The big news prior to the game, the overwhelming news prior to the game, was that my Arsenal season ticket in the Google Wallet on my phone suddenly refused to show that I existed as a season ticket holder.
My pal found a similar sort of thing had happened to him, and so we agreed to drink up and move henceforth to the ground, on the basis that since both of us were having problems with our phone-based entry (even though he has an Apple and I have an Android) it was possible that chaos might once more have overtaken the Emirates.
And low and behold at the gate, while some were going through without a hitch, there was a gentleman who sits a few seats away from me, already debating the finer points of how to get into the ground when one’s phone says it not only has no record of any season ticket, but also does it have no record of Arsenal FC.
What was also apparent was that Arsenal knew this was coming, for there was a highly knowledgeable and very polite assistant just waiting for the likes of us. Did I know my membership number he asked, and yes I did since I still carry last season’s card, just in case.
So he types it onto his phone, it came up with the confirmation that a) I was a member of the human race (something that is not always apparent) and b) was also a season ticket holder fully paid up. He put his device to the entry point and through I went.
I pondered my phone later (as one does) and suddenly, Google Wallet opened to show I have a ticket for Arsenal v Lens on 29 November. It is a bit unnerving to say the least.
So anyway, I got in, I took my seat and watched a match which ended with Jorginho suffering studs over all his head. And I thought, ok if I have to choose between Arsenal using an entry system that is clearly intermittent, and having a Burnley boot scrape bits of my head away, I’d settle for the faulty software.
Although I did wonder whether Jorginho is also available on the side to help fix mobile phone systems. Given his ability to control a match, I suspect he can do everything.
In fact it is quite possible that he also controlled the referee, which made me wonder if Ødegaard needs to give up the armband permanently.
For Jorginho controls everything and I’d happily vote for him to be Prime Minister. OK he’s the old man of the squad – but he is still a lot younger than me. He also cost around £10m, which an awful lot more than I am worth, but only a fraction of most players in the league these days. And yet really, there he is, running the show.
But there was something else and in mentioning it I want to make it plain that I know just how important Armistice Day remembrance is and yes of course I want it to survive, and I want my children and my grandchildren to keep that tradition going. And if the price of continuing the remembrance is that we don’t have North London Forever within the last few seconds before the referee blows the whistle, then OK I’ll accept that. But I am not sure why it has to be like that.
Armistice Day celebrates what we are and who we are because of the sacrifices of those who defended our lifestyle and our freedoms. But “North London Forever” also celebrates my origins as a north Londoner, brought up a couple of miles from the ground in a working class Arsenal-supporting family with a grandfather who was at Highbury from the moment the club moved to north London.
This is why I want to celebrate my north London origins at the very start of each match, as much as I want to pay my respects to members of my own family who gave their lives so I still have the chance in my old age to continue to share in the values they held.
“North London Forever” does not commemorate sacrifices as the Last Post does but it commemorates my origins and my family. It does it in a different way from the Last Post, but it is just as central a part of my understanding of myself and my family as my family’s sacrifices in the war.
I’m probably alone in thinking this, but I think it should always be the last thing heard before the game plays.
Tony Attwood 12/11/2023