'What have we just done?" It's a Saturday evening in London in March 2023. I'm on a groupcall with a couple of friends back home in India, pacing frenetically in my room.
Reiss Nelson has just scored a 97th minute winner for Arsenal in a 3-2 come-from-behind win against Bournemouth and we're all beside ourselves. Delirium and disbelief flow freely.
"What have we just done?" one of them said again. He'd been following the game at a wedding and had nipped out early to catch the end. "We don't do things like this," he continued.
The phrase perfectly captured what following Arsenal circa 22-23 was like for my generation of fans. The Emirates Generation. The ones that grew up on Van Persie rather than on Vieira. The ones who went into school after the 8-2 hammering at Manchester United in 2011. Aaron Ramsey's goal against Hull in 2014 was our Michael Thomas moment and Wojciech Szczesny our lord and saviour.
The season was a magical, mystery tour for all Arsenal fans, but especially for those of my vintage. We felt things we'd never felt before.
It took a while to get used to people not laughing or shaking their heads in derision when I told them who I supported. It took a while to acclimatise to the feeling of stepping out on Monday morning with a strut.
The brunt of the 'Banter Era' had been borne out by us, the most online section of the fanbase. So it took a while to adjust to not seeing Arsenal ceaselessly splashed across meme-pages.
Now, of course, I understand that to those who follow clubs lower down the food chain, these remarks reek of privilege. That the pain of a few seasons outside the Champions League pales in comparison to that of relegation and mid-table obscurity. But hey, victimhood forms a central tenet of football fandom. We all have main character energy. We are all underdogs.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September - October 2024-Ausgabe von Late Tackle Football Magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September - October 2024-Ausgabe von Late Tackle Football Magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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