The Emirates Cup is upon us once again and this year Arsenal fans could be forgiven for thinking that they finally had a decent shot at winning the elusive cup. Now, I had not been to the Emirates for a couple of years for different reasons, so as you can imagine I was ecstatic to be heading back to my second home. The day looked set to be a good one: Villareal vs Wolfsburg followed by The Arsenal vs Lyon. With stars such as Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Schurrle, Nabil Fekir and Alexandre Lacazette I could tell that the day was going to be great.
The train ride up from Folkestone was fairly uneventful bar a couple of cyclists who decided to block the entirety of the middle of my carriage with their non-folding bicycles. The tube from King’s Cross St Pancras to Arsenal was as busy as was expected for a game day and everywhere you looked Arsenal shirts could be found; I knew I was surrounded by good people!
My first stop with my brothers and dad was the Tony Adams statue to pay our homage to the legend. Following this I made my way to the Armoury where you could tell the emphasis was on sales of Petr Cech shirts and the new away kit, neither of which I purchased. My youngest brother on the other hand badgered my dad for a new home shirt and so, surrounded by fellow Gooners he couldn’t really say no. This would have been fine, but with the store so warm, my decision to wear a hoodie didn’t turn out to be a good one. As a result I spent the next 20 minutes sweltering in the shop as my brother tried on various sizes.
Finally, however, we were done and so I made my way to gate M at the Clock End and then climbed the millions of steps up into the upper-stands. From there the stewards ushered my family and I to row one where we had the most spectacular view of the pitch. Luckily we were shielded from the intense sunshine so we had, effectively the best view in the stadium; certainly the best that I had ever had.
Afterwards a short wait ensued while I waited for the Villareal and Wolfsburg players to emerge for pre-match warmup. I filled this time, and my mouth, with salmon rolls and pork pies. The wait was only short and so soon the players had completed their warm ups and were ready to start the game. However, at that moment a certain Nicklas Bendtner emerged from the tunnel and was met by rapturous applause and cheers from the Gunners faithful. Following this Wolfsburg kicked off but had apparently underestimated the attacking prowess of Villareal and as such soon fell behind after a magnificent strike from the Spanish side’s number 2. The German’s weren’t beaten though and so following a clever De Bruyne through ball the German’s slotted home to level the game. However, Villareal never let up and soon after took the lead again. Sadly the game quietened down after that as the game played out as a 2-1 Villareal win.
Shortly after the final whistle the Arsenal and Lyon players were out on the pitch to warm up and it seems that Petr Cech, who is yet to make his competitive debut, is already a firm fan favourite as every touch of the ball he took was met with thunderous cheers. Eventually the warm up’s were finished and the teams took to the field.
Arsenal started the game in their usual manner, slow passing along the back line to stretch the Frenchmen. After 20 minutes the game had still not really gotten going. This was reflected by the Mexican wave that made 5 circuits of the stadium before petering out. Eventually though, Arsenal got the breakthrough with Olivier Giroud heading/shouldering a Mesut Ozil free kick into the far corner. That goal acted as the catalyst for Arsenal who went on to dominate the game. Goals came from every which way as Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Ramsey, Ozil and Cazorla all scored. The Cazorla goal was one of my favourites. It looked really as though nothing was on but he snuck his shot under the wall into the near post and at that, the crowd went wild.
It seemed Lyon had all but given up in the match and their keeper, having kicked the post a couple of times looked well and truly beaten. In truth, Coquelin was a standout performer as he limited Fekir’s time on the ball meaning that Lacazette couldn’t get into his rhythm; leaving him chasing after loose balls and never getting a proper chance. The game against Lyon was the best that I have ever watched at the Emirates and was one that I will talk about for a very long time.
All in all I had an amazing time once again at the Emirates and it reminded me exactly why I chose to support the Arsenal!
