The large trophy with its sweeping ribbon-like arms goes up, waves and waves of confetti shower over the 10,000-plus fans, red and white smoke erupts from behind the stage and the crowd sings. Arsenal, the new champions of Europe, were given a heroes’ welcome in north London two days after their stunning victory over Barcelona in the Champions League final.
The scenes in Armoury Square, outside the Emirates Stadium, were reminiscent of those in Trafalgar Square the day after the Lionesses lifted their maiden European title in 2022, or those in the same N5 location when the Arsenal men’s team lifted the FA Cup in 2014 and 2015 (the 2017 occasion was cancelled by the Metropolitan police due to security risks in London, and Covid restrictions prevented a public celebration in 2020).
