For all the celebratory messages of jubilation emanating from the never-ending group of high-profile Arsenal supporters this week – from Sir Keir Starmer and Hugh Lawrie to Piers Morgan and Jess Glynne – Lewis Hamilton’s repost on Instagram was altogether more understated. “COYG,” the 41-year-old said, the common abbreviation for “Come on you Gunners.”
An Arsenal fan since he was five, Hamilton’s football fandom hit the realms of public discourse again four years ago, when he was part of a group of investors which, ultimately, failed to buy Chelsea. Many onlookers seemed stunned, not least Hamilton’s fierce rival Max Verstappen. “I am a PSV fan and I would never buy Ajax,” the Dutchman quipped, before adding: “I thought he was an Arsenal fan? And if you are an Arsenal fan going for Chelsea, that is quite interesting.”