It looked to me like a “colour revolution”. A political journalist friend, less attached to Arsenal Football Club, made the same comparison. There is no knowing the number of people who converged in Islington — late on a weekday night, deep into a weekday dawn — to toast the Premier League champions, who were not even there. But similar scenes unfolded around the world. Jubilant fans include Sir Keir Starmer, not one but two east African heads of state, Zohran Mamdani, more celebrities than it is possible to name and — were they still with us, and if rumours of their allegiance are to be believed — Elizabeth II and Osama bin Laden. As for the social media content, it will take the summer to go through, such is the online preponderance of the fan base.
What explains the cultural reach of Arsenal? It was a big enough club when it last won the league in 2004 but its fans are now so all-pervading that I can almost understand the resentment of them. “We have the streets” is an Arsenal boast. But we also have the elites. If a BlackRock portfolio manager or High Court judge claimed to be off to a match, your first guess would be the Emirates Stadium. Each time I enter the place, I slightly shiver at its attractiveness to any modern-day Guy Fawkes who wanted to do in a big chunk of the establishment in one go.