Last week we spoke to two Chelsea fans ahead of the Leeds United match – the first that allowed fans back inside Stamford Bridge since March.
We wanted to gauge the mood, the excitement, and any other feelings that fans lucky enough to get tickets might have had ahead of the unique and bizarre experience of a socially distanced and masked up 2,000 fans.
You can read the article here.
I watched the game on TV, like many others, and one thing that caught my attention was the atmosphere was amazing. You could clearly hear all the Chelsea chants and there was singing throughout the game, even more than a normal game at Stamford Bridge.
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So we caught up with ‘The Joe’s’ after the game to find out about the experience.
“It was good to be back”, said Joe Nazareth.
“I’m all for having more football on TV, making it more accessible to as many people as possible, but nothing beats being there at the game.”
Whilst Joey Hansen described it as “a weird but easy experience.”
So what about the process, the temperature checks, socially distanced queues etc?
“Getting into the ground was smooth and easy” said Joey Hansen.
“Any ticket touts thinking they can get around that system can think again! I was asked for my ID and ticket 3 times just to get to the point of temperature check!! I didn’t mind though as there was no queue and I was one of the later people to get to the ground.”
“The Process was fine” said Joe Nazareth.
“There was temperature checking, and double checks on tickets and declaration forms (the ones we had to complete 24 hours before saying we had no symptoms). That all worked fine.”
So what about the atmosphere? We all heard the constant screeching from Chelsea fans every time Diego Llorente touched the ball for Leeds, so what was that about?
“The atmosphere was so special and surreal at the same time” said Joey Hansen.
“It was like we all were so happy to be ‘home’, I was more emotional than I thought I would be to be honest. It was like an away day where the whole group of fans can sing the same song at the same time which helped the atmosphere.
“The screeching at Llorente was quite funny – I think it was Giroud or Mount who went up with him to header the ball and he let out the biggest scream like he had been shot, and then he miraculously got back up within 20 seconds all fine! Someone in the crowd decided to try and copy the sound and it caught on for the last 30 mins, it was for sure annoying the player!”
One thing I failed to think about was the players getting used to having no fans to acknowledge, which is a habit they will need to get back into apparently.
“I noticed with players being subbed off they have obviously got out of the habit of clapping to the fans” said Joe Nazareth.
“I think Havertz just jogged straight off and only Giroud made a point to turn round to West Stand and the Shed End give us a clap. Not a criticism of any player just funny how small things like that obviously changed when no fans are in the ground.”
But the lads and the Gaffer did come over at the end of the game.
“The players came over and Lamps too which was great” said Joey Hansen.
“I think you could genuinely see how happy they were to have some support back.”
One thing the lads seem to have different experiences on is managing to get a beer at the ground.
