I have noticed this season that the online football community often reflects wider society.
There is constant negativity and, if anyone dares to be positive, people immediately try to tear them down. What some call banter has often come across as spiteful.
Wayne Rooney was working for Amazon at the Emirates on Tuesday night. The pundit felt Arsenal’s celebrations at the final whistle were over the top. To be fair to the former striker, he has been consistent with that viewpoint, previously accusing Manchester City of over-celebrating when they beat us at the Etihad.
Mr Rooney is qualified to share what mindset is required to lift major trophies. Others? Not so much.
Arsenal fans earned that moment
I did not interpret the scenes from the Gunners or Gooners as celebrating simply winning a Champions League semi-final, after Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 (agg) at the Emirates on Tuesday night. Instead, it felt like an entire stadium letting out a collective release of emotion and frustration.
It has been two decades since our only Champions League final appearance. There have been many lows during that period and, as a club, we have travelled a long road to return to this level, with plenty of people laughing at us along the way.
Even this season, Arsenal have been mocked considerably for a team that has spent most of the campaign at the top of the Premier League.
It is therefore only right that the same level of energy goes into enjoying moments that do not happen every day. In Arsenal’s history, this has only happened once before.
Who decides how football fans should celebrate?
I do not believe Wayne Rooney meant any disrespect and he is entitled to his opinion, but can he honestly say the same people criticising Arsenal’s reaction would not be equally hysterical if it were Atletico Madrid heading to Budapest instead?
Also, who is anyone to tell another person how they should feel? How entitled is that?
Mikel Arteta’s job is to make those connected to Arsenal happy. Those outside that bubble do not matter.
Sport is supposed to be an escape from daily life, a comfort in an uncertain world. If you are not allowed to smile, shout and jump up and down after reaching a Champions League final, then maybe watch something else.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Dan Smith
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PSG celebrated like crazy after the final whistle yesterday
Didn’t hear anybody criticising that. Again, it’s Arsenal!
100% justified. It was real genuine excitement, but part of it was planned to lift the team. I think we see more of this style in other teams going forward.
Probably one of the few times I have agreed with an article on this forum, as it is usually quite negatively poised. Congratulations to the lads, and agree they were letting out all of the pressure from the last month, so not just UCL, but everything from the last few months in the EPL as well. I believe this will energize them to finish and win the league, and think if that happens can propel them to victory in the UCL final as well.
Haha. What an idiot. He can save his opinions for United.
We’re entitled to celebrate achievements like anybody else.
These pundits really shouldn’t be taken seriously, the likes of Ferdinand, Gerrard, Rooney and Lineker were no doubt great players in their day but they’ve had their time so let the players and fans enjoy the moment and celebrate, they earned it.
Lets watch how man united gonna celebrate at the end of the season 3rd spot finish….
A team that haven’t been to a champions league final for 2 decade!
How do you expect them to celebrate ? If we had loss the story would be different right?
Hmmm allow me to enjoy my self
Agree mate almost 2 decides in 2011 they were wiped off the pitch and outclassed by Barcelona.
If you have united fans as it do and really want to annoy them , just note how great they were under Ferguson in PL but that they were really poor in Europe and never stacked up with the great European teams in that time. Annoys the heck out of them, not to mention their easy route to 2008 win. If they compare our route to the final.
Show them vidic Vs Messi clip 2011 to lol.
Keep on celebrating🙌🏼
I’m OK with Rooney; he’s pretty positive towards Arsenal.
Rooney may be comparing the celebrations to his time when Manu went to finals when the celebrations+ fireworks wasn’t as common as now. Even I was a little surprised about the level of celebrations. He has been consistently on our side this season and was consistent in criticising City celebrations earlier so no bias unlike others. I think it’s more about a guy who likes to get the job done then celebrate kind of thing.
it was wonderful and heartwarming to watch. Beautiful moment.
Absolutely the celebration was ok, in fact tame compared to PSG’s celebrations!
Rooney logic :- 57,000 Arsenal supporters turn up in carpet slippers for a match with the intent to keep a lid on it , a 90 minute silence , after the match all 57,000 shuffle off home . Cue the outside world of football criticising and bemoaning the lack of atmosphere , but hey we’ve followed Rooneys funeral instructions .
These new happiness laws of football eh? How about no one attends the match and police allowed to arrest anyone for loitering with intent to smiling with intent ?
This will make a real difference , trouble is no one’s allowed to applaud it.
They really enjoyed the win they earned it, we all did. But I hope they’re past that now and focused, and should always remember history remembers trophies not semis, The best teams stay hungry, calm, and ruthless.
Rooney is one of the few objective pundits and has been quite positive about Arsenal unlike some others.
Now to the question of celebrations. When is a celebration too much? I believe this depends on several factors. Arsenal fans had been demoralised after the team lost 1-2 to Man city at Etihad in April. This, coupled with taunting by members of other clubs, not least a Man city fan who carried a bottle labelled Arsenal, was a reaction to constant humiliation. Furthermore, the fans were right to celebrate being invited final after two decades. Who wouldn’t be happy? I saw PSG fans celebrating vigorously after defeating Bayern. Surprisingly, nobody has made it an issue! Let Arsenal fans enjoy their happy moment because they have missed that kind of celebration for long.
Well David, as a 80 year old man, I’m proud to say that I was singing at the top of my voice, hugging and dancing with a lovely young lady I’d never met before and couldn’t get to sleep when I arrived back at my daughter’s house, simply because I was so hyped up and buzzing like a twelve year old 😂😂😂
A wonderful evening that started with a bang and finished in glory!!
I’m now trying to do a “Dan” and stay “humble” and hoping that when we play WHU, the walls don’t come tumbling down!!
My advice to anyone who wants to listen?
ENJOY THE MOMENT!!
Ken1945,
When you’re wife finds out you’ve been dancing with a lovely young lady, you might need to start sleeping with one eye open. 😂🤣👍
Nah mate!!
She’s a great dancer and would laugh her head off watching me 🤼
Besides, the Charlston doesn’t seem to be around these days!!
Ken1945,
Don’t they play in League one. 🤣👍
It should be 👍. Reminds me of “It’s a Wonderful Life”. So much fun.
It was jiving in our day Ken
Ken, after hugging a lovely young lady, I’m hardly surprised that you have difficulty sleeping.
I just read now that arrests were made and some injured in Paris after PSG qualified in Germany. There’s nothing like over celebration. We won’t have that opportunity in front of the fans in the stadium again post-match, so why not do it now. When Arsenal celebrated qualifications for Champion’s league via fourth position, they cried but when their team began doing same, no problem.
Some even went as far as saying Arsenal is playing boring football but they forgot they mocked us for playing beautiful football without trophies.
My take is do whatever will make you happy and satisfied while forgetting about naysayers.
COYG
Not at all, actually we celebrated less to concerve energy for the finals. I wonder why English pundits have issues with celebrations. Here in Kenya we ran a whole street dancing and singing
Don’t worry Kenya001, we celebrated inside and outside of the Emirates.
The chanting should have been heard in Kenya my fellow Gooner 😂👍
Ours ken 1945,
Did you hear the jubilant reverberations that erupted from across the Sub Saharan Africa?
Indeed I did… at least that’s how noisy it was around the Emirates Ambachew!! 👍👍
Great ken 1945! May the Gooners joy roll on…… until the historic dom-euro double is realized
I read online where pundits, rival fans all remained SILENT or called PSG’s defensive approach in Munich a ” game plan”.. whereas if arsenal had played that way seemingly to preserve a one goal lead arsenal would have been labeled” boring football team”, “haram football team” 😃😃😃😃.. the level of hate or bias against arsenal this season is beyond belief. Saw former villa stricker agbolahor looking utterly shattered when asked if arsenal deserve to go to the final.. all I see here is jealousy and Arsenal’s rise above the bottling mentality
This is what is popularly known as double standards. These are people who love to hype certain teams until they are convincingly beaten by what they consider to be lesser teams. I was most disappointed by Thierry Henry’s assertion that PSG is in another class! This, coming from Henry, was very unfortunate. I think he was taken up by his nationality and forgot his roots. Before Arsrnal, Henry was nothing. It is Arsrnal which made him what he is today. The only way to silence such pundits is to comprehensively beat PSG in Bucharest.
it’s a really weird mindset to have .
Henry having a different opinion to you doesn’t mean he’s forgot his routes.
Your saying because he’s an Arsenal legend he has to say what makes Arsenal look great at all times
So what would be the point of asking him ?
You have missed my point. It is one thing to say a certain team is better than another, but it is in bad taste to aver that PSG is in a different class to Arsenal without providing very convincing reasons. PSG are French champions and Arsenal is leading the EPL today. Does he mean to say that the French league is superior to the English league? What happens if Arsenal defeats PSG? Would he retract his statement? It was in line with that argument that I expressed my displeasure with Henry.
David Rusa
PSG is a little more than just French Champions. They’re currently the Champions League champions and arguably the best club team in the world.
I’m not suggesting that they’re unbeatable, but Arsenal will have to be better than their very best to win this one.
no he means to say they are different class as in their attack
they are champions of Europe
but what’s his opinion then got to do with remembering his routes because I take that as you saying he needs to say what he doesn’t believe because he played for Arsenal
David Rusa,
Attack wise PSG are better than us. I think the final could come down to their attack against our defense.
I think on the day we’re going to need to be clinical regards ours chances, and hope that our defense proves to be as good as they have been for most of the season.
And regards you’re comments about Henry, I agree with Dan. Just because Henry is rightly a club legend, doesn’t mean he has to say what you want to hear.
And yes Arsenal helped make him what he became regards his football, but he more than repaid that faith didn’t he.
Derek, you may wish to read my response to Dan above.
Derek, you state that their attack is better than ours. How about their defence and the other areas? Is a game won only by the attacking line? I know last season PSG beat us home and away in the semi-final but remember we had beaten them 2-0 in the group stage. Also, we had a number of injuries at the time. In addition, we lacked a clinical striker because Kai Havertz had been injured. Since then, we have acquired Gyokeres and Havertz is an option. You must have noticed that last we lost last year’s semi-final largely because of lack of a clinical finisher. So many of our chances went begging! I don’t think that will be the case this time. As George Foreman used to say, ” Anything can happen in the ring.”
he literally said it will be attack vs defense?
just watched what Henry said and don’t see any issue