The view from Tottenham: The Vaccines bassist Arni on Anfield clash
Ahead of Liverpool facing fellow top-four hopefuls Tottenham Hotspur, we sought out a very special guest to give us the lowdown on Mauricio Pochettino's team - The Vaccines bassist Arni Arnason.
Arni took time out from promoting the band's upcoming fourth album, Combat Sports, to speak to Liverpoolfc.com about his history with Spurs, admiration for compatriot Gylfi Sigurdsson and his prediction for Sunday's game at Anfield.
Read on to see what he had to say.
First off, how do you keep track of all things Tottenham when you're travelling the world gigging and promoting albums?
In all honesty, when you go into the album campaign it's like everything else, I kind of lose a bit of [time]. I saw the Manchester United game, obviously, and that was amazing. I'm kind of getting back into it now. It's quite funny, it comes and goes in bursts. Some transfer windows, I'll be refreshing news every two minutes and then other transfer windows I'll miss out because I'm thinking about something else. I'm not 100 per cent always on in my football fandom but I try!
How exactly did you get into supporting Spurs?
Well, I'm from Iceland and it just seems to be a thing for a certain generation, everybody's a Liverpool supporter. If you're over 40 and you live in Iceland, you're a Liverpool supporter. I remember being really gloating and texting my dad after we'd beat you 4-1 at Wembley. But when I moved here I'd never been to a game and I wasn't really into the sport in all honesty, it was just something that I'd kind of missed out on. I made a friend early on and his family were White Hart Lane season ticket holders and he just thought it was insane that I'd never been to a game. He started taking me to White Hart Lane and it was by osmosis more than anything else. I didn't really put much thought into it but it was the only place I ended up going to and then since then I've been to a bunch of away games and stuff.
Gylfi Sigurdsson must be a favourite of yours, then...
I was really disheartened when we sold him and it was exciting when he joined. He's since then become a legend in Iceland, he's been very instrumental in the recent successes of the Icelandic national team. It was fun to see him when he was a relative unknown, growing into this national icon. He's a great player.
Which is better, then - gigging or watching football?
The thing about football that I still can't get my head around is that when events happen in a football match, every single person in the whole of the stadium reacts in the exact same manner. When you've got a huge crowd of people at a gig, everybody has their individual reaction to what's going on, but that doesn't really happen in football. You're just a part of this huge hoard and it's an amazing feeling to be part of that. I kind of prefer gigging, thankfully, otherwise I'd be in the wrong job!
What have you made of the season so far?
It could have been so much worse! I'm not getting particularly excited about transfers because I just think this is such a strong team. As long as we manage to keep the core of this team for next season, I think we'll be laughing. I think the venue change has knocked a little bit out of us but I've been pleasantly surprised – I thought it was going to be a disaster of a season. We've still got a good shout of a top-four finish, I'm OK with that. Not finishing in the top four is not something I'm willing to contemplate right now! This is the furthest we've gone in the Champions League so I'm really looking forward to that.
Being at Wembley this year must have been a bit different?
I'm excited about the new stadium because I think having gotten into the rhythm of playing at this huge stadium for such a long time, the new White Hart Lane will feel like a small, nice, cosy atmosphere. I'm really excited about it, I think it's going to be awesome. Obviously the plus of being at Wembley at the moment is that it's really easy to get tickets! It doesn't make sense for musicians to be season ticket holders because you're never really around, you have to make last-minute decisions on whether you're going to go to the game or not. You can easily do that at Wembley.
Finally, are you feeling confident about Sunday?
No, not really… Well, actually, I think we'll give it a good go. We last beat you at Anfield in 2011, so it's about time! I'm going to say 2-1 to Spurs and I think there's going to be a repeat of the Manchester United game with Christian Eriksen scoring within two minutes.
The Vaccines' new album, Combat Sports, is available for pre-order now. The band have also announced a nine-date UK tour starting on April 3 - click here to get your tickets.