THE tears came unexpectedly. A trickle, then a torrent that flowed at the final whistle sweeping away 22 years of thwarted ambition and relentless frustration, mixed in joy, deep joy, along with love, and loss, in powerful emotions that surprised me with their intensity.

Bournemouth had just drawn 1-1 with Manchester City on the south coast on Tuesday evening to confirm that Arsenal had finally won the Premier League again, for the first time since 2004.

I savoured the joyous scenes being broadcast from the club’s training ground as the team, with players from all around the globe cavorted wildly, not to mention the pictures that started to arrive on social media and on television from tens of thousands of Gooners packed outside the stadium in Islington. It was wonderful to see.

A lot can happen in 22 years. I didn’t even have kids back then. My eldest is now at university. And my dad was still alive. My hero. He was the person who also made me a Gooner.

As an immigrant to London in the 1970s, he suffered racism on a daily basis. Football was his refuge.

In Dennis Bergkamp’s words, he found a place where he belonged. While it wasn’t perfect, Highbury was a haven for those who made the capital their home, whether it be waves of immigrants from Ireland to the West Indies, and for my dad in the early 1970s, escaping from Iraq for a new life in London.

To their eternal credit, Arsenal supporters also made it clear that unlike Chelsea and West Ham and Millwall, the National Front was definitely not welcome in Islington in the 1970s.

So, when you see far more diversity at Ashburton Grove than your average league club on Match of the Day every week, and on the raft of sports subscription channels, when you see people of all creeds and colours, religions and backgrounds happily coexisting in N5, colour-blind and happily mingling in their love of Mikel Arteta’s team, such beautiful diversity comes from standing on the shoulders of giants who fought racists 50 years ago, while being a dagger to the heart of racists that such a thing can happen.

I have been asked many times this season why I think so many other fans hate Arsenal. It’s been so perplexing in attempting to understand.

Of course, it has to be said that schadenfreude at rivals’ failure forms a large part of the joy that comes from being a football fan, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

However, in light of the fact Manchester City still have 115 charges hanging over them — three years and counting now — for charges including overstating sponsorship revenue, failing to provide accurate financial information, breaching player and manager remuneration rules, and non-compliance with investigatory obligations, while Chelsea were fined £47m for secret payments — not to mention Manchester United’s billionaire owner showing his true colours when earlier this year he said the country “was colonised by immigrants,” it makes you wonder just why it is Arsenal who are so universally hated.

It makes you wonder just why Arsenal are relentlessly criticised.

Please don’t tell me it is simply because of our propensity to score from set pieces. Who knew mere tactics could incite such loathing?

No, it’s far more than that from many haters, including from towns and cities up and down the land with absolutely no connection to London, nor with the team in red and white from the capital. The visceral hate runs far, far deeper.

And then it dawned on me, watching the joyous, diverse crowd that is so representative of London celebrating outside the stadium it became crystal clear: Arsenal trigger the Reform-voting types who follow football.

Quite simply Arsenal spark congenital hostility and animosity because they have a far more diverse crowd than any other team in Britain.

Whether their unconscious bias is buried deep in their psyche, or whether it’s a far more visceral manifestation that is seen when Yaxley-Lennon’s ugly, ignorant mob turn up demanding their country back — when, after a millennium of immigration it was never theirs in the first place — the fact is that Arsenal, as a proudly diverse London club, with a proudly diverse fanbase, actually disgusts and repels racists and bigots.

When they see women with headscarves celebrating a title win as much as shaven-headed “legacy” fans, their hatred spews forth under the guise of football rivalry.

The hate from racists runs deep.

Not everyone who hates Arsenal is a racist. But all racists hate Arsenal.

So, for them to see such a beautifully diverse Arsenal team celebrating on a night, when it is said more than 100,000 of this proudly welcoming club’s support gathered peacefully and joyously in north London in the early hours of this morning, well, it must really stick in their craw.

For today the word “Champions” is a good enough retort.

However, the next time you see such hatred for Arsenal and its fans, take a moment to think where such venom comes from.

Because, unlike the joyous feeling of solidarity and love from Gooners near and far that was witnessed last night, the hate aimed at the club and its proudly diverse fanbase from racists everywhere is as pungent as their reprehensible views.