Day we clinched the title at White Hart Lane
ON Sunday, Arsenal will arrive at Tottenham on top of the table for the first time since April 25, 2004, when we won the league at White Hart Lane. All we had to do to become champions was avoid defeat. We did, drawing 2-2.
The north London derby is a game that’s in my blood. I have many memories of this ferocious fixture, but that 2004 trip stands out. Here is the inside story of that famous day…
THE BUS RIDE
1.30pm: We’re on the team bus, snaking through the streets of north London. Since the 2001 arrival of Sol Campbell from Tottenham to Arsenal, the reception from the Spurs faithful has been getting more and more aggressive. We were used to our bus being targeted by fans hurling objects at us — stones, cans, bricks — and today is no different.
Yet on board, I feel fearless. All this aggression around us is only fuelling our fire even more. I’m sitting at a table, opposite Dennis Bergkamp and Jens Lehmann, and we love it. So do the rest of the players. We arrive at White Hart Lane at 2pm and burst off the bus. Kick-off is still two hours away but we can’t wait. Bring it on.
THE BUILD-UP
3.45pm: We’re in the dressing room, preparing to play the most important match of our season, and a security official is talking to the squad. He’s telling us not to celebrate because it might incite the home crowd. If he had told us not to go overboard, then fair enough. But the exact wording was: ‘Do not celebrate.’
It is a strange instruction to give a team who are one game from being champions. Ridiculous, really. Of course, we nod along. But it’s not an order we’re keeping at the forefront of our minds. 3.50pm: Arsene Wenger’s team talk. It’s the usual message from the boss. It’s full of energy, with Wenger demanding that we take the game to our opponent. It isn’t too in- depth because we had worked on the detail throughout the week. The bell rings and it’s time to head for the tunnel. 4pm: The tunnel at White Hart Lane isn’t the biggest. It’s a cramped corridor of blue and white. Referee Mark Halsey has a word with Thierry Henry, telling him what’s expected of Arsenal’s
players, including the same order from the security official about celebrating. Henry nods with an almost ironic grin.
THE GAME
4.05pm: Kick-off. Tottenham fans are baying for blood. They hate us and are letting us know. The older generation of Spurs supporters still remember May 3, 1971, when Arsenal won the league at White Hart Lane. Nothing would please Spurs more than to stop history repeating itself. But the hostile atmosphere is only creating the perfect backdrop for us to win another championship in their back garden.
4.08pm: Henry picks up the ball in our box and breaks forward, escaping his markers. He threads a ball expertly in behind Tottenham’s defence for Bergkamp, who plays a magic pass across for Patrick Vieira to slide in to score. Arsenal have gone from back to front in 11.2 seconds.
It’s 1-0, and do we celebrate? Of course we do.
4.40pm: Another terrific team goal. Bergkamp’s ball in behind, Vieira’s cut-back, and Robert Pires ruthlessly makes it 2-0. Again, we celebrate. The fans in the away end with their inflatable trophies are having a party at the Lane. 5.22pm: Jamie Redknapp scores in the 62nd minute with a 25-yard strike. It’s 2-1, and game on as far as Spurs are concerned. 5.56pm: I’m warming up on the touchline. The numbers have been given to the fourth official for my substitution. Then suddenly, there’s a penalty. Lehmann is judged to have fouled Robbie Keane. If Keane misses, I’m going on. If he scores, I’m not. Keane scores and Wenger tells me to sit down!
It’s 2-2 and the Spurs celebrations are crazy. We see Mauricio Taricco jumping for joy, injuring himself in the process. And we see a mystified Henry with a look on his face as if to say: ‘If you’re going to celebrate a draw, watch me celebrate being a champion at full time.’
5.58pm: Full time: 2-2. Arsenal are champions again at White Hart Lane.
THE CELEBRATIONS
6pm: Despite those earlier warnings, we’re celebrating. We’re not doing anything disrespectful in front of the home support. Our celebrations are confined to in front of the away end. Henry whips off his top and swings it around.
Soon, we head inside. White Hart Lane’s away dressing room isn’t the biggest but even if they’d shoved us in a broom cupboard, we still would have had a party!
The game has finished but the action hasn’t, and a Tottenham fan gives us a parting gift. As we pull away in our team bus, a brick strikes right where Bergkamp is sitting. With a cracked window, we head for Arsenal’s training ground with a smile on our faces and another trophy in the cabinet.