Scott Willis (R) with his father at the MLS All-Stars game against Arsenal in 2016
Scott Willis has been following Arsenal for more than a decade and regularly appears on the Arsenal Vision Podcast talking stats and matches.
When did you start supporting Arsenal and why?
My journey to becoming an Arsenal fan is probably unique.
Growing up in the United States the English Premier League was not something widely covered. I played soccer (I am American so I do call it that, especially when referring to when it is played in the US.) and was interested in the MLS, enjoying the San Jose Earthquakes with a young Landon Donovan. After the Earthquakes moved to Houston I mostly stopped following MLS.
My turn to following European football really started as a general fan in college (2006-2008 roughly). There was an English pub not far from where I worked in midtown Sacramento that we would go to for lunch; lunchtime west coast time coincidences with the start of start times for midweek matches.
During these lunches the Champions League would be on so we would certainly watch. Still, at this time I was nothing more than a very casual fan and didn't really have a team that I followed.
Being a young person who still enjoyed sleeping in, I did not have the commitment to wake up for 7am (3pm UK) kick-offs or heaven forbid something even earlier.
My journey next takes us through my fandom for the San Francisco Giants baseball team (2009-2011 timeframe now). This was the heyday of fan blogging and I had a blog about the Giants and was friends with a bunch of other Giants bloggers who also happened to be Liverpool fans.
They were trying to convince me that the Premier League was cool and that I should get into it. They also really enjoyed making fun of Arsene Wenger. They didn't say horrible things about him but liked to bring up the ‘fourth-place is a trophy’, trophy drought stuff, puffy jacket, basically the normal things people said about him.
So basically, with the entire purpose of being able to banter back at them, I declared I was an Arsenal fan.
We are now probably in the 2011-12 season where I start watching kind of regularly but it was still tough because Fox Sports still only carried a handful of matches and I wasn't that dedicated to seeking out the matches.
My full-fledged fandom coincides with the birth of my second child. My first daughter was a good sleeper so my wife and I continued to have fairly normal sleep schedules. My second daughter, on the other hand, did not.
I am a morning person so I would wake up with her at 4am and on weekends when you turn on the TV really the only thing that I found worth watching was the Premier League.
This also corresponded with the TV rights switching from Fox to NBC, who made the choice to show every match so it became very easy to pick a team and be able to follow them. I haven't looked back since.
What was your first Arsenal match?
The first Arsenal match that I have been to was when Arsenal faced the MLS All-stars in 2016 in San Jose which featured a Joel "Get out while you can" Campbell penalty and a Chuba Akpom late winner.
This match was a great day out, it was a beautiful northern California summer's day, the build-up started with drinks at a great bar in downtown San Jose before taking an Uber ride to the stadium.
The Earthquakes stadium was brand new and it was beautiful. It was supposed to be about the MLS All-Stars but the crowd seemed to be a majority of Arsenal fans. I got to go to the match with my dad which is fitting because he is the one that really shaped my love for sports. This was me returning the favor of getting him into something new (he seems to enjoy watching now but isn't quite at the ‘wake-up-before-the-suns-up’ level).
I also went to the Arsenal vs Bayern Munich match in LA in the summer of 2019 which was another fun day out. This one was special because I knew more people in the Arsenal community now through Twitter. There was an awesome pre-event in the parking lot where I got to meet a bunch of other Arsenal fans and then I also had the special privilege of being able to cover the event from the press box.
I was hoping to get a trip to England planned but the pandemic has pushed out those plans.
Who was your first Arsenal hero and why?
My first Arsenal hero was Aaron Ramsey. I think that is mostly due to when I really became a dedicated fan of the team.
That 2013-14 season was special for him and him scoring the winner in the FA Cup cemented him as a player that I loved.
He was frustrating at times, mostly when he got the idea he was a forward and not a midfielder who was really good at making forward runs but he really had a special talent for finding space to get into great shooting positions and he scored a ton of very important goals for those Arsenal teams.
I knew logically it made sense to not try to re-sign him and his injury history to a long-term contract but it was still sad to see him leave the club. His runs from midfield are still something that is missing from these Arsenal teams and it will probably be a while before we find another player like that at the club.
Who is your favourite ever Arsenal player and why?
I think the player that holds a soft spot in my heart is Santi Cazorla.
I don't think that I have seen a more technically gifted player play for Arsenal. I find it amazing how well he adapted to playing different roles for Arsenal.
He started his career as the main attacking thrust scoring 12 goals with 11 assists in his first season before taking a more secondary role as Mesut Ozil came the next season, and then dropping further into midfield where had he became arguably the best central midfielder in the Premier League.
I think his talent was obvious and perhaps Arsenal have had more talented players but you could see the joy that he played the game with.
He had so many moments where his joy transcended the TV screen and it was infectious. I loved to watch him play, I loved that the joy he played with was obvious, this is why he is my favorite player.
What’s your biggest Arsenal regret/disappointment?
My biggest disappointment for Arsenal was the summer transfer window of 2015.
Arsenal had brought in Ozil in 2013, Alexis in 2014, and I am disappointed that they didn't continue the trend of adding one more key player that summer. The Arsenal team was on the precipice of pushing into something very special.
I still to this day think that Arsenal's first XI could have stacked up with pretty much any team in Europe but what they needed was one more quality player in midfield to replace Mikel Arteta who was clearly on his way out.
If Arsenal doesn't have to give 12 starts to Mathieu Flamini they win the Premier League that season and are probably in a much better squad construction space today.
Taking the summer off buying a key outfield player really messed with the long-term planning of the team. If Arsenal sign a key player in 2015 maybe they aren't desperate to keep both Ozil and Alexis in 2017 and are in a better position to negotiate or sell and reinvest. They are probably in a better position to phase out the dependence on an ageing Santi Cazorla in midfield.
The latter half of the 2014-15 season showed Arsenal were a team that was among the best teams in England and that if there was ever a time to go into win-now mode to push for a Premier League title that was the time.
For the calendar year of 2015 Arsenal were the best team by 9 points, getting 81 points over the 38 games from January 1st 2015 to December 31st 2015. It is too bad they couldn't manage to get that into a season.
What is your favourite Arsenal memory (away from the pitch) and why?
Maybe it sounds weird but my favorite Arsenal memories are with just being a part of Arsenal Twitter.
I have gotten to know so many people through that, become a part of a podcast, and become a person who people kind of care about my opinion on things about the team.
I love to be able to interact with everyone doing that, I love that even being thousands of miles away from where things are actually happening I can still feel connected and part of the shared experience of loving this team.
I really hope that as things progress more towards the old normal that these online spaces and friends can also become real-life meetings.
Now that I am in Reno, (Nevada) I would love to see if it would be possible to build a supporters group here in town once that is possible to do.
What is your favourite ever Arsenal match?
This is kind of a hard one but I think the one that I remember most vividly was Arsenal 2-1 Leicester on Valentine's Day 2016.
This was the first and so far only Valentine's Day that I have not spent with my wife (she was visiting a friend who had just had a baby). The match started at 4am Pacific time so I reluctantly set an alarm and made sure I had coffee ready to go. I was really excited for this match and really believed that if Arsenal could win that they would be in the position to go on and win the Premier League.
This match featured the full range of emotions, it had the nervous build-up of a big match, the frustration of a mostly poor first half, the outrage of Jamie Vardy diving to earn a penalty.
It had the justice and lifeline of a red card to even up the refereeing scoreline. It had a classic Oliver Giroud knockdown header for a classic Theo Walcott goal from the wide part of the penalty box leading to hope that Arsenal could still pull out a win.
It featured classic Arsene Wenger frustrating domination of a match, with Arsenal camped around the penalty box of an opponent. It had the hope slowly running out as time ticked by. It had a chance for one final moment of magic with a late foul right at the end of the minimum of stoppage time.
Finally, it had the full euphoria of a winner at the last possible second. It also had me believing that this was a moment where Arsenal would go on to win the title. Alas that was not the case but it was still a magical morning.
I did end up screaming so loud when the Welbeck header went in that it woke up my sleeping daughter but it made for a great morning.
Afterward we went out for a walk where I felt like I was floating and was still filled with adrenaline from the match.
You can find Scott’s blog about Arsenal HERE