“I knew north London is red, but now I see Hong Kong is as well!” said Bacary Sagna when he was interviewed pitchside at the Kai Tak Sports Park before the final game of our Asia Tour on Thursday evening.
Bac was out on tour with the squad as one of our club legend ambassadors, and both he and Gilberto got a taste for the level of support we have in Hong Kong when they attended the supporters’ club in town on the eve of the hotly anticipated match against our old rivals.
The two ex-players signed hundreds of autographs and posed for countless pictures before regaling the excited locals with stories from their playing career, and even recreating some of their favourite goal celebrations.
Many of those at the event had made a frantic dash across town from the stadium in order to be there. We held an open training session at the Kai Tak just before the supporter party, and that gave us all an insight into what we could expect at the game.
There were more than 20,000 Gooners inside the venue to watch the open training session, with Viktor Gyokeres once again the centre of attention. The man who broke club records for most shirts sold after signing, gave an indication of his talents with his first two shots in the small-sided training game. Both right-footed finishes were perfectly tucked away inside the far post.
After the action there was time for more autographs and photos for the passionate supporters who were positioned all around the stadium. It all served to ramp up the excitement ahead of the main event – the first north London derby played outside of the UK.
While the result might not have been what we wanted, the atmosphere and welcome the team received couldn’t have been any better.
As the stadium – which was only opened in March of this year – began to fill up ahead of the 7.30pm kick off local time, it quickly became clear that representation for the red half of north London would vastly outnumber our N17 rivals.
Following a traditional ‘Dragon Eye Dotting’ display on the pitch (as the goalkeepers tried to warm up around them), the assembled fans were asked by the stadium announcer to raise the roof while the decibel meter was displayed on screen. The Spurs fans mustered 60dB, while our supporters broke the 100dB barrier – equivalent to a rock concert.
North London Forever then rang around the stadium, which was completely sold out. In fact, the attendance of 49,975 set a new venue record, beating Liverpool v AC Milan last week. It felt like a home from home, and the only disappointment was that we were unable to break down the Spurs rearguard to find the equaliser that would have set up a penalty shootout.
Gyokeres had his first run out in the famous red and white though, as did fellow new signing Cristhian Mosquera, so there were plenty of positives to take from the Hong Kong leg of the tour, as well as the two-week trip as a whole.
More than 110,000 supporters had come to see us across the three matches, as well as more than 30,000 watching two open training sessions. Two new signings joined the squad mid-tour, and eight players – including two 15-year-olds – made their non-competitive debuts. And beyond those numbers, a lifetime worth of memories were made across south-east Asia.
Thanks for having us Singapore and Hong Kong. Until next time…
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
