One of the best days since I became an Arsenal shirt collector was 1 October 2022, when the NLD of the 2022/23 season took place at Emirates Stadium and I had the opportunity to write a piece about my favourite Arsenal shirt for the official Arsenal FC match programme. I couldn't have asked for a better match for my appearance in the programme. Unfortunately I couldn't be at the stadium that day, otherwise it would have been the cherry on the cake. The Gunners won the game 3:1 with goals from Partey, Jesus and Xhaka.
A big thank you to Dave Roberts from the Arsenal Shirt Collectors group on Facebook who made it possible for me to write a piece for the match programme.
You can read what I wrote about my favourite shirt, the 05/06 Home Highbury farewell shirt, here:

​

"Today we hear from 34 year old Simon Zeppenfeld, from Stuttgart in Germany.

 

My favourite shirt is the 'Highbury farewell' redcurrant home shirt from 2005/06. I like the different colour and how it reflected a tribute to Highbury. I've been an Arsenal fan since 2001, but unfortunately I was never able to visit the stadium in person.

What I like most about the design is that it is very simple. The redcurrant colour and the golden elements complement each other perfectly. And of course the farewell lettering on the back of the shirt, a tribute to the years in Highbury. And I love the fact the darker design is based on the Arsenal shirt from our first season at Highbury in 1913/14.

To me this shirt is particularly evocative of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry, with Henry my absolute favourite. His hat-trick in the last game and his cheering after his penalty remain in my memory. The Bergkamp shirt in my collection still has the Wigan match details printed on it. And then of course the various Champions League nights from that successful European season also come to mind.

I was 17/18 years old that season and many of the Arsenal players were my idols. At that time I was often very tired at school on Tuesday mornings. The reason was that there was no live broadcast of the Premier League games in Germany, only a summary of all the games on Monday evenings at 11pm. I watched that, of course, because there was no other way to watch Arsenal games. I always went to bed very late on Mondays!

The first time I bought this shirt was during the 05/06 season, from a large sports store in Berlin by phone. I still have this shirt but it has no nameset. The two shirts that I currently have in my collection with Bergkamp on the Premier League version and Henry on the Champions League version, I only bought in 2021 and 2022

My shirt when I was young and not a collector I always wore to football practice or five-a-side. The shirts from my collection I wear only when I visit a game of Arsenal, otherwise they hang only on the rail."

​