Barcelona won the second leg comfortably, and Henry's goal came right at the end of one of the most dismal games I've ever seen. They were there the night that Andrey Arshavin scored the winner against Barcelona, and the night that Thierry Henry made his second debut for the club, aged 35, and came off the bench to tuck one into the far corner of the Leeds United net just as he did scores of times at Highbury.īut even these highs didn't count for much. They celebrated three FA Cup final wins in four years. They saw Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie at the peak of their careers.

None of them saw Arsenal play at Highbury typically, they started going to the Emirates between 20, and they have enjoyed some good times. The boys who leave their phones in my house every day are in their early to mid-teens. My own phone had started to buzz, too by this stage, it was hard to imagine what else could have happened, apart from the resignation of Arsene Wenger. Even news of a North Korean nuclear strike would probably drip through over several days. There is only one subject - Arsenal Football Club - that can provoke that kind of simultaneous activity. They surrendered them as normal on Friday morning, and I sat down to read the paper in the suddenly peaceful house, but then the phones all started to buzz and ping at the same time. Every morning, my boys and the friends that walk to school with them leave theirs in our kitchen, where they lie still and silent until the end of the educational day. LONDON - The school that my sons attend, a stone's throw from Highbury Stadium, a slingshot from the Emirates, does not allow mobile phones on the premises.

(Editors' note: We asked Nick Hornby - novelist and screenwriter who wrote about his obsessive fandom of Arsenal in 'Fever Pitch' - to assess the news that Arsene Wenger was leaving Arsenal Football Club after 22 years as manager.) Nick Hornby: Arsenal free to dream of better future after Arsene Wenger exit

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