A HOT and steamy mid-afternoon in the US capital during a record-breaking heatwave is an experience to behold. The mercury was nearing 100°F and humidity levels were even higher. The sun was blazing down. 

You could barely breathe in the heat. To decide to walk was to invite sweat so prodigious it looked as if someone had thrown a bucket of water over you. 

Around us were containers. Unprepossessing shipping containers that made up a public forum called The Bullpen in a recently regenerated area called Navy Yard. It wasn’t the most welcoming name for a meeting of like minds. Of people from a myriad of different creeds and colours and backgrounds and races and languages. 

But there in the baking Bullpen in the heat of the afternoon, everyone assembled under the banner of love. Of sport, of football. Of a shared passion for Arsenal FC from London. 

For on searingly hot afternoon in the fascinating city of Washington DC, hundreds, if not thousands of loyal Stateside Gooners – and a shedload of travelling north Londoners of course – gathered in communion to drink to the mighty Gunners. To meet new people, linked in fandom, many inked with tattoos, confirming the fact that Mikel Arteta’s visiting side was indeed the greatest team the world had ever seen. 

Despite the heat, people came from everywhere to enjoy the afternoon’s festivities. Arsenal has more than 70 official supporters’ clubs in the US, across 49 States, with only Hawaii and Alaska yet to open branches. 

It was moving to watch Josh, the leader of the local Arsenal branch, DC Armoury, get up on stage to share just what the visit and the spectacle of so many loyal Gooners in his home city meant to him. “It’s the best day ever,” he said with such happiness. No wonder everyone cheered. 

It was equally moving to note that Mike Feinberg, another hugely respected – and vital — cog in the Arsenal American nomenclature through his tireless advocacy of the entity Gooners v Cancer charitable organisation, has managed to raise thousands of dollars from Gunners fans in a bid to combat this awful disease. 

And if we can be so bold, the total was boosted ever so slightly by an extra $250, after busy souls flogged the Gooner Fanzine to intrigued American fans in sweltering conditions before the game, that saw us donate every penny to Mike’s unflinching cause.

As beers and bonhomie in the Bullpen grew, noise levels rose while many formed a long, snaking queue to have their picture taken with the famous gold Invincibles trophy. Along with a chat with Ray Parlour and, of course, a selfie with another Arsenal icon, Gunnersaurus. The sheer delight of people meeting the 1-million-year-old mascot was heart-warming, the outsized green dinosaur almost as iconic as the team these days. 

Drink was taken, of course it was. Your correspondent also achieved a new first, margaritas before reporting on a match from the press box. And ears burned across the Atlantic, in London N17, to be precise, as Arsenal’s Stateside finest sang rude ditties about the hapless Lilywhites. 

They came from New York and Boston, Milwaukee and Maine – and most points in between. The passion was infectious, genuine and heartfelt. 

Yet, why, I asked eager, knowledgeable, and incredibly passionate fans – why would you choose to support a football team thousands of miles from where you lived. 

The answers were illuminating. Ranging from the fact that many were initially beguiled by the beautiful, invariably doomed but glorious football the early Arsene Wenger sides played. While others were captivated by such talents as the imperious Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp. Some loved the club’s illustrious history while one gentleman said with such beaming pride it gave me goosebumps: “Because Arsenal are inclusive and welcome everybody.”

It was as much as I told the local TV station, who were kind enough to enquire of my opinions on the event. I believe the word “wonderful” sprang out of my mouth quite frequently during my live interview with anchor Mariel Carbone on DCNewsNow. 

The match at nearby Audi Field, the home of DC United, bossed by Wayne Rooney, hosted the MLS All Stars clash with Arsenal. The stadium was a complete sell-out, and may well have been a home match for the Gunners, as goals from Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard — not as I immediately and mistakenly noted on social media Martin Odegaard, blaming jetlag and my margarita intake for the error, ensuring that it’s not only players but journalists that use pre-season tours to get “match-fit” — as well as Jorginho and a late pair from Gabi Martinelli and new signing Kai Havertz sealed a comprehensive victory. 

It was a good night all round as another new £105m signing, Declan Rice, made his first appearance in Gunners colours, in the now garish de rigeur bright yellow away kit.

The crowd – clad mainly in a vast range of Arsenal shirts past and present – cheered wildly in the searing heat, fuelled by beers and no doubt excess sugar from the free refills they kindly allowed on the concourse of the main stand. 

Prior to kick-off we were treated to a noisy flypast from the US Air Force and an energetically persuasive rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. 

Behind the right-hand goal, topped by huge American stars and stripes, you could see the evocative Washington Monument, the 554 feet tall obelisk built to commemorate the founding father of America, George Washington, who also kicked the Brits out in the revolutionary wars. 

Thankfully visitors from the UK were treated with far more friendship more than two centuries later — on and off the pitch it must be said. No wonder Arteta was in such a relaxed mood during the pre-match press conference hosted in the historic Washington Hotel, the day before, separated only by the length of a Declan Rice through-ball to the White House. 

The season kicks off with Manchester City, yes them, at Wembley in two weeks. But as fans walked back to the late-night bars around the Bullpen, in the shadows of the dome of Capitol Hill, to continue carousing, back-slapping and sharing stories, swapping numbers, and making memories, you smiled at the power of sport to unite people from all walks of life, based thousands of miles apart, in a shared love of a football club from north London. 

Judging by the relentlessly warm welcome here in the steamy US capital, Arsenal and the club’s remarkably impressive Stateside supporters have already spread the love. 

In these troubled times on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s been an experience as wonderful to behold as it has been enjoyable. 

PS: See you in the Big Apple this weekend for round two: Arsenal vs Manchester United in New Jersey, once we take in a Major League Baseball game here in DC.