Inspired by reading Arsene Wenger’s new autobiography, My Life In Red And White, I decided to pen an article about my relationship with/experience of Arsenal football club, from the heady days of ‘The Invincibles’ to the non-Europe qualifying team we are today.
Being a football-loving kid from England’s south-west is a tricky thing. There is no top-flight club. The region’s largest team, Bristol City, have never been promoted to the Premier League. While they expectedly inspire utter devotion from their fans, they’ve never been a prime example of ‘the beautiful game’.
It’s no real surprise that my peers & I gravitated to teams in the Premier League, but I was particularly lucky. My uncle has been a season ticket holder at Arsenal for as long as I can remember. For years after immersing myself in the 2002 World Cup, he seized his opportunity to send me Gunners paraphernalia by the tonne – matchday programmes, books, DVDs. If you think this sounds like I didn’t have much of a choice, then you’d be right – but what child isn’t tied to a particular club through familial heritage?
Even then, at the age of 8, I recognised how hallowed Arsene Wenger’s club were. Along with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, they had a magical, almost deific aura. They felt both distant and tangible to me; this was a team of pre-‘Galacticos‘ superstars, hovering above everyday consciousness but still beautifully earthy to watch.
I was lucky to experience the Invincibles era. Without it I don’t know that I’d enjoy football half as much today. But my experience of Arsenal is entwined with Wenger’s. His new autobiography, My Life In Red And White, charts the highs and lows of his 22-year tenure. My own relationship with the club is one of glory and deep frustration.
Memories: The Great and The Sour
I remember the jubilation of the 03/04 season, even if I didn’t fully understand its magnitude. At this point, my only experience of Arsenal was watching Match Of The Day and witnessing the headline-grabbing spark of Thierry Henry, Robert Pires and Freddy Ljungberg, and the defensive tenacity of Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure.
In his book, Wenger writes that; ‘Every supporter’s first match at Highbury was like a baptism’. Mine certainly was – it came in January 2006, when we beat Middlesbrough 7-0, including that now famous Henry hattrick.
Alas, I remember the subsequent upheaval even more profoundly. The 2006 Champion’s League Final against Barcelona took place on my 12th birthday – May 17 – and I potentially find it as haunting as Wenger does. Memories of goalkeeper Jens Lehmann’s red card re-open like an old wound whenever anybody mentions that game, even though I remember the glee of Campbell’s goal just as vividly.
I remember the transition from Highbury to the Emirates stadium in 2008; a project that cost £390 million and as of this year, £144m is still owed. In his book, Wenger points to that as the chief component in Arsenal’s frequent inability to sign world class talent in the years since. Having been to the Emirates several times, and Highbury once, I consistently struggle to ignore the feeling that the club’s spirit and atmosphere is still wrapped up, kicking and screaming, in that transition.
Sometimes, it can be nice to try and recognise that the fallout from Wenger’s glory period skews our perspective. 2017 was the first year in 21 that we failed to qualify for the Champion’s League. Like a demented ghost still desperate to laugh at our failure though, that doesn’t make our team any less irritating to support in the moment.
2018-2020: The Struggle For Hope
If Wenger’s final decade at Arsenal was troubled, then the years since have been crisply tense. When Unai Emery replaced him in 2018, most of us were hopeful. He’s a coach with serious pedigree, winning three Europa Leagues back-to-back with Spanish side Sevilla and achieving plenty of success with PSG in France. We finished 5th in the 18/19 season – one place higher than the previous year. But any hopes that he might lead us back to the Champion’s League had been ransacked.
In truth, things never clicked for Emery. A series of questionable transfers and a seeming lack of understanding of Arsenal’s defensive requirements caused a pretty poisonous schism between him and the fans – not to mention an embarrassing 4-1 defeat against Chelsea in the 2019 Europa League final. His sacking in November ’19 just seemed to cause more disarray. By the time club legend Mikel Arteta took over in late December, the damage of a woeful start had pretty much been done; Coronavirus notwithstanding, we finished 8th in the league.
Image Credit: DSanchez17 Flickr
But since Arteta’s premiership, the entire spirit of Arsenal has changed. Having played for the club, he quickly showcased the tactical nous needed for a proper rebirth. After a strong return post-lockdown, we won both the FA Cup and Charity Community Shield trophies. Our young talent has been able to bask in their promise, with players like Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson and Keiran Tierney all proving their creativity. Summer signings Thomas Partey and Brazilian centre-back Gabriel have crucially bolstered the team’s spine already. And since the hopes and dreams of many an Arsenal fan are embodied in Pierre-Emerick Aubamayang, his new contract is a Godsend we all needed.
Hope is a very obvious reality amongst the Arsenal cohorts now. This season, guessing a game’s score line seems a fool’s errand, but our start has been shakey; four wins and four defeats. And there are still plenty of questions. How, for example, did we go from comfortably beating Manchester United 1-0 one week, to losing 3-0 to a relegation-prone Aston Villa the next?
There’s also the aforementioned question of finances, which seems as though it’ll hang over the club like the legs of a lame dog for at least as long as US business tycoon Stan Kroenke sits in the owner’s chair. There’s still no clear way ahead, but I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.
But at the surface level of the game, there has been a proper spring in the club’s step again for the last 10 months. In a way, it’s superfluous to wonder how long it will last; that uncertainty seems to be the Arsenal condition. In My Life In Red And White, Wenger writes: ‘football can only call itself a profession if its aim is to make people dream’. For however long, Arsenal fans are dreaming again.
High Rise And Ink 