Our member Charles Koh shares his visit to The Arsenal to watch the team take on Kairat FC in January 2026.
During our Arsenal member party in July at Boat Quay last year, I met up with fellow
Gooners, Weiwen, Ronald and Wee Hock. It has been 2 years since we got to know
each other during the visit to Emirates to watch Arsenal vs Spurs in 2023. Great
minds think alike and we decided to make a second trip to London, this time to watch
Arsenal take on Man U and in the UCL against Kairat Almaty.
Due to limited tickets, we were not successful in getting it for the Man U match but all
four of us got tickets to watch our beloved team in the UCL against Kairat.
It was a very cold January night and even though it was a ‘dead rubber’, we were still
very excited to see our heroes in action and of course hoping for lots of goals! I even
made a bet (not encouraged – and gamble responsible ��) on 6 and 7 goals on
Singapore POOLS with the promise to buy all three of my friends a matchday scarf if
my prediction came true.
The match got off to a quick start, and we were seated at the clock end and
Gyokeres got us off to the perfect start with a goal within the first 5 mins. Sadly,
Kairat has a VAR awarded penalty after the restart and it was 1-1. Cobra Kai was on
fire, and he scored to give us a 2-1 lead and Martinelli also scored to make it 3-1
before the break with all 3 goals scored at our end.
We were looking forward to even more goals in the second half, but it turned out to
be a slow-paced affair as Arsenal conserved energy for the weekend match against
Leeds. Jesus had a goal disallowed and Kairat scored another consolation goal just
before the full-time whistle. Sadly, I did not win any money from my bets and there
were no free scarfs for everyone, haha! It was a memorable trip for everyone, and we also did the stadium tour to take some photos of us inside the Arsenal dressing room.
As I type this Feb, we had just won 4-1 away at Spurs and the season is heading
towards an exciting end and lets us all cross our fingers that we can finally lift the
Premier League and more silverware in May! COYG!
