When in London I found it appropriate to visit the Tribe of the Arsenal, at their strong home stadium of the Emirates. It happened that the defending English Champions were playing none other than their local rivals of Chelsea, a side that has disappointed last season but have their hopes up with their highly rated new manager, Xabi Alonso, who incidentally is a childhood friend of Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
The two friends from San Sebastián facing one another as managers in a London derby is a beautiful football story.
And beautiful is also how I would describe the Arsenal tribe. I have been to many games in my life, in different countries, but never have I seen such variety in the fans. Fans of all ages, genders, nationalities, religiones and ethnicities converged at the Emirates, all with the common goal of seeing Arsenal win. It was refeshing to experience the religión of football bringing so many together, although I have no ilussion about football being peaceful.
Just more tribes.
Arsenal fans had barely sat down when Chelsea went ahead 0-1 by Morgan Rogers. The few Chelsea fans were jubilant but Arsenal fans did not stop their support, and in fact it was massive pressure on the Chelsea goal guarded by Dibu Martinez, another new signing, and very unpopular among English fans. Soon Arsenal had a goal cancelled by VAR for offside, but it was Kai Havertz who equalized on a sharp left footed kick at the near post out of Martinez’ range.
I think people expected more of Alonso’s Chelsea, who have started the season well. But despite the early goal and some good chances from the distance (one hitting the post), they were inferior to Arsenal, who nevertheless only took a narrow 2-1 victory. It was the popular Norwegian Martin Ødegaard who made it 2-1 on a beautiful combination that saw him through.
For Arsenal it is always great to defeat Chelsea, but they are also three wins out of three so far in the defense of their title, and look like a side with confidence and massive international support to defend their title.
It was a great experience to be at the Emirates. Whisky my cat will be jealous.
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