Last night I took my son to Arsenal for his first match. He was buzzing all day for it.
I wasn’t sure if it he’d ever go as he has autism.
Once we were in the ground he struggled with about 50,000 people shouting and was having a hard time.
Halfway through the 1st half I could see he wasn’t going to get used to it so we had to leave.
When we left the stadium, a steward (blonde lady, wish i got her name), asked why we were leaving and I told her. She asked me to hold on and contacted someone else.
Next thing I know, we’re being walked towards club level.
Arsenal have got a sensory room there where we could watch the rest of the match.
The gentleman running the room, Luke Howard, was fantastic. As was everyone in there.
Between Luke & the stewards that helped, it turned my lads first game night into a great memory.
The club worked in conjunction with The Shippey Campaign, who call Arsenal’s two rooms “a wonderful sensory haven”.
The Shippey Campaign was set up by Kate Shippey MBE & Peter Shippey MBE.
They have 3 children with autism and the eldest, Nathan, fell in love with football.
In 2014 they took Nathan to his first game – armed with ear defenders, headphones with his favourite music, hats, ear plugs and a bag filled with his favourite comforters. By half time they were one their way home.
It was at this point they came up with the idea of sensory rooms in sports stadia.
They started with their home town club Sunderland and the Nathan Shippey Sensory Room opened in 2015.
They have since worked with the likes of of Arsenal, Watford, Notts County, Middlesbrough, WBA, Everton, Airdrieonians (the first sensory room in Scotland) and Rangers.
Celtic, Liverpool, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Coventry, Tottenham, Brighton and Manchester City have also opened sensory rooms.
The Shippey Campaign has now gone worldwide – with them consulting on sensory rooms at the Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar and The New Perth Stadium in Australia, as well as Hong Kong, France and Germany. They have recently welcomed a USA Ambassador on their team.
In an era where clubs seem to focus more on commercial income rather than the experience of match going fans, sensory rooms are one area where the likes of Arsenal deserve high praise. Football is for everyone.
To read more about what Arsenal do to embrace diversity and equality, Arsenal for Everyone – written by friend of the site Dave Seager – is at Legends Publishing or you can wait for the official Arsenal launch at the Armoury on the 27th of November at the match. (Look out for details…)
Often managers get criticised for their substitutions.
They either do them too late, too early, take off the wrong player, or bring on the wrong player.
Last night we have to praise Mikel Arteta for his brave substitution – taking off Ben White for Calum Chambers.
Prior to the goal, Arsenal had swung in some dangerous corners, but Ben White got no-where near any of them.
Within 30 seconds of coming on, Chambers rose high at a corner to score his first goal since 2019.
In a blink of an eye, Chambers had changed a game that was on a knife edge. Arteta changed it with the substitute.
A few minutes later, Marcelo Bielsa made a simialr change – swapping centreback for centreback. But his change did not quite work out as Arsenal went on to win 2-0 following a fabulous finish by Eddie Nketiah.
2-nil and through to the quarter finals of the 2nd biggest cup competition in England. We continue our march on to glory with Arteta as he seeks his 3rd trophy in 18 months.
The League Cup is often a competition derided by fans and media as one that “top clubs do not care about”.
Since 2000, the trophy has been lifted just 5 times by times who have not been crowned champions during that era – Swansea City, Birmingham City, Tottenham, Middlesbrough and Blackburn the smaller clubs to have won it. 5 of the last 6 have been won by Manchester City.
It is not that the big clubs do not take it seriously; they almost always win it. It is that they rest and rotate players due to European commitments. They put out an XI they think will win the game. And more often than not they do.
The problem for the League Cup is those mid-table Premier League sides, relegation threatened side and Championship promotion chasing sides also end up putting out a weaker side.
Take tonight. it is West Ham United against Manchester City.
With the form the Hammers are in, their strongest XI would probably role over City’s second string in Stratford. But David Moyes will likely put out his 2nd string which will see advantage City.
We saw it yesterday as Southampton made 9 changes to the side that drew with Burnley at the weekend. Their 2nd string took Chelsea to penalties before eventually going out. Would their first string have seen off the European Champions?
I would be so frustrated if I was a fan of one of these “smaller” clubs. Seeing my manager throw away the best chance of a trophy in decades.
These sides are not in Europe, so do not have a great deal of fixture congestion.
Getting to the final adds just 4 games to the fixture list before Christmas and 3 games in the New Year. It realy is not much.
Instead they throw the game, putting out a weaker XI and denying their fans a chance of a Wembley day out and a trophy.
Arsenal and Chelsea are already through – alongside Sunderland. With the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Leicester City still in the competition, we will probably reach the semi-final stage with the “usual suspects” still in it.
Without Europe, Arteta has been putting out a second string so far in the competition- but last night was still a strong side with almost every player capped by their country.
I expect in the quarter finals Arteta will increase the strength of the side further – potentially bringing in the likes of Alex Lacazette from the start.
Enjoy your Wednesday. Enjoy 8 unbeaten in all competitions. And look forward to Leicester City on Saturday.
(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Cédric Soares, Rob Holding, Ben White, Sead Kolašinac; Mohamed Elneny, Ainsley Maitland-Niles; Nicolas Pépé, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli; Eddie Nketiah.
Substitutes: Thomas Partey, Bukayo Saka, Alexandre Lacazette, Nuno Tavares, Calum Chambers, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Folarin Balogun, Aaron Ramsdale.
Scorers: Calum Chambers (55 mins), Eddie Nketiah (69 mins)
Yellow Cards: Cédric Soares
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 44%
Referee: Andre Marriner
Assistant Referees: Harry Lennard, Scott Ledger
Fourth Official: Andrew Madley
Attendance: 59,126
As expected with the Carabao Cup matches, Mikel Arteta has made nine changes to the Arsenal side that featured in the victory over Aston Villa last Friday, and from that team, only Ben White and Emile Smith-Rowe keep their starting places. By the way, just in case anyone has forgotten, VAR will not be available in this competition until the semi-final stage.
Getting the tie underway, we were quite assertive in the early stages with our forwards testing the visitors’ defence on several occasions. Sead Kolašinac came very close to opening the scoring in the ninth minute when he picked up a loose ball after Ainsley Maitland-Niles was tackled on the edge of the penalty area, but his left-footed shot hit the side netting from close quarters. Our confidence was there for all to see as we started to stroke the ball around in midfield, looking for a way through a very tight Leeds United formation that seemed to cope with our constant probing and pushing. Although the visitors tested Bernd Leno on several occasions in the first twenty minutes, their efforts came to nothing and we managed to regroup and start again fairly easily. However, Daniel James ran through the Arsenal defence onto a long ball from Diego Llorente which looked very concerning, but fortunately Bernd Leno ran out and smothered the ball to neutralise the threat. Nicolas Pépé was unfortunate not to score when he had two goalscoring chances that went nowhere, but a couple of minutes later, Bernd Leno kept us in the match again when a driving Jack Harrison shot was superbly saved by him when his shot went low to his left. Leeds United started to push us back into our own half and although they caused us one or two problems at the back, we managed to hold them at bay. The match started to move from end to end now, and the pace begand to get frenetic, which was only broken up by a foul on Gabriel Martinelli by Cody Drameh in the midfield area. It was becoming noticeable that Leeds United were catching us on the break on several occasions in this half, and in doing so, looked quite dangerous. Three minutes before the break, our best chance of the first half came when Sead Kolašinac’s header from about ten yards from the visitors’ goal was headed off the line, and Emile Smith-Rowe blasted the ball wide from the edge of the penalty area, which was the last chance our forwards had before Andre Marriner blew his whistle signifying the hiatus.
The visitors started proceedings for the second half, and within a minute of the restart won a free-kick and commenced to stroke the ball around, but we managed to grab the ball off them and made a decent attempt to score before our attack was broken up by Leeds defenders. Nine minutes after the restart, Ben White went down with a recurrent injury, and Calum Chambers replaced him; within a minute he was in the fray, and incredibly scored the opening goal with his first touch of the ball! He met Nicolas Pépé’s clever knockback to power home a header that went just over the goalline. At first it looked like an awkward save by goalkeeper Illan Meslier, but after a glance at his watch, referee Andre Marriner awarded the goal; Calum Chambers then ran to the touchline to celebrate with Mikel Arteta and was mobbed by his team-mates, in celebration of an incredible couple of minutes in his career. After that, we certainly came alive and started to hunt for a second goal. Gabriel Martinelli and Nicolas Pépé came mighty close after some clever play, and it looked like the momentum was with Arsenal now. After a terrible mistake by Liam Cooper, our man Eddie Nketiah just got there first, tipped it over the goalkeeper, and clipped the ball with the edge of his right foot, and the ball just rolled into the net, with under twenty minutes of the match remaining. After seventy-two minutes, Emile Smith-Rowe and Mohamed Elneny were replaced by Alexandre Lacazette and Albert Sambi Lokonga respectively; then a couple of minutes later, Nuno Tavares was substituted for an injured Rob Holding, and we continued to press for a third goal. We looked strong and confident now, as the visitors started to fade away, the minutes ticking past until the final whistle. Although the visitors started to push long balls deep into our half, the parade had already passed them by, as we managed to contain them. Just before injury time, Alexandre Lacazette was unlucky not to score when he took the ball from Kalvin Phillips, and blasted the ball over the bar from just outside the penalty area. In the four minutes injury time, although there were a few chances on goal, nothing materialised of any worthy comment, and so we ended the night as winners, advancing into the quarter-finals of this oft-maligned competition.
Although it could be said that the visitors put us under pressure at times during the first half, nothing was delivered, and in the end, we managed to regroup successfully and at times looked comfortable both on and off the ball as we managed to end the evening victorious. And, let us not forget, we kept a clean sheet against a Premiership club with nine replacements in the team, with eight matches undefeated across two competitions. A good evening all round.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, 30th October at 12.30pm(Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.
