Daniel Bull has waited his whole life to see Arsenal win the Premier League and it is fair to say that the 22-year-old from north London will never forget the celebrations on Tuesday night. Having found himself sharing a bottle of champagne with Ian Wright as thousands of supporters gathered outside the Emirates Stadium, the devoted Gunners supporter and two close friends took a gamble as the party was petering out.
“I had just heard a whisper,” Bull says. That whisper was that Arsenal’s players were gathering at the exclusive Tape nightclub in Mayfair after they had watched from the training ground as Bournemouth drew with Manchester City to crown the club champions for the first time since 2004. An Instagram video later posted by Noni Madueke’s mother showed the England forward returning home to much acclaim before immediately announcing, “I’m going out.”
One of Bull’s friends was reluctant to try their luck after the Tape bouncers refused to confirm whether the players were inside, but Bull paid what he describes as “not the cheapest” entry fee. His hunch was proved correct when they immediately bumped into Arsenal’s set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover, the man credited with a pivotal role in the title success.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Bull says. “It’s a very, very exclusive nightclub and we were the only Arsenal fans in there.”
Most of Arsenal’s squad and the manager, Mikel Arteta, were celebrating in a private room, but Bull was able to buy a table nearby that he admits cost him and his friends a small fortune.
“It was only about five steps from the lower part of the club and we could see that Madueke was on the mic for most of the night; he was basically the MC,” Bull says. “He was rapping the whole night.”
A few players also wandered into the main part of the club and Bull remembers speaking to Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, who has just returned from his loan at Marseille. “They were both really friendly,” he says, before revealing that his Scandinavian friend was able to hold a conversation with the Danish midfielder Christian Nørgaard. “Because my mate’s Norwegian he was chatting to Christian Nørgaard, which was quite cool.
“We were in there for about two or three hours, and the next thing you know, we start seeing everyone. So there’s Declan Rice, Mikel Arteta, Viktor Gyökeres, Bukayo Saka, Jurriën Timber and Eberechi Eze. I was with one of my housemates at the pub last night, and he was like: ‘You shook Eze’s hand!’”
A short video of Arteta bellowing “champions of England” on the microphone has gone viral on social media, along with the manager photobombing Rice. The England midfielder was spotted by supporters wandering around the Emirates with Saka, Timber and Eze at 5am because they wanted to soak up the occasion. Rice was “still buzzing” and went off to play nine holes of golf with a friend after a few hours’ sleep.
For Bull, who has been to every Arsenal away game in Europe this season and will be in Budapest for next Saturday’s Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain, the night started at the Twelve Pins pub in Finsbury Park. He headed down the road as the full-time whistle blew at Bournemouth and couldn’t believe his luck when Wright suddenly appeared alongside him clutching a bottle of champagne, even if the club’s previous record scorer initially struggled to open it.
“It was carnage,” Bull says. “The next thing you know, we start hearing: ‘Ian Wright, Wright, Wright.’ And me and my mate have just somehow ended up next to him. After he had his first sip of champagne, I had the second sip and then my mate has the third sip. The only people who had that champagne bottle were basically my crowd of mates that we go with. And then I’ve now got that bottle at home with me.”
Bull is hoping to get it signed by Wright, part of Arsenal’s title-winning team in 1998, as a memento of an incredible evening that will take some beating.
“It was the definition of a pinch-yourself moment. I was in there thinking: ‘What the hell is going on?’ I think because we just rocked up when we did and we were so chill and happy to pay whatever. It was unbelievable.”
