Arsenal fans are ready to party like its 1989

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Arsenal fans old enough to remember that far back are preparing to party like it’s 1989. 

Eight points ahead of Manchester City, who have a game in hand, at the top of the English Premier League, The Arsenal are – hesitatingly – beginning to dream. 

It’s been nineteen years since the North London club’s last league title – the 2004 triumph of Arsene Wenger’s peerless ‘Invincibles’, who went the whole season undefeated – an unprecedented and unrepeated feat. 

The first of Arsenal’s nine game run in is at Anfield on Sunday against Liverpool, who have suffered a curiously erratic season. Regardless, Anfield always presents a challenge. 

But Arsenal will no doubt draw on the spirit of the Anfield night in late May 1989, when George Graham’s team won the league for the first time in eighteen years. 

For those of us who were lucky enough to be there on that balmy early summer night, it has always felt that nothing could ever match the drama and ecstacy of Micheal Thomas’s winner. 

It came several minutes into stoppage time. One up at the time, Arsenal had to win by two clear goals to snatch the trophy from under Liverpool’s noses.

It was an emotional evening all round. When the players entered the arena half an hour late due to motorway traffic jams that had delayed the arrival of many supporters, the Arsenal players ran to all corners of the ground to hand out large bouquets of flowers – a token of sympathy and respect for the Hillsborough tragedy the month before, when 96 Liverpool fans shockingly died at the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. 

The home game against Arsenal was originally scheduled for late April, but was re-arranged as the Merseyside club mourned. This set the stage for the most extraordinary finale for any league season, anywhere. 

In those days, the fans were relatively stolid; now the mood, especially on social media, is febrile. Many grew up during the glorious early phase of Wenger-ball, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Arsenal won the league three times, with two doubles. 

Ian Rush of Liverpool (left) and Tony Adams of Arsenal in action during the Charity Shield match at Wembley Stadium in London. Liverpool won the match 1-0. (Simon Bruty /Allsport)

Since then, it’s been a rollercoaster ride – always the bridesmaid but never the bride. So this time, angst-ridden Arsenal fans are hoping it can be wrapped up long before the final game of the season. 

But those of us old enough to remember the run-in in 1989 will be fearing the worst. 

Four points ahead of Liverpool with three games to play in 1989, Arsenal contrived to first lose at home to Derby County in a nervy encounter and then four days later drew 2-2 at home to Wimbledon.

This twitchy draw was only achieved in the dying minutes. The scorer was a player so left-footed that it was clear that his right leg was simply there to stop him toppling over. So when Arsenal left-back Nigel Winterburn smashed a speculative long-range effort into the top corner with his right foot it seemed truly miraculous. 

Similar potholes in the road lie ahead – Anfield on Sunday; the Etihad Stadium for an obviously crucial match away to City on 26 April; Brighton away in mid-May, before the final game at home to Wolves on 28 May – a game for which tickets can now be bought on the black market for around 20,000. Sterling. 

The wheel of fortune in sport usually turns and eventually comes around, but never fast enough for the impatient sense of entitlement of the modern Emirates stadium-era. 

For older fathers and mothers who have imposed their fidelity for the Gunners onto their offspring there will considerable relief.   

Previous Arsenal title triumphs have rarely if ever been universally celebrated. Other fans love to hate The Arsenal. But this is a very likeable Arsenal side; the strength of the collective is obvious. And they play delightful football. 

That sense of cohesion and purpose will be sorely tested over the next seven weeks, starting on Sunday at Anfield. 

It’s the hope what kills you.