Keen to celebrate Arsenal’s 500th match at Emirates Stadium with a win over Manchester United, Mikel Arteta urged supporters pre-game to bring “hyper energy” and to play “every single ball with us.”
It’s a message the stadium announcer clearly took to heart. Trying to whip the crowd into a frenzy before kick-off, he experimented with his lineup announcement, urging supporters to repeatedly yell the players’ surnames into the north London air. It failed miserably and took so long that the club had to turn off its ‘North London Forever’ anthem because the match had already started.
The acapella chorus that fans were left singing was about as loud as things got for an hour or so. A turgid game on a damp night was met with a very flat atmosphere. Not even the sight of Martin Odegaard trying to gee up those in the front rows made much difference.
Ironically, it was Manchester United that unintentionally aroused the home support from its collective stupor. Deliberately taking an age over a goal-kick while Matthijs De Licht attempted to squirm back onto the pitch for medical treatment, Andre Onana and Harry Maguire infuriated the North Bank who turned the volume up to 11. The latter picked up a booking for his troubles.
From there the place was rocking and when Arsenal broke the deadlock five minutes later through Jurrien Timber’s glancing header, Arteta had lift-off.
Nobody in the ground was surprised the goal resulted from a corner – it was the third in a week from a Nicolas Jover set-piece routine – and when the Gunners repeated the trick on 73 minutes via William Saliba’s arse, the joy turned to unrelenting taunting of United’s beleaguered defence.
Leandro Trossard’s chant was adapted twice over “Corners again, ole, ole, ole” and “Set piece again, ole, ole, ole” both swept around the stadium.
United’s new manager Ruben Amorim couldn’t even watch when Rice stepped up to take another corner two minutes later. Onana tipped over. As Saka geared up for his turn, the crowd worked up a drawn-out anticipatory “woaaaaaaaaah”. Merino headed just wide. It was the closest Arsenal would come to a third.
“The stadium’s reaction is something we didn’t plan,” said Arteta in his post-game press conference.
“It’s because they have belief in the same way they react when we’re in a high press and we are with the ball because they know what we can do.
“It creates that connection and that belief and is easier for the players to deliver because that noise creates good things in us and difficult things in the opposition.”
On his side’s success from set-pieces, he added: “We need that. I think we want to be very dangerous and very effective from every angle and every face of play. We worked on all of that.
“Today we couldn’t score from open play like we did against West Ham, against Sporting, so the team really has belief that from every angle we have the mentality to threaten the opponent and to try to score. Today was two set pieces, we constantly have threatening corners.”
In his own post-game comments, Amorim lamented the fact his side couldn’t cope with Arsenal’s tactics.
“They are very good [at set-pieces] because they have a lot of time working on that. Especially on that, they have big players for that, so it is a strategy, and we had two weeks to work on that,” he said.
“We tried to do it but we know every team in the Premier League is suffering with set-pieces. It was a shame because we were not playing very well but also Arsenal was not playing very well.”
Amorim even suggested that Arsenal’s wingers go out of their way to win corners knowing full well the opportunities that ensue. Arteta said his side simply try to and take advantage of weaknesses in opponents and then made clear that he wants his side scoring all sorts of goals.
“I think last year we scored the most goals in the history of this football club, not because only the set-pieces but because a lot of things that we have.
“We want to create individual moments, magic moments, a lot of players can create their own goals. We can create goals on short counters, long counters, against slow build-ups, when we have to have restarts and the opportunity to open the opposition.
“Every single phase of play, just maximise it and keep working on it, keep improving.”
Arsenal now turn their attention to Sunday’s tricky trip to Fulham – a venue they underperformed at last season – before a run of three home games in different competitions against Monaco, Everton and Crystal Palace.
“It’s every three days, it’s a crazy schedule,” said Arteta. “We’re going to need everybody and mentally be very strong because you’re going to have to go through those moments.”
You suspect he includes the fans in that.
Those ‘double-repetition’ player announcements before the game really were terrible. There was absolutely nothing wrong with just reading the names out and the crowd cheering each one.
Yep. Everyone round me was complaining about how crap the new announcer has been ( it’s his second game). They tried something similar towards the end of Wenger’s reign and it went down equally badly.
Announcer: “FIFTEEN: DENIIIILLLL….!!!”
Crowd: “……son……🖕🙄🖕”
This is interesting to me. I’m not a match going fan so I’m curious, why do people think this type of thing is greeted with raucous roars in France or Portugal but met with a bit of disdain at Emirates? I often see crazy support for smaller teams on our travels, like Lens last year was so impressive. I dream of a day we can get 60k+ at Emirates to that level of fervor.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j4nKUisnLcE
English atmospheres are very different to European ones, for better or for worse. They’re more organic and less orchestrated. You can’t change decades of fan culture to make it look more like Eastern Europe or South America, it looks horribly American when we try.
A good mate said to me once – England is one of the only countries where, when there’s a good atmosphere, you can stand outside the ground and just by listening to the crowd you’ll know exactly what’s happening on the pitch.
Have been away with work for a couple months so hadn’t been to a game for a while, I was a bit baffled by that- glad to hear it was the first and (you suspect) last time. Also, does anyone know if there’s some history/ context to that absolute abomination of a song they play about 5 mins before KO? The ‘wheeen we sing our song we wiiin theee gaaame’? I remember it being played like right before KO when I was much younger and thought it’d been put to pasture, but I’m usually nearly late to games and didn’t… Read more »
1971 FA Cup final song.
For the younger people: players used to record a single for the charts when their team got to the cup final.
Ah, showing my age/ ignorance! Thanks, I’ll be less dismissive of it from now on.
Don’t worry about it. Those of us old enough to remember when a recording a team football song disc was de rigeur before a big match also remember that every single one by every team had one thing in common.
They were all shit.
Lucky you for being able to get a ticket with the abysmal ballot system.
I have season tickets thankfully, but these ballots sound absolutely awful. Even Silver Members can’t get tickets anymore I hear?
Yes that’s due to the club reducing the allocation of seats to silver members and selling those seats as season tickets. Was always able to get seats for any game prior to that but now it’s hit and miss.
I’m really enjoying the impact that Merino has as an attacking force. Obviously he was bought primarily for his solidity on the ball and his duel winning. But as soon as he came on last night, I thought he might score. And he almost did. He’s incredible at finding space in the box and, while the defence stresses over Odegaard, Saka and Havertz, Merino is often able to find pockets of space. I can see him having that Joe Willock esque ability to make late runs and score important goals, especially coming off the bench when the opposition aren’t expecting… Read more »
Sorry but what. The atmosphere was great the whole night. No one sat down the whole game including the first half and while the performance wasn’t there we sang every second of the 90 pretty much. I’m hoarse today and my feet hurt from standing. The first 60 were a vibe we just hadn’t scored. Never felt an atmosphere like it honestly
If you’re lucky enough to go to the Grove to see this wonderful team, then please be as loud as you can whether we’re winning, losing or drawing 👊🏼
👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾
I’ve never understood why anyone who has the opportunity to be at the stadium has to be urged by the players or manager to cheer loudly and support the team. I mean many of us would give anything just to get that ticket!
Having said that I have utmost respect for the traveling fans and especially the Ashburton army who sing their lungs out every game and in whatever weather or time. Big up yourselves!
100
Many people in the stadium will have been going to every game for years if not decades. For many it stops being a privilege and just becomes part of the routine- sadly.
For others, it’s still a privilege. I fly from Vancouver Canada every season to catch a couple of matches and it’s a huge thrill every time. Got lucky this season and scored a ticket to each of Spurms, Villa, and Dinamo Zagreb in January. Can’t wait! And yes, I’ll be singing and chanting my lungs out.
Yep, found myself saying “fuck off” back to the announcer last night, it was cringe and contrived. Took a while to get the crowd going but it was loud and rocking eventually.
I think we should start singing “we’re gona score in a minute, score in a minute” when we get a corner from now on!
Should play the shark theme from Jaws over the stadium speakers with the volume at 11 every time we have a corner. Everyone knows what is going to happen when that theme comes on, someone is getting chewed up and we score a goal. Spanish broadcasters are onto something here.
I think its time for teams to defend against us earning corners, and show Saka onto his left.
In all seriousness, the reputation we have for scoring from corners can affect how defenders play. A centre half isn’t sure who is around him as he gets ready to clear a cross, so he plays it safely out for a corner. Oh wait, that’s not so safe–so he might try to keep it in play, even if that risks popping it right back to an Arsenal attacker. And, yes, making absolutely sure Saka and Martinelli can’t get inside a defending fullback increases the risk of conceding a corner. That’s a risk usually worth taking–but maybe not now.
I’d honestly like to see North London Forever cut off right before kick off again. The crowd singing the end bit without the music was magical
Back in my days in school we started a new scoring system to make games more fun. Every corner was one point, goals were 3 points, and a headed goals were 5 points. Now if we could implement these rules into the premier league we should win every game.
I found myself reading this post as if it was an article written in an 1880’s London newspaper. An historical document of sorts, with a proper English accent even.
I enjoyed it very much.
I wondered what the names of our players might be.
PS> I was especially delighted when the North Bank became infuriated.
Can’t believe the North Bank got booked . Ridiculous
Thank you for writing about what it was like in the crowd at the stadium. Living on another continent, I can watch all matches on TV, but can’t realistically go to matches in person. It’s great to hear what the crowd was singing and what it was like to be there. I’d like more articles from this angle, as it’s one thing I can’t get from watching at home. Also, Amorim is already in prime ManUre manager whining form. “Whaaah, I only had 2 weeks to prepare for Arsenal. no wonder they beat us so easily! Whaah! Arsenal won by… Read more »