Update City, Part Two: Score One for Football!

Every other week, I come home from work to find the tube station packed to the gills with people donning red scarves and smelling of beer and fried food, on their way to an Arsenal football match at the nearby Emirates Stadium.

On these days, I am bumped along with the crowd out toward the street, where we are all directed across the roads by the oodles of police on every corner who are out, no doubt, to keep the hooliganism to a minimum and the drunken fans from running out into traffic whenever there is a small gap in cars (as is the usual practice of crossing roads in London).

Usually, I try and avoid the vomiters and head directly for home, but on January 23rd, I donned my own red scarf and joined the beer-swilling crowd, thanks to Robert's godfather, Allan, who procured three tickets to an Arsenal vs. Newcastle game!

Those of you who have known me since my youth, and have maybe even joined me [read: put up with my whining and complaining] at live sporting events in the past may be wondering how I fared at an English football match. Well, friends, here are the reasons why this was the best sporting event I have ever attended:

1) We arrived at the Emirates Stadium to find that it is new, shiny, organized, large, and there isn't a bad seat in the house!

...we could clearly see our home team, Arsenal (above, in red) kicking the pants off of Newcastle (in black). Plus, the seats were really comfortable!

2) To combat hooliganism, the away fans are all seated in one area, and beer is not allowed in the stands (you must consume it in the concessions area). This stops the fist-fights, but still gets the fans "relaxed" enough to:

a) shout at the players to shoot (even when they are nowhere near the goal)
b) sing songs of support for Arsenal ("We love you Arsenal... you know we do-oo!")
c) sing songs to slag rival teams ("If you ain't Tottenham, stand up!")
d) call the refs dirty names (my favourite was a young Asian woman's grovelly and heartfelt "the ref's a F*&%-ing donkey!")
e) keep the tourists generally entertained with shenanigans

3) It was a good game. You can see the tense expectation on Robert's face.

4) We won! Arsenal: 3, Newcastle: nil.

I completely recommend attending a game at the Emirates Stadium. When you go, give us a call, and we'll join you! And next time, we may even buy the self-produced CD from the guy who mixed all of the Arsenal songs on his home keyboard for our listening pleasure ;)

Thank you, Allan, for our English football initiation!