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Newly-elected New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has gone viral after a series of tweets about Arsenal from the last decade emerged, including some criticism of Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka. Mamdani won a historic election this week, becoming the first Muslim mayor of the state, and the first to ever be born in Africa too. A well-known sports fan, the 34-year-old is a huge Gunners fan and has spoken about his love for the Premier League in the past. But it has now emerged that the politician stays up until the early hours of the game and used to live tweet about games, with some posts from as early as 2011 emerging in recent days to the hilarity of football fans online. Zohran Mamdani Arsenal Tweets Go Viral After winning the mayoral election, Arsenal fans went digging on his X account, where he is among a number of high-profile fans, and found a host of old posts, including one where he was critical of former captain Xhaka. The post said simply, "me, when I saw Xhaka starting", accompanied by an animated image that said, "I am having a very bad day. I am in no mood. This day is one of the worst days I’ve had in a long time.” The post was made before the game started, and some investigative fans went on to figure out the game in question was when Arsenal took on Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium, where Xhaka actually scored a stunning free-kick to give his side a 2-0 lead. Other Arsenal fans remembered the poor period the club were in at that time, with Mikel Arteta having recently taken over as first-team boss and struggling to implement his style and ideas - a far cry from where the team sit currently under his leadership. One fan said 'he was really in the trenches with us', while another admitted they trust his 'resilience and loyalty' after posts emerged of him posting about the club from as early as 2011, where he was praising Robin van Persie. There was even one fan who claimed they 'never thought I’d be more hopeful about socialism than Arsenal and yet here we are.' Mamdani Speaks Out on Arsenal Love Mamdani has been an Arsenal fan for much of his adult life, and in an interview with Vulture previously, he revealed what kick-started his love affair with the north London club. “I came up as a fan in the early 2000s, and it was my uncle who introduced me to the team. I was born in Kampala, Uganda, in East Africa, and my dad’s family is from East Africa, and Arsenal was one of the first teams to have a number of African players: Lauren, Kolo Toure, Nwankwo Kanu, Emmanuel Eboue, Alex Song,” he said. “Over the years, [then-manager] Arsene Wenger really transformed what English soccer looked like. As a Ugandan kid looking at this team, I was just so proud. I really got in during the good years – the ‘Invincible’ years, the years of success. “Then I grew up in the years after that, which were years of infinite hope and very few results, and now we’re in a place where we’re actually competing. I can’t watch the games, but I’m reduced to watching a minute-by-minute update that I sneak an eye on.”
