Bring the Noise, Gunners.

"This stadium is going to have the energy that you've never seen in your life!", says Mikel Arteta.

“So bring your noise, bring your energy, your passion (…) and something beautiful is going to happen.”

Goosebump-inducing, isn’t it?

A chills-down-the-spine moment.

For so long, we’ve been an absentee an Europe’s top table. Perhaps the first leg taught us that, during the long days of our sabbatical, we’d forgotten just how stressful and emotionally taxing these meetings can be.

But if it’s the price you may for the calibre of evening we know we might have ahead of us on Tuesday, I’ll sign that Faustian pact in blood.

You think of Galatasary fans raising the ‘Welcome to Hell banner’, of Barca fans lobbing pig’s head at Luis Figo, of Jose tearing down the Old Trafford bye-line, and of Emery’s PSG chucking it all at the death.

The dream of European nights under the lights.

And they’re back at the Emirates.  Newcastle felt like a prototype. An exemplar of what these nights can look like in the happy, happy years ahead of us.

A literal cauldron, sweat-inducing fire displays, and the heat sustained by slick football and sublime finishes.

I think of Kai’s late winner against Brentford on Saturday, the limbs that it evoked and the towering flags that perfectly framed a rocking, riotous North Bank singing Shakira long into the North London night.

The fear I felt for Tuesday has been almost entirely usurped by a child-like excitement. And we know what a difference we can make.

We know the Emirates can be a twelfth man if we want it to be. We know we can win games in the tunnel and we can know teams can shit themselves at the prospect of a long night, against this young, prodigiously-talented team, in this gladiatorial venue.

We need every advantage we can find to produce the  eternal memories we all crave. So let’s give ourself one, bring every decibel of noise we can conjur, and stick it on Porto under the lights. 

I can’t wait.

Enjoy it, Gunners. God knows you’ve earned it over the last decade.

Be loud. Be heard. You deserve it.

"This stadium is going to have the energy that you've never seen in your life!", says Mikel Arteta.

“So bring your noise, bring your energy, your passion (…) and something beautiful is going to happen.”