F*CK.
That was the first word that came out of my mouth when I first arrived at Drayton Park bridge, about to cross over to the Emirates Stadium.
I had seen the Emirates Stadium before during various stages of its construction phase, but the finished article left me speechless. And mumbling expletives as I crossed the bridge towards the stadium.
The ARSENAL lettering at the foot of the bridge. The modern and informative signs. The giant Arsenal logo. The colour of the stadium. The sheer size and spectacular sight of it all.
It was worth every bloody penny, I mumbled to myself as I looked for The Armoury, amongst another string of expletives as I walked round this behemoth.
All the grief and sorrows we went through during the planning and construction periods, it was all worth it.
Funnily enough, like the new kit (which was available outside the UK before it being launched here), I found myself thanking a Singaporean Gooner for two tickets to this match. None of my UK contacts could get tickets for me, but my ticket plea on this site was spotted by Jin Yan from the Arsenal Supporters Club in Singapore, and he emailed me earlier in the week to say that he had two tickets spare.
Awesome!
Jin Yan had travelled all the way from Singapore for Members Day and this match, and to pay homage to the grand old lady of football one last time.
I was already an hour late, and Jin Yan had been waiting outside the Armoury for me. I apologised profusely, and we went to a Turkish (?) cafe next to the Drayton Park pub for some light lunch.
Then it was off to Highbury for some photos, Jin Yan stopping to buy a Wigan match day programme for double its original value. I forgot to ask if it was an original print or a reprint. He didn’t seem to care – he just wanted to grab everything and anything he could to remind him of Highbury.
The rain started pouring down and I was worried it was going to spoil a gorgeous day. We ran back to the Emirates, and split up. Jin Yan was seating in the green quadrant and I was in the orange quadrant [sections in the Emirates Stadium were colour-coded into four different colours].
Tickets were scanned now, and there was no need to tear the ticket stub to pass on to a ticketing officer. There were a few Arsenal staff around the entry points manually scanning cards in – still a glitch in the new system I guess.
One of the things I noticed when I got inside was that there was a lack of Arsenal logos or signs to tell you that you were in an Arsenal stadium. Everything else was perfect, from signage to how everything was laid out. It seemed that the club had given thought to every aspect of the stadium and not just try to fit anything in.
Superb.
I made my way to my seat. Seat 991, block 32 row 6, just a couple of rows behind the Ajax legends team – van Basten, Winter, Rijkaard, van der Sar, the de Boer brothers. Most of them were not in a chatty mood, but the de Boer brothers mingled somewhat with the fans and posed for photos.
My sister and a friend of mine were sitting behind one of the giant Mitsubishi screens, and since I had about an hour to kill before the pre-match presentations started, I made my way there to check out the view.
The view of the pitch was great from up there, except that you couldn’t make out who was who, and the other giant screen across the stadium was partly obscured by the roof, meaning it was also useless to read the score, or any substitutions.
I had to run back to my seat just as Arsène was about to score the first “goal” at the new stadium. He hit the crossbar. Oh well, better luck next time Arsène!
The shirts on the seats were a gift from Bergkamp himself apparently, and were available in red, white and orange. If everyone put their shirt on, the words DB10 and Iceman would appear in orange amongst the fans, with either red or white as the background colour.
Very classy, but I expected nothing less from Arsenal.
Speaking of classy, it was a nice touch to have Dennis Bergkamp’s DAD kick-off the match with his son in the center circle. Due to his age though, they had to escort him off the pitch first before the match could really get underway!
All week I had been wondering if Henry would be playing in the testimonial, what with him and Bergy being very close. A few people told me that he was still on his break and wouldn’t be playing, so I was a bit surprised to see him, in front of the cameras near the pitch, wearing a white DB10 shirt and his playing boots, chatting away to Keown, Vieira and Fabregas.
My sister got excited when I messaged her to tell her that Overmars was sitting in front of me for a bit, and she begged me to get an autograph from him.
The first half was fairly uneventful, with Ajax scoring through Huntelaar. Bugger. The first player to score a goal at the Emirates was not an Arsenal player.
Arsenal looked lightweight and short of ideas, with Hleb being the most dangerous outlet but Ajax’s defence kept him at bay. Ajax had the better of the half and looked sharper than the Arsenal reserves.
The first half finished 1-0 to Ajax, but the second half was when the fun really started …
Click here to see my Bergkamp Testimonial Photo Album