There are mornings that feel ordinary, and then there are mornings like this morning that make life feel full, rich, and almost poetic.
For two decades, Arsenal fans have woken up with a familiar heaviness: the sting of another title slipping away, the ache of hope betrayed, the quiet anguish of knowing Monday would be long and unforgettable.
Arsenal fans, we carried the weight into our homes, our workplaces, our marriages. We slept with anger, anguish and dismay, wishing Arsenal had won the game the night before. And yet, through it all, we stayed loyal to the club.
We were faithful to the club while the club remained an unfaithful partner to us. For 22 long years, we waited for a morning like today.
Today, Arsenal is the champion of England.
To understand what this means, you must understand the suffering. Arsenal fans have endured a unique brand of emotional turbulence, a cocktail of hope, heartbreak, and that familiar sense of being off fate at the last moment.
We’ve known what it means to be mocked, to be told maybe next year or called bottlers and to watch rivals lift trophies while we clung to memories of the Invincibles past. And through all of this, our spouses, the true unsung heroes, bore the brunt of our mood swings.
They endured our acrimony, our disgruntledness, our sulking on Sunday nights, our refusal to watch Match of the Day, our sudden decision to take a walk after a defensive error in the 89th minute.
They watched us pace the living room like expectant fathers, shout at screens as if the players could hear us and slip into a silence so deep it felt like malice itself. Yet they never kept malice. They never ‘Chiked’ on us. They stayed faithful, and some started a prayer WhatsApp group for Arsenal fans.
Some of them learned the offside rule just to understand our rants. Some mastered the art of the sympathetic nod. Others simply placed a cup of tea beside us and whispered, “It’s only football,” not knowing those words cut deeper than any defeat. And still, they stayed.
This title, this long-awaited, heart-thumping, tear-inducing triumph belongs to them too. To every spouse who tiptoed around us after a loss, who pretended not to notice when we refreshed the league table for the tenth time, who held us when we muttered, ” We go again like a prayer. You are the real MVPs.
Today, Arsenal fans wake up lighter. The air feels different. Breakfast tastes better. Even in this grey morning weather, the sun seems to shine with a red and white glow. And somewhere in living rooms across the world, spouses are exhaling in relief, whispering, FINALLY!
Finally, the storm has passed. Finally, the house can know peace. Finally, Arsenal has given them and us a morning worth remembering.
And to every long-suffering partner of an Arsenal fan: THIS TROPHY IS FOR YOU.
Benny Onweremadu
An Arsenal fan since 1990
