Fans are the 12th man (or woman!) and are needed more than ever!
The Arsenal men were the first team in the EPL to welcome back supporters for the Europa League game against Rapid Wien after nine months away, and a successful night couldn’t have gone any better.
It went so well that the women are following suit and will be welcoming back 900 fans to their Women’s Super League fixture against Birmingham at Meadow Park on Sunday.
Of course it is an achievement to be able to get even a small amount of fans back into stadiums after the global pandemic and I hope it is not long before they can be at full capacity.
But one person who is looking forward to the game on Sunday for the pure reason of welcoming the fans back is Beth Mead, and speaking to the Arsenal website she explained why, stating: “It’s weird to say that we’re saying ‘the fans are coming back’ but that is the day and age we live in. As a team, and myself personally, we’re really excited. It’ll be nice to have a little bit of an atmosphere and have the fans back at the game.
“It’s been weird. You score a goal, you concede or you do something not great and you’ve normally got someone on your back or celebrating, whatever it is. It’s been a little bit different. We’ve had to get used to it but we didn’t want to get used to it too much. We’re super excited to have the fans back and hopefully we can put in a good performance on Sunday for them.
“For the fans who are unable to come, we’re sorry you can’t be there but hopefully you continue to support us from afar, watching the game on the FA Player and hopefully you’ll have the chance to come to a game soon, and hopefully we can make it worthwhile.”
As we saw, having the fans back worked for the men in midweek so here’s hoping they have the same effect for the women moving forward whether it be home or away, just the presence of fans should push both our men and women’s teams to do better and get the wins they all deserve, because if it doesn’t I am sure the fans won’t hesitate to make it known. Right Gooners?
Shenel Osman
