A Famous Night in Madrid. A Famous Day Out in New York.

"How many people could be there at 3pm on a Wednesday?"

IN THIS ISSUE:

ARSENAL IN PARADISE / CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AUTOPSIES / ASTON VILLA vs NEWCASTLE / A TOP FOUR CLASH IN ITALY / THE “VIEJO CLÁSICO” / GUINNESS KITS / EDGAR DAVIDS TOTAL 90 GLORY

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I had two and a half pints on the day, because I spilled the third one all over a guy’s back. I apologized; he didn’t care in the slightest. After all, Bukayo Saka had just scored at the Bernabeu to destroy the European champions.

By then, it was euphoria in O’Hanlon’s. Bedlam. It was bouncing from the start, to be fair. When I left my house an hour before kickoff, my girlfriend asked why so early. “How many people could be there at 3pm on a Wednesday?” 25 minutes before showtime, the folks in red and white were piled up outside the Irish pub on 14th Street in Lower Manhattan. At capacity. You could see them through the doorway up the stairs, past the mass of humanity packed in under the low-slung pressed-tin ceiling. Covering the entire three windows to the left of the doorway was a giant red cannon-clad flag. Inside, the songs rang out.

We won the league at Anfield,
We won it at the Lane,
Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford,
No one can say the same…

It’s a great tune, the best that Arsenal fans have cooked up in years, and yet it’s always concentrated the mind — at least for me — on the “past” bit of “past glories” and how I missed them. I came on board as a supporter in 2006, in that autumn after the World Cup, still just months after this club featured in the Champions League final. They’d won the league without losing a match two years before that. Surely, it was only a matter of time until the North Londoners returned to the mountaintop. And then the next 18 years happened.

On Wednesday, I marveled at how many Yankee Gooners I met that had lived similar experiences to mine: fans of 12 years, 15, enough to have been dragged through the misery of the nearly seasons and others nowhere close, the slow decline of the Wenger years and the eighth-place nadir, the time when Arsenal became a kind of high-class laughingstock. Considering when the game really took off on these shores, it’s been something like the median, the average, the default experience for the American Arsenal fan, and it still echoes even in this new era of title races and £100 million signings. The banter merchants and professional trolls often talk about the club as if it’s a joke to finish second in the Premier League and — last season — lose to Bayern Munich in a Champions League quarterfinal. They almost need the Arsenal to be a punchline.

And then came this quarterfinal, and Real Madrid, and the 3-0. And then came Wednesday’s second leg.

The festivities at O’Hanlon’s began with a raucous rendition of “North London Forever,” as Cristiano behind the bar leapt on top of it brandishing a giant flag with Saka’s face on it. When it was done and the game feed came on, everybody around me started bouncing in place, on the knife edge, minds filled with “the black magic of the Bernabeu” and all that talk of remontada from the Madridistas in the lead-up. (Boy, did they talk.) Even at 3-0 up on aggregate, it was tough to sit still.

But this is a different team now, a different club. “Mikel Arteta’s army” isn’t just the supporters. There are hard-nosed, well-drilled warriors on the pitch. It’s a team in the steely Spaniard’s image. They aren’t pushovers anymore, they won’t be bullied, and with nights like these they add mental strength to their undeniable physical dominance.

They managed the game through the first half, when the only points of stress were two questionable penalty incidents. As Saka went up to take the first, we all chittered in the dark of the subterranean pub in mid-afternoon: Shouldn’t Martin take it? Shouldn’t Declan? When Bukayo missed, things went quiet for the first time, and the queasiness really set in when Madrid were awarded a soft penalty of their own. But once it was scratched off and the specter of the black magic faded, normal service resumed. And then came the glory.

Martin Ødegaard, oft maligned this season, stitched together some combination play above the Blancos’ box and found Mikel Merino, looking nearly as at home in these environs as Thomas Partey. The Spaniard spotted Saka making the kind of diagonal run in behind that Arsenal have needed just a bit more of all year, and then there it was, suspended in time: Saka latched onto it and succeeded where he’d failed with the penalty, deftly clipping over Thibaut Courtois.

It was a dagger in the heart of the beast, and the scrum in O’Hanlon’s went ballistic. Beer went flying, people were jumping all over each other. I hugged three different people I’d never seen before in my life. I haven’t had the privilege of seeing the team live in such a big game, but it felt like the stories I’ve heard about that Lucas Torreira goal in the North London derby. The release of stress and tension, the borderline manic behavior, the near-disbelief at how high this roller coaster goes. Arsenal were 1-0 up at the Bernabeu, just like in Thierry’s time. Arsenal were 4-0 up on aggregate.

They were battering Real Madrid so badly that they soon felt it was only polite to give their hosts a goal, which David Raya and William Saliba conspired to provide. But even that did not dampen the mood, such was Arsenal’s sure-footedness in this massive fixture, and as the minutes ticked down, the songs got louder and louder. We sang our hearts out in that little bar in Manhattan, delighted and slightly deranged, and it was in the middle of a song that the Arsenal struck again.

Allez Allez, Allez….Allez, Allez, Allez….

Gabriel Martinelli sprinted through and lashed it home. He put the Blancos down, finished the job, sealed it up, and then it was bedlam again. 5-1. Destruction.

We all spilled out into the street, pyrotechnics cracking off briefly and crimson flares smoking up the sidewalk in the middle — well, near the end — of a Wednesday workday. The songs continued, war stories were swapped, and we all did our own kind of standing ovation as the curtain dropped on a glorious eight days for the Arsenal. No matter what happens from here, the whole football world just witnessed this club in a new era. Nobody’s laughing now, except some folks a few pints deep on 14th Street.

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The podcast is off this week, but we’ve got match previews for you below. Also, if you haven’t already, check out our CATHEDRALS series with features on Goodison Park and Anfield!

And if you’ve got a minute, do leave us a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really helps! Drop us a follow on Instagram, too, and share THE FOOTBALL WEEKEND with a football fan in your life:

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LONG READS

⚽︎ On Substack,

Jonathan Wilson

blasts France’s record of policing big matches and suggests they need serious reform before hosting any more of them.

⚽︎ For the BBC, Gary Rose and Andy Cryer digest the fallout in Madrid and why for Carlo Ancelotti, “The message will be clear: it’s time to move on.”

⚽︎ There’s another Champions League postmortem in The Athletic, where Seb Stafford-Bloor takes a look at Bayern Munich and Vincent Kompany.

⚽︎ Over at The Guardian, Louise Taylor takes a good and proper look at the Championship promotion stakes. England’s second tier is worthy of our eyeballs as this season comes to a crescendo.

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MORE MATCHES

EVERTON vs MAN CITY

Sat @ 10am ET, 3pm UK

There are a few options in this match window (BRENTFORD vs BRIGHTON or PALACE vs BOURNEMOUTH could be worth a look) but our bias turns us once again towards a game at Goodison Park. The jeopardy in this game rests on the fact that City need points for Champions League qualification. It’s still packed in that neighborhood, with just five points separating Newcastle in third from Aston Villa in seventh, and Pep Guardiola’s outfit are smack dab in the middle of it.

ASTON VILLA vs NEWCASTLE

Sat @ 12:30pm ET, 5:30pm UK

This is the fixture of the matchweek as far as the Premier League is concerned. These two are at opposite ends of the Champions League-chasing pack, but a win would bring Villa within two points of Newcastle with five matches left to play. Unai Emery’s side will have to shake off the disappointment of their near-remontada against PSG in midweek, as now their full attention must shift to earning a spot in next year’s competition.

Their opponents here are in formidable form, though: the Magpies have rattled off five wins in a row to leapfrog Chelsea, City, and Forest to reach their current commanding position. Can they keep it going in the cauldron of Villa Park?

FULHAM vs CHELSEA

Sun @ 9am ET, 2pm UK

This is a West London derby — not the most fiery encounter in the English capital, but a local dispute nonetheless. Fulham are a more-than-decent side this season, flirting with the European places up until recently, and they’ve consistently given top teams problems. Chelsea are not a top team, or at least they haven’t looked like it recently: They’ve taken just 14 of the last 30 points available to place their Champions League qualification hopes under considerable strain. The mood amongst the Blues faithful has begun to turn just a bit against manager Enzo Maresca and the club hierarchy, and they desperately need the three points here.

BOLOGNA vs INTER

Sun @ 12pm ET, 5pm UK

Despite defeat to Atalanta last time out, Bologna remain one of the form teams in Serie A: 20 points from the last 30 available is just about Champions League form, and they’re very much in the conversation with six matches to go. Two points separate them from Juventus in fourth, but the Rossoblu face Italy’s ultimate test here: Internazionale are Champions League semifinalists after seeing off Bayern Munich in midweek, they’re three points clear at the top of Serie A, and they are simply one of the world’s very best teams.

REAL MADRID vs ATHLETIC CLUB

Sun @ 3pm ET, 8pm UK

It’s been a disastrous week by Real Madrid’s lofty standards, as they’ve departed their competition at just the quarterfinal stage. They do have the Copa del Rey left to win — the final next weekend is one of two Clásicos with Barcelona still remaining this season — but they’re four points back in La Liga with seven matches to play.

They need to be nigh-on perfect from here on out to try to salvage something from this season, and the first hurdle will be ancient enemies Athletic Club. Up until 2011, this was the most played fixture in Spanish football, a feud that dates back to this league’s earliest days, and in this edition both teams have much to play for. After all, the boys from Bilbao are eager to wrap up a Champions League spot for next season.

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GEAR

👕 Classic Football Shirts got their hands on a whole crop of Total 90 Netherlands kits, and I would do unspeakable things to get my hands on this Edgar Davids number.

👕 Bohemians knew exactly what they were doing with this Guinness sponsor. For Dublin’s premier footballing outfit since 1890, it all adds up nicely.⚽︎