OWING to the coronavirus pandemic, Saturday’s FA Cup final was always going to be a very different experience to the usual showpiece event. While the players fought to the end, one team mourning their loss, the other celebrating all the same – the cavernous empty stands of Wembley made it a truly unique final. Fans […]
OWING to the coronavirus pandemic, Saturday’s FA Cup final was always going to be a very different experience to the usual showpiece event.
While the players fought to the end, one team mourning their loss, the other celebrating all the same – the cavernous empty stands of Wembley made it a truly unique final.
Fans will all have unique stories of how they’ve watched their team since the football returned in June, with many of them unusual, often lonely and even sad.
But on this, the biggest day of the English domestic football calendar – how did Arsenal and Chelsea fans handle the nerves?
We’ve gotten two die-hards to give us their sides of the story.
Simon Phillips
As I settled down with a bottle of Spain’s finest San Miguel and peered out the window at the most perfect views of the countryside and a magnificent Viaduct Bridge, it was hard to believe I was about the watch the English FA Cup Final.
My fiance and I had decided to take a break away from the hustle and bustle of normal life and the recent coronavirus-filled months of uncertainty and depression.
We headed to my favourite place in the UK for three nights away in the heart of Cornwall surrounded by beautiful countryside and sandy beaches.
The last five months have been difficult and weird for everyone around the world, and football has been an entirely surreal experience.
Fans have not been allowed in stadiums or local pubs to gather and watch the game – and it has made watching football a truly lonesome experience.
When we booked our trip away I honestly didn’t expect Chelsea to be playing in the FA Cup final, purely because I had lost some faith in the team’s ability to make it.
But in typical up-and-down Chelsea style, we turned it on and got to the final.
So with my San Miguel in hand I started to enjoy the build up while my Fiance, who doesn’t share my love for the beautiful game, sat outside and soaked up the views on the balcony.
I carefully shuffled my sofa as close to the miniature TV as possible, and I put my feet up with the usual excitement of watching my team play in a final.
I felt nervous, excited and anxious all rolled into one.
But as the game drew on and I found myself bellowing out “keep the ball moving lads” as Chelsea decided to slow down the play once again, and then “close them down!” as we appeared to let Arsenal have the total run of play after scoring our opener, I desperately sought someone to talk through my frustrations with and my high soon started to fall.
I will often watch games with family members, whether it is in a living room, a pub, or when we are lucky enough, inside the actual stadium itself.
But during lockdown I have mostly had to watch games by myself, and instead of having an actual human being to discuss the game with, I find myself turning more and more to social media to either vent or discuss what is going on.
There is absolutely no replacement for being physically social, and this is even more truthful whilst watching a game.
I texted my Dad, who is also a mad Chelsea fan, and I asked him why Frank Lampard was ignoring Callum Hudson-Odoi and bringing Pedro on instead, he agreed and was equally frustrated. But that was it, the end of that conversation.
This is something we would usually discuss at length in the pub, his living room, or at the stadium. But once again my eyes were down at my phone instead of the TV, because of my need to talk about the game.
You can’t beat the atmosphere of watching a game in the stadium; this is a feeling like no other. The next best thing is a pub, because you still get to feel the buzz, sing the songs, and discuss the game with fellow like-minded fans.
Instead, as I continued to watch Chelsea lose to Arsenal in the FA Cup Final from the comfort of my beautiful AirBnB accommodation, the sadness kicked in. This wasn’t just from the despair of losing the game; this was aggravated by a lack of human interaction from my fellow fans.
My Fiance laughed at me as I shouted at Referee Anthony Taylor for wrongfully sending off Mateo Kovacic, but I couldn’t stop myself.
This is a passion ingrained in me from years of watching football; people who do not enjoy the game will never understand the deep emotions that it gives you.
If you lose a game, it puts you in a bad mood. But if you are watching in a stadium or in a pub around people you are close with, those feelings soon subsidise as you socialise and talk things through, drawing positives and negatives after the game.
Watching by yourself just doesn’t cut it, and it’s an incredibly lonely experience that I am sure many will associate with.
After the game we went out for dinner at the local pub, and I tried to switch off from the game. It was easily done for me as we are on holiday, but there is no doubt that the aftermath of watching a cup final alone was playing with my emotions deep down.
In fact, it felt nothing at all like watching the most historical English football competition ever, it felt more like I had just watched a pre-season friendly.
In conclusion, you cannot ever replace watching football in a group, the atmosphere of a stadium or a pub, it simply cannot be replicated.
Simon Phillips – You can follow Simon on Twitter @SiPhillipsSport
Dave Seager
It is so hard to compare Saturday’s FA Cup final day experience to other occasions graced by the mighty Arsenal.
As a child, watching on television was pretty much a day-long annual event, with extra pocket money spent on a bag of sweets to last the cup final marathon.
It was the only club football match on the box and ITV and the BBC made the most of it, with the coverage commencing mid-morning and building up to the standard 3pm Saturday afternoon kick-off.
As an adult I have generally either watched with like-minded friends in the pub, or I have been at the match.
In recent years the routine for Arsenal’s visits to Wembley, which have been frequent, has been a bite to eat and several beers at a particular pub in Kingsbury, before the one stop journey and the anticipation of the walk up Wembley Way.
However, despite the extremely different circumstances surrounding yesterday’s season finale, the 2020 FA Cup final will still live long in the memory.
Naturally I had been nervous all week, but I was also oddly confident and had predicted a 2-1 win for the Arsenal, on my podcast and on national radio.
The reason for my confidence was a singular firm belief that after overcoming both Liverpool and Manchester City in tactical battles, Mikel Arteta would have the strategic beating of Frank Lampard’s Chelsea.
I am not sure if there was much build up on the telly but I avoided it all day, instead opting to walk the dog, potter in the garden and even head for a long walk in a country park..
Having said that the match was constantly on my mind and in reality, I was just killing time before I would make the short trip to a pub in Bexley to meet friends, fellow Arsenal Season Ticket Holders, to watch the big game.
Even the pub, where I have watched so many matches, particularly England in tournaments, was subdued.
The pandemic has changed everything, with small groups on pre-booked designated tables, seated instead of standing, packed like sardines in front of the big screen.
We met 30 minutes before kick-off, and the discussion centred around Arteta’s team selection. It would be fair to say the reaction to Arteta’s decision to select Ainsley Maitland-Niles at left wing-back was mixed, but other than that it was as expected.
In the half hour that followed, we were able to ascertain which tables were Arsenal, which were Chelsea, and which were mixed.
The banter between our seven-strong all-Arsenal table and an adjacent “Blues” table began ahead of kick-off and they had some fun at our expense when Pulisic put their team in front early on.
The start by Arsenal was lethargic and more characteristic of Unai Emery’s team than Arteta’s.
I cannot lie and say we were not worried, as we certainly were, but personally I still felt confident within.
It was all about Ceballos and Xhaka wrestling control back in midfield and whatever the Spaniard said during the drinks break worked, as that happened.
A chap at the other table was telling us what a waste of money Nicolas Pepe was when he deliciously and effortlessly curled the ball beyond Caballero.
I jumped up with a hand to the ear celebration in front of the individual concerned, only to see the goal chalked off.
It was that moment, however, in which the match gripped me – and Arsenal reacted superbly to the disappointment and took a grip of the game.
I had no qualms that it was a penalty minutes later and absolutely no doubt Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would score it.
From that moment on I felt, as I had inexplicably when he opened the scoring against City in the semi-final, that it would be our day.
David Luiz was in the zone, as he is for the big games, and between him and Rob Holding, our ex-pal and their main threat Olivier Giroud was frustrated and ineffective.
My overconfident statements were annoying my superstitious pals, “stop jinxing it Dave,” was a sentence uttered more than once at the table.
We had it though, we always had it, this was our day, our trophy and when our skipper delightfully notched what was to be the winning goal, even my cautious friends believed.
Yesterday was about more than just more FA Cup history for Arsenal and a first trophy for Arteta, it was a marker and a statement.
A statement to the club to back their brilliant young coach, a statement to the Premier League that a team that has outsmarted Liverpool, City, Wolves and Chelsea in a three-week period is back in the mix – and crucially a statement to Aubameyang that he can stay and not just to be loved, but to win things.
Next time my team are at Wembley I hope to be back there with them and I hope our skipper is still there to lift a trophy in front of us and to get the reaction from a packed stadium his performance so richly deserved.
Next time I want to be waking up not just with a warranted sore head, but with no voice having sung for 90 minutes.
I enjoyed the match, I loved how Arteta out-thought his peer, I relished the banter with friends and opposition in the pub, but next time I want to be in the stadium.
And I firmly believe I will be.
Dave Seager – You can follow Dave on Twitter @goonerdave66
