Thought it was decent to be honest, much better than in previous games, though the singing didn't really happen between the 15th minute and when Arshavin scored. But the two guys sitting next to me, in my opinion, perfectly illustrated why we have no atmosphere. Guy 1: (Just before Muamba goal) Is that your new iPhone 4s? Guy 2: Yeah, it's got this cool thing called Siri where you can talk... Guy 1: Oh **** they scored. Guy 2: Ah, FFS. Anyway, with Siri its like you're talking to your phone and... PEOPLE AREN'T FOCUSING ON THE GAME! I don't know how we can combat this aside from making every Arsenal fan change before they sit down, putting all their belongings inside a locker, into an arsenal kit. I don't know. Something has to be done. But yeah, aside from that, good game, happy to see Park looking decent. By the way, anyone else noticed a huge increase recently in the quality of the burgers outside the stadium? Used to smell like **** but now it's ok.
I was at the game and it was very good. Infact in most CC games its pretty good. Was a nice game, although the tits next to me kept getting up and coming back every 10 minutes, which pissed me off.
That does not even shock me. Its unreal, but some people I suppose can't stand the rush to get out after the final whistle.
What rush? It takes barely any time, I have no idea what goes through the mind of the people who leave every match 10 mins early.
True, actually. Not sure why I said that. In truth, I like you am flabbergasted at what makes people leave so early.
The only acceptable reason I can think of is if you're a family, it's 10pm or so and the kids have school tommorow. Fine, whatever. But the guys leaving were middle aged men. What the ****'s the point of going home? I have a tactic to avoid the queues, its called going to the pub for an hour with your mates.
That may be your opinion, however shortsighted I believe it is, but I often take my kid(s) and leaving after the whistle and battling to get to Arsenal tube station is no fun when dragging along/attempting to protect a 6 and 9 year old, no-one has any consideration and whether it's a woman, OAP or child in their way the majority of people just barge past. For a child this can be a scary experience - leaving with 3 or 4 mins to go which is what I usually do makes this journey much easier. So criticise by all means as I know it irritates some fans but lay off the mindless abuse
I was going to say this (not that I have a kid). Also, in the case of the guy who was next to me, some people have specific trains they need to catch. Meh, I don't care overly. It's not something I do but I don't begrudge others (unless they are in my way when we score!). For some reason last night there seemed to be thousands of extra kids. I purposefully avoid the family end when I can but I sat down and there were literally 2 rows filled with 8-10 year olds. My heart sank! I did think the atmosphere was a bit better last night which was good for both the team and the fans.
I think the difference is that with the Carling Cup we want to win, but it's not the end of the world when we lose. At Arsenal we're always excited about our next talents coming through and this is like the sneak preview before they are labelled overrated, failure and too inexperienced for the top flight. Like childhood innocence in a way. We also get to give our underperforming first teamers a good whack at it as well as those returning from injury. Like Nasri v Spuds last season. Vermaelen this season. Both coming back from injury. As for leaving early. I think it's a bit silly. The Emirates Stadium is not Highbury. It's been built with much more efficient crowd control. The 10 minutes you would have gained at our old home is probably accounted for by our new one. I do think they could do with improving the Arsenal tube station. I never use it on match days because it's too small and I fear stampedes. I only use it if I'm with the prawn sandwich brigade and turn up an hour and a half early to have some roast beef and yorkshires at club level (ohhh yeah)(that's when you really get pissed off with the early leavers and late comers, it's insane in the middle tier) It needs to be widened, have the ceiling raised and perhaps arrange more trains on matchdays. I think I'd be more comfortable if the station had a higher ceiling, it's a psychological thing.
I thought there was no atmosphere whatsoever - so if you guys are saying it was good ... my gosh ! I was sat in the West Upper - crap seats to be fair, I only heard the odd pocket of fans singing songs. The most noise came when we equalised then went in front and the entire stadium seemed to join in the chorus of "oo are yah"s. I will try to get seats behind the goals next time, every time I sit in West or East stands there is zero atmosphere. As for leaving early, I can see why people do it, the rush is pretty bad and with the police herding everyone in one of 2 directions it becomes a massive pain trying to get where you need to go. It took us almost 20 mins to get out of the sodding ground after the final whistle ... the queue did not move for ages.
1) Atmosphere was better than normal. Normal is pretty ****, but tonight, everyone was just that little bit happier. 2) Yeah, those are crap seats! And I kinda found it ironic when we started saying to the bolton fans (at 2-1) "You're only singing when you're winning". 3) Behind the goal is always the best place for atmosphere by far. 4) Weird. I had time for a piss and it took me 5 mins to get out of the ground.
Maybe us being 3 rows from the back of the upper tier had something to do with it, crap seats like I said. I guess the seats behind the goal never get to go on general sale cos they get snapped up quickly.
