Gunner's Blog

Hello everybody, I hope you are all ok!

Here’s what I have been up to over the last few weeks:

Sunday, October 11 2015
Today I took part in a charity photoshoot for a cancer charity. They are producing a calendar for 2016 which will feature various mascots. It all took place at the Emirates stadium, where I posed for a number of photos with their own furry mascot. It was all for a good cause and I hope they are able to sell lots of copies to raise money and awareness for this illness.

Friday, October 16 2015
Today was the annual London Venue Awards all taking place at the Emirates Stadium. It was my job to meet and greet all of the event teams as they arrived. The Emirates Stadium was up for an award for the best venue, which they won! After all the awards took place I popped back for some pictures with the winners and their trophies.

Saturday, October 17 2015
Watford 0 Arsenal 3
A late afternoon kick-off at Vicarage Road today and another great away performance. Alexis, Olivier and Aaron gave us the goals. Another three points in the bag!

Tuesday, October 20 2015
Arsenal 2 Bayern Munich 0
Tonight’s result gave us a life line to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Champions League. After meeting the teams and popping around the pitch to see the fans it was time for kick-off. It was a tense but fast game with both sides coming close to scoring. Both goalkeepers were in fantastic form until late on when Olivier knocked one in. Mesut made it safe with another right at the end.

Wednesday, October 21 2015
I was hanging out with Hector Bellerin today. He was doing a stadium tour with his charity, so I followed the group around and got in a few pictures.

Thursday, October 22 2015
Party day today. It was our annual ‘Welcome To Our World’ Junior Gunners play day for our youngest fans and their families. There were lots of activities including a bouncy castle, a play area, colouring in and face painting. I was roaming around having lots of fun with everyone there. Later in the day Per Mertesacker came along to see everyone and have some pictures with the boys and girls.

Saturday, October 24 2015
Arsenal 2 Everton 1
Two goals (both headers), one from Olivier and the other from Laurent set us on our way to victory over the Toffees. After the match I went along to see our Hungarian and Polish fans who were at today’s game. Theo and Jack came along to say hello and pose for some pictures too.

Sunday, October 25 2015
It was Liam’s 6th birthday today and I was invited along to his birthday bash in Enfield. He had around 20 of his schoolmates there so I was kept busy messing around and helping him blow out his birthday candles. He actually had a Gunnersaurus cake which made me feel very special!

Monday, October 26 2015
The Premier League Productions company were doing some filming today and they asked me if I would take part. It was with my mate Stamford the Lion, the Chelsea mascot. It all took place in a street in South London and they filmed us both coming out of two houses on the opposite side of the street. They also filmed me walking Stamford’s dog and trying to get into his car, which proved very difficult. The short film should be shown on TV later in the year.

Tuesday, October 27 2015
Sheffield Wednesday 3 Arsenal 0
Not much to say about this other than the injuries we picked up on top of the result made it a bad day and disappointing for our 5,000 fans who travelled to the game.

Wednesday, October 28 2015
It was Family Day at Pentonville Prison today, so I kept the children of the inmates occupied with games whilst all the adults had a catch up.

Thursday, October 29 2015
First stop today was the football pitches at Market Road where our Community Team were busy with their half term Soccer Schools. They put me in goal and took penalties against me. I managed to save a few but let most of them in. I had to dash back to the Emirates Stadium for a Hospitality event hosted by Capital Cash. They also wanted me in goal to save shots from their staff but with a difference, they were all blindfolded. This made my job a little easier. It was all a bit of fun and afterwards I stopped for pictures with everyone.

Friday, October 30 2015
I was invited to the offices of AKQA today, which is in Clerkenwell. It was ‘take your children to work day’ so I went along to make the proceedings a little more exciting. It wasn’t just the children who were pleased to see me. I went around the offices and said hello to all of the staff, many of whom were Arsenal fans. I went straight from there to Highgate Woods School for one of our Soccer Schools. I arrived just in time to help give out the awards, medals and certificates, then pose for lots of pictures.

Saturday, October 31 2015
Swansea City 0 Arsenal 3
Three second half goals, a header from Olivier, then Laurent and Joel gave us a comfortable win over Swansea. The game was screened live back at the Emirates Stadium, so I had my work cut out meeting and greeting our supporters in London. We also had a Junior Gunners Halloween Party going on with lots of fancy dress, some of them quite scary! It all made for a great day with the result and all.

Sunday, November 1 2015
Arsenal Ladies 3 Notts County Ladies 0
Another Continental Cup Final trophy with a comfortable win over Notts County. I made my way to the New York Stadium, the home of Rotherham United where they had a fan zone before kick-off. There were some fun activities going on outside the stadium including soccer skills and face painting. I met a few of my mascot friends too including Mrs Magpie from Notts County, Miller Bear from Rotherham and Berry the Bear from the Women’s Super League. Inside the stadium before kick-off we went to see the fans as well as popping back out at half time. Over 5,000 fans were at the game, and I saw many faces that I usually see at the Ladies games at Meadow Park. Casey Stoney lifted the Continental Cup at the final whistle.

Tuesday, November 3 2015
I went to New End Primary School in Hampstead this morning for a Languages Assembly. We had two assemblies’ to do and as it was the first time I have been to the school all of the children were so excited to see me.

Wednesday, November 4 2015
Bayern Munich 5 Arsenal 1
We took a bit of a hammering tonight and the only consolation was our goal scored by Olivier. We were missing a few players tonight through injury, I can’t wait to get everyone back fit and well.

Sunday, November 8 2015
Arsenal 1 Tottenham 1
Kieran came off the bench to get our equaliser today after our north London rivals had taken the lead. Before kick-off I met the players and also met Mo Farrah and Robert Pires who were at the game. I walked around the pitch, then at half time took part in the penalty shoot out. Post match I went up to the Diamond Club before visiting a box and heading to the WM Club to meet and greet lots of our fans.

Wednesday, November 11 2015
Our Community Team were running an afterschool football tournament at the Community Hub this afternoon so I called in to give them a bit of coaching before they set off to play their games.

Friday, November 13 2015
Today was ‘Children In Need Day’, so I went along to a fundraising event at St Mary’s School in Islington to give them a hand. Each class were raising money and taking pot shots at the Arsenal Community target with each child having three goes at shooting the ball through the Arsenal Doughnut. They raised over £1,500 which was a fantastic effort!

Saturday, November 14 2015
The Arsenal Dover Supporters Club had their annual dinner tonight and I was invited along. We took the FA Cup and Charity Shield trophies with us. It was a great night of fundraising for the Willow Foundation and gave their supporters the change to take pictures with the trophies we won last season.

Monday, November 16 2015
I popped along to the Training Ground this morning for a Double Club Schools football tournament. Six schools took part in a football and literacy day, winning points for their respective school. I helped out in the indoor training pitch looking after the football games which were taking place. Then it was back to the Emirates Stadium for another school event. At this one schools from Islington were running around the Emirates Stadium doing time trials, and I was on hand to encourage them as they passed by.

Well that’s all from me for now
Big hugs from Gunner