Thousands of Arsenal fans flocked to the Emirates Stadium after the club lifted the Premier League trophy on Sunday – 17 arrests were made and a massive clean-up job was left to be done

ARSENAL fans have turned Islington into a carnival after the team’s historic Premier League title win – but residents have warned that some “mindless bad behaviour” threatens to ruin the fun for everyone.

Sunday was another joyous occasion for the Gunners who celebrated their long-awaited trophy lift after playing at Crystal Palace.

Videos circulated online of fans queuing outside Islington’s pubs at 9am to bag a spot, and an inevitably boozy day party in the sun manifested across the borough.

After the title win was first confirmed on Tuesday, Sunday was the second time in a week that the area was alight with celebrations.

Up to 100,000 Arsenal fans, armed with cans of lager and red flares, flocked to the stadium and surrounding streets once again. Enjoying the bank holiday heat, the party continued into the early hours of Monday as fans sang about Bukayo Saka and soaked up the atmosphere.

It has been a party years in the making, an almighty release of tension that has been brewing over more than two decades.

But while there was joy and exuberance at Sunday’s festivities, there was also lots of alcohol consumption, littering and public urination – leaving a big clean-up job to be done the following week.

Residents told of a mess along the Holloway Road, near Finsbury Park station, and in streets outside the stadium, as the remnants of Sunday night were scooped into the back of the council rubbish trucks.

The council holds responsibility for clearing the mess around the borough, but said they will be receiving compen­­sation from Arsenal to fund the clean-up, as well as pay for the parade.

Councillor Heather Staff, community and safety chief, said: “The amount of littering was staggering. If people are coming from outside Islington, it’s about treating this area with respect. The majority of Arsenal fans do care about this area, but it’s one or two who are letting everyone down.

“The biggest issue was people just urinating everywhere – the smell that it caused in the heat. Just why? It’s a public order issue and I have had some women tell me they didn’t feel particularly safe because guys were just whipping it out in front of them. Let’s just not be feral.”

Islington’s residents have said that the council holds a responsibility to keep fans in check by ensuring that the area is equipped to deal with the large numbers of people taking to the streets.

Percy Grainger, a resident of Liverpool Road, said: “The council need to do more to prevent this. We need more public bins for future parties, public toilets and fines for people who are clearly vandalising the area.”

He added that while he didn’t want to “rain on Arsenal’s parade”, it was important fans were considerate to those living by the stadium. Over the past few days, he said, he had witnessed an “orgy of alcoholism and mindless vandalism” from some fans, that was tarnishing the reputation of the wider fanbase.

After Sunday’s party, he said there remained broken glass, plastic bags, bottles and half-eaten food on the road, uncleared by either the council or Arsenal.

“The streets neighbour­ing the Emirates are still an absolute pigsty two days on, despite the stadium concourse being spotless,” he added. “The poor people that have to clean these streets now because people just wanted to get drunk, they don’t really care about Arsenal. They weren’t there when it was Wenger out, or during the Emery years. I couldn’t even use my street on Sunday because people were throwing bottles and lighting flares.”

Arsenal opened the toilets within the stadium to fans, and there were a limited number of public toilets available near Holloway Road. There are mounting calls to ensure that ahead of this weekend’s expected festivities, more public toilets are installed.

In an attempt to mitigate “alcohol-related anti-social behaviour” an alcohol free zone was declared across the borough which remains in place this weekend. The Met police set up cordons outside the ground, confiscating crates and cans from people entering.
They said 17 arrests were made on Sunday.

Arsenal play in the Champions League final on Saturday night, and there are likely to be more street parties, regardless of the result.

On Sunday the official trophy parade will take place through the streets of Highbury, with up to a million people expected.

It is a historic time for Arsenal and Islington, but residents will be hoping that the partying can be managed with respect and proper infrastructure.

An Islington Council spokesperson said: “A huge thank you to our cleaning crews who worked hard to carry out a prompt clean-up and targeted our resources to those areas that most needed them. Additional resources are being brought in as required and we are work­ing closely with Arsenal FC to ensure Islington Council is not adversely affected financially.

“There is an Islington boroughwide PSPO (controlled drinking zone) in place to prevent anyone drinking in the street who may be caus­ing nuisance or disorder.

“We recognise the impact these events have had on residents, and this is at the forefront of our planning and discussions with partners.”

Arsenal did not respond to a request for comment.