7 years ago today – Arsenal bid farewell to Highbury – My Memories of that day

Sunday, 7th May 2006 – This was the day that Arsenal played their final game at Highbury before moving to the Emirates Stadium later that summer. Today marks the 7 year anniversary of that day. To celebrate the great stadium, I am going to share with you my memories of that final day at Highbury, a match I couldn’t get a ticket for, but that didn’t stop me from paying one final visit.

The 2005/06 season hadn’t really gone to plan. Fans expectations before the season were to challenge for the league title and leave Highbury on a real high (no pun intended). The club had won the FA Cup in May 2005 and ended the 2004/05 campaign strongly, finishing 2nd in the league that season. Why shouldn’t Arsenal be title contenders?. They sold their captain Patrick Vieira to Juventus that summer and that could have been a reason why Arsenal fell from title contenders to Champions League chasers.

Anyway, fast forward to the final game of the 2005/06 season and Arsenal were 5th in the Premier League table and one point behind local rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal needed to better Tottenham’s result against West Ham on the final day of the season (if possible) to qualify for the Champions League. A Spurs win would have seen them take the final Champions League qualification spot ahead of the Gunners.

If Arsenal had failed to finish 4th, they did have an alternative route into the Champions League. 10 days later they were to meet Barcelona in Paris for the 2006 Champions League Final. A win in that would have sparked outrage in the Tottenham half of North London as due to Everton and Liverpool having the same problem in 2005, a new rule was brought in saying that the team finishing 4th (Spurs in that scenario) loses their place to the Champions League winners (Arsenal in that scenario) so that the Champions League winners can attempt to defend their crown. Obviously this rule first came into use in 2012 when Chelsea won the Champions League after finishing 6th in the league, so Tottenham lost their Champions League place.

My Day: My Dad said to me “We will go up to Highbury on the day and attempt to buy 2 tickets, but if we can’t buy them then we will still just have to be there on the last day, just to see it one last time and to say goodbye”. That was exactly what we did. We drove to Cockfosters tube station and caught the tube to Arsenal, bought ourselves a programme each and tried to find a ticket for the game. Finding a ticket for anything near face value proved an impossible task. We had money to spend, but the prices were ridiculous.

So instead of buying a ticket as we had planned we went to the stalls outside the ground and bought souvenirs for both the final game at Highbury and the upcoming Champions League Final.

After having one last look at our beloved Highbury, a ground that gave us so many great memories, it was time to go home so we could watch the game on television.

Dad had the radio on in the car on the way back home so we could hear any news coming through about the games. We didn’t expect what was coming though. The news broke of Tottenham’s players being unwell due to suspected food poisoning at the hotel they were staying at. Talk of Tottenham getting the game at West Ham postponed and Arsenal’s game also being postponed too came through on the radio. Both were strong possibilities. What still makes me wonder is why on earth did Spurs have to go to a hotel when they were playing another London team?.

On the way back home I remember talking to my Dad about both games. I said to him “Imagine if West Ham get a penalty today and Sheringham takes it for them?. He’d probably miss on purpose, the *bleeping bleep*”.

As we got home and kick off approached, both games were given the go ahead at Highbury and Upton Park.

Eight minutes in at Highbury and Robert Pires put Arsenal 1-0 up. That goal eased the nerves a bit, now the thinking turned to Upton Park and what was going on there. Around the same time that we heard news of a West Ham goal, Wigan scored an equaliser through Paul Scharner. Whilst this result bettered Tottenham’s at West Ham, I certainly didn’t feel comfortable enough knowing that a Tottenham equaliser would see them finish above us.

Things got even worse when David Thompson curled in Wigan’s second. Arsenal were in deep trouble as a couple of minutes later, Spurs equalised at West Ham thanks to a Jermain Defoe goal. The Spurs players will have heard the news from Highbury as Spurs fans will have been listening on the radio and celebrating both of Wigan’s goals.

Thierry Henry slotted home an Arsenal equaliser around the same time as Defoe’s goal, so Arsenal were only matching what Tottenham were doing. They still sat 5th in the table and the Gunners needed to find a winner from somewhere to at least hold up to their end of the deal.

Wigan wasted a couple of good opportunities before Thompson gifted Thierry Henry his second of the game after his backpass went straight into the path of Henry, who rounded Pollitt and tapped in.

Arsenal made the three points safe when Andreas Johansson was sent off for a foul on Freddie Ljungberg in the box. Henry stepped up to the spot, sealed his hat-trick and knelt down to kiss the Highbury turf. There was a lot of speculation about Henry’s future at the time, with a move to Barcelona being talked about in the press. Henry would stay one more year before making the move to Barcelona.

A penalty was also missed in the game at Upton Park. My prediction of Sheringham actually missing a penalty became a reality. I couldn’t actually believe my eyes and neither could my Dad in honesty.

A few minutes later, news filtered through to Highbury that Yossi Benayoun had scored for West Ham with just 10 minutes left at Upton Park. The fans celebrated and the players did too as the news came through. Spurs desperately tried to get the two goals required, but couldn’t even manage one.

Thierry Henry kisses the Highbury turf.

Picture: Daily Mail

As the final whistle blew and the countdown clock at Highbury wound down to it’s final seconds, fans reflected on what had been a day full of ups and downs. Most importantly of all, it ended well for the club at Highbury. It wasn’t quite the Premier League title, but it was important that the Gunners got that final Champions League place. 10 days later in Paris, Arsenal conceded two goals in the final 15 minutes of the Champions League Final, losing 2-1 to Barcelona. Had Highbury not had such a good send off and Spurs had finished 4th, Arsenal would have been starting life at the Emirates in the UEFA Cup. I don’t think Arsenal could have given any more that night in Paris, they were very unlucky to lose that Final, so it was just as well they did qualify via the Premier League, otherwise Spurs fans would still be talking about it today.

Highbury 1913-2006. 93 years of wonderful memories. It will never be forgotten by Arsenal fans, even when those unfortunate enough to have never visited or at least watched a game on tv from Highbury are the majority of the Arsenal fanbase. The club simply won’t allow it to be forgotten, there are too many memories there for that to happen.