Matchday rituals can be very particular. Whether it’s a lucky scarf, a favourite pre-match eating place or a certain bar to meet up in before kick-off. These and other match day routines will be as important to fans as the full-time result itself. So consider the setting, nearly 5,500 miles from the Emirates Stadium and a whopping eight-hour time change away, where a hardy group of Gooners are going through their pre-match rituals. The fabulous city of San Francisco is home to the Bay Area Gooners,where kick-off times are always in the early hours, but that is no deterrent as up to one hundred plus loyal Arsenal fans congregate in Maggie McGarrys’ Irish Bar in anticipation of watching the live action unfold on another continent.

But how did northern California get to have such a passionate Arsenal following? Well the answer comes courtesy of self proclaimed Anglophile Mark Barbeau. When Arsenal - talk met Barbeau, he was not hard to identify in his Arsenal tracksuit top, and he eagerly revealed that he never misses a match.

                                  Suitably attired -Mark Barbeau at Maggie McGarrys in North Beach