Tag: The Emirates

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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.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Amy O2 Comments

I’ve written before about the statues on the grounds of the Emirates. Just behind the statue of Theirry Henry, there is a giant objet d’art, a wall depicting every Arsenal team member–we assume–since the beginning of people taking pictures of teams. One team picture morphs into another, from ancient to modern. The left half of the image depicts players in black and white film, and somewhere in the middle the teams are depicted in color. They are, naturally, wearing the red home jersey.

emirates-stadium-arsenal-thierry-henry-statue-1466711685
Photo by Football Ground Guide….because I can’t find mine.

The message is clear–all these players–they are the Arsenal. They have each taken their place in the team and in the wall.  And after a time, far too short or too long or just right, they left the team and were replaced by others. While “the team” was still “the team” after they left, if you think about how teams are formed, a departed player leaves a gap that must be filled. Not just a position, but possibly a gap in some form of artistry that might easily be replaced like-for-like or might require many different changes.

From the first moment I saw the picture wall, that time we came for a “once-in-a-lifetime” pilgrimage to the Emirates in 2012, I was captivated by how it must have been made, and how difficult the upkeep must be as the team keeps changing.

It turns out there is no upkeep. If my googling of the art is correct, that particular installation depicting the players who rolled on and off the team was replaced, in my absence from the Emirates, by this:

theirry-original
Photo by Arsenal.com.

This is also a historical depiction, of “iconic goals and celebrations,” according to Arsenal.com. It’s nice, and to gets a similar point across, but it’s not quite the same point. The original piece was a celebration that contained some darkness: “Things come to an end, don’t get comfortable. It may end well, or not.” The new art is a bit too cheerful.  I’m reminded of what my husband, who grew up Catholic, said about attending my Methodist Easter services: “I can’t stand Easter at your church. Everyone is too damn happy.”

The upkeep of the original art, if ever that was the intent, in the past two years would have been very difficult indeed because the team has almost completely turned over. Jack Wilshire, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Laurent Koscielny, Carl Jenkinson, Kieran Gibbs, David Ospina, Santi Cazorla, Danny Welbeck, Gabriel, Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin, Nacho Monreal…..all gone. Alexis Sanchez is so gone that he’s already left the club he left us for. Petr Cech and Per Mertesacker are both retired (though our BFG has a coaching gig with the club).

Really, only Granit Xhaka, Mesut Ozil and Hector Bellerin are still on the team. Xhaka, to my questioning eyes, has become a regular starter, presumably undroppable. But Ozil and Bellerin–neither of them is even making the bench. Bellerin because he’s coming back from serious injury, Ozil because, well, no one seems to know.

Saddest of all, my hero, manager Arsene Wenger is gone. He retired at the end of the 2017 season, beating the team to the punch before they fired him. He got a nice sendoff that brought tears to my eyes, but it was bitter deep down. He’s been replaced by Unai Emery, a coach who looked promising at first, but now just seems like he’s not quite sure how to put it all together.

On that first visit in 2012 when I became captivated by the wall, we visited over the Christmas holidays, watching a cracking match against Newcastle United that ended 7-3.  My small son had been a fervent Santa defender. In the year prior to the trip, I had explained to him that Santa needs a lot of help from me: I had to listen throughout the year for what my kids wanted for Christmas, I had to buy presents, I had to wrap them, and I had to put them under the tree. My explanation didn’t leave much for Santa to do, but somehow my son’s belief in the power of Santa remained well intact. He was a smart kid; I can only assume that he really, really didn’t want to know. The machinations of a trip to London over Christmas fully exposed to my son the sad realities of Santa, but the trip remains one of the most fun Christmases we’ve had as a family.

That small boy left home for college this Fall. We dropped him off in Rochester, NY and won’t see him again until Thanksgiving. He’s having an amazing time. Our daughter is little more than a semester from graduation from College. I miss having them around and building my life around them and their activities. I miss their noise and mess and fun.

Since we moved to California, I’ve been to the Emirates only once, before my husband and son relocated from Chicago. The trip is much farther from the west coast and we didn’t really have the same support system for our son in California that we had in Chicago.

But did I mention he’s in Rochester, NY now?

This is a tough season. Arsenal have talent–maybe better than ever–but haven’t clicked as a team, not even close. There are some exciting young players and some excellent older players, but my feelings for them havent gelled. We now have David Luiz for heaven’s sake: excellent luck, or Chelsea Trojan horse? Xhaka–can he possibly be undroppable from the lineup with so many questionable decisions? Loanee Dani Ceballos–yes, he is a fan favorite, but when he throws a stepover with no one even defending him, I shake my head. The team doesn’t feel the same.

So this weekend, we are doing what must be done. I’m getting ready to board British Air in San Jose and head to the mother ship, the Emirates. We’ll see the new art, have a pint, and, most importantly, try to come to terms.

Suddenly I’m feeling good about it. In the very Uber I’m in, the driver is playing House of Pain’s Jump Around. (Not the “clean version,” I add.) Obviously a sign!

“Oh no,” you say, “That’s not the song played before the second half at the Emirates anymore”?

Fine. Fine.

Although our new players probably won’t find their way onto the wall behind Theirry Henry, they have a good chance of finding a place in our hearts.