Journalist Henry Winter has rightly commended Arsenal as a club, also namechecking some of their players and management, for the respects they paid towards those affected by the Hillsborough disaster.
The Gunners’ travelling fans showed their class by immaculately observing the minute’s silence prior to kick-off against Liverpool, while Mikel Arteta was pictured wearing a 97 badge as a marker of his respect for those who died as a result of the events of 15 April 1989.
Also, as noted by LFC’s official website, the visiting manager and their captain Martin Odegaard paid their respects by laying wreaths at the Hillsborough Memorial at Anfield prior to Sunday’s match.
Those noble tributes were most welcome after a period which has seen other clubs obliged to release statements condemning disgusting and hurtful chants which were heard at recent Liverpool matches.
The Times’ chief football writer Winter was speaking on talkSPORT Breakfast as he said: “The dignity of the Arsenal fans, 3,000 of them, at a time when we’re all talking about tragedy chanting and the issues around that…the Arsenal fans were fantastic in that minute’s silence, as they should be. We should be expecting that sort of behaviour but sadly we don’t always see it.
“Things like Arsenal members of staff wearing the 97 badge, Arteta and Odegaard laying wreaths outside the Hillsborough Memorial…Arsenal dropped two points but I think it’s very fair to say that they left Anfield with so much respect from Liverpool as a club because of how they behaved.
“It’s so important to state that because it’s been slightly lost in all the ‘was there an elbow’, Ramsdale’s magnificent performance, Trent being all over the place, Xhaka’s mistake in deciding to wind up the Kop, all those little things, so I just wanted to say that because it kind of got lost in all the heat around the game.”
Credit is due to Winter for highlighting the importance of these tributes from Arsenal, whose management, players and supporters represented their club tremendously with the respect they showed towards those affected by the Hillsborough disaster.
We would dearly love to see such behaviour becoming the norm, and the north Londoners’ gestures at Anfield are greatly appreciated.
You can see Winter’s comments on talkSPORT below, shared via @talkSPORT on Twitter:
“They left #LFC with so much respect.”
“Staff wearing ‘97’ badges. Odegaard & Arteta laying wreathes. Dignity of the fans.”
Henry Winter praises the tributes paid by #AFC, for the Hillsborough anniversary. 👏 pic.twitter.com/h2Xf4bnHX2
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) April 10, 2023