste time but there was certainly some risk. The clock ticked down second by second. Nightmare.

That said, a shocking number of Arsenal fans left early. It’s as if they know Arsenal can hold a 1-0 lead. For days. And thus, surely, for 15 minutes.

That is a level of surety I cannot hold. Mikel Arteta was looking as stressed out as he’d been since the beginning of the match. He strayed from his technical area while an assistant encouraged him back in. He looked like he did not appreciate the reminder. I did not see this, but I heard after the match that a foul late in the game had him kicking a chair in frustration.

I stayed until the end. A hug with my neighbor, and then I ran out to meet my husband by the Wenger statue.

It was a funny, quiet crowd we were walking among back to Arsenal station. So used to a 1-0 score line? Too early in the day to have enough beer to be boisterous? More relieved than happy? Hard to say.

It felt so good to be back in the stadium even for–in retrospect–a fairly routine win. Now to try to somehow get tickets again.