The Arsenal supporters showing up for their club – whatever the weather

Derby day at Brisbane Road demonstrates how the match-going experience for Gunners fans is about more than just results

Arsenal supporters in fine voice at Brisbane Road. Credit: Getty Images

It’s a cold, windy Sunday afternoon in November, and there’s an air of calm on the unassuming streets of Leyton. The primary tenants at Brisbane Road – Leyton Orient, who play in English men’s football’s third tier – were in action the previous day, and some of the locals are seemingly blissfully unaware that this pocket of east London is about to welcome football fans in their droves for the second day in a row. One person who is certainly caught off guard is a Transport for London worker at Leyton station, who asks me why there is an apparently endless stream of Arsenal supporters flooding through the barriers.

This speaks to the fact that, to the frustration of many, one of the Women’s Super League’s most high-profile fixtures was not platformed as it perhaps should have been, with the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium unavailable that weekend due to a scheduling oversight. Still, turning up in big numbers and provoking passers-by to say ‘I didn’t know Arsenal were playing here today’ is a familiar experience for the AWFC faithful, who follow their team everywhere they go, without compromise.

That loyalty was something that Farah Chowdhury, chair of the Arsenal Women’s Supporters’ Club, was keen to point out when chatting to The Cutback ahead of the match.

“You show up, you know, no matter how you’re feeling,” she said. “Like today, look, we’ve had a tough week. We lost in Europe, not a great performance, but you know, this is the north London derby and it’s a fresh slate. In my head it’s just, like, we have to go out. We have to go big.” Of course, that slate would not stay fresh for long, with Arsenal held to a frustrating goalless draw on the afternoon.