Seven Takeaways From A Never To Be Forgotten Week Including Deep Deep Joy At Selhurst Park As Arsenal Lift The Premier League Trophy After 22 Long Years
What A Week For Gooners Everywhere As Arsenal Lift Premier League Trophy On Memorable Day At Selhurst
Seven Takeaways From A Never To Be Forgotten Week Including Deep Deep Joy At Selhurst Park As Arsenal Lift The Premier League Trophy After 22 Long Years
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Champions! Champions! Champions!
1 - How wonderful was it to see such joy at Selhurst on the day Arsenal finally lifted the Premier League trophy after 22 years
We’ve waited so long to experience such deep, deep joy.
Twenty two years is a lifetime, so to experience our beloved club win the Premier League title once again sparked off scenes of such unbridled joy on Sunday, not to mention, it seems, everywhere on the planet. In celebrations that have barely abated since.
Enjoy it, savour it, love it. Because heaven knows Gooners everywhere have earned this.
2 - Arsenal Brought The Good Weather As I Took A Little Stroll Around N5
Talking of celebrating Arsenal’s title triumph, Sunday was such a joyous day.
As someone said, Arsenal brought the weather after winning the title. A dull, dank, wet spring, has been swept away by such a glorious burst of summer sunshine, practically from the moment Bournemouth held City seven, ecstatic days ago.
I headed up early to Finsbury Park on Sunday just to take in the atmosphere from around 10am onwards. There were already queues to get in most pubs including The Twelve Pins and The Blackstock, with the area around the train station and Blackstock Road itself starting to fill with Gooners in red and white.
I thought I’d have a little stroll towards the Emirates via St Thomas’ Road.
It was great to see the bunting out on Highbury Hill. Good work by AISA’s Richard Smith and his neighbours. What was also noticeable was Gooners already starting to arrive at Arsenal tube, and it’s not even 11am yet.
It seemed like a good idea to continue on towards the Emirates. As I passed the stadium, replete with a myriad of faces plastered on the stadium, it was fitting the club’s inclusive words posted in the midst of the title triumph sprang to mind: ‘Arsenal is for everyone.”‘
I then headed to the top of the concourse, and thought I’d take a quick look at the crowds already building, from my vantage point overlooking Bear Roundabout and the area around the Armoury.
Ironically, the last time I actually stood in that exact same spot was when I joined thousands of other Gooners angrily protesting against the proposed European Super League and Arsenal’s participation in it. How times change.
I thought I’d pop in the Armoury itself to pick up a t-shirt or two for Budapest.
The store was doing a roaring trade packed with Arsenal fans and it wasn’t even lunchtime.
I asked a girl on the till if the Armoury had ever been this busy without Arsenal playing at home.‘Never!’ she said. ‘[The queue for the tills]It’s eight lines deep on a Sunday morning!’ she added.
A quick stroll through the Arches on Hornsey Road, where I used to sell the Gooner, before preferring the spot at Bear Roundabout. The tunnel has been absolutely transformed by NorthBanksy’s Arsenal street art, which everyone should try and take in on a trip to the Emirates.
Which is where I bumped into Gooner Fanzine print columnist Charlie Ashmore and his daughter, en route to Selhurst. It’s always a pleasure to catch up with Charlie, as loyal and long-suffering Arsenal supporter as you will find. You can find his column in every print issue of the Gooner Fanzine, as well as reading his post-match reaction after every game on our sitehere.
I have to say a massive thanks to Charlie for all hard work this season and over the years. Quite simply the Gooner wouldn’t exist with such a large number of good people like Charlie.
4 - Disclaimer
I missed only my seventh Arsenal men’s game in three years anywhere on the planet as a journalist or a fan on Sunday.
From LA to Port Vale, New Jersey to Field Mill, Bilbao to Bruges, to Milan to Madrid, and everywhere in between.
Why?
The powers that be at Crystal Palace declined my accreditation because the world’s media wanted to be in the Selhurst press box.
I’m at peace with. Not least because I’d been bracing myself for that scenario since the Premier League fixtures came out last summer.
I don’t even blame my Palace contacts for getting cold feet selling me their ticket as they don’t want to lose their season tickets.
So, after my perambulation around vN5 I headed down to South London to flog the Gooner Fanzine outside the stadium, via catching up with old Arsenal pals with tickets for the game, in a pub in London Bridge for a couple of beers before we all headed down to Norwood Junction.
It was also good to catch up with Gooner Fanzine production genius Serge for a few beers during the game in an old school boozer in Thornton Heath, not to mention a succession of loyal Gooners who also couldn’t get into the game.
Even Marcus, the bloke from Googlebox popped in. He and his parter were such lovely people, and massive Gooners to boot. I last saw them about half an hour after the final whistle merrily drinking rum in the blazing sun outside a joyful house party round the corner from the stadium, complete with a proper sound system. It was that kind of day.
Wherever you watched the game I hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did, after 22 long years. Champions! Champions! Champions!
5 - Deep, deep joy at Selhurst
If you had told me 22 long years ago that it would be nearly a quarter of a century before Arsenal would win the league again, I simply wouldn’t have believed you.
I didn’t feel the need to head down to N5 to join in the festivities in the immediate aftermath of Arsenal winning the title after City failed to win at Bournemouth.
Not because I’m a grinch, although I can be at times, most often when Arsenal lose, no, it was purely because when Arsene Wenger’s great side won the league back in 1998 on the way to a memorable double, I went on a three day bender and ended up 72 hours later in the same clothes at Chimes on the Lower Clapton Road.
I wasn’t at the Emirates the night Arsenal won the league, because, to paraphrase Alex James from Blur, I spent my late teens celebrating Arsenal’s title wins with alcohol, I celebrated Arsenal’s title wins in my 20s with drugs, and, last Tuesday night, I celebrated Arsenal’s title win with a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich. And I enjoyed it thoroughly.
However, by Sunday I did feel the need to celebrate in communion with Gooners.
Which is what I did outside Selhurst Park when catching up with so many good people throughout the course of a never-to-be-forgotten day and night.
5 - South London Gooners Out In Force At Selhurst
It was fitting for a club with south London antecedents that Arsenal lifted the Premier League trophy south of the river.
The atmosphere felt like Carnival. It was simply joyous, as hundreds, if not thousands of Gooners unable to get ticket to be inside Selhurst simply partied outside. Despite a considerable police presence there was not a hint of trouble, as Arsenal supporters cheered, and danced, and sang, and savoured every single minute.
The moment the title was lifted - we outside could tell because of the red smoke rising over the Arthur Waite Stand, as well as the noise from firecrackers suddenly unleashed pitch side. There was a huge roar from everyone outside. It was such fun.
North London Forever was sung lustily outside Selhurst, as the bloke selling plastic Premier League medals at £20 a pop (I actually thought he said 20p, and still thought they were overpriced, but, hey, each to their own, although I will remember that the next time I flog the Gooner in freezing conditions and someone turns their nose up at the Gooner while wearing a £25 half and half scarf and a £20 (twenty quid?!) plastic medal, the sort schools used to award to kids on sports day. Someone had even brought two gold balloons shaped in the form of “22” that bounced around the crowds.
As the sweltering evening progressed, a large crowd stayed partying amid bursts of pyro and red smoke, many hanging around to see the team depart from Selhurst.
I had a genuine frisson of excitement at seeing a glimpse of the gloriously shiny Premier League trophy being lifted as the squad made their way to the team coaches amid great excitement. Even now, day’s later, I can picture it in my mind’s eye, and hopefully will until the day I day, as I can truthfully say I saw the Premier League trophy lifted at Palace, albeit outside Selhurst…what a day.
6 - Arsenal Twitter Can Be Fun
One of the unexpected small joys of Arsenal winning the title is that Arsenal Twitter has been such a fun place since the evening of Tuesday May 19.
Hands up who lost themselves scrolling with a huge smile on their faces for the entire week. No mugs moaning about Arteta Out, or slating one, many, or all of our players.
No, it’s just been deep, deep joy, watching friends, Twitter pals, and complete strangers sharing their happy thoughts, pictures and videos. Social media gets a bad rap most times, and deservedly so most times, but the last eight days have been wonderful to share vicariously so many Gooners happiness.
With the Champions League final coming up, long may it continue.
7 - Arsenal Are Massive
As someone who grew up watching Arsenal in the early to mid 1980s, when the Highbury crowds were low, and excitement and expectation levels even lower, the fact that my club, our club, is so massive these days, still surprises me more than it should .
I suppose when you can still recall that the club’s main merchandising outlet, well, the only one to be fair, was the tiny shop on Avenell Road, run by the legendary Jack Kelsey, that sold about six key rings every home game.
When you were lucky if you saw of glimpse of your heroes on Match of the Day once every blue moon, not least because they only showed three matches every Saturday night, with Arsenal never, ever considered for the unheralded luxury of being awarded one of a handful of live games a season, well, because, they were seen as dull, deathly dull.
As a kid I didn’t think my heroes were dull. I used to lustily try and sing ‘We’re By Far The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen’, far too young to realise there was anything other than the truth and nothing but the truth attached to that statement.
I was talking to one of our loyal Gooner readers the other day, reminiscing that my first ever Arsenal vs Manchester City game was in April, 1983, when Brian Talbot scored a hattrick as the mighty Gunners won 3-0 in front of 16,000 fans at Highbury.
Two weeks later I also watched wide-eyed as Terry Neill’s side also beat Manchester United 3-0 in May, 1983, also in front of 16,000 (I can recall cheering Remi Moses being sent off).
However, if you’d have suggested to me back then, more than 40 years ago, that the 2026 version of my club would have millions of Gooners celebrating in the streets from Shanghai to Sydney, Uganda to Nepal, and everywhere in between, I simply wouldn’t have been able to comprehend such a fantastical notion.
Nor would I have been able to digest the fact that the club’s retail arm at the stadium now boasts a couple of stores bigger than most supermarkets, nor the fact that when I popped in to pick up a t-shirt for Budapest, the queues were eight deep winding their way to reach the raft of the tills.
Or the fact that the club’s digital sales would be clocking up millions of pounds of sales every hour, let alone per season, testament not only to Arsenal’s success, but also to their innovative marketing that has turned the name into a fashion label, with more than 100 different sets of different Gunners-related merchandising launches over the last year or two.
So, to see such joy exploding everywhere on the planet was a sight to behold.
While also reminding us that we are in a very privileged position to be able to watch Arsenal in the flesh at the Emirates and elsewhere.
More from me on the way to Budapest via Vienna tomorrow.
What A Week. Champions! Champions! Champions!
……
A selection of my Arsenal coverage this past week
Havertz winner moves Arsenal to brink of Premier League title
Why do so many people hate Arsenal?
Arsenal Premier League title win is for those we have loved and lost
Layth’s Take is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.