REISS LIGHTNING

SHUBI ARUN ON FOLLOWING THE FORTUNES OF ARSENAL IN 2022/23...

- SHUBI ARUN

'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.