Was the City fan with the Arsenal bottle a plant?

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·16 April 2026

Was the City fan with the Arsenal bottle a plant?

Tal Rehman is a Manchester City fan who went viral last weekend when he was spotted on television drinking from an Arsenal bottle at Stamford Bridge.

It is not a bad away way to be watching your team win 3-0 while discovering you are getting hundreds of views on social media.

Video OneFootball

Sky pays some of the best camera operators in the industry to capture great moments. To be zooming in on this supporter at the very moment he takes his imaginary drink is unbelievable, as in not believable.

Sky were very quick the next day to interview Mr Rehman.

Viral Moment at Stamford Bridge

His version of events is that he was first given the bottle the last time Arsenal were at the Etihad. He had asked our physio if they had any water for their son. If true, it is quite classy of someone on our bench to be handing out free drinks. If true, it is also notable that the father has not returned it to our club.

Because that fixture was in September 2024.

Now, I do not know about you, but by the time I have made it home from a football stadium, that plastic bottle would have been thrown away. This gentleman has kept it in neat condition for 19 months.

Even more bizarrely, he has travelled all the way to London with it in case he bumped into any Gooners. That is a lot of effort for a joke.

It is far more believable that someone handed him the item before kick-off because it makes for great content while the fan gets some traction online. The ends justify the means.

Questions Around the Story

As one of many who pay a lot of money for Sky, I think I am entitled to organic reactions.

I could be wrong, of course.

Yet my theory is more believable than a grown man keeping a bottle for over a year and taking it with him to Chelsea on the off chance he bumps into an Arsenal fan at the train station for banter.

Then, after Doku’s goal, he just happens to be filmed in that exact moment.

What do you think, people?

Dan Smith

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