I started covering Arsenal in August 2021.
At the early age of 15, and after many Sunday League shots fired generously over the bar, I came to terms with the fact that I was probably not cut out for a career as a professional footballer.
It was not until almost two years later to the date that I got my first opportunity to cover the club in person. My first press conference at Arsenal’s training ground, now known as the Sobha Realty Training Centre, came ahead of the Gunners’ season opener against Nottingham Forest in August 2023.
Looking back now, there is something quite fitting about that fixture.
Since then, university has taken me from London to Nottingham, where I have had the privilege of covering Forest’s European nights while continuing to follow Arsenal whenever possible.
In many ways, it is a full-circle moment for me.
Ahead of that Forest game, Mikel Arteta spoke about relishing the opportunity to play at the Emirates Stadium and play “in front of our people.”
Arsenal won 2-1, courtesy of goals from Bukayo Saka and Eddie Nketiah, and although the 2023/24 season would ultimately end two points behind Manchester City, it felt like a catalyst for something bigger.
Three years ago, there was belief around the club. Now, it is much stronger than belief; it is the expectation, from the fans and from everyone else across the country.
When I joined VAVEL, I had one line to define myself on my profile page. To this day it remains: "Unfortunately an Arsenal fan but it never hurts to have a bit of optimism sometimes."
The Emirates Stadium has transformed into one of the best atmospheres I have experienced so far in football. I was unfortunately not able to be there on Tuesday night, but judging by the clips surfacing online, few concerts would have reached the noise levels that Arsenal fans did in the streets of North London.
There is still more that can be done, of course, but small changes such as the greet-the-bus movement led by the brilliant REDaction Gooners and the removal of the Emirates tunnel, have helped create an incredible synergy between supporters and players.
As the season went on, I continued attending press conferences, starting to ask questions myself. I may have been the youngest person in the room, but I built the confidence to ask, interact and learn more.
While social media has created an entire new world of football coverage, tactical analysis and forums for debate, of which much of it is excellent, I can confidently say that there is nowhere I have learned more from than sitting inside Arteta’s press conferences.
From the outside looking in, they may seem like twenty minutes of repetition: safe questions, pre-mediated answers and routine injury updates, but Arteta has this way of responding that is so unique.
I was incredibly fortunate that my first game working at the Emirates Stadium was a 6-0 win against RC Lens in the Champions League.
By the time Arsenal had scored five goals in the first half alone, my laptop was struggling to keep up with the pace of the events unfolding in front of me.
In the last three years, I have continued attending matches and press conferences, asking questions and learning every step of the way.
Arsenal has taken me from Milan to Madrid, and Mansfield.
PHOTO: My view from the press box at the Riyadh Air Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid before Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Atlético Madrid.
I have watched players younger than me excel under so much more pressure. I have seen a complete restoration of culture in and around the club. I have watched former players receive heroes’ welcomes, and I have seen negativity start to fade out, replaced by genuine optimism.
Perhaps that is what made Tuesday night so special.
Arsenal have won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years, but this title is bigger than the hardware that comes with it. It feels like a reward for the years of rebuilding the connection between a football club and the people who love it.
Whether it was the casual fan, the supporters who travel everywhere that I have met on my trips, the staff behind the scenes, the fellow journalists documenting every step, or the players who have delivered the results on the pitch, everybody has contributed something to this journey.
There were hugs. There were the customary chants. But there was also something even more special: there is still more to come.
That has been Arteta’s message in so many of the press conferences that I have sat in - that they are capable of more.
Arsenal have gone from the team finishing eighth and conceding goals in such a comedic manner that even I briefly fancied my chances of helping defensively, to the side that have gone unbeaten against Europe’s best on the way to a Champions League final, pipped Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City to the Premier League title, and could now possibly see up to 19 members of their first-team squad involved at this summer’s World Cup.
Arsenal fans are in for the summer of their lives.