When Arsenal moved out of Highbury at the end of last season, it left me with another ground to do, although in the early stages of 2006/07 it was proving somewhat difficult to get tickets, so when Bolton’s allocation for their FA Cup 4^th Round tie went on general sale, I was quick to make sure that I got one!

With the game having been moved to the Sunday for TV purposes, it meant that I didn’t really fancy spending the entire day down there (having done another game on the Saturday), so it was about 10:30am when I caught the train down to Euston, with the journey going fairly well, arriving into London at about 1pm. From there, I made the short trip onwards to Arsenal station, going first to Highbury to see what was left of it.

On arriving, it was quite shocking to see what they had done to the place. The shell of the East Stand was still standing and recognisable, but the West Stand opposite was just a single wall, with nothing else left of it. Both end stands had long gone, so it was a sad sight to see, especially as they were supposed to be retaining a lot of it for the new Highbury Gardens housing scheme. Whether it will actually end up bearing any resemblance to the ground will be interesting to see.

With time getting on, I decided to make the short walk over to the Emirates, arriving there in just a few minutes. I’d actually been there a few months previously to have a look round (when the exterior pics below were taken), so it wasn’t quite a totally new ground to me, but as before, the outside was pretty impressive, with not just the glass frontage, but the way it was built in around the surrounding area. One thing I hate about new grounds is how there is (generally) nothing around them except a huge car park, or at a push, a bland, unappealing retail park, but the Emirates looked like it could have been there for years, squeezed in between a railway line and older houses/businesses, giving it a bit of character. Whilst this pleased me, I hadn’t expected much of the inside, but after going in, I was pleasantly surprised with it looking fairly reasonable. 

Split over four levels, the lower tier is the biggest, with the middle two tiers above that all going around at the same height. The upper tier is a bit different, rising and sloping in a ‘saddleback’ fashion, with the highest part of each stand in its centre. The one biggest difference to Highbury is how far away the pitch is, which even in Row 18 seemed a hell of a way, so the view from the very back of the upper tiers must be poor. Overall though, it wasn’t too bad, and the most impressive part was how the club seemed to have paid attention to every little detail, with every seat being both large and padded, with plenty of legroom. As expected, facilities were good, although with four toilets in the concourse, having them split up as two for men and two for women probably wasn’t the brightest of ideas, as they did become quite crowded during half time and 10 minutes before kick-off. 3 to 1 probably would have been a better ratio. One good feature about the concourse was not only that it was quite spacious, but there were plenty of big screens showing the Chelsea-Forest game on, so I was able to watch that and have a pint before it was eventually time to go back to the seats.

With the players out, the game got started, and perhaps surprisingly, it was Bolton who looked the brighter, forcing several corners early on, before Arsenal started to get more into it, having a good number of chances themselves. Despite the end to end action, it was still 0-0 at half time with both teams evenly matched, but in the second half it was Bolton who opened the scoring, when Kevin Nolan found space at the back post and was able to smash home a loose ball to make it 1-0. This signalled the start of the Arsenal onslaught, and the rest of the game was virtually played out in the Bolton half, before the inevitable happened and the hosts drew level, although it was a soft goal for Bolton to concede with Kolo Toure finding himself free at the back post to nod home from a free-kick. After this, there looked to only be one winner, particularly as Bolton seemed intent to slow the game down every time they got over the halfway line, but they managed to hold on to book a replay at the Reebok Stadium.

Throughout the game, there had been a reasonable atmosphere, better than the times I went to Highbury, so that was good to see, although it still wasn’t the best, not helped by the stewards who seemed intent to stop the Bolton fans who were trying to create some noise.

After leaving the ground, I made my way home, finding it fairly easy to get in at Finsbury Park Station, and arriving back in Euston within half an hour of leaving. The journey home went OK, despite having to stand up all the way to Milton Keynes, but there were seats available after that, and we got back into Wolverhampton just before 10pm.

Overall, whilst the ground might not have the character of Highbury, it isn’t too bad a replacement. My only real complaints were how far away the pitch was, how open the ground felt (although that seemed better once it went dark), and finally the rake of the lower tier, which could have been a lot steeper. Despite that though, it’s probably the best of the new bowl type grounds, and is a worthy addition to the 92.