A question of sport

Arsenal vs Aston Villa

The flatties had been discussing going to a game for some time and my flatmate A realised that her friend could get us some Arsenal tickets - I think he was a member and so could get us these without much fuss. The date was discussed and arranged, and so yesterday afternoon we got all rugged up and headed to the ginormous Emirates Stadium. To lend my support, I wore my reddest (burgundy) jumper with some red earrings! The tube was chockers on the way there and you could see a mass of red & white shirts and scarves making their way to the stadium.

Me at the ginormous stadium

View from up high, read it backward kids...

The game was great fun, the atmosphere is unbelievable. At their count, 60,097 people attended the match at the huge stadium. It was a home game of course, so lots of Arsenal devotees were milling around. Another thing and I don't know if it's tradition, when the Arsenal players were announced by their number and first name, everyone roared out each surname - quite amazing.

I settled in with my food: hot donuts and tea

It's a full house!

I was quite impressed at the noise that 60,000 odd folk could make. We got into the spirit of things and were shouting along with the best of them, although we didn't swear like some of our geezer neighbours. Villa fans were completely outnumbered and a lot of chant-offs were happening during the game. Arsenal songs went something like this "Arsenal arsenal arsenal, arsenal arsenal arsenaaaaaaaaal", to which Aston Villa responded with "We shall not be, we shall not be moved"

We all became instant experts and were yelling them to move, move, MOVE. The playing left a lot to be desired, to be honest.And no, I still can't remember how the offside rule works :P Arsenal were moving very sluggishly and a lot of passing (including those straight into Villa feet) was happening but nowt else. After Villa's fluke goal and not much else for the rest of the game, people started streaming out with 5 mins to spare. At luck would have it, Arsenal managed a goal riiiiiiight at the end. It was amazing, the place just erupted with everyone in hysterics and high spirits.

Final score: 1-1 !!!!!

When we were leaving, we noticed that mounted police were trying to move along a group of guys who were probably about to start a fight. Not sure from which side but the police were placing themselves in the middle, trying to break up the big group of people... poor horsies. Heading back took ages, the three nearest tubes were packed full of people and traffic ground to a halt due to the amount of people walking all over the place. We finally managed to get onto a tube and made our way to Soho for a spot of Korean, and then topped it off with the partaking of some fine red wine at our local. Swish!