Arsenal supporters have copped some flak from rival fans for leaving the Emirates early and missing the dramatic events which unfolded in added time against Manchester United
Arsenal fans left the Emirates early before the Gunners sealed a late win over Man Utd
Dimitar Berbatov has admitted he has left matches early after Arsenal fans copped stick from rivals for missing the dramatic events at the end of their win over Manchester United.
The Gunners scored twice in added time to beat United 3-1 at the Emirates on September 3, but some of their fans weren’t there to celebrate it. Aerial TV shots showed hundreds of supporters had already left the stadium, perhaps believing that Alejandro Garnacho had won it for United in the 88th minute with a goal which was later ruled out by VAR for offside.
Arsenal fans reacting to the goals from the pavement outside the stadium in North London prompted some jokes from fans of rival clubs. But former United and Tottenham striker Berbatov was not one of those to stick the boot in.
“I can understand why fans leave early,” he told Betfair. “This is something Arsenal and Man Utd supporters are doing and I’ve done it myself when I go to watch games. You want to beat traffic but sometimes you can miss goals after 90 minutes.”
It comes after Betfair and YouGov conducted a survey of 1,300 football fans to ask them about the taboo subject of leaving early. They found that almost one in four football supporters admitted leaving a match early last season.
Beating the traffic (35 per cent) was the biggest reason, while escaping watching your team getting thrashed (30 per cent) and leaving to catch public transport (26 per cent) were the next most common responses.
The other reasons given were that the team was winning comfortably (8 per cent), nerves (5 per cent) and illness (5 per cent).
Some Arsenal fans didn’t get to enjoy this moment (
Image:
Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
The survey revealed that Manchester United and Arsenal fans were the most likely to head for the exits early, ahead of Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea. Arsenal fans, in particular, should know better, given the frequency with which they have banged in late goals under Mikel Arteta recently.
Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus’ injury-time goals against United followed memorable late strikes from Leandro Trossard in the 101st minute of the Community Shield against Man City in August and Reiss Nelson in the 97th minute, to seal a 3-2 win against Bournemouth in March.
Speaking after the United win, Arteta claimed he knew a late winner was on its way. “I told them yesterday that was what was gonna happen. I didn’t want to tell the crowd so that there was a bit of emotion there,” he said.
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Asked about the glut of late goals, he explained: “I prefer that Bukayo [Saka] puts it in the net a lot earlier and the other chances that we had. If it doesn’t happen like that it has to happen another way.
“A team needs different tools to win matches. It needs the capacity to react as well. I think we did that really well in the first half and it made the difference. I think that set the tone and brought some calmness to the team as well.”
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