With the NBA in London, you knew footballers would show up just like last year — even if the league sent two of its worst teams overseas.
The Washington Wizards played the New York Knicks on Thursday evening at the O2 Arena in London. No one really cares who won or lost seeing as they’re a combined 31 games under .500. But we care which Premier League stars came out to see the tall men shoot balls into tiny hoops.
Chelsea and Arsenal will play on Saturday in the biggest match of the Premier League weekend, and both London clubs have a number of players at the event. Seemingly the entire Arsenal squad was in attendance in various groups.
Here’s a look at some of the footballers who watched the NBA in London on Thursday.
Hector Bellerin — Arsenal
Andreas Christensen, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ethan Ampadu — Chelsea
Shkodran Mustafi, Mohamed Elneny, Carl Jenkison, Lucas Torreira — Arsenal
Matteo Guendouzi, Shkodran Mustafi — Arsenal
Jamie Redknapp (with son Charles) — Retired (former Liverpool)
Emile Smith Rowe, Reece Oxford, Alex Iwobi — Arsenal
Olivier Giroud — Chelsea
Lukasz Fabianski — West Ham
Hector Bellerin, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette — Arsenal
Joe Gomez — Liverpool
Rob Holding, Calum Chambers — Arsenal
Ben Chilwell, Wes Morgan, Danny Simpson, Demarai Gray — Leicester City
Wilfried Zaha — Crystal Palace
Nathan Redmond — Southampton
Michail Antonio — West Ham
Patrick van Aanholt — Crystal Palace
Troy Deeney — Watford
Christian Benteke — Crystal Palace
Cyrus Christie — Fulham
Per Mertesacker — Former Arsenal player, current youth coach and very tall human
