Monday February 11, 2008.
Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal 2 Blackburn Rovers 0
Seat 804 / 805.
Row 17.
Block U120.
What a night! I met Caitlin after work outside the Arsenal tube after spending an hour or so wondering the surrounding streets of the old stadium (two blocks from the new stadium) which is being turned into million dollar apartments. The stadium buts up against the houses and on one of the wings you wouldn’t know a ground was behind the two storey houses. Whilst leaning on a six foot brick wall waiting thinking if I ever win the lotto I’d buy a house
here an older guy strolled over holding a cup of tea and said “Don’t you hate waiting for people thinking they won’t show!” He seemed eccentrically friendly and turned out to be a fascinating person who oozed of wealthy confidence. Turns out he used to live in one of the houses I’d just been drooling over, as a kid in a family of 13. During the war he and his school mates would stand in the street we were in 
watching the V1 rockets (doodle bugs, first of the self propelled rockets) fired from across the channel and follow their trajectory until they found what it had destroyed and have a competition to see who found the largest piece of shrapnel. If the rockets motor fell silent and its nose started to dip they would run like the wind to safety. To me speaking to someone who lived through a period of history I am fascinated by was a thrill, but to him it was just his childhood. Twice the old stadium was bombed and destroyed, the two opposing stands behind the goals and the pitched was unplayable until 1948. He said the Arsenal home games for the three years after the war were played at Tottenham which is Arsenal’s most hated local rival, the fans sing songs about Tottenham before, during and after every game we have been to. We find this little strange, but if you told a fanatical fan this fact they’d tell you were to go. As the war dragged on he and his siblings were eventually moved out to Portsmouth to his aunties house but not before his father took them to watch London’s East End burning from a large hill over looking the city. Once in Portsmouth (navel port, not the best of places to move to) he would watch the German bombers flying meters over his head from the hills above the town as they attempted to destroy the port. Listening to this guy talk about his childhood was awesome and upon Caitlin’s arrival across the street from the tube we said our farewells and luck for the night’s game.
We have been to a couple of Arsenal Champions League games and the pre-season Emirates Cup game which all had a great atmosphere inside the new Arsenal stadium but Mondays Premier League match against Blackburn blew the other games away. It wasn’t a classic and they didn’t play with the quality they normally do but with the prospect of the Gunners going five points clear at the top of the table gave the stadium and the fans an electric feel. So when after 4 minutes Arsenal scored from a corner the crowd went nuts. The guy beside me proceeded to hug the bloke in front of him who he didn’t even know then turned to me for a similar embrace. To
be with 60,000 people who are following the same club in a game where goals are so crucial definitely creates an experience not soon forgotten. The crucial second goal came in the last few minutes and sent us punching the air out of our seats again as red and white scarves swung above heads in all directions. Celebrating with strangers when no alcohol is involved is few and far between and sends you back to when you were an uninhibited kid jumping up and down in the school yard not giving a care to what people may think. The night was more than worth the hour and a half long squashed tube ride home.
Go the Gunners!
Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal 2 Blackburn Rovers 0
Seat 804 / 805.
Row 17.
Block U120.
What a night! I met Caitlin after work outside the Arsenal tube after spending an hour or so wondering the surrounding streets of the old stadium (two blocks from the new stadium) which is being turned into million dollar apartments. The stadium buts up against the houses and on one of the wings you wouldn’t know a ground was behind the two storey houses. Whilst leaning on a six foot brick wall waiting thinking if I ever win the lotto I’d buy a house
here an older guy strolled over holding a cup of tea and said “Don’t you hate waiting for people thinking they won’t show!” He seemed eccentrically friendly and turned out to be a fascinating person who oozed of wealthy confidence. Turns out he used to live in one of the houses I’d just been drooling over, as a kid in a family of 13. During the war he and his school mates would stand in the street we were in 
watching the V1 rockets (doodle bugs, first of the self propelled rockets) fired from across the channel and follow their trajectory until they found what it had destroyed and have a competition to see who found the largest piece of shrapnel. If the rockets motor fell silent and its nose started to dip they would run like the wind to safety. To me speaking to someone who lived through a period of history I am fascinated by was a thrill, but to him it was just his childhood. Twice the old stadium was bombed and destroyed, the two opposing stands behind the goals and the pitched was unplayable until 1948. He said the Arsenal home games for the three years after the war were played at Tottenham which is Arsenal’s most hated local rival, the fans sing songs about Tottenham before, during and after every game we have been to. We find this little strange, but if you told a fanatical fan this fact they’d tell you were to go. As the war dragged on he and his siblings were eventually moved out to Portsmouth to his aunties house but not before his father took them to watch London’s East End burning from a large hill over looking the city. Once in Portsmouth (navel port, not the best of places to move to) he would watch the German bombers flying meters over his head from the hills above the town as they attempted to destroy the port. Listening to this guy talk about his childhood was awesome and upon Caitlin’s arrival across the street from the tube we said our farewells and luck for the night’s game.
We have been to a couple of Arsenal Champions League games and the pre-season Emirates Cup game which all had a great atmosphere inside the new Arsenal stadium but Mondays Premier League match against Blackburn blew the other games away. It wasn’t a classic and they didn’t play with the quality they normally do but with the prospect of the Gunners going five points clear at the top of the table gave the stadium and the fans an electric feel. So when after 4 minutes Arsenal scored from a corner the crowd went nuts. The guy beside me proceeded to hug the bloke in front of him who he didn’t even know then turned to me for a similar embrace. To
be with 60,000 people who are following the same club in a game where goals are so crucial definitely creates an experience not soon forgotten. The crucial second goal came in the last few minutes and sent us punching the air out of our seats again as red and white scarves swung above heads in all directions. Celebrating with strangers when no alcohol is involved is few and far between and sends you back to when you were an uninhibited kid jumping up and down in the school yard not giving a care to what people may think. The night was more than worth the hour and a half long squashed tube ride home.Go the Gunners!
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