I'm writing this on Monday the 16th after Arsenal played Tottenham on Sunday the 15th and six hours after the kick-off of the other game that happened on Sunday, for which you'll have to get to part 2 of this little series of blogs to understand.
Arsenal vs Tottenham on the 15th at the Tottenham Stadium was a really big game this season and made bigger in our house because my son, Callum, has become (for some unknown reason really) a huge and passionate Arsenal fan.
It was a chance for Arsenal to win there for the first time in nine seasons or thereabouts and also a chance for them to stake a real realistic claim to be champions of the Premier League in England.
There was much at stake and Arsenal being the away team go into the lion's den, as my own boyhood team, Celtic, used to do when they would travel to Rangers for an Old Firm game, a game which I once took my wife to as her first ever game of football as a spectator.
And so, the game progressed, in fact, it was an easy victory for Arsenal despite the fact that they were the away team, and they were cruising after two early goals and controlled the game really well to take all the points.
But what I want to talk about here is the behaviour at the end of the game and the consequences that that might have moving forwards and the story and metaphor it presents for the state of society and what we are supposed to do about it.
As the clock was ticking down, the Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale had the ball in his hands in his own box only a couple of minutes after Richarlison, the bleach blonde Brazilian player with the sharp, beautiful features and the narrow, angry eyes was cajoling and jostling him to stop him kicking the ball out of his penalty area, an act which is actually illegal in football.
Immediately prior to that, Richarlison had deliberately and on camera in full view of millions of people walked past an Arsenal player and shouldered him out the way.
This went almost unnoticed and certainly uncommented on by the commentators, such is the culture of football, which allows this type of incendiary action to happen.
In reality, Richarlison had no chance of pulling anything back in the game, and he was aware of this and almost certainly frustrated, but such is his reputation and his previous actions, that it was clear to see he was bubbling up.
At the end of the game there were words between Richarlison and Ramsdale, the Arsenal keeper and Ramsdale (who apparently had been receiving some abuse from the Tottenham fans) decided to turn to the fans, gesture violently and positively about the win and pull the arsenal badge of his shirt towards his lips and kiss it in front of the fans.
Apparently, this is a reasonable and acceptable action for someone who is ‘passionate’ about their team and about football, but I can tell you that back in 1995 I was in the stadium at the City Ground when Stan Collymore returned to Nottingham Forest after his high-profile transfer to Liverpool and kissed his new Liverpool badge.
I witnessed first-hand the reaction of passionate fans to such a gesture against them and was quite clear that I could understand how the fans would react to Ramsdale.
Why Ramsdale seems not to understand, will always be beyond me.
Richarlison saw this and there was another altercation between the two of them, all of this playing out live on Sky TV in front of millions and millions of people, at which point Ramsdale went behind the goal to collect his bottle and his spare pair of gloves and was effectively attacked by a Tottenham fan who jumped the barrier through the stewards and kicked him in between his shoulder blades.
All hell broke loose at this point, with Arsenal players coming to defend their wronged colleague and Tottenham players coming to see what all the fuss was about and Richarlison in the middle in full view of everybody on television.
This incident was analysed by the facile and monotonous pundits after the game and the ‘blah, blah blah’ around the comfy seats, the stylish clothes and sharp haircuts.
They all said, “there's no place in football for this violence”, words that were reiterated in a post-match interview by the Tottenham player Dier and then in the press by both the FA and the authorities at Tottenham and the police and then we all go on as we did before, and the needle returns to the start of the song.
You don't have to go too far to remember the Nottingham Forest playoff semi-final at the City Ground where one of the Nottingham Forest fans got onto the pitch and punched one of the opposing substitutes (non-playing and not in a strip) in the face.
This happens time and time again and there is now a well-documented ‘rise of the right’ at almost every football club in the United Kingdom, but in particular in England.
But apparently there's no place for this in football.
And so, why is this of any consequence and why do I not just turn the television off or unsubscribe to Sky and stop my son watching this football?
Well, it is of consequence because it is a mirror into what is acceptable in society, but also it demonstrates week after week and time after time, why it's seemingly acceptable to behave in this tribal lord of the flies manner within a football environment when it's related to the passion of the game.
It doesn't matter, does it? It's all on television, like a bad movie and then we go on with our lives.
But the problem is that it spills out to other places and casts a shadow over other aspects of our lives as you'll find out in part two.
Blog Post Number - 3335