Tag: soccer

Plane ride to paradise

Amy OLeave a comment

The next morning it was back to Heathrow and a connection through Dublin, then the long flight to Chicago. I was surprised to see so many Arsenal shirts on my flight to Dublin. In fact, all three of us in left row 28 had been to The Emirates the night before.

Interestingly, Aer Lingus does not land in Chicago in the International terminal so you go through customs in Dublin. After getting off the flight, you are routed through literal TSA, where your carry-on bags go through Security again and then you go through passport control.

In the Security line, we were told by a harried TSA agent to remove our shoes unless we were age 75 or older or under 12. A passenger in the line a few people in front of me asked if he had to remove his shoes if he was Global Entry. The Security agent waited until he was out of earshot and muttered, “Yes, you have to remove your shoes even if you are a prick with Global Entry.”

I took my shoes off cooperatively, hoping no one would think I was over 75. Then I slinked over to Global Entry, which I am also lucky enough to have. It does save a ton of time when you return from a trip. Even if you have to remove shoes along the way.

It never occurred to me that I’d have to get through customs in Dublin and the timing of my connection was kind of tight. I had time to have a cup of tea and we boarded the flight to Chicago shortly thereafter. I had spent time in both Heathrow and the Dublin airport reviewing content after the Arsenal match. Since there was so much activity after the match, it was a while before the normal manager interviews were produced.

One thing that surprised me in the Mikel Arteta interview was his comments about Man City’s match with Bournemouth which was to take place that same night I flew back to Chicago, Tuesday. Up until that point, Arteta had been dogged, when the press asked him what he hoped would happen in any upcoming Man City match or would he be watching Man City’s next match, that he was only focused on what he can control. He insisted each time that he can only focus on the next match his team plays. And they would work as hard as possible to have the “right” to win it.

In contrast, every time Pep Guardiola, Man City’s manager was asked a similar question he spoke openly about how he was rooting for Arsenal’s opponent. When Arsenal were going to play West Ham next, he said jokingly that he had offered to West Ham to serve as an assistant coach. He had said there was “no doubt” that Burnley could take something off of Arsenal. And with regard to Arsenal’s last match of the season against Crystal Palace, he openly supported them. He made a special point after Man City’s match against Crystal Palace to shake the hands of many Crystal Palace players, to put an arm around them in camaraderie.

So it was interesting in speaking with the press after the Burnley match that when Mikel Arteta was asked if he would watch Bournemouth vs. Man City, he said he would watch it with his family and that he was going to be Bournemouth’s biggest fan. No more being focused only on his next match and what he could control. A strange turn of events.

To review the title race as it stood on Tuesday morning, if Arsenal won the last match against Crystal Palace away, there would be nothing Man City could do to stop Arsenal from winning the title. If Man City won both of its upcoming matches, the one against Bournemouth and the one against Aston Villa, and Arsenal tied or lost to Crystal Palace, the title would be Man City’s, decided on the first tiebreaker, goal difference.

There is no way Man City was going to lose to Aston Villa. Aston Villa are managed by Arsenal’s old manager, Unai Emery, and he usually radiates tremendous bitterness against Arsenal. And Aston Villa were solidly in Champions League spots for next year with no concerns they might fall out. And finally, Aston Villa were playing in the final of the Europa League this week, Wednesday. They had a great chance of winning, and winning equals party and, let’s face it, after that who cares about winning the last match against Man City?

So that left two hopes for Arsenal. #1: Win away from home on Sunday against a good team, Crystal Palace. Or #2: hope Man City ties or loses at Bournemouth. It wasn’t a crazy hope. Man City didn’t look good over the weekend, regardless of their ultimate win, and Bournemouth has a great record at home. Arsenal only tied Bournemouth when we visited recently.

But you know. It’s Man City. I felt pretty resigned to having to sit through a tight, horrible match against Crystal Palace next Sunday. And the many things can happen in that match.

I was going to be on the plane back to Chicago during the Bournemouth v. Man City match and almost certainly would not be able to watch it. I’m pretty sure I would not have even tried. I feel like when I watch, Man City inevitably scores. Especially if they are losing or tied when I start watching. I usually try to not even follow the score line, which probably would have been possible even on the plane.

But the match was going to be over several hours before I got off the plane and I was hoping to be able to know our fate at some point before that.

It did not happen. I was unable to connect at all with wifi on the plane. I watched three movies, two of which I had seen before. I ate pasta lunch and a snack. I listened to calming music for the last 45 minutes. I had my phone fully charged so I would be ready to go the second we touched down in Chicago.

And remember, I was hopeful, but I kind of just knew we were going to have to get through that last match on Sunday. It’s been that kind of year.

The wheels hit earth and we were still skidding to a stop when I had my phone in hand and off airplane mode. A few seconds later I was trying to open the BBC Scores and Fixtures page in Chrome. It loaded interminably and then, bing, bing, bing. So many text and What’sApp messages coming up, one after the other. Congratulating me on the title, woohooing at me, OMGing me. All from different people who don’t know each other, so surely they were not banded together to punk me?

And then the BBC page loaded. It was already Wednesday in England so the BBC page was showing the upcoming Aston Villa match in the Europa League rather than Tuesday’s results. I clicked back to Tuesday and there it was. Man City had only managed a 1-1 tie with Bournemouth. A gap in points they could not overcome with only one match remaining.

Arsenal were Champions. For the first time in 22 years. For the first time since they’ve been my team. And it doesn’t matter what happens on Sunday.

I was overcome with joy. And so much relief. And on a plane with a bunch of strangers and not able to shout out with glee. I was harboring so much of it in my body. Tears rose in my eyes.

The rest of it is a blur. Since returning to Chicago I’ve wasted so much time watching the celebrations all over the world, including the Arsenal players celebrating from their training center where they watched the match together.

One thing stands out more than anything. As Man City was playing and it was looking like they would not win, Arsenal fans started leaving their houses and flats all over the city of London. They walked, rode, and drove over to The Emirates like Monarch butterflies coming back to their home.

Thousands of people around the stadium and on the streets of North London. Hugging, crying, singing, celebrating. Being washed in champagne. In this moment where there was nothing planned by the club and no one expected even to see the players, they needed to be together.

They stayed there for hours. A few players did get over to The Emirates at about 5 a.m. and took selfies with the remaining die hards.

The other thing that stands out in all my viewing is the wonderful video released by Arsenal that I think sums up this season so beautifully. The club was ready to go if the moment struck, but that video might have been consigned to the trash heap. Probably several others have in the past few years. Arsene Wenger to kick it off! You know I love that.

Mikel Arteta was nowhere to be seen in the videos of the players celebrating for several days when finally a few photos were made public of him with the team in a nightclub somewhere in London Tuesday night or Wedensday morning.

It came out more recently that Arteta did not watch the match with his family as he said he would in the interview after the Burnley match. A plan for players and staff to watch the match at the training center had been made at the request of the players on Tuesday. Martin Odegaard had asked Mikel and his staff to be there. But at the last moment, Arteta found himself in the viewing space and realized he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be present. Instead he drove home, where he found his family watching the match. He went into his yard, lit a fire, and commenced barbecuing. He stayed outside for the entire match. He said it felt like forever. At last his son came out the door. He was crying. “We are champions, Daddy.”

What a beautiful moment for the young man who has worked so hard in his first managerial job. And for his family who no doubt bore much of the stress. And for the players and all of us who joined them on this journey.

There is a different takeaway. Arteta didn’t watch the match. I didn’t watch it. I understand Declan Rice didn’t watch it. We were controlling what we are able to control, which is making Arsenal succeed by not letting Man City see us looking at them.

You’re welcome, Arsenal community.

Penultimate challenge

Amy OLeave a comment

The club had been so happy with how things went before the Atletico Madrid match a few weeks ago they suggested for the Burnley match that fans “Greet the coach.” When I first saw the announcement from the club I thought it was some event where you get to see Mikel Arteta. But then I rewound in my head what happened before the Atletico Madrid match. They asked the fans to be in the road outside the stadium to welcome the team bus. Bus = coach.

It was quite early, though. They suggested arriving for the event at 5:45 p.m. and then the bus–er, coach–would come through at around 6:15. But the match would not start until 8, a long time to be at the stadium.

I decided I would go. Being all riled up before you enter the stadium seemed like a good plan for all concerned. I did take the precaution of acquiring a sandwich and some chips from Pret a Manger to eat before going into the stadium. The stadium grounds seemed kind of empty as I stepped out of the Arsenal station. I had expected a lot more people. But then I got to the west end of the stadium. It was packed. And the road beneath it was jammed with thousands of people. I waded in and joined the chanting. The fans went through all the player chants they could think of and then the general chants. Suddenly, people began lighting red flares and red smoke was everywhere. It had a pretty overwhelming smell but I found as a short person I could keep my nose mostly under it. And then, there it was, looming through the red smoke like a giant whale in bloody water. The coach carrying the players. Just as quickly, it was gone.

The fans gathered there hung out for quite a while. While I was waiting for the coach I had spotted the famous tunnel where an artist known as “Northbanksy” has placed graffiti art focused on Arsenal players. As many times as I’ve been to the Emirates, I never knew where it was. I wandered over and took some photos and then went back through the grounds and sought out a picnic spot. There is a lot of seating near the Tony Adams statue but I decided that the area near the Arsene Wenger statue would probably be a bit less populated. I would have one peaceful moment before entering the stadium.

As I walked over, I did notice a large group congregating by the statue. But I was right. On the benches facing the statue there was only one other guy. Like me, he had a Pret a Manger bag. We raised our bags toward each other in salute. And in front of the Wenger statue was an enormous group of delighted Asian Arsenal fans. They took dozens of pictures of their group in various poses in front of the statue. After enjoying his dinner, my picnic companion leaned in toward my ear as he left the scene. “They must have paid a fortune for tickets!”

Having eaten my sandwich I walked all the way around to the other side of the stadium and entered, made my way up to the concourse outside my section in the Clock end. There was so much time, I invested in a Guinness and watched the pregame analysis on Sky Sports as well as you can with no sound on the television. By then the starting lineup had been announced and it was a nice-looking one with Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze both starting in midfield and Kai Havertz at striker. Most else exactly as the game at West Ham, which started pretty similar to Fulham and Atletico Madrid. Big exception being no Ben White, who was seriously injured in the West Ham match. He won’t be back this season and was replaced in this match with Cristhian Mosquera. And of course with Odegaard in the lineup, Myles Lewis-Skelly was listed as a substitute.

Since I last wrote about Arsenal’s standings in the league, not much had changed except for after the win by Arsenal at West Ham, Man City had a match at home against Crystal Palace, which they won handily, 3-0. Which means no matter what happened in Monday’s match against Burnley, Arsenal could not win the league on Monday. And, if Arsenal did win the match, the title race was going to go into the last week, probably even into the last game. Man City had won the FA Cup on the prior Saturday against Chelsea. To be honest, they didn’t look like much but they had enough in the tank to win by scoring once, late in the match. Their next Premier League match would be Tuesday against Bournemouth. And then both Arsenal and Man City would have matches on the last day of the season, Sunday.

And if Arsenal did not win against Burnley? Well, technically all would not be lost but we’d be out of the driver’s seat. We’d have to hope for a lot of bad stuff to happen to Man City. A club for which not much bad stuff usually happens.

Burnley has a player formerly with Man City, Kyle Walker. I saw reports in Social media that Kyle Walker had promised Burnley would take something off Arsenal. Given the state of social media, I don’t know if that comment actually was made. I also saw that Man City’s coach, Pep Guardiola, had said he has “no doubts” that Burley could produce something. However, you ask yourself, if Burnley could win at will, why they didn’t win enough games to stay in the Premier League? Their relegation has been certain since April 22. And who did they lose to that day? Man City beat them 1-0 at the Etihad. Still, in their most recent match, they did manage a draw at Aston Villa, often a tough place to visit. And even though as a team they have very little reason to dedicate themselves to a win, the players have individual reasons to impress. When they go down to the Championship, Burnley might need to lighten their salary load so some players may find themselves sold back into the Premier League. Scoring a goal against Arsenal might give a Premier League team reason to consider your plight.

I made way to my seat where exactly one other person was already sitting in the row and it happened to be right next to my seat. We chatted a little bit about the seats (his was a season ticket), kids, jobs and, naturally, Donald Trump, as the section started to fill up. He told me my seat was owned by a guy who moved out of London and, yes, the change in match date and time had been what contributed to him selling on the exchange. The fan to my left also had bought his seat from a season ticket holder and was as delighted as can be to be there. He introduced himself to everyone around him and received a warm welcome. Speaking of warm, because it was a night game, there were cannons all along the East side of the stadium shooting flames into the air. We were far from the cannons but the warmth in the air when they shot into the sky was unbelievable. The people on the East side of the stadium must have been cooking.

Like every team, Burnley probably has three kits. The one they chose for this match, light blue and and lighter blue stripe, had an effect from distance similar to Man City’s home kit. It did make me feel uneasy.

The stadium was loud loud loud. North London Forever was about as intense as I’ve ever heard it and the chants were nearly nonstop. Because I was in the Clock End, Arsenal were driving toward the goal in front of me for the first half. Burnley started strongly and a bit worryingly, but Arsenal regained control. As expected, Burnley kept many players behind the ball at all times and breaking through was challenging. Working in such close quarters, Burnley would get the ball and lose it to pressure, followed by Arsenal getting the ball and losing it to pressure. There was a lot of time wasting, particularly by Burnley’s goalkeeper. Kyle Walker was booed every time he touched the ball.

Arsenal were able to get several shots off. One, by Saka, was deflected out for a corner kick. Saka took the kick and went short. Even though Arsenal fans seem to hate short corners, no one near me complained. There was a near-glorious moment a bit later when Leo Trossard took a thundering shot that hit the goal post farther from us. The ball rebounded to a place the nearest Arsenal player was unable to get to it. Not too long after that, Burnley managed a scary counterattack that ended with a misfired shot. Phew.

A bit later Saka drove into the box and as he went to kick the ball it looked like he was fouled. Never before in that stadium have I heard such sustained boos for the referee when he waved it away. The subsequent VAR check agreed with the referee. We didn’t like it. I’ve seen that one on TV after the match and still think it’s a foul on Saka. The defender only gets to the ball because he’s hooked Saka’s foot. I’m just glad Saka was not badly injured. That was one of those awkward moments where something bad can happen.

After some sweet team play ended with a shot by Odegaard being deflected, Arsenal were given another corner kick. Saka took the kick again, across the goal into a place that I think many goal keepers would be able to get to. Kai Havertz jumped into a cloud of blue shirts and had no problem hitting the target using his head. We went crazy as he ran in front of us to celebrate in the corner. A trademark set piece goal for this crazy season. A lot of hugs and high-fives in our section.

Saka had one more shot before halftime that wasn’t far from the goal, but a miss is a miss.1-0 as the stadium emptied out for beer and a bathroom break.

At this point, many teams might open up in quest of an answering goal, but it seemed Burnley were determined to limit the damage. They deployed roughly the same strategy in the second half as the first. It was frustrating for sure. There were a couple good Arsenal attempts on goal that ended with missed shots by Eze. There was at least one attack by Burnley into our end that resulted in an errant shot well above the goal. The most worrying event involved an incident with Kai Havertz. It occurred far from where I was and I did not have a good look at it. Havertz apparently fouled a Burnley player and received a yellow card for his troubles. But the incident went to a long VAR review to determine if it shouldn’t really be a red card. We would have played 25+ minutes with 10 men if VAR intervened.

VAR’s determination was that the yellow card was good enough. Gyokeres had been warming up on the sidelines before this was happening so perhaps the subsequent substitution Mikel Arteta made did not 100% reflect a decision to not take any chances with Havertz on a yellow that referees might be inclined to take make-up action on later. Whatever his reasoning, Havertz was removed for Gyokeres shortly thereafter in a three-sub replacement that also saw Myles Lewis-Skelly replace Eze and Hincapie replace Califiori.

At this point, the crowd was trying hard to stay behind the team but it had been painful. Not much good had happened. Not much bad either, but that’s besides the point. We were hanging onto a one-goal lead. Logically, Burnley had done very little to trouble us, but it only takes a moment. And we had taken a number of shots that for one reason or another failed to hit the target. Fouls were flying fast and furious. I was almost more worried someone would get injured. We need everyone to stay healthy.

That’s a lie I’ve told myself. The thing that had me more worried than anything was, without a doubt, that they might score.

The fourth official announced 7 minutes of added time we had to get through. Then David Raya was fouled badly and fell awkwardly right in front of us. He looked to be in a lot of pain but eventually was able to continue. And again, yes, I’m worried about injuries. Briefly. There were more Arsenal subs. And now, with the pause in play for David Raya’s injury and the subs, no one in the stadium knew how long we had to hang on for.

I’m dying.

After a long lifetime, the whistle blew. We had won. 1-0. I was shaking, more than I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve felt shaken at the end of a match many times this season.

And then, because it was the last home match of the season, even though it was late “on a school night,” most people in the stadium stayed in place to hear speeches by Martin Odegaard and Mikel Arteta and celebrate the players as they walked around the pitch to cheer and be cheered. When Mikel Arteta stepped to the microphone the stadium broke out in the must uproarious version of “We’ve got Super Mik Arteta” I’ve ever heard. It was repeated again and again, each time louder than the last.

He might never have gotten to speak, but he broke in. He sounded close to tears as he thanked everyone in the club and the fans for their support. He reminded us we have one more match in the Premier League to go after.

We would have to live in this uncertain world for one more week. After which we would know if we have what it takes to bring this title over the line.

Did I feel confident? I’m an Arsenal fan. We have been through so much. 22 years since we last took the title. I’ve been a fan for more than 15 of those years. Too much could happen. Has happened.

So, while I felt hopeful and I thought these players, this manager, could do it, “confident” was a bridge too far.

Adrenaline junkie makes a decision

Amy OLeave a comment

Not long before I retired, I was working with my tech counterpart on a thorny problem in our financial planning software that we needed to solve quickly. I had been working from home since the pandemic, and while we were working through the problem, happened to run into my husband on a trip to the kitchen to get more coffee. “Why did I get into this profession?” I asked rhetorically. My husband scoffed, “Because you’re an adrenaline junkie.”

My life post-retirement involves very little adrenaline. I work occasionally in a food pantry, menial tasks like making sure shopping carts are returned from the parking lot to the pantry or breaking up boxes or packaging diapers. I take fitness classes. I work in my garden, where I am currently establishing the hardscape for what I am calling my “secret” garden. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I read.

Frankly, only my life around Arsenal involves regular adrenaline. Watching games, I’m almost always in a state of anxiety. Maybe more this season than in other seasons, because the stakes are so high and the games have been so tight. So many games decided by only a goal. A few games lost because we let a late goal in.

In a year in which we are so close to winning the Premier League and the Champions League, imagining the good things that could happen–or the bad things–have actually made me lose sleep. It’s an admittedly stupid reason to lose sleep, but explain that to my wide-awake self in the middle of the night. It will fall on ears that can’t begin to care what you have to say about it.

My available time has caused me to build more of my habits around matches. Podcasts come out before the match, to anticipate what may happen, and come out after the match, to revisit what happened and why. So in a normal week this season, there has been a match over the weekend and a match during the week. That is a minimum of two matches and four podcasts. Plus I almost always watch more than just our match in a given week. Usually, much much more. Sometimes with high stakes for Arsenal and some not. And every day I take in news–from the club, from news sources covering football, and from blogs. Way too much from social media. I’ve learned that there are some sources that are actively bad for me and I’ve tried to cut them out or at least minimize their presence in my life, especially at a sensitive time. After a bad loss, for example, I will lean on sources that are more thoughtful and steer clear of click-bait and hot takes. But then I’m left to my own brain, which is its own fun house of histrionics.

One of the reasons I love watching matches live at the Emirates is there is counterpoint action to my anxiety. Something about shouting or singing together with others can be a bit of a change of subject as the action is unfolding before you. If I’m singing that Gabriel is the king of Brazil because of something awesome he just did, I might feel less inclined to have a fit over someone’s subsequent misplaced pass. Or I might have a defensive or protective reaction if the crowd starts to show its frustration over something that happened on field. I love this team so much; how can anyone be mean to them?

And so many things happen in a group that big that bring a smile to your face or are especially touching, like when the Arsenal fans sang to Smith-Rowe when he was injured in the Fulham match or when everyone sings North London Forever at the beginning of the match. And when things have gone well, there is nothing better than sharing that moment with a giant crowd. We overcame something together and now we’re on an adrenaline high together.

I enjoy watching football on my couch in the Chicago suburbs, or I wouldn’t do so much of it, but it’s not the same as being in the stadium.

Ever since I was able to first attend a number of matches during the 2015-2016 season, it’s been my goal to try to be at the last home match of each season. That’s because I’m always sure this is the year we’ll get the Premier League trophy and it will be bestowed upon us on that day. Because my original access to tickets involved a share of season tickets, I would make a request at the beginning of the season to have that last match. Usually, no one competed with me for that date. That was in the days where I guess no one except me thought winning the Premier League was going to happen. That got harder after I successfully got the tickets for the last home match in 2023 and Arsenal really did come close to winning it for the first time in a long time. They just kind of ran out of gas at the end and Man City won.

After that year, the demand for tickets increased a lot and for whatever reason there wasn’t room for me in the group that shared the season tickets anymore.

That’s when my husband and I joined Arsenal as “Red” members so we could participate in the ballot and, failing that, in the Arsenal ticket exchange. It’s worked out pretty well for us. We normally ballot for every match unless we know for sure the timing won’t work. When we’ve really wanted to attend but didn’t succeed in the ballot, we’ve almost always been able to get tickets on the exchange, but it requires a lot of work and repetitive clicking. And you can’t ballot until very close to the match, usually less than a month out with results being shared several weeks out. Then you have to be able to set up flights on short notice, which sometimes means big expense. We’ve mostly gotten lucky on that, too.

Always if we’ve failed to get tickets, we’ve failed to get tickets for both of us. Usually, that failure has come for the most important matches. Matches in the quarter- or semi-finals of the Champions League, for example. Last matches of the season when the title is on the line. For example, the last match of the season in 2024, when Arsenal might have won the league if only Man City lost that day. (We could not get the tickets, but Man City also did not lose in the end.)

Arsenal’s last home game this season was to be against Burnley, a team that appeared to be headed toward relegation at the time the ballot was made available for application. But Arsenal were doing well and the ballot was especially popular. We learned we were not successful in the ballot on March 31. For about a month I tried to get tickets on the exchange with no success and really very little selling activity visible. Then Sky Sports, the broadcasting company that gets to control the world, decided to move the Burnley match from a Sunday afternoon to a Monday night. Terrible for the fans who had tickets and made travel plans, etc. And not a great time for a match.

But for us, that created opportunity since it meant the new game time might not work out for everyone who had a ticket and maybe there would be some action on the exchange.

Now that I’ve explained this, I think you might see that dealing with the exchange is a different, sick source of adrenaline in my life. I was listening to an episode about gambling on the podcast This American Life a few weeks ago and one of the things they mentioned is that a gambler who is not addicted to gambling will process a near-miss while gambling, correctly, as a loss. But a person who is addicted will process that near-miss as a win and double down. That’s how I am on the exchange. If I see a ticket for sale and I’m not successful in buying it, that will count for me as a near-miss and I will become dogged about continuing to try. Fortunately, counter to gambling as an addiction, there is not much money I can lose due to my addiction to the exchange. I usually can’t even get to the stage where I can give them my money.

Because Sky Sports is a jerk, a few tickets did come up as I anticipated and I was able to snag one within two days of the date change. On the exchange, you can designate people in your friend group and it’s possible for me to buy a ticket and assign it to anyone in my group who is eligible, in this case, myself, my husband, or my son. My son usually can’t attend because he’s a tax accountant and the Spring is so busy, but he wanted to attend this one.

I always assign the first ticket I get to myself, then work on a ticket for my husband. I always jokingly say it’s because of the airline’s admonishment to “put your own mask on first before helping others.” In reality, it’s because getting to most matches is probably more important to me than it is to him. And getting to this match, the last home game of the season? That’s my value, not his. Still, he is happy to attend, likes to attend. So, as usual, I assigned that Burnley ticket to me.

And that was it. I was never able to get another ticket despite hours of trying across 2-3 weeks. And I saw so few, I had very little confidence one would turn up late. Neither my husband nor my son were able to find a ticket either.

My husband and son only wanted to come to London if they had a ticket for the match and only I had a ticket. At some point a decision had to be made. Do none of us go? Do I go alone?

I had a fair amount of guilt about being the only one with a ticket. I second-guessed my decision to always assign first to myself. And it didn’t feel quite right going without them. I’m the biggest Arsenal fan in my household but love of Arsenal is shared with my family. It’s a pleasure partly because it’s shared.

At the same time, it’s the last game of the season. In a season in which Arsenal really might win it all and really might be awarded that trophy that night. And even if that didn’t happen, would still be an important game.

My husband was pressing me to organize my flight before fares rose prohibitively. I sat with him on the same couch I normally stress out watching Arsenal and described why I was struggling to make a decision. My husband is a good listener and as we discussed my reasons for going or not going it became clear even to me I was not being logical. At all. I didn’t have good reasons to go or not go.

I put my headphones on, started listening to the Arseblog podcast, and went out to work in the garden. The podcast was about the West Ham match we had just won, barely, and with some late drama that almost saw us conceding a goal until it was ruled out (rightly, say all Arsenal fans) by VAR. A tie would have put a serious dent in our quest for the title.

At some point, even though I still didn’t have a logical explanation, I knew what I should do. I came back in the house and booked a flight.

Where they belong

Amy OLeave a comment

“I’m in tears.” That was the text message from my former colleague at the conclusion of the Arsenal semi-final match vs. Atletico Madrid. I had not heard from him for more than two years when he left the company we both worked for. He is a huge Arsenal fan and if we have little else in common, we do have that. He even has “Arsenal” tattooed on his forearm in giant, brand-correct letters. And that tearful sensation seemed to be the feeling many Arsenal fans had, including me. You just wanted to reach out to people who can understand what we’ve all been through. And relive it. And smile for once.

What a wonderful week! It seemed everything came good. Arsenal managed to beat Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League semifinal and on aggregate, putting us into the Champions League final in Budapest for only the second time in Arsenal’s history.

And Man City dropped points in the Premier League the day prior by only tying Everton. It was a mad match, with Man City scoring first near the end of the first half, then Everton scoring three unanswered goals, then (of course they did) Man City scoring two goals near the end of the match. We vowed not to watch the match on TV. It’s been established as bad luck. But we did occasionally check in on the scores.

Which means Arsenal are in the driver’s seat for the Premier League. Win the three matches remaining and we are Premier League champions. And in Champion’s League, we have to win just one more match.

I say that as if it’s easy. Only the math I employed there is easy.

My husband and I were not ultimately able to get tickets for the Atletico Madrid match, which we understood was a likely outcome at the outset. We put in the work on the exchange, but it was not to be. We ended up watching the match, somewhat coincidentally, in The Hope, the pub where we watched the Real Madrid quarter-finals when we couldn’t get tickets that time either. It’s not really an Arsenal pub and it was not packed with people but most of the people who were present were Arsenal fans. And we got a good result in that pub for Real Madrid, so it seemed like a good place to be.

I say that as if it was just fine we couldn’t be there in person. It was not fine. The atmosphere at the Emirates looked amazing. Best ever. The club encouraged fans to be on hand to greet the players’ bus as it rode into the stadium and it looked like pure pandemonium. There was a big light and cannon show before the match. A huge, new tifo. And the stadium was so loud. Definitely a good counterpoint to the first leg that was in Madrid. Which was loud and came, bizarrely, with numerous rolls of toilet paper unfurling.

Mikel Arteta surprised everyone by rewarding the starting players who had done so well in the Fulham match, contrary to the prevailing narrative that he would use players he rested for that match. He didn’t make a single change in the lineup. And they rewarded his reward by playing well and dominating most of the match. There were a few scary moments but Arsenal looked really solid.

Only one goal was scored, but it was enough. Just before halftime, William Saliba spotted Viktor Gyokeres starting a run down the right flank and made simple, long pass. Gyokeres was given some time to control the ball and loft it to Trossard on the opposite side. Trossard pushed the ball toward the goal and made a solid shot, which the goal keeper punched out. Atletico’s defenders seemed asleep at the switch, but there was Bukayo Saka to hit it past the keeper and into the net. Not beautiful in the traditional sense, but it created some beautiful feelings.

Most matches do not seem won when Arsenal are up by only one goal, but this one kind of did. Arteta was able to make earlyish subs in the second half and get some rest into players who had done heavy lifting over the week and we were able to keep Atletico under control.

The celebrations at the final whistle were incredible. Some fans were in tears, some players were in tears. There was a lot of jumping and singing. Cannons were shot off again. Even Mikel Arteta did a crazy little dance with Trossard. In a funny turnabout, instead of giving his jersey to a fan, a fan gave Saka a scarf. Declan Rice was interviewed after the match and said the dressing room was “chaos.”

We’ve been home for more than a week now and Arsenal have already played West Ham in the Premier League, a cagey 0-1 win. One of the narratives for the half week until the West Ham match was played was Arsenal haven’t won the Champions League competition, why have they celebrated so much after winning only the semi-final? Celebrate when you win something. So in the press conference before the West Ham match, Mikel Arteta was asked what he thought about that.

Arteta said he hadn’t heard that kind of talk. Ultimately, he said, “You have to respect every opinion and place them where they belong.” The reporter who asked the question followed up, asking where Arteta has placed these opinions about the over-celebration. “Where they belong,” he said, obtusely, with a smirk.

Man oh man, I love this guy. I love this team.

Paris Saint-Germain won their second leg against Bayern Munich in the other semi-final a day later, so Arsenal will face PSG in Budapest at the end of May. PSG was chill about the win that placed them in the final. In one form of celebration, their fans lit cars on fire in the streets of Paris.

PSG are certainly favorites to win the competition, but I’m counting on Arsenal to give it a go.

And, naturally, hoping to be able to complete at least one sanctioned celebration this month.

I would have to be there

Amy OLeave a comment

As we were circling the Emirates in advance of the Fulham match, I overheard a conversation between several Arsenal fans walking behind us. They were discussing how they plan to view the last match of the season, which will be played away at Crystal Palace. The conversation took on tones of people imagining winning Power Ball: How would they spend all that money?

The impact of our losing against Bournemouth and Man City two weeks prior had put a giant dent in our title hopes which had been looking great for most of the season. Technically, if Man City were to win all their matches and Arsenal were to win all our matches, we would be tied on points earned. The league winner would then be decided by tie breakers, first being goal difference, second being goals scored. As of the time of the Fulham match, Man City and Arsenal were tied on goal difference but Man City had a higher number of goals scored. And in Arsenal’s match the prior weekend, at home no less and against in-a-world-of-hurt Newcastle, we had barely eked out a winning goal. It was pure torture to watch. And, needless to say, was not a harbinger of needed goals galore. Meanwhile, Man City looked to be turning into a magnificent machine as they so often do in the Spring. Depressing stuff.

So this conversation on which I was eavesdropping outside the stadium seemed particularly fanciful. The most hopeful fan was telling his friends he imagined he would watch the last match of the season between Arsenal and Crystal Palace at a pub in North London so he could experience it with Arsenal fans. And if Arsenal were winning by many goals, he would hop on the Tube and head over to Crystal Palace’s stadium, Selhurst Park. Because, as he explained it, “I know I can’t be in the grounds, but I would have to be there.”

My husband and I hadn’t been successful in the ballot for tickets to the Fulham match but then were eligible to look for tickets on Arsenal’s ticket exchange. I had felt confident we would be able to get tickets for this match and we had done the unthinkable, booking nonrefundable air tickets and hotel before we had any match tickets. With a million clicks I was able to find tickets the day before we travelled to London. Interesting that there had been so much angst online about Arsenal’s prospects for the Premier League among presumed fans (Bottled again!) while at the same time, fewer ticket holders than usual were selling tickets and a greater number of people were wanting to buy them. The market for tickets speaks more softly then the internet but methinks it tells more truth.

I could understand the feelings of my overheard compatriot in wanting to be ready in case the good thing we’ve all be dreaming of looked like it might imminently happen. While I was not quite ready to imagine planning that final day of the season, I was certainly charmed by the sentiment. I could see him outside Selhurst Park in the cool of the early evening, maybe his pint glass still in hand, looking up at the stadium lights, and smiling at the sound of cheers inside the stadium. Dreams fulfilled.

Using the exchange means my husband and I were not sitting together because you really can only get one ticket at a time. Both of our seats were in the club section in the North Bank, but mine were in the West corner and my husband’s were in the East corner. I was in my seat in time to see Arsenal’s pre-match sendoff for Per Mertesacker, our intrepid former defender who’s been in charge of Arsenal’s youth academy since he retired from playing. Always loved that guy. He, Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, and Hector Bellerin formed the last really excellent defensive line I can recall until recent years.

I wondered if the stadium would erupt with the chant we’d used for him. He did reference it in his short remarks, calling himself a “Big friendly German” instead of the word starting with “F” we actually used, very lovingly. Although there usually is no hesitation on our part about flinging out some pretty rude chants, for some reason the one we used for Per only 10 years ago felt a bit culturally inappropriate now. Anyway, if the chant was only sporadically sung during the presentation before the match, he got a big round of applause for the good work he’s done with the Academy.

Three of the Academy’s protégés featured for Arsenal in the Fulham match. Mikel Arteta reached into his wildest dreams and determined that Academy alumnus Myles Lewis-Skelly would start in midfield, something that only almost happened in (I think) an FA cup match earlier this year. On that occasion Myles instead ended up replacing Riccardo Calafiori at left back when he was injured in the warm-up. That replacement was not fully unexpected: Myles made his big breakthrough at 18 years old last season at left back when Calafiori had a long-term injury. Myles was very, very good at left back. But this season we’ve not seen him much in any position even though he’s mostly been healthy. Other players have been preferred even though Calafiori has been injured a lot. Somehow Myles has not been giving Arteta what he wants to see. Football qualities aside, Myles seems to be of very different character than Arteta as well. I wonder if he rubs him the wrong way. A bit of a show boat. A trash talker. New Arsenal player Martin Zubimendi has been the preferred choice in midfield for most of the season, but he was a substitute on this day.

Bukayo Saka is also a product of the Academy and we were pleasantly surprised to see him in the starting lineup after a lengthy period out with an achilles strain. He’s been playing a few minutes from the bench for the last few weeks. We’ve seriously missed his influence in attack. And wunderkind Max Dowman, still a part of the Academy at 16, was on the bench as a substitute.

It turns out that Fulham has several Arsenal Academy alumni as well, which is one of the reasons I have a small affinity for Fulham. Alex Iwobi was out injured for this match but Emil Smith-Rowe was named as a starter. These players left Arsenal at different times, both after playing for a few years in the senior team and both under circumstances that have not damaged Arsenal fans’ high opinions of them. In particular, Smith-Rowe has Favored Son status. He was an integral part of Arteta’s early teams that showed sparks of an exciting future to come. Unfortunately, he’s experienced many injuries and is not the player he once was, or promised to be. Even at Fulham, he is often used from the bench and starts mostly when others are injured. Fulham also have goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who formerly played for Arsenal. The other reason I kind of like Fulham: they long had American star Clint Dempsey before he briefly went to the Dark Side, Tottenham, and then to the MLS.

In any case, I put my “small affinity” aside. Today Fulham is my mortal enemy.

In addition to the surprise of Myles Lewis-Skelly at midfield and Bukayo Saka starting at all, Mikel Arteta had put together an unexpectedly swashbuckling lineup. This match was sandwiched between two Champions League fixtures and it seemed today’s lineup was designed to protect and rest players who would be in the next leg of that competition only a few days from now.

If swashbuckling was the intent, Arteta got more than his money’s worth. This was probably the most exciting and inventive Arsenal I’ve seen for a while. Myles Lewis-Skelly was masterful, kept everything ticking. Riccardo Calafiori and Eberechi Eze were chaos merchants. Bukayo Saka and Leo Trossard brought bite to our attack we haven’t had for a long time. Viktor Gyokeres, who has taken so much shit about his technical skills and goal contributions (which actually are pretty darned good), fought all day and delivered good build up play, better than I’ve ever seen from him. Declan Rice, Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel, and David Raya were all excellent.

And the Emirates was rocking. So, so loud. In these times when the team isn’t doing so well and the fans are a bit depressed, you often hear pundits and podcasters asking something to the effect of “is it the players job to excite the crowd or the crowd’s job to excite the players?” I’m glad no one was navel-gazing on this question when I was there. The players were doing the best they could and the crowd was doing the best they could. Whether they believed the other guy was doing his job or not.

I was sitting in front of an extremely loud fan. He was so off-key and so loud, you just wanted to join him. And maybe cover him up a bit. It was not easy. His funniest bit was in chant commonly sung by Arsenal fans over the past 3-4 years. The chant goes like this:

We won the field at Anfield

We won it at the Lane

Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford

No one can say the same

We’re in Arteta’s army

We’re Arsenal through and through

We’ll sing it in the North Bank

And in the Clock End too

Allez allez allez (repeated a bunch of times)

At some point over the last few years, fans altered the second line slightly: “We won it at the Lane – TWICE!!!”

And this guy behind me added one more new thing. After we sung “We’re Arsenal through and through” he shouts “Where do we sing it?” Well, you know the answer. “We’ll sing it in the North Bank and in the Clock End too.” Such a dumb little thing. It made me smile every time.

Arsenal’s first goal came pretty quickly. A pass from Lewis-Skelly to Saka, and Saka left the Fulham defensive marker on his backside on the grass. He sent the ball across the goal to an onrushing Gyokeres, who tapped it into the net.

There were many chances after that that didn’t produce goals that stood (Calafiori had one in the back of the net that was called back because he was offside) but it was all so fluid and beautiful no one seemed too fussed about it. About beer-thirty when fans need to get out to the concourse before halftime to be in line and slam one before the second half starts, Gyokeres ran onto a through pass from Eze and passed to Saka, who was dividing two defenders with his run toward goal. There was no stopping Saka: he fired it near post. 2-0.

I may be imagining this but I felt that goal riveted many a beer-loving person to their seats. They were quickly rewarded. Trossard broke down the left side and made a looping cross to the waiting forehead of Gyokeres. It’s said he’s not a particularly proficient header of the ball but he did ok this time. 3-0 by the time the first half whistle blew. I had been hugged and high fived dozens of times by my peers in the North Bank.

The scoreline gave Arteta freedom to make subs and get rest for players returning from injuries. As a result, the second half was quieter. There were fewer chances for Arsenal and more for Fulham. Unfortunately, Fulham’s Emil Smith-Rowe went down at some point, injured. But he is really our Smith-Rowe. We sang the chant we used when he was an Arsenal player as he limped around the field back to the tunnel. I feel for this talented player who just can’t catch a break physically. My fervent wish is that he ultimately has a path like Eberechi Eze, back to us in good health and with hard times behind him.

We held on and so did Fulham. 3-0 at the end.

We celebrated with a few songs from the DJ and then I ran out to meet my husband by the Arsene Wenger statue outside. It was a very cheerful walk over to Arsenal station, my compatriots singing at top voice.

As we changed trains at St. Pancras Kings Cross a fight nearly broke out between a few Fulham and Arsenal fans as the Fulham fans sang “Bottled again, Bottled again, Bottled again, olé, olé.” Even people who just saw their team destroyed 3-0 felt free to taunt us. Luckily, peace managed to prevail.

I wish them no ill will in–where are Fulham?–11th place. And these men, probably living in their mother’s basements. Cozy.

Man City wasn’t scheduled to play until Monday, two days on. We would hold the lead in the League at least until then.

Secret maps

Amy O1 Comment

We woke very early in Cambridge and had breakfast at a Pret a Manger in probably the fanciest building we’d ever encountered for this establishment. A man was seated nearby waiting for his friend, while a man at another table drolly asked him if he intended to attend the parade to celebrate the Battler of Agincourt’s 575th anniversary. The Battle of Agincourt was one of few battles won by the British in the 100 Years’ War with France. The man waiting for his friend responded he would not attend the fictional parade; rather he would celebrate later with a bottle of wine. “Not French wine, I hope,” quipped the historical savant.

My husband had won the aBode shower lottery for the second day running. Warm for him, lukewarm for me. We headed for hopefully greener pastures with a fairly uneventful trip from Canterbury West to Charing Cross. The train had been nearly empty leaving Canterbury but became jam-packed, stop by stop, by the time we reached London. We had been wondering how on earth the Southeastern train system is able to run with any form of profitability considering how empty almost every train we’d been on over four days had been. It appears to work similar to Christmas for retailers. All the money must be made on trains as they approach stops close to London.

By the time we arrived in London, it was raining again, but our hotel was reasonably close by way of a funny alley. Our new hotel in London, The Grand at Trafalgar Square, met the new financial criteria to which my husband and I agreed before the trip. They weren’t ready to check us in, but checked our luggage and showed us to a nice lounge where we could regroup and make a latte. The hotel seemed pretty fancy for our new price point.

We were intending to meet a friend later in the day who was coming into London from California with her adult children. Their original flight had been cancelled and their new flight would be later. So we bought tickets for the Secret Maps exhibit at the British Library to stay occupied. We’ve been to the British Library twice in the past, once for the Treasures exhibit, years ago, and once for the Medieval Women exhibit earlier this year. The British Library has super interesting documents to start with, and they pull together such interesting narrative and themes for their exhibits.

This exhibit about secret maps was the best I’ve seen there. It just never occurred to me how interesting the history of maps is and how they were used–to share information as well as to obscure, deflect, and mislead to maintain an upper hand–commercially, politically, in warfare. Also, how many different kinds of maps there have been to be used for these purposes, including maps of land masses, trade routes, the heavens, escape routes, war equipment and assets. And how maps were shared with the right people.

After viewing the exhibit, we checked into our hotel, learning that The Grand is part of the Club Quarters chain. We’ve only stayed at this chain once on one of our trips many years ago. There’s a lot of work and lounge space in the hotel and it’s quite fancy. I noted that this would have been a good hotel for the times I worked from London last year. In contrast, the rooms are pretty basic and small. But, hey, hot water both days we need it. A win.

Speaking of maps used for deception, it’s long been a thing that Mikel Arteta keeps things close to the vest in his press conferences before a match. He tells the truth and nothing but the truth, but with regard to injuries, it’s often not the whole truth. There is often someone who came off the last match limping, of whom Arteta will truthfully say in his next press conference before a match whether the player has been in practice that week. But often he’ll say they’ll evaluate them on match day and see how things stand. Then that player may show up as a starter, or as a sub, or we’ll find out after the match he’ll have surgery tomorrow and will be out for at least three months.

Gabriel Magalhaes, big Gabi, came off in the match against Atletico Madrid with about 20 minutes left to play and it looked like something was not quite right with him. Arteta had said in his pre-match press conference for Crystal Palace that he was unsure whether Gabi would play against Crystal Palace. “Let’s see how he evolves,” he said. Arsenal is having a wonderful defensive season and a lot of the reason has been the play of Big Gabi. His partnership with William Saliba is considered among the best in the Premier League. And obviously, he’s been important for delivering goals from set plays. Either he heads it in himself or places where someone else can finish up the job.

But Arsenal’s defense is not only good because of Gabriel and Saliba; the whole team contributes to Arsenal’s overall stability. Arsenal has held every team goalless since September 28, yes, but teams hadn’t even been able to register a shot on target. And we’ve seen some great play from the person who can deputize Big Gabi, Christhian Mosquera. So losing Big Gabi would not be ideal, but it’s not a horrible situation either.

Arteta also used his press conference to encourage fans to bring the noise and spirit. “Play the game with us,” he requested. “If we’re going to win the league, everybody has to turn up.”

On that backdrop we arrived at the stadium the next day having spent a morning walking in the Tower Hill area and having had a nice lunch. We got to the stadium a bit late but still made time to walk through the Armoury and, as has lately been our habit, buying nothing. My husband and I were sitting apart from each other but both in the west stands. He was high up near the half way line; I was in Club near the North end. My seats were just about even with the D at the top of the penalty box. We had had a pretty easy time getting tickets for this match, none of the usual drama and not very many clicks.

I arrived at my seat with very little time to spare before the teams came out of the tunnel. There was something odd about my section that made it a little less straightforward to access from any direction and it took me some time to find the right passages. My section had quite a few human season ticket holders in it, and I’ve found that those areas of Club are almost as much fun as being in other parts of the stadium. Lots of spirit.

The whole stadium seemed to be taking Arteta’s request to heart. A lively atmosphere considering the opponent was Crystal Palace. Technically a derby, but usually one without as much of the usual rancor. This even though Crystal Palace managed to produce a tie in our last match at The Emirates.

One possible point of drama was that Eberechi Eze came to us from Crystal Palace. As I recall, he scored one of the goals in the match at the Emirates last year. The woman to the left of me wondered aloud whether Eze would celebrate if he scored a goal against Crystal Palace. There is some nonsense where players who score against their former team will not celebrate so as to be kind to their former club. To date, the Crystal Place fans have been notably classy about losing Eze to Arsenal. He did a lot for them. They appreciate that. Eze has played pretty well for Arsenal but has only scored one goal this season, in the Carabou cup. It seemed we probably would not find out the answer to that question on the day.

In contrast, Declan Rice came to Arsenal from West Ham under similar circumstances but while producing £105 million in revenue for his former club. Money that could be used to strengthen the West Ham team beyond replacing this one player. But Declan Rice gets tortured when he plays against West Ham. They do not forgive him at all. Rice didn’t score against West Ham in his first season with Arsenal. He did manage to score against them in early October at the Emirates. And while he did not celebrate the goal he scored right in front of the visiting fans, he appeared to make eye contact. A bit of a glare, I felt.

An example of a player who did celebrate against his former team: Arsenal had a player named Emmanuel Adebayor from 2006 to 2009, when he was sold to Manchester City. The first time Arsenal faced Man City at Man City’s stadium, Adebayor scored a goal against Arsenal and then ran the whole length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans, who rioted. I’m sure he was receiving a ton of schtick from the Arsenal fans before that decision. The process of losing players was so painful at that time. You felt so insulted when someone chose to leave.

I was so late to my seat I didn’t have time to check out the line-up. As soon as the players came out of the tunnel, there was Big Gabi, clearly in the starting line-up. Quite a relief. And Eze, of course.

All the usual ceremony took place. Good old Arsenal (blah), North London forever (yay) and finally the kick-off.

Many times I’ve been asked why I fell in love with Arsenal. Although I fell in love well in advance of the Premier League being picked up by NBC sports in 2013, I remember a great article in the sporting press in conjunction with the rollout campaign for NBC about how, now that everyone would be able to watch every match, someone could go about selecting a team to support. It was described as being akin to the sorting hat in Harry Potter. Just watch the soccer and a team will be magically chosen for you.

I was watching soccer with my kids and husband on Fox soccer channel well before that and had that sorting hat experience after watching Arsenal a few times. When I try to verbalize why Arsenal was chosen, I say I’m a sucker for beautiful, flowing soccer. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s manager at the time, also appeared to have a weakness for that beauty. His teams were stacked with players with technical ability. People who could complete the beautiful pass, deception with the ball, a tricky dribble, a back heal, a lovely, arcing shot. But Arsenal was also naive in spirit and porous in defense. The Arsenal of old could also not break down a low block, but it was very susceptible to counterattacks.

But now, Arsenal is not that. This is not really a pretty team. So why has the sorting hat not rethought my options?

I’ve heard it said that the reason is Arsenal fans are hypocritical. Speaking only for me, I think I’ve become more mature as an appreciator of the sport. Not just the overtly pretty things, but things that are less obvious. I have learned that what I want and what Mikel Arteta wants are often two different things. And when someone knows more than you and sees things you never could and whose job hangs in the balance, it may make sense to try to respect that. And try to learn what that person is attempting to achieve. What is the objective when working from the back? What is the objective of the horseshoe of death (as we call it when Arsenal’s defenders are passing from right to left and back to right)? Why has Arteta selected this player in this situation and a different player in another situation? What are the different ways Arsenal attacks a set piece? I’ve learned to appreciate winning a duel, laying down a great tackle, working in concert to ensure our defensive team is the last line of defense and not the first line. And, of course, all the different ways to produce a deceptive set piece.

And when I approach a match with not just excitement, but also curiosity, a match that might have felt tedious to me feels interesting and like a learning experience. The Crystal Palace match, especially in the first half, was probably the poster child for a match I would have formerly found tedious, but at this time found fascinating. And with regard to my fellow fans at the stadium, I would say almost every time they might be starting to feel frustrated, they reacted by trying to lift up the team with chanting. Arteta’s request had clearly been heard.

Crystal Palace of course deployed a low block and Arsenal of course struggled to unlock it. I can only remember one shot on goal. And when Arsenal did unlock it, guess how?

Set piece again, olé olé. One of the Crystal Palace’s players briefly lost the plot near the end of the first half and fouled Saka, giving up a free kick, which Declan Rice took. At least 20,000 fans in the stadium picked up their phones and started taking video, including the man to my right. The ball Declan kicked naturally came to Big Gabi, who was facing Declan and away from the goal and who headed it back toward the edge of the penalty area. Eze came running in and struck the ball in a very odd way. Since the match, I’ve heard the kick he made referred to as a karate kick, a scissor kick, a hitch kick, a forward bicycle kick, and probably a few other things.

Whatever. It rocketed into the net.

Answer to the question posed at the top of the match by my seat mate: Eze did not really celebrate. He kind of also did not not celebrate.

We celebrated enough to make up for whatever it was he was doing.

At halftime I went to concessions and stood in a long line of people getting beer and ultimately picked up a cup of tea. One of the beers Arsenal is now serving at the stadium is Guinness. It takes a long time to pour a Guinness–I wonder if they regret that? The lady next to me complained fiercely to me about the inefficiency of the process of serving beer. Beer is available at no added charge to those in Club. Ergo, a lot of people want one. I appreciated her decision to read me into her frustration and nodded sympathetically, even though my empathy was not really piqued.

In the second half, Arsenal had a lot of chances right in front of me, just no success scoring. Hitting the bar, goal keeper saves, a lot of excitement, not much payout. Some set pieces that did not produce a goal.

Arsenal’s former player Eddie Nketiah was introduced late in the match to the applause of both home and away fans. Eze was withdrawn about 5 minutes from the end of normal time to the applause both home and away fans.

Toward the end, everyone seemed so tired and Crystal Palace did make some progress challenging toward the goal. I think Arteta was very willing to trust our defensive stability and not worry so much about scoring again. As much as Arteta does not worry. Whatever we are seeing on the field and however we might try to understand and appreciate it, there appears to always be something more he is looking for. I guess we are all growing up together but he’s working on it well ahead of most of us.

The match ended 1-0. The only shot registered by statisticians as being “on target” against Arsenal was this weird thing from Eddie Nketiah that David Raya easily caught. Arsenal’s six matches in October ended with no goals scored against it and only one shot taken by an opponent–Eddie Nketiah’s–being ruled “on target.”

My husband and I normally meet after the match at the Arsene Wenger statue. I got confused with the unusual set-up of my section and headed the wrong way out of the stadium. It took me forever to figure out my mistake. So long, and with crowds so thick. it just made sense to keep walking. It was raining again and when I arrived my husband was waiting under building near the statue.

We walked in the rain back to Arsenal station, 3 points in our raincoat pockets and plans for a nice dinner with our California friends.

For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve had the same problem

Amy O2 Comments

As we were on the tube from Fulham to get back to Central London earlier in the day, two young boys and their mothers entered the train at one of the stops. The boys sat in seats next to me and the mothers sat a few seats away. I took very little notice of them until, through my own reverie, I overheard one of the boys say to the other “For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve had the same problem: Impatience.”

I did a double take at the boys because my recollection had been they were very young. Too young for one to make an observation like that. Too young for impatience “as long as I’ve known you” to have been a flaw that might not ultimately be outgrown. Sure enough, they were maybe 5 years old.

The Accused boy was quite interested in understanding this fault in himself. The boys had a very reasoned discussion about why it was perceived that the problem of impatience existed in the Accused. They good naturedly turned to the question of whether it was the Accuser who never wanted to play what the Accused wanted to play or whether, in fact, it was Accused who never wanted to play what the Accuser wanted to play. In conclusion, they both delighted in looking at a cute dog on the platform at a stop.

This conversation came back to me as I was watching the Atletico Madrid match because, as always, you did feel a lot of impatience inside that stadium. But as we know, sometimes patience pays off. We also know that sometimes it never does.

We had been fortunate for this match. For the first time this season, my husband and I were successful in the ballot. We had seats together and they were cool ones, row six in the southwest corner of the field. It’s been so long since we had seats together at a match I felt appreciative of how nice it was to be able to share observations without wondering if it’s weird and join together in the chanting. I honestly don’t mind sitting by myself with other fans because the stadium is welcoming; it’s unlike any other place you might attend something alone where most of the people are attending with someone. But you still feel the oddness of being one among a crowd.

Upon arriving at The Emirates we took a quick scan of The Armoury, the place where all the Arsenal Merch is sold. As we were leaving The Armoury merch-free we saw a lady holding a sign that we should download an app on your phone that was going to be used to create a light show inside the stadium before the match.

We did download the app but unfortunately the stadium’s wifi is pretty poor with so many people using it and our T-mobile signal is weak inside the stadium as well. We were not able to be part of the light show but not being part of it allowed us to enjoy it. It was cool. As music was played in the stadium, the lights from people’s phones pulsed synchronously. The video below was posted by another fan on YouTube.

The last match we attended at The Emirates was Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Manchester City, after which, among some parts of the fan base and football press, the sky was falling. Arsenal was in a much different state heading into this match with Atletico. Not only has Arsenal won every match since Man City, including a Carabou Cup match, a Champions League match, and several Premier League matches, Liverpool have fallen apart. Liverpool were in top position in the Premier League after week 5 but now, after Week 8, Arsenal is marginally at the top. The League is tight, tight tight with big position shifts every week.

Heading into this Champions League game, we have a great defensive record, with only 3 goals having been scored on us all season. And our success with set pieces continues to be a thing. The only concern is that we’ve struggled to score goals from open play, mostly because we haven’t figured out how to break down a low block where defensive congestion is near the opposing goal. When there is something you don’t do well, everyone you compete with knows to make sure you regularly have to do that thing. That contributes to feelings of impatience, because you just want things to be free flowing and productive and not a bunch of dark alleys to be tried and rejected. But a low block that Arsenal might struggle to break down also tends to produce a lot of corner kicks and free kicks due to fouls close to the goal. Being able to score from set pieces comes in handy when you get a lot of these chances and not too many other kinds of chances.

The starting line-up included a couple of choices Mikel Arteta hasn’t made much this year. Miles Lewis-Skelly was awarded a start at left back. Lewis-Skelly is a wonderful left back but Riccardo Calafiori has been too much of a beast this year to replace unless you are giving him a rest. That appeared to be the case today as Calafiori was on the bench. And Gabriel Martinelli started at left wing instead of Leandro Trossard. I have no idea what is in the mind of the brilliant Arteta, but my theory is that he prefers Martinelli to Trossard when he expects the game to be more open. Martinelli has a lot of speed. Another theory: Mikel’s noticed that Martinelli seems to be able to score in the Champions League.

Low seats like the ones we had for this match are great for experiencing stadium ambiance and seeing players up close. However, despite requests in the stadium to avoid “persistent standing,” they are seats in which you will actually never sit down. Persistent standing is the rule, not the exception. With some craning on my part around the tall folks, we had great up-close views of Bukayo Saka during the first half, for example, as he took several (sadly) unsuccessful corner kicks near us.

The game started well for Arsenal as Eberechi Eze’s deflected shot hit the post about 4 minutes in. Declan Rice’s subsequent rebounded shot was wide of the goal. But things settled in and Atletico gained some control across the half.

There was a horrifying moment at the other end about 25 minutes in where our goalkeeper, David Raya, came out of goal to deal with a ball on the North end of the field. It seemed that he thought the ball was going over the end line from a kick by Atletico but the pace of the ball dropped off while an Atletico player was bearing down on him and he had to kick it over the side line. He didn’t have time on the ensuing, very quick, throw-in to get back to his goal and none of our defenders was in position to cover. The Atletico player receiving the ball from the throw-in took a very quick and good kick toward goal that just missed. A very close call. Arsenal did score a goal in front of us late in the first half after very nice play from Martin Zubimendi and Saka. It was called back because Gabriel Martinelli, the goal scorer, was offside when Saka passed it.

By halftime, Arsenal had played well and produced dangerous moments, but Atletico looked pretty solid. And also created some danger. It felt like one of those games that was going to have a lot of action while ending in a scoreless draw. Easy to feel very, very impatient. I raced off to the restroom while my husband enjoyed 15 minutes of sitting down.

The second half started with dangerous moments for each team. Now Arsenal was shooting for the goal far from us so it was harder to tell how we were doing. We had at least one chance on goal. So did they. About 10 minutes into the second half, Martinelli was judged to have been fouled about 20 yards from the goal. (I say “judged” because I’ve now watched replays of this foul. All I can say is I would be mad if this foul had been called against Arsenal.) Declan Rice stepped up to take the kick. He is so deadly in these situations. But deadly needs a partner, and everyone knows that partner is Gabriel Maglehaes. He was lined up with the other Arsenal players and somehow no one covered him as he ran toward goal after the kick came in. Glanced right off that beautiful Gabriel noggin and into the goal.

Why I know this is what happened is they showed a replay on the big TV screens. What I saw from my spot, low and far way in the stadium was Declan Rice kicked the ball and there was a pause and then all the fans in the North end jumped up in unison and said “YEAH!”

In the stadium, they announce the goal scorer and the stadium announcer usually says “The goal scorer is <first name>. And then the crowd yells: “<Last name>”! That gets repeated three times. But in the case of Gabriel, we English speakers are stupid and can’t pronounce his last name. So for Gabriel, the announcer says “the goal scorer is number 6” and the crowd yells “Gabriel!”

Almost immediately after the Arsenal goal, Atletico came very, very close to scoring in front of us. Only a deflection from Gabriel kept the shot out. Arsenal ended up defending some corner kicks from Atletico. There were also a few off-target shots. Danger, danger, danger.

Nearly 10 full minutes after the Arsenal goal, Lewis-Skelly received the ball near the half-way line and slashed his way through the center of the field, evading multiple Athletico players. As he approached the penalty area he pushed through a lovely ball to Martinelli, who was blessedly onside this time. His one-touch shot curled beyond the goal keeper and glanced in off the far post. Even where I was I could see all of it perfectly. Massive celebrations.

And everyone can pronounce his last name, so you know what we did next. 2-0.

We didn’t have to wait as long for the next one. A few minutes later Zubimendi put up a lovely long pass to Martinelli who crossed it to the goal. This I saw. Then I saw a scrum and a pause and a celebration. What I did not see until the replay is that the ball came to Eze and he passed to Viktor Gyokeres, who had his back to the goal. He was able to turn and deflect the ball off the defender’s legs, slow roller. 3-0 and a goal Gyokeres really needed. He hadn’t scored in quite a few matches.

About a minute after the re-start the ball went out for an Arsenal corner kick on the side where the kick is normally taken by Declan Rice. Declan Rice put up a beautiful kick and, inevitably, it was quickly in the back of the net amongst great celebration. Big Gabi had gotten on the end of the kick and headed across the goal at hip level, where Gyokeres was able to run it a few steps into the goal.

And here I would like to take some credit. Although I have been to a match in which Gyokeres has not scored, as of this match Gyokeres has never scored in a match I did not attend.

4-0. Fifteen very consequential minutes that we had to wait 55 minutes to start. Patience paid off.

A lot happened after that. Even though we were leading by 4, I still felt some nerves. Some players who haven’t seen much game time got into the match. There was a set piece by Arsenal on which no goal was scored. Saka had a dangerous dribble into the box. Raya had a great save but on a shot that was called back for some problem. Offside or a foul, not sure which. From my great seat, I saw Antoine Griezmann, a really wonderful French player who must be nearing the end of his career (and having a bad day, since he did not start for Atletico and they lost badly), up close and personal.

Far too early, Arsenal fans started the olés for successful Arsenal passes. Far too early, Arsenal fans asked Atletico “Who are ya?” Far too early, Arsenal fans asked Atletico “Are you Tottenham in disguise?” But karma was not in play–or at least has not yet been addressed–and no further goals were scored.

This match proved to me there is no score line that will induce me to leave the stadium before the match is over. We saw others leaving to beat the crowds, some when there was a lot of time left. Even though my husband sometimes suggests that we might leave, too, this time he did not. At the whistle, we left with a cheerful but highly belligerent crowd into the damp London night.

It was late when we got back to The Bailey’s. I was so wound up, I didn’t fall asleep for hours.

I’m not a robot

Amy O2 Comments

At the time we flew to London, both my husband and I had tickets for the Nottingham Forest game but only I had tickets for the Man City game. That remained true across thousands of clicks on the Arsenal web site. Each time I logged in to try to get a ticket, I had to affirm that I was not a robot. Sometimes I had to prove it by reviewing photos and click on all the ones, for example, that contain street lights. And sometimes even though I seemingly passed all the anti-robot tests put in front of me, I could still take repetitive action on the ticket exchange that made the exchange believe I might have fibbed about being a robot. Then you get the white screen of death and have to start over. Fortunately, I finally found my husband a ticket the very day before the match.

That was the day we travelled back to London from Norwich also. Tracks from Ipswich to Colchester were under maintenance so we had to take a bus for that leg of the trip. It was well organized by the train service and it occurred with very little drama. As we walked from Liverpool Street Station to check into our hotel, The Clayton Hotel London Wall, we crossed through the very pretty Finsbury Circus Gardens. Upon reaching the hotel, my husband was ready to relax. I was feeling inspired by the garden so I set out to find the St. Dunstan in the East Garden. This is a garden associated with a church. It looked lovely and peaceful, except on the day I visited there was a large contingent of goth-dressed women and photographers doing a photo shoot. I took advantage of the poses for my own photos.

Sometimes I recognize what a shame it’s been that we’ve visited so many hotels in London but not really used the opportunity to rank hotels. It happens that we had previously visited the Clayton Hotel London Wall in the past, but I had forgotten what a good option this is. The rooms are spacious, there is tons of storage, and the bathroom is nice. The mattress was like a concrete slab. I happen to be a fan of the concrete slab mattress. This may seem like a weird thing, but the bathroom has an enclosed shower with a ledge that prevents water from entering the rest of the bathroom. You’d be surprised how many do not. The only downside of this hotel is that it’s located in the business district so a lot of restaurants and pubs nearby are closed on the weekend.

We booked a play to attend that night, The Full English at Baron’s Court Theatre. This was a one-woman show by a linguist, poet, and actor Melanie Blanton, literally about the English language and how it developed across time as England both was impacted by migrating, and sometimes invading, forces as well as England’s own experience colonizing other countries. The Baron’s Court Theatre is a tiny space in the basement of a pub called Curtains Up. Before the play people gathered in the pub and then brought their drinks into the space and during intermission, they repeated. The theatre was so tiny that it was in my mind that it would be really bad to sleep in this play because the actor would for sure be able to see that. I was at my alert best. Perhaps because I’d for once had time to acclimate to the time change having been in England for a week. Two older ladies in the first row did not get the same memo. They both slept through a lot of the play. Then again, they availed themselves of several pints. In a warm, dark space we all know what that can lead to for us aged folk.

What I just said might sound like not a ringing endorsement of the play, but I actually loved it. It was entertaining and I learned a lot. I feel like this whole trip reinforced for me how England developed. We’ve spent time in London in the past looking into the Roman invasion, but this trip (including this play) gave insight into the migration of Anglo-Saxons as well as invasions by Vikings and Normans.

The match was the next day, Sunday. Unfortunately, that morning my husband tweaked his back and really could not walk or sit without a lot of pain. He’s had this problem before so he always travels with muscle relaxants which helps get through the night or a long flight in Basic Economy. However, those aren’t good for getting through a day or a soccer match so we invested a bit of time trying to find an electric heating pad or something to help loosen things up. We were successful in locating a disposable heating belt that you can affix under your clothing and that heats for 12 hours. A great solution for our day and for the plane trip back on Monday and it seemed to help quite a bit.

We didn’t want to overdo it so we decided to keep it simple that morning by only visiting one exhibit at the British Museum, the one displaying the treasures found at Sutton Hoo. As you may recall, once it was established that Edith Pretty had full rights to the artifacts found on her property, she donated all of them to the British Museum. One of the most interesting objects was the helmet found–crushed, where the burial compartment of the Anglo-Saxon ship in one of the mounds had collapsed. The British museum made two efforts to put the pieces together, one that they felt good about. The actual reconstructed helmet is displayed, as is a replica of what it may have looked like originally. The display also includes coins, dishes, and other objects of Anglo-Saxon life. Fascinating exhibit and a perfect follow-up to our visit at Sutton Hoo. The British Museum, like many other attractions in London, is free to visit but so expansive it’s really nice to be able to feel like you can just see what you want to see on the day without feeling guilty about wasting admission.

After lunch we travelled over to the Emirates for the match. It took more time than usual to get into the stadium, at least where I was seated in the North Bank. I was lucky to be in my seat as the teams were coming out on the field. You’ve heard me speaking about how much I love singing and being in the stadium as “North London Forever” is being played, but there is a song played at every Arsenal match that I despise. It’s called Good old Arsenal. It’s played both before the first half and the second half. It sounds like it was invented in the 1940s, but my quick google just now tells me it first made its appearance at the stadium in 1971.

Good old Arsenal

We’re proud to say that name

While we sing this song

We’ll win the game

They usually get through it 2 times before the rest of the pomp happens. I was in my seat for it and it annoyed me, like always. I do sing it because while we sing this song we win the game. How can I decline? I’m a model fan. Note: it does not always produce the results it claims.

With Martin Odegaard still injured, Mikel Arteta started exactly the same midfield he had selected for the mid-week Champions League match. He made one change in the forward line, replacing Eze with Leandro Trossard. This was maybe a bit surprising considering the opposition. Kind of a very secure but not very adventuresome lineup. William Saliba was restored to his normal center half position after an ankle injury having not played much since then. He seemed a bit rusty.

If you consider the totality of the match, we were mostly successful at being secure. But there was this one insecure moment pretty early in the first half where there was a turnover on a mistake and Man City’s excellent striker, Erling Haaland, got forward on a breakaway where Man City had three players on two Arsenal players. Haaland didn’t have the ball early in the breakaway but he was clearly the one you didn’t want to see the ball come to. We didn’t have him covered well and he did get the ball. He had no problem placing it in the Arsenal goal beyond David Raya.

All through the match Man City was pretty much bunkered in and we were unable to find a way through. Although I understood after the match everyone watching seemed to find it boring, I thought it was a fascinating match. Kind of like watching chess. I know not everyone likes watching chess when they came to watch football. But obviously frustrating, going at them again and again and never finding a way through.

After halftime, the Arsenal team came out to the the sound of “Good Old Arsenal,” like always. But this time, Man City didn’t come out for ages. It played 6 or 7 times. I enjoyed it less than usual which, as I mentioned, is not at all.

Mikel Arteta made increasingly creative substitutions across the second half and we did start to make headway in penetrating the Man City defense, which by now was just a big, old bus parked in front of the goal. He even removed a defender to put on an attacker, Gabriel Martinelli.

Everyone refers to the players who start the match as “starters.” Lately, Arteta has notably been referring to players who are substituted on as “finishers.” I don’t know where this started but I do know this is terminology that Sarina Wiegman, the winning manager for women’s Euros, used to describe her very accomplished substitutes. One of whom was Chloe Kelly, the Arsenal player who visibly improved the England team in many matches and scored the deciding penalty kick in the final. In my opinion, language matters and I think this is a good development for Arteta’s players. All of the players are good enough to start, but not all of them can be selected. Instead, Arteta needs to be able to use them to change the course of the match. And they are just as important to the match in their different role.

While Arteta was replacing defenders with attackers, Man City’s manager was replacing attackers with defenders. Even Erland Haaland was removed. (The manager said afterward he did this because Haaland said he was tired.) Both managers wanted points from this match but Man City’s manager was definitely working from the preferred position.

It seemed like the match was going to end a Man City win as we entered injury time. But never say never. Eberechi Eze, who ultimately found himself playing, managed to slip a ball over the Man City defenders to a breaking Martinelli, who managed to evade them as the goalkeeper rushed out toward him. The lightest loft of the ball with the edge of his foot and the ball was floating into the air over the keeper and against the far netting. Then a roll into the back of the net to the excitement of an entire stadium. A finisher’s finish. Until it hit the back of the net from my seat–closer to where the ball was lofted and farther from where it nestled into the netting–I was not sure it was in.

With the few minutes remaining, we continued to try to score and Man City made more offensive progress than it had tried in a while. In the end, a 1-1 tie was all we could get done.

Sometimes a late tie like that feels like a win but in this case, well, even though I was really happy the goal happened, it mostly felt like a tie. And you know the stadium DJ was feeling it, too because he played another song I’ve come to really hate at the Emirates, the song he usually plays for a tie (and I think maybe also for a loss): Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Maybe I once liked it, but now I’ve been conditioned. It’s like a song you associate from your youth with the summer some boyfriend broke up with you. Bah. Dislike.

Better luck next time? We shall see.

After the match, Mikel; Arteta took a shellacking in the press conference and in commentary for the week for the starting line-up he used which, again, was the same forward and midfield line as in the Champions League win on Tuesday. “Why are you keeping the handbrake on?” I’ve already seen an “Arteta Out” message on social media. A writer on Football 365, which lately has been on a clickbait tear, likened Arteta to Donald Trump. Admittedly the writer is English so he may not have the clearest picture of Donald Trump’s traits, but I can assure anyone that whatever you might dislike in Trump and whatever you might dislike in Arteta, these are NOT the same traits.

Such is the state of his life. No matter what Arteta does, it’s used as a stick to beat him with. This is a great, young manager in his first head coaching role. He has a large, excellent, diverse team with 8 new players to incorporate, and figuring that out takes time. Which members of the team work together well under the varying conditions you can expect or that unexpectedly are in place?

A 1-1 tie against Man City nearing the end one of the most difficult early schedules in the Premier League while we’re sorting that out? Whatever Mikel does at this time, I’m with him. While Social Media and football commentators try their best to get me riled with media’s proven strategies to rile, I am capable of resisting.

Because, remember, as I have sworn so many times to the Arsenal web site, I’m not a robot.

You’re getting sacked in the morning

Amy OLeave a comment

Although we arrived in London on the Friday before a Saturday match, pretty typical timeline, we had an unusually quiet time before the match. We had selected a hotel we’d never stayed in, the Montcalm East, located in Shoreditch. As with many recent trips, a hotel nicer than our normal budget would allow but that came into our price point for this trip. Very nice hotel. In my top 5.

After checking in, we relaxed a bit and then had lunch at Pizza Union. My husband had to call in for an Italian class, during which I made up for the sleep I failed to get on the plane. Afterward, we walked over to The Artillery Arms for a beer and dinner. The kitchen was closed by then, so it ended up being beer alone. Cute place, a Fuller pub, naturally. We selected snacks from an Aldi along the way back to the hotel to get through the night.

As much sleep as I got in the late afternoon and evening you’d think it would be a struggle to sleep at night. It was not. I slept like a baby. We awoke in the morning and had a delicious breakfast at A Pinch of Salt Cafe.

The match against Nottingham Forest was early, 12:30, so we headed to the Emirates soon thereafter. Spent a bit of time in Arsenal’s merch shop, The Armoury, just checking out the new stuff. There is always new stuff.

My seat was in the North Bank, really my favorite place to watch a match. You can see play developing and the crowd is almost always quite enthusiastic. This was true on Saturday as well. It’s a pleasure sitting near supporters who are–well–supportive. The North Bank also is prime positioning for offensive actions by Arsenal in the second half. Nothing more fun than having a goal scored right in front of you.

Arteta changed up the lineup in a somewhat surprising way, bringing new guy Eberechi Eze into the left wing and using Mikel Merino instead of Declan Rice. In midfield with Merino was Martin Odegaard, back in the lineup after his shoulder injury during the Leeds match, and other new guy, Martin Zubimendi. The other starters were a bit less surprising given our poor injury record this season.

I would think the changes Arteta made would not have been anticipated by a rival manager. However, in this case, the rival manager didn’t have much time to anticipate anything at all, having been hired only the week before the match. It was our old nemesis from Tottenham, Ange Postecoglou. Tottenham sacked him at the end of last season. Even though he did manage to win the Europa League, the rest of the season was pretty bad for Tottenham. Nottingham Forest only recently fired their manager, Nuno Espírito Santo. He’d been a good manager for Nottingham Forest but seemed to have been done in mostly by office politics. I’d rather face an Ange team than a Santo team, but was a bit nervous about the possibility of the dreaded new manager bounce that can occur sometimes.

Needn’t have worried because Arsenal were excellent right from the start. We dominated possession and looked really, really dangerous. And naturally, because Ange is (to us) Tottenham, we supporters were up for it also. Loud, loud, loud, and quite obnoxious.

Sadly, after losing Martin Odegaard to a shoulder injury in the first 10 minutes in the Leeds match, we lost him again early in this match after he fell awkwardly on the same shoulder. Ethan Nwaneri again came on and deputized him well.

Martin Zubimendi joined up with Arsenal over the summer from Spanish team Real Sociedad. Technically, his deal was agreed across all parties in March, but for financial reasons Real Sociedad wanted it to go through in their fiscal year starting in July. His move to Arsenal was kept relatively quiet although we believed he was likely coming into the team. We were excited—he looked like a great replacement for Thomas Partey, who was to be out of contract over the summer. But the longer the announcement was delayed, and with Arsenal’s surprising move to briefly pursue Partey at the end of last season, the more I worried Zubimendi might not come at all. But you know how it is. Once it’s finally done you rewrite history in your head. Of course he was always coming to Arsenal.

As I recall it, he was the first signing of a busy July for Arsenal. Shortly after Martin Zubimendi was signed, so was Christian Norgaard and Noni Madueke. And it seemed we would also bring in Viktor Gyokeres. Gyokeres was the most exciting signing for fans because he’s a striker, and we have sooooo needed one. Plus, he was lighting up the Portuguese league with goal after goal. When Gyokeres was announced as an Arsenal player, sales of shirts with his name on the back broke the existing record for shirt sales at Arsenal. So with all the other excitement, while I was happy Zubimendi signed, it went a bit under my radar as an important development.

In the pre season and first two matches, Martin Zubimendi was quietly excellent as a player. Mikel Arteta put him right into the lineup and he was solid defensively and reasonably creative offensively. Easy to take for granted. And I think we did just that.

In the match against Nottingham Forest, Martin Zubimendi’s excellence went loud. Very, very loud.

Despite Arsenal’s superiority, it took a while to deliver a goal. It finally came about 30 minutes in in the aftermath of a corner kick. Madueke put up a nice one, but it was headed by a Nottingham Forest defender. It was not a bad clearance–beyond the penalty area–except for one big problem. Apparently Martin Zubimendi is able to volley such a ball into the net from that distance. And he did exactly that. A gorgeous goal. Every time they showed it in the stadium—and they showed it on the giant stadium screens more times than usual—every fan watching it again said “Whoa!” in unison when he again struck that ball and it again flew into the net. It might have grazed a defender on the way in, but no way was any goalkeeper keeping that ball out.

1 – 0. Cue chants of “1 nil to the Arsenal.”

At halftime I stepped away for the typical bathroom break and an atypical wait in the concessions line for a cup of tea. Although you can’t bring beer into the stadium, you can bring tea. I heard the announcer say the teams were back on the field and I carried my newly-acquired tea back to my seat in the North bank.

It was a good thing I did because, just as Viktor Gyokeres scored a quick goal right after halftime in the Leeds match, in this match Eberechi Eze received a perfect through ball from Ricardo Califiori within minutes of the restart. He put up a perfect cross for Gyokeres who rammed it in the back of the net from close range. Like the Leeds match, a lot of people who didn’t make their way back into the stadium missed seeing that live. 2 – 0.

At this point, the chanting in the stadium became bifurcated.

Chant 1: the Viktor Gyokeres chant:

He comes from Sweden, the girls are really nice
He dumped his girlfriend to play in red and white
He’s scoring goals with a cannon on his chest
His name is Viktor, Viktor Gyokeres

(I’ll spare you the gratuitous “De de de”s.)

Chant 2: abuse of Nottingham Forest’s new manager, Ange Postecoglou. No need to update the chant Arsenal fans created for Tottenham when he was the manager there, the lyrics still work. It’s too rude for me to repeat here and goes after not only the manager but also the team. I would suspect the Nottingham Forest players have ever felt quite so reviled at the Emirates. Just caught in the bad blood of an old relationship.

The third Arsenal goal came when Arsenal won a free kick for a foul. Arsenal worked it in and Leandro Trossard, who had come on as a sub, put up a nice looping cross toward the goal. Martin Zubimendi, who I don’t perceive as a particularly tall guy, met it with his head and into the back of the net.

With the requisite chants for Zubimendi completed by the Arsenal fans, they turned their attention to hapless manager Ange Postecoglou on his inaugural match with Nottingham Forest: 

Sacked in the morning
You're getting sacked in the morning

Despite the fact that Zubimendi scored 2 goals and Viktor Gyokeres scored only 1, at the ending whistle the stadium DJ cued up Salt-n-Pepa’s Push it, the musical inspiration for the Gyokeres chant. We note that the DJ can only work with the materials he’s been given. A player is endowed with a chant by the supporters. It may be based on commercially-created music or some traditional chant or some new invention. Much like your family, you can’t chose your own chant. Zubimendi’s chant isn’t based on commercially-available music.

He’ll just have to be happy with being named man of the match. That, and our love and admiration.

Special Aura

Amy O2 Comments

Earlier in the week before we traveled to London, I read a piece in The Athletic about a footballer named Jason Kaminsky, who died at age 31 in 2005. Jason Kaminsky had been a promising youth player for Nottingham Forest who made his professional debut at 18 as a sub against Luton Town in April 1992. He had been nurtured by Manager Brian Clough and, at the time he made his appearance, had been expected by many of his former teammates to have a long and successful career. He’d been a top scorer in the youth league and was physically big and strong, with a big personality to match. He had a decent afternoon that April day, setting up a goal for Teddy Sheringham that was ultimately disallowed for being offside.

Source: The Athletic, 8/19/2025

However, Clough was near the end of his appointment at Nottingham Forest, retiring in the next season, an embattled one in which Nottingham Forest were ultimately relegated from the league. Jason Kaminsky did not play professionally again, that season or ever. A new manager, Frank Clark, brought in an excellent new striker, relegating Kaminsky to fifth choice. His contract was terminated.

For some players, that might be the beginning of seeking new pastures, but if Kaminsky did seek new pastures he was not welcomed to or for other reasons did not graze there. He was mentally crushed. And the partying lifestyle he’d come to know as a player at Nottingham Forest continued until alcohol consumed his very life. At the age of 31, he passed away in the hospital, waiting for a liver transplant that never came.

The day before my husband and I travelled to London, the prevailing transfer gossip for Arsenal was that Eberchi Eze, then a creative player with Crystal Palace, was coming to Arsenal. It was a bit of a shock. Arsenal had pursued Eze earlier in the transfer window and then it suddenly went quiet as Arsenal completed a new contract with 18-year old Ethan Nwaneri. Nwaneri had been with the Arsenal academy since he was 8 years old, breaking into the top team on September 2022 when he was only 15 years old. Over the next couple of seasons he found himself more regularly in the action, possessing obvious talent. And, we hope, a great future with Arsenal. So the question was, had all the links to Eze just been a bargaining chip? It seemed that way. And more recently, gossip had held that Eze would almost certainly be going to our arch rivals, Tottenham. There were just a few wrinkles to work out.

As a youth player, Eze had been in the Arsenal Academy but had been cut from the squad at the age of 13. It was a blow not just to him but to his whole family who had been big Arsenal fans. And the blows didn’t stop there. As a youth player Eze was later cut from Fulham, Reading, and even Millwall. But he didn’t give up. Following a trial with Queens Park Rangers he signed a professional contract with QPR in 2016 when he was 18.

Things started just OK at QPR. He got one start the first season and was promptly injured. The next season he was loaned out to a lower division team where he appeared fairly regularly and did quite well. In his third season with QPR he started featuring regularly and becoming more and more important to the team. In 2020, he was sold to Crystal Palace. The important growth that had started at QPR kicked into high gear and kept leveling up. I remember him being a handful when Arsenal played Crystal Palace.

When early transfer rumors had Eze coming to Arsenal, the Arsenal fan based seemed united behind the value he could offer. (That is not always true. When Arsenal fans learned that Chelsea’s Noni Madueke was coming to Arsenal, many revolted. Madueke had to turn off his social media accounts because people were so evil.) So it was a little depressing to learn mid week before our trip that Eze was probably going to Tottenham. At 27, even though he was arguably a late bloomer, that move would probably be his last big one. Even if he could be acquired from Tottenham at a later date, the Tottenham mark would be upon him.

But Tottenham are notoriously fussy in their negotiations and as they dragged out without being finalized, it seemed that Eze felt he had one last ditch effort to make to try to return to the club that cut him more years ago than he had lived by the time he’d been cut. He called Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. The day he called happened to have been just after Kai Havertz experienced a new injury. Did the next actions have to do with that or something else? Maybe we will learn someday. But Arsenal’s Board met that day and Arsenal’s sporting director got busy. Rumors started again that he might be coming to Arsenal.

When my husband and I arrived at the Arsenal match against Leeds, we were quickly shooed to our seats for a big announcement. And out of the tunnel came our newest player in jeans and his new #10 jersey, Eberchi Eze. The deal had been done in 48 hours after the phone call to Arteta.

What a joyous homecoming that was. We fans were excited and cheering and you could tell Eze felt moved. A prayer by his mother on the day he’d been cut had finally been answered in the affirmative. A week later, our manager Mikel Arteta commented in his press conference that he’s found in the week that Eze’s been practicing that he has “a special aura.” That aura was evident on the night.

The story of Jason Kaminsky and the story of Eberechi Eze came heavily into my consciousness in the same week and I think it’s important to be careful of the lessons of these stories. They are probably related by only a few things. Both young men were gifted footballers. Both probably had a special aura. Both had early setbacks. I reckon both of their mothers prayed over their lives. But only for one is the ending final, not a good one. And only for one is there an upswing in life’s middle.

This is a very weird and unnatural life, to play a sport that captivates fans to the point their week is a little ruined when the team plays badly and made happy when the team plays well. When as a player you are a hero in one moment and a goat (not the good kind) in another. Also, let’s face it: not only sports figures have bad days, lost confidence, fair and unfair challenges. Who turn to artificial means to dull their senses, some of whom may dull them to their very deaths. Whose prayers are not answered or at least not answered in the way they would like.

Cheerful thoughts.

For the Leeds match it was a ridiculously feel-good day. I was sitting in the Club section on the Northeast side facing the penalty area. For Club People, my compatriots were pretty enthusiastic. My sense while at the Emirates and experiencing the match in real time was that we didn’t play all that well, struggling to break down a newly promoted team we should have been able to handle easily. A breakthrough finally came about 35 minutes in when Arsenal had a corner kick.

Yes, another goal scored on a corner kick.

Declan Rice put up a lovely ball and Jurrien Timber got his head to it. After the time the Arsenal fans started to make early to the beer lines in the concourse for halftime, Timber passed a perfect ball to Bukayo Saka, just in the space where Saka can do the most damage. He did do that damage. It was 2-0 at halftime.

It occurs to me that the people who got to the beer early were probably in their seats by the time the game re-started, but those who waited were probably still finishing their beer in the concourse when new guy Viktor Gyokeres managed to score his first Premier League goal. It was the kind of goal he has a history of scoring, where half the work is physical, opening a space where none exists, and half is him placing the ball perfectly in the tiny space available.

The fourth goal was a funny one. Yes, another corner kick, but one that bobbled around in the penalty area with a lot of missed and sloppy kicks by both teams until Jurrien Timber took charge and looped it into the goal. There was nothing pretty about it but it counted.

I know very little about Timber’s narrative. I’m sure he’s faced plenty of challenges that he’s had to overcome. What I know of him is that he performs game in and game out and had a seriously impactful day against Leeds.

The day was capped off by an appearance by our latest 15-year old wunderkind, Max Dowman. Dowman made several appearances in the pre-season and every Arsenal fan is thrilled about what this player may produce in the future for Arsenal. He is a marvelous dribbler and all through the preseason he gave defenders fits. In the Leeds match he managed in added time to dribble dangerously into the box where he was marginally fouled. The referee pointed to the spot and the penalty was taken by Gyokeres. He hit it so hard and so perfectly you didn’t have time to be nervous.

Max Dowman is an obviously talented teenager. So many potential obstacles ahead of him. I hope Arsenal is helping to equip him to handle them.

The game ended 5-0.

The biggest downside of the day was that our terrible injury record of last season has followed us into this season. In the Leeds match, our captain and midfielder Martin Odegaard was injured early in the match and had to be replaced with Ethan Nwaneri. Very worrisome, but Ethan did a fine job stepping in. Early in the second half we lost Bukayo Saka to a hamstring strain. Fortunately, we could shift Noni Madueke from the left to the right, where he plays better anyway. Considering how mad some Arsenal fans were when he was bought this summer, I hope they noticed that Madueke had a perfectly good day.

We left the stadium in good cheer, with the fans chanting the earworm that is the Gyokeres song. Supposedly there is chant for Jurien Timber, but I’ve never heard it. He deserved a good chant on the day.

A very happy home opener for the season. You could say it, too, had a special aura.