Happy Bank Holiday Monday! Yesterday, the Premier League season came to a close. West Ham went down (sob!), Sp*rs celebrated staying up like they won the league, Bournemouth missed out on Champions league football – but still make it into Europe, and Arsenal… well we were officially crowned Premier League Champions. And by a margin of 7 points, due to Pep losing his final game at Man City. What were we all worried about, eh? 7 points just feels right.
Anyway – I won’t really go into the details of our match. We rested a lot of players, but the truth is I hardly followed the game. I was in an airport lounge waiting for my flight to Greece. Remember, before Bournemouth got a result against City, I said I wanted the flight to get delayed so I would know the outcome of whether Arsenal won the league? Well, the flight got delayed, and then delayed again, and then delayed again again.
So, plenty of time to find out the outcome in the end. Sod’s Law, we were asked to board and switch off mobile devices just as the trophy lifting was about to occur.
Anyway – I’m still playing catch up with all the title-winning content out there. Which isn’t a bad thing as it means it’ll last longer for me. I did see Arteta come out in an Arsenal shirt for the first time in 10 years, and Odegaard lifting the trophy. Plenty of tears of joy.
In fact, through the last week I’ve found myself welling up, it’s been a bit overwhelming. Let’s be honest – it’s been a pretty stressful season. So much so I promised Mrs OddFather next year I’ll take a step back from following Arsenal. We all know that’s not going to happen.
There have been a lot of moments to look back on. Good, bad and ugly! So here’s a couple of mine:
Worst moment:
Let’s get this one out the way. For me, it was the Aston Villa game at Villa Park. A draw would have been a fair result, but that last minute winner for Villa hurt. And it hurt bad. It was that day I realised I could no longer blame my kids for breaking my phone. For it was I who threw my phone and smashed the entire back of it. We had a fair few contenders for worst moments – from Wolves away, to Bournemouth and United at home. But if there’s a positive to take from this, it’s that we reacted pretty well to the majority of those results.
Best moment:
Everton at home – the arrival of Max Dowman. See, this is up there for many Arsenal fans – and understandably so. But for me (and my family) there was so much more to it. We were at my aunt’s 50th birthday party. She too, is a big Arsenal fan. It had been a while since the family were together like this. My Arsenal-supporting family were all keeping track of the score, and then by the last 10 minutes of the game we found ourselves congregating around a mobile to watch the game and see if we could find a winner. We did. And then it was about whether we could hold onto the lead. We did. At this point we were being told it was time for the cake cutting. My aunt pushed back so we could see out the remainder of the game. And then Dowman scored to double the lead. Cue chaos. The DJ was on point and played North London Forever and we spent the rest of the night celebrating. Even more so when West Ham held City.
Emirates moment:
I only went to watch one game at the Emirates this year. It was the 1-1 draw vs City. Funny to think back then I was disappointed with the result even though Martinelli grabbed that late leveller. I thought this City team should have been there for the taking. And to be fair they were back then. But the fact they turned out to be our closest challengers meant that Martinelli goal was such an important goal in hindsight.
So yeah, a season of ups and downs – but it was all worth it in the end.
A couple of quick thanks also:
- My uncle: The very reason I support this special club. I was an Arsenal fan before I even understood what football was. And were it not for that, I quite possibly could have ended up a Villa fan!
- My brother: Always on hand for “in the moment” ranting and celebrating Arsenal moments! Probably the easiest way to deal with raw emotion.
- The OddDaughter: That morning chat during the walk to school after a good/bad result always helps for a more measured response. She doesn’t realise how she stopped me spending her inheritance on therapy.
And I haven’t even begun to think about what it would feel like if we were to win next week. Something I’m going to continue not thinking about until Saturday!
Until then, we still have a lot of celebrating to do!
Come On You Champions!
