Tag: sports

You get what you need

Amy OLeave a comment

Declan Rice was preparing to take a long free kick following a foul on Bukayo Saka in front of Real Madrid’s goal when a fan near me asked derisively, “How long has it been since he scored from a free kick?” It was an easy question. As good as Arsenal were scoring on corner kicks earlier this season, I can’t remember a free kick ending in anything except disappointment in recent years. And at 0-0 with only about 30 minutes remaining in the second half, I didn’t have my hopes up.

What happened next seemed like a miracle. Rice hit the ball, it swerved around the wall of Real Madrid players and into the net with one of the best goal keepers in the world, Thibaut Courtois, at full 6′ 7″ stretch, unable to reach it. We were thrilled, and relieved. Arsenal had looked good all match but it still had seemed conceivable up to that point that the match would end at 0-0 and we’d have to meet Real Madrid on their home turf next week with the wind in our faces.

We learned after the match Declan Rice had never scored such a goal.

As you know if you are a regular reader (I see you, fam), I only write while I’m in London. There are two home Arsenal matches this week and although we had tickets for neither when we scheduled our trip we felt that our best chance of scoring tickets for both was to be in London. We were VERY confident we’d be able to get tickets for the Brentford match over the weekend and significantly less confident about getting tickets for the Champions League match against Real Madrid on Tuesday. But still, a little confident.

As small our confidence was, it can now be classified as overconfidence. I must have clicked more than a thousand times for tickets the last week alone. Maybe a thousand in the several weeks before that. Nothing. On the day of the match we hedged our bets by reserving a space at a pub where we could watch the match on TV, hoping fervently we’d be able to cancel it in the end. That did not come to pass. We found ourselves watching from The Hope with other fans who also could not manage to get tickets.

About 10 minutes after Declan Rice scored that beautiful goal, Arsenal found itself again with a long free kick, again following a foul on Bukayo Saka. Declan Rice again teed it up and stroked it through the hole in the stretch of the wall created by Arsenal shirts parting like the red sea. Real Madrid keeper Courtois again stretched across his goal, missing the ball as it struck the top corner of the net.

Having never scored even one such goal, Declan Rice scored two in one night.

I’ve never experienced a celebration anywhere like what happened at The Hope. The goal was so unexpected, maybe even more unexpected than the first goal. There was no “Yeah!” or jumping around or cheering. Everyone just laughed.

We waited only a few minutes more before youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly put a cross in toward our makeshift striker Mikel Merino. There was nothing easy about the shot he had to make but he made it beautiful. In another time and place it would have been the best goal we’d seen in ages.

We ended up beating last year’s Champions League winners 3-0. To prove that there is no team good enough not to be trash-talked while also trashing our fiercest rivals, through the TV we could hear the Arsenal fans singing, “Are you Tottenham? Are you Tottenham? Are you Tottenham in disguise?”

It was hard not to be at The Emirates. The place seemed to be rocking all match and for good reason. We tried to console ourselves that it was just a short walk to our hotel and wasn’t it nice that we didn’t have to wait in a crowd to get on the Tube? But the reality was harder to take. Probably the most exciting match of the season. We were so close, but so far away.

And it makes the away match next week in Madrid even more important to give best efforts to. The match over the weekend against Brentford for which we do now have tickets is likely to be one for which Mikel Arteta keeps our best players on ice. We must take as few chances as possible for additional injuries.

In the end we accept all of it, from a glorious win we could not be present for, to a possibly tedious loss or tie in the Premier League at home over the weekend. If next week’s match against Real Madrid ends the way we want, I lean on brother Mick. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you might find you get what you need.

When you freely dish it out

Amy OLeave a comment

It’s been quite a long time since we attended the West Ham match, so let’s dive in.

It was a sunny, nice day to be at the Emirates. Given the previously-referenced Fuller pub crawl, neither my husband nor I were up for a beer upon arriving. We did not arrive especially early and went right to our seats. Our seats were in the Clock End again, pretty typical for a successful ballot.

This time we were as close as we’d ever been to the Away section, unsurprisingly, West Ham this week. And as we know, our job is to drown them out. In this case, they had a lot to chant about having lost Declan Rice to us a few years ago. They are still bitter about it. We acquired him for £100 million, a sum that should have set them up for buying some good players. That hasn’t really happened for them. And, as of today, they are 16th in a league of 20 teams.

Should have been an easy match.

Last season, Rice was so good, £100 million seemed like a complete steal. This season, he’s struggled more. The whole team has struggled more, in large part because it’s been impossible to field our best team, of which Rice is normally an important inclusion. There have been so many injuries in the team this season, I would have told you he is one of few that has not had any. Upon review of that contention, I am reminded that he broke a toe in November and was briefly out of the lineup.

Because of the injuries, our manager Mikel Arteta has had to try out a bunch of stuff, including, in the match prior to this one, against Leicester City, starting Raheem Sterling. Raheem Sterling was formerly one of the top players in the Premier League. He started at Liverpool and was sold to Manchester City. After a lot of early success he found himself on the bench. That’s not a sin at Manchester City. The guys on the bench are better than the starters at most other clubs. Then he was sold to Chelsea, right about the time Chelsea started buying everyone. Chelsea bought some good players but couldn’t field a team that was capable of succeeding for quite some time. When they finally sorted out their best 11, Raheem Sterling again did not make the cut. He was loaned to Arsenal at the beginning of the season.

At the beginning of the season, that seemed like good business from Arsenal. Bukayo Saka is never injured, so having Raheem Sterling available in the off-chance Saka was injured seemed good enough. Over the period Sterling’s been at Arsenal, he’s pretty much only come off the bench to rest others. It’s been clear that he is no longer capable of what he once was.

Well, guess what? Bukayo Saka was injured. He tore his hamstring in December, bad enough to require surgery. That was followed by injuries to Gabriel Jesus (ACL tear and surgery) in January, Gabriel Martinelli (hamstring strain) in February, and Kai Havertz (torn hamstring and surgery) in February. Pretty much our entire preferred starting line-up up top and parts of our next most-preferred lineup.

So in the match prior to West Ham, against Leicester City, Mikel Arteta apparently saw no choice. Raheem Sterling was in the starting lineup. He huffed and puffed around but was not capable of making a difference. Things looked dismal. The match was still scoreless almost 70 minutes in. Then Sterling was replaced with Mikel Merino, a midfielder. Merino is not even a first choice midfielder for Arsenal and had never, until that point, played as a striker. But within 10 minutes of entering the match, he scored a headed goal. Near the end of the match, he scored another. A one-time thwack from a beautiful pass by Leandro Trossard.

So the question going into the West Ham match was what does Arteta do now? Put Sterling in at the start again and let him wear down the opposition, then bring Merino in to make things happen at the end? Or start Merino?

Arteta chose to start Merino.

On game day, The Emirates was subdued. It’s been a long time since we’ve experienced an atmosphere that bad. The main thing we could all get behind was this: Declan Rice takes the corners on the left side. This happens to be the side the visitors are on in the first half. So while the West Ham supporters were lustily booing Rice, the Arsenal supporters were just as lustily standing and cheering for him. The West Ham fans had some choice songs for Rice (which also managed to insult Arsenal overall) and a few for Arteta as well.

West Ham were playing with 5 defenders, which is known to be a good strategy against Arsenal. Idea being to make it hard to have a sight of the goal and then counterattack on any mistake. We dominated but, as Arsene Wenger used to say, it was sterile domination. At near the end of the first half, West Ham’s strategy paid off big time. They got a breakaway and managed to cross into the box, where it was headed beyond our keeper, David Raya. 0 – 1.

The West Ham fans were jubilant and, if we Arsenal fans had been subdued before, we were downright morose during the second half. The rabble rousers in the crowd were unable to mount a response to West Ham’s joy.

With still 20 minutes to play in the match, teenage sensation and Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly got a yellow card that, after interminable video review, was upgraded to a red card. Still, Arsenal has shown themselves to be pretty resilient after going down to 10 men and I think we still felt some hope.

All hope was lost a short time later. Arteta removed Mikel Merino and replaced him with Raheem Sterling.

That was when Arsenal fans left the stadium in droves.

But my husband and I stayed until the bitter end. And it was bitter. There is nothing worse than being in a stadium with happy opposition, especially so close to us. Hearing them chant in joy for themselves, and in derision for us.

But, if you can freely dish it out (we can and we have) sometimes you have to be able to take it.

We took it.

(En)chant(ed)

Amy OLeave a comment

So I take back what I said before the Tottenham match. Maybe only the Club People have lost their belief. Maybe they never had it, or needed it. Maybe they all just desperately needed cash that day. Or a good night’s sleep. But what I experienced at the match showed fan hope and fervent love for Arsenal. Yes, some momentary despair was in the air at times. And for sure a thing that was in the air was a lot of disdain for our rivals, Tottenham Hotspur.

I’ve been the the North London Derby only once before and, like that experience, this one did not disappoint.

The route to the stadium was unbelievably straightforward. Trains not too crowded, gates running smoothly. We stopped at the Armoury again because we had so much time on our hands after we got to the stadium even though we got a late start. It was almost empty.

All of these things made me double down on my worries about what the atmosphere might be like in the stadium in the so-called-by-me post-belief Arsenal world. The only sign that this was a match a lot of people might care about was the massive police presence outside of the stadium near where the Tottenham fans would come in. We saw what looked like a well-protected group of Tottenham fans being held over one of the bridges into the stadium to guarantee safety as we arrived at our gate on the East side of the stadium.

And then. And then. We got into the stadium. So many people standing in the concourse singing with great passion and energy. It was raucous, so loud. The stadium was full. Even the Club part where all those tickets had been up for sale filled in nicely.

The singing is one of the things that brings me the feeling I understand as collective effervescence that brings me back to the stadium again and again. You just feel like you are being swept up in this crowd of people and becoming one with them. I know it’s over a sport, maybe nothing that will change the world, but when I’m in it I feel goosebumps right into even my brain. Listening to a crowd of 60,000 people singing “North London Forever” gets me. Tears sometimes. But this time, oh my goodness, it was so LOUD I think you could hear it on the moon.

I think both of my visits to the stadium this week reminded me that even though I’ve been a devoted Arsenal supporter for more than 15 years I can never fully understand the history that is in the bodies of these fans. At an FA Cup match there were FA-specific songs, many of them I had never heard before. But huge numbers of fans in the stadium can pick them up and sing them easily just because someone got the inspiration and let the song in their heart OUT of their heart. Each song was just waiting for someone to start it.

And with the Tottenham match, that history came out in a different way. Now, singing is used to inspire the team. “We love you Arsenal, we do,” is an example. It’s also used to reward the team. After a player does something particularly impressive, the fans often reflect that back with a chant. It might be that player’s special song bestowed on them by the fans, like Gabriel Magalhaes song or might be a tune everyone knows that inserts the player’s name. When Ethan Nwaneri, a homegrown 18-year old, does something well, the fans sing, “He’s one of our own, he’s one of our own, Ethan Nwaneri, he’s one of our own,” just inserting his name into a familiar construct everyone knows.

Big Gabi is sung a lot because, lately, he scores a lot. On a corner kick, which Arsenal is recently quite good at, his is the head that usually produces the goal. But it’s more than that. He just delivers a complete performance, like he deeply cares about doing his best. Fans appreciate and notice that.

But chanting is also used to put an opponent in its place. And although I would say the chanting at the Emirates is typically 80% for our team and 20% against the other team, when Arsenal plays Tottenham that balance is substantially changed. Probably 50% of the chants were for Arsenal and 50% were against Tottenham. And let’s face it, don’t we all get more creative when our brains are doing the devil’s work? Some of the anti-Tottenham songs were as choice as could be. And largely unknown by me. It’s not yet in my DNA the way it is for my fellow supporters. I am just a new visitor to the history of this great rivalry.

We were close again to the Tottenham supporters and the job of an Arsenal fan close to the enemy is to make sure they are drowned out. It was a tough challenge. Although Tottenham was abject, they still managed to score first and that really energized their fans and demoralized ours. But even when we could not muster a real song to drown them out, we perfected our booing to cover them up as best as we could.

But Arsenal came good, scoring 2 goals. One from a corner and by Gabriel (although they later gave it as an own goal against a Tottenham player) and a bit later by a shot taken at distance by Leo Trossard. He had kind of a terrible match but he took a shot and the keeper did not stop it.

Then Arsenal managed to keep Tottenham at bay until the full 90 minutes + 5 added were up. I was a wreck for the last 30 minutes along with my compatriots. And so, apparently, was our captain Martin Odegaard, who collapsed on the field when the final whistle blew. So much soccer in so few days. And probably so much relief to ultimately hold on to the win.

And then “North London Forever” once more. Twice as loud as the loudest I’d ever heard it, at the beginning of the match, which was already twice as loud as the loudest I’d ever heard it before Wednesday.

We were happy, relieved, joyful. But we celebrated en masse on our way back to the train with the not-lofty but so familiar call and response:

“What do you think of Tottenham?” (Every Arsenal fan knows the correct answer is “Shit.”)

“What do you think of shit?” (Every Arsenal fan knows the correct answer is “Tottenham.”)

The day they stopped believing

Amy O1 Comment

Every time I’m watching TV and Arsenal has had a goal scored against it or a poor result, I’ve opened the ticketing app to see if the setback has had an impact on people selling their tickets on the ticketing exchange. It never has. This has given me a picture of resilience among the fans. Their tickets, by and large, have been precious and their belief in the team has been firm. True, at least, if ticket retention can be understood as a leading indicator.

That said, fans have been more vocally upset about how Arsenal has been doing. Which is to say, basically not really challenging Liverpool for the title. Arsenal sits in 3rd place with a game in hand on the second place team. Hardly a terrible season but after narrowly missing out on the Premier League title last year and a little less narrowly the year before that, and Man City falling apart spectacularly, yeah, you feel like why can’t this be our year? It can’t because Liverpool is much revived after losing its beloved manager Jurgen Klopp for a new guy, Arne Slot, and striker Mo Salah having an amazing year. As well positioned as Arsenal are in the results table, Arsenal’s point total is technically as close to 8th place as it is to 1st. Every rare time Liverpool falters, so too does Arsenal.

Now there are plenty of extenuating circumstances. Most importantly, there has been one important injury after another. Although Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has shown he will happily rely on a team sheet that is working for him match after match, he has had significantly more limited options for much of this season that preclude putting his best/favorite team on the field. I’ve rarely been disappointed by the lineup he puts up but there is a lot shifting around. And the results are not ideal.

My husband and I realized there were three home matches within one week this week, so we endeavored to get tickets for one of them so we could justify going to London and try to get the others. We had failed to put in a ballot for the Manchester United FA cup match and our ballots were rejected for the Tottenham and Aston Villa matches. We had a reasonably easy time getting tickets on the ticket exchange for the Aston Villa match (club seats, so not ideal, but at least in the stadium). We bought plane tickets and organized a hotel. We had no further luck in getting tickets for the other matches before Friday, when we would leave Chicago.

I guess you could say our luck got worse on Friday because my husband slipped on ice on his morning walk and was concussed. He showed up at my bedside in the morning with a head wound and his hands experiencing burning pain. We drove through a snow storm to the emergency room where he had a CT scan, two staples, and got prescriptions for pain relief and muscle relaxants. The doctor said it was technically ok to go to London, but given the pain he was in, we decided not to. We got home and I started working. We hadn’t cancelled anything because it was already too late for some of the arrangements and didn’t matter when we cancelled some of the others.

Late in the afternoon, I detected some strange activity. “Uh, what are you doing?” I asked my spouse. He said “I’m packing for London.”

OK, then! I had not packed or, really, even showered that day due to the early morning excitement. But I can be flexible, too. So I did those things and we flew to London that night. I knew by the time we were at the airport there’s no way we should have gone to London, but my husband would not hear of turning around.

He’s not seen much of London so far this week, but he’s finally off the muscle relaxants and more alert. He is keenly hoping to have a London Pride before we leave London.

I’ve also not seen much, because I’ve been working. But I do get a lovely walk each morning and to work in a cozy hotel lobby facing a pretty courtyard next to St Olave’s church where supposedly is buried, uh, “Mother Goose” and diarist Samuel Pepys.

That brings us to the first match on Sunday where we were fervently hoping the Arsenal ticket exchange would be opened to people who had not balloted for Manchester United FA Cup tickets. That never happened given high demand from people who had unsuccessfully balloted. Instead I arranged to have roast at The Marksman at noon after which we would supposedly attend the match. The exchange had closed and, while we had a yummy lunch, with regard to tickets for the match, we had nothing.

In any case, Arsenal had a match to contend with. Although I thought Arsenal played great in the first half, we continued to have trouble scoring and the tide changed again in the second half. Manchester United was pretty dire, but they still managed enough action to score first. We scored not too long after that, with nice work from Gabriel. Meanwhile, it seems our injuries just kept piling up. Gabriel Jesus left in a stretcher. Jurien Timber had to be subbed out. Manchester United did a lot of fouling and had a man sent off with a red card. But even so, we could not break them down. And it didn’t look like we would be able to. We had a chance for Martin Odegaard to score a penalty. He has never missed a penalty. But his kick was saved by the keeper that day. The match went into overtime and then into penalties to settle it.

And from there, our keeper David Raya saved none of the penalties and Manchester United missed none of their kicks. Meanwhile, the Manchester United keeper saved one from our Kai Havertz. Very disappointed to already be out of the FA cup competition.

Once we were back to our hotel after watching the match I noticed something I’d never seen before in the age of watching the ticket exchange. Tickets for the Tottenham match were in bigger supply than anything I’ve ever seen before. There have been days I’ve clicked for a ticket probably hundreds of times and not seen a single ticket. On Sunday, I was seeing an available ticket on almost every click. I couldn’t access any of them, but they were there. Keeping in mind this Tottenham match is on a weekday night and therefore a bit less desirable, probably, for many people, this is a match against our biggest rival by far.

The next day, the number of available tickets was even bigger and not just for club seats. My husband and I managed to find and buy non-club seats together. All day Monday and Tuesday the number of seats available was at unprecedented levels. Just this afternoon, a few hours before the match, more than 30 seats were listed and available. It’s true they were mostly club seats and as I previously stated, when sitting at the club level, you just kind of feel like people aren’t quite into it. Still you would expect some interest and excitement in this match.

I know it’s just behavior on a ticket exchange, but this marks the first time in a long time that Arsenal fans seem to have lost hope and belief. I am sad for sure and yes, here we are probably knowing this year is not the year.

I’m leaving for the match soon. I know a lot of things can happen. It’s hard to imagine they will be positive things.

But I do believe in this team. If not today, or this year, some day and some year.

Wish us luck.

Armoury represents

Amy O2 Comments

The holidays came up with great urgency and I never finished posted after attending the Everton match. I know you’re dying for my thoughts, both of you.

Rarity of rarities, after being lucky in the Arsenal ballot for the Manchester United match and organizing our travel for that trip, we happened to be watching Arsenal play Nottingham Forest on TV when, just after half time, I decided to click on the Arsenal site to see if I could get a ticket for the Everton match. One came up right away, I clicked it, and it was truly available and not snatched up by someone else.

While I stepped away from the match to find my credit card, Arsenal scored. This is the story of my life. I cannot turn my back on the TV during a match without regretting it. But goals can be watched on replay and tickets do not come so easily, so I was satisfied with the tradeoff made. After I’d completed my purchase, I compelled my husband to click on the Arsenal web site to try to get a ticket. He clicked twice and one came up. He clicked it and it was also truly available. Unprecedented.

So we happily planned to come to London for the weekend.

Both of our tickets were Club level tickets which seems to be secret of getting tickets at the Emirates. Don’t get me wrong–the goal is to be in the stadium and Club tickets are awesome. It’s just that it’s a lot more fun to sit somewhere else. People are more into it. The reason Club tickets are so often the first to come available is probably because they are held by people or entities who just don’t care that much to always be present and when present, maybe a tad jaded.

I had hoped to be able to buy a different ticket and then sell this one, but the first opportunity I had to buy a ticket on the Arsenal web site outside of the Club level was on match day. And it became clear that it was not possible to buy a new ticket and then sell the old ticket. The Arsenal web site requires you to sell first and then buy. Too risky.

We started our match day by visiting the Armoury, the large store on site at the Emirates. A person in my life with whom I exchange Christmas gifts had wanted some merch. And there is no place like the Armoury for Arsenal merch. It has just about everything a person could own or use or look at with an Arsenal logo on it.

I mentioned in my post Report this that Arsenal is constantly keeping its finger on the pulse of its fans by surveying them. They had reached out a few weeks ago with a survey about whether I’d ever heard abuse or bad language at an Arsenal match. After the Manchester United match, they reached out with a typical survey about my experience at the Emirates. Was everyone polite? Was everyone helpful? Was the food good? But that was cursory. Once they got that out of the way, what they really seemed interested in was: had I visited the Armoury on that trip?

I had not.

I have to paraphrase what they asked next because, again, it didn’t occur to me I might write about this and I did not take sufficient note. The question was quite odd, so giving it my best shot.

To the best of my recollection they asked me what do I think the Armoury should represent to fans?

WTF?

But I like to be helpful to the club. First I wrote cheerfully, “Weird question!” Then I believe I wrote, “It should be a palace of crass commercialism.” To which I hope the marketing person who reviewed my answer thought to themselves, “Job done. One happy customer!”

Based on the one change we noted in the Armoury, one of my fellow fans who responded to the survey must have said “It should represent a disco,” because now there is a DJ at the Armoury on match day. He was right at the entrance, obstructing the ever-present mannequins of Arsenal players I believe I complimented in my survey. The music was lively, upbeat, optimistic. Danceable.

After looking at everything, and I mean everything, my husband found just the right thing for my Christmas gift recipient and I was whisked through the line to pay for it. My important job done, we went up to the Club level and enjoyed a Camden Hells lager.

My husband and I were not sitting together during the match. My seat was in the Clock end and I was pleasantly surprised that the fans near me were quite enthusiastic. The first half was fine. There was no score by halftime but it looked like Arsenal could get the job done. Everton had very little interest in scoring but a lot of interest in making sure Arsenal did not, either, and they defended stoutly. Martin Odegaard had a hat trick of missed chances and you just knew Arsenal would break through in the second half.

But once the second half started it looked like the wheels had come off for Arsenal. It was the same dynamic, Everton defending and Arsenal possessing the ball, but not very energetically and not with real purpose. With metronomic and hypnotic passing from side to side in front of 11 defenders. I still felt that anything could happen, but 90 minutes ticked down and nothing did.

Perhaps there were actually so many Club tickets available because everyone predicted the Arsenal v. Everton match was going to end in a scoreless draw. As it did.

I didn’t hear this, but my husband said in his section there was some booing at the end.

There haven’t been many times I’ve had to leave an Arsenal match disappointed, which made me decide to put together my personal statistics. I’ve attended 24 matches live. The record for those matches is 17 wins, 5 draws, and 2 losses, an average of 2.33 points per match. Over the same time period, what has been Arsenal’s home record? An average of 2.16 points per match, or so says Microsoft Copilot. It’s AI so it’s got to be legit, right?

I hereby declare my presence at the Emirates to have statistically significant impact on the club. Pretty sure my record is better when I wear the red jersey to the match than when I wear the black jersey, as I did on Saturday. Lesson learned.

After being queried about what the Armoury should represent to fans, I now eagerly await the survey from Arsenal in which I have the opportunity to explain what I represent to Arsenal. They do take action on their surveys and I think I can get behind the action they might take when this information becomes available.

I might wait until I get my stats back up a bit.

Report this

Amy OLeave a comment

About a month ago I got a survey from Arsenal. Arsenal do a LOT of surveys. Usually they are about your experience at a match. How was the process of buying tickets? How was the process of loading your digital pass? Were the stewards pleasant and helpful? How was the food? You get the picture.

But this one was different. To paraphrase, because I wasn’t planning to write about this and can’t recall the exact details of the questions, it wanted to know have I ever heard racist chanting or speech at the Emirates? Have I ever heard misogynistic or homophobic speech? Mistreatment of the disabled? Tragedy chanting? This last one I think is unique to football. It is chanting and taunting about tragedy that happened to football supporters or players. For example, the Hillsborough disaster, where dozens of Liverpool supporters were killed in 1989, has been the subject of taunting by supporters of other clubs.

In this survey, I was able to honestly respond that I’ve never heard any of those things while attending a match. However, the survey had one more question. Have I ever heard bad language at the Emirates?

Well, yes, I have indeed.

And, the survey wanted to know, did I know how to report this bad language to the club?

Er, no, I did not.

Never let it be said that Arsenal is not sincere in its efforts to make sure you understand you’ve been heard. In a useful touch before the Manchester United match last Wednesday, the Arsenal announcer explained at the outset of the match how this could be reported. You can text a number and tell them the seat number of the person producing the bad behavior.

Good to be educated.

The match had quite a late start, probably to work through issues of getting people to the match with public transportation on a night when there would be evening rush hour and when there were several matches in London. We had to get creative anyway because the normal route was just a no-go due to all the fans trying to get the stadium.

We were rewarded with what I perceive as an unusual light show show before the match. From our seats high in the Clock End the fire cannons were producing flame so big that we could feel the heat.

We were closer to the opposition fans than ever before, which means we were part of several critical sections responsible for being alert to drowning them out. It was challenging because they appeared to be feeling energetic.

If I’m being honest it wasn’t the most exciting match. Manchester United seemed pretty committed to slowing down the match and breaking up any action and usually when someone tries that, they are able to succeed. But Arsenal have a not-so-secret weapon that works even in this case. We are able to score from corner kicks more often than any other team. And when working against a team that is trying to break down flow, we tend to get lots of chances to take corner kicks.

Anything I might say about why Arsenal is so good at scoring from corner kicks is a waste of typing. In this morning’s The Athletic there was as comprehensive an analysis as you might ever want. Even I, who am deeply interested in this topic, started skimming the article after about two yards of scrolling.

The fact is, even if you know Arsenal are good at corner kicks and you know exactly why Arsenal are good, it’s still very hard to stop us.

Not long after half time, Arsenal had a chance at a corner kick. My husband and I were probably seated about as far away from that action as you could possibly be in the stadium, but we couldn’t fail to see Decan Rice’s inch perfect kick and Jurrien Timber’s expert glancing header into the net.

That helped open the match up as Manchester United sought an equalizer, much to Arsenal’s advantage. Even so, the next goal was also from an Arsenal corner kick in the 73rd minute. In this case, I could see Bukayo Saka’s lovely kick but how it ended up in the goal was more mysterious. There was a weird delay from the point of impact before the Arsenal fans in the North Bank put up a giant cheer. After the match I could understand why. The original kick ended up on Thomas Partey’s head, which he hit so hard it bounced off William Saliba’s butt and into the goal.

Happenstance? Saliba celebrated so thoroughly that you would have sworn that means of scoring actually was the plan.

In any case, that left about 20 minutes of breathing room with Manchester United looking like they would not be able to score a goal even if there were six days available.

Although it is often the case that fans chant and we can’t tell what they are saying, what happened next was perfectly clear. At least 50,000 people in the stadium started singing, “You’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit!”

Now, recall that we now know how to report such behavior to the club. In this case, we were all saved the effort. It would be impossible for the club not to be able to report it to itself.

I’ve signed this especially for you

Amy O1 Comment

After having lunch on Saturday, we headed over to the Emirates. The Tube was unbelievably empty for a match day. Usually we’re crammed into the train car like sardines. We took the requisite walk around about 3/4ths of the stadium and then went up to the Club level. With Club seats you get a match program “for free” and can buy a drink from the bar and watch the warm ups through big windows until about 20 minutes before the match, when they bring shades over the windows. After that, they want to hurry you out to your seats before the match starts.

While we were having our beer we met another couple who travelled from Chicago to watch the match. They were big Arsenal fans and at the Emirates for the first time to celebrate a big wedding anniversary. We had a lot in common and enjoyed talking with them until we all went our separate ways to watch the match.

After everything it took to get tickets, is it ok to admit I was a bit disappointed to see about a dozen empty seats near me? Sell your tickets when you can’t use them, Arsenal family.

My seats were lower in the stadium than at any other time I’ve been and it was interesting to see things up close. I could actually make out Declan Rice’s features when he came over to my side for many corner kicks in the first half.

Arsenal looked great the whole match and I felt very relaxed. Lots of movement and space creation, solid passing, shots on goal. Arsenal’s first goal came when our defender William Saliba did a beautiful job of intercepting a pass to our flop artist Leicester City nemesis, Jamie Vardy, and it was worked down the right side of the field, then across to Gabriel Martinez on the left. He’s struggled to score for an extended period, but he did not struggle in this instance. Slow roller, perfectly placed in the left corner of the goal.

The next Arsenal goal came late in the half, again starting with a William Saliba interception and worked on the left. Gabriel Martinelli had a nice cross into the Leandro Trossard, who put a great shot past the Leicester City goalkeeper.

2-0 at the half. We regrouped with our new Chicago-area Arsenal friends in the Club for a “free” halftime drink, feeling confident.

What happened next is a bit mysterious for me. It was the only time ever I wasn’t back in my seat when the second half kicked off. When I got to my seat only a few minutes into the half, Leicester had somehow gotten a goal back. The fan next to me also did not know what happened. I had to text my son, watching in the States, to find out how the goal was scored. Seems there was a foul called on Saliba and the resulting kick by Leicester’s James Justin was deflected off our boy Kai Havertz, where our goalkeeper, David Raya, could not reach it. Quite a bit against the run of play, but these things happen.

Unfortunately, a second “these things happen” event occurred again near the middle of the half. Leicester City managed to produce a cross to James Justin again and he tagged it into the Arsenal goal via a deflection from the right goal post. One of the more beautiful goals you’ll ever see, if you can ever really appreciate a goal from your opponent. 2-2.

The Leicester City fans were way too close to me and annoyingly cheerful. And things became very quiet among the Arsenal fans. I received a text from a fellow fan, friend, and (tellingly) former boss in Chicago: “Fix this.”

I still felt confident but I had the slight sinking feeling maybe I should not. Arsenal had been looking great in the second half, but just not able to get a shot past the Leicester goal keeper.

Minutes went by and the Leicester City keeper managed to keep out everything Arsenal threw at him. Mikel Arteta made a few subs, including 17-year old Ethan Nwaneri for Thomas Partey. Partey had a great match, but Nwaneri brought unbelievable energy and very nearly scored a goal the first time he possessed the ball.

Leicester wasted time like no one’s business. We reached the full 90 minutes of match time still at 2-2.

The fourth official announced 7 minutes of added time. Not a ton of time to make things happen, but something to work with. Arsenal continued pressing and forced a number of impressive saves from Leicester’s keeper.

Arsenal is well known for its recent success in scoring from corner kicks and other set pieces. We had dozens of corner kicks on Saturday, almost all dangerous, but none resulted in a goal. That is, until about halfway into the 7 minutes of added time. Bukayo Saka put one of his perfect kicks across the goal and Leandro Trossard smashed it. From my seat, all I saw of the actual goal was all the Arsenal fans behind the goal raising up and shouting “YEAH!” in unison. That was proof enough for me that a goal happened. Trossard’s kick had ricocheted off the leg of a Leicester defender and into the goal.

The added time lasted much longer than 7 minutes because of the goal and ensuing celebrations and some time wasting by Leicester (before the goal) and Arsenal (after the goal). It lasted long enough for another counterattack by Arsenal via Gabriel Jesus. He took way too long to get off a pass to two open teammates, but when he finally did shoot, the Leicester goalkeeper spilled it. Kai Havertz was there to give it the nudge across the line.

The goal was immediately flagged for offside and a VAR check was triggered. The only time I felt nervous during the game was during that VAR check. I still felt that Leicester could score another goal and tie it up. But VAR overturned the on-field call and the goal was counted. The match ended 4-2 not long after.

As I was standing after the match in the stands getting a photo of the final score and dancing and singing along with the other fans, a man walked up to me and tried to hand me his match program. “This is for you,” he said. I was taken a bit aback because every one in the Club section had been given a match program. He said, “I’ve signed this especially for you.”

So I took his program and handed him mine. Was he a famous person? Had he been an Arsenal player? Was he a random dude?

Over the next couple of days I’ve looked all through that program and one thing is abundantly clear: there is no signature.

We met our new Chicago friends after the match in the Club for one more drink and bathed in the 3 points. We took pictures at the Arsene Wenger statue and said our goodbyes, and my husband and I headed back to our hotel. Along the way we made an impromptu decision to get off the Tube at High Street and see if we could have dinner at the Princess of Shoreditch, one of our favorite London restaurants. Luckily, Saturday is a relatively quiet night at the Princess and we were able to have a delicious dinner.

We left London early Sunday morning after 21 hours on the ground. Great visit and hope to be back soon!