{"id":49379,"date":"2026-04-19T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=49379"},"modified":"2026-04-19T19:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:48:33","slug":"arsenal-bottles-sold-outside-etihad-stadium-epic-banter-goes-viral-ahead-of-manchester-city-vs-arsenal-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/arsenal-bottles-sold-outside-etihad-stadium-epic-banter-goes-viral-ahead-of-manchester-city-vs-arsenal-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal bottles sold outside Etihad Stadium: Epic banter goes viral ahead of Manchester City vs Arsenal match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"auto\">In one of the most creative acts of Premier League banter seen this season, vendors are selling <strong>Arsenal-branded bottles<\/strong> right outside the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City prepare to host Arsenal in a massive top-of-the-table clash on Sunday, April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The images, shared widely on X (formerly Twitter) by football account @TouchlineX, show stacks of plastic water bottles clearly labelled with the Arsenal logo being hawked to fans arriving at the stadium. With kick-off at 16:30 BST, the timing couldn\u2019t be more perfect \u2014 or more savage.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8 \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddd8\ud835\uddea: Bottles with Arsenal on it are currently being sold outside the Etihad Stadium right now. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9QzDSbWVPs\">pic.twitter.com\/9QzDSbWVPs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Touchline | \ud835\udc13 (@TouchlineX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TouchlineX\/status\/2045860096211558495?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">Why Arsenal Bottles at the Etihad? The \u2018Bottlers\u2019 Meme Explained<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The move is a direct nod to the long-running \u201cArsenal bottlers\u201d chant. Arsenal fans have endured years of jokes after finishing as Premier League runners-up three times in recent seasons without lifting the title. City supporters love reminding their north London rivals of those near-misses, and this latest stunt takes the banter to another level.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Similar moments have gone viral before. Just days ago, a Manchester City fan was filmed celebrating a goal against Chelsea by dramatically sipping from an old Arsenal bottle he\u2019d kept from a previous match. That clip racked up millions of views and even prompted Pep Guardiola to urge fans to \u201crespect\u201d Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Today\u2019s bottle sales outside the Etihad take the joke from the stands straight into the streets \u2014 and vendors appear to be doing brisk business.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">Fans React: Laughter, Shock and Pure Chaos on Social Media<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The post has already exploded online, with football fans piling in with reactions:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"auto\">\n<li>\u201cThis is absolutely hilarious man \ud83d\ude02\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cElite trolling\u2026 nasty work\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMan City really need to be humbled today. This isn\u2019t nice\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cArsenal must do all it takes to win this league \ud83d\ude2d\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe have the bottles in surplus measures \ud83d\udd25\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Many are calling it peak football banter, while others see it as added pressure on Mikel Arteta\u2019s side. One fan joked: \u201cThey vital for bottling?\u201d \u2014 perfectly capturing the meme.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">Context: A Title Six-Pointer That Could Decide the Season<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"auto\">This isn\u2019t just any match. Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League, with Manchester City just six points behind but holding a game in hand. A City win today would tighten the race dramatically as the season enters its final stretch.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The atmosphere around the Etihad was already electric \u2014 these Arsenal bottles have turned the pre-match buzz into full-blown meme warfare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In one of the most creative acts of Premier League banter seen this season, vendors are selling Arsenal-branded bottles right\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":49380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4650],"tags":[270,3800],"class_list":["post-49379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-premier-league","tag-arsenal","tag-manchester-city"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49383,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49379\/revisions\/49383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}