Dear England, thanks for having us. It was an absolute dream for us to see Cologne play in London. Let’s be clear from the outset: the fact some idiotic fans tried to force their way into the stadium was a terrible idea that pretty much all Cologne fans strongly condemn. But please, the behaviour of 50-odd Cologne fans should not cloud the picture of the other 20,000, who had a peaceful party. I will try to tell you why things happened the way they happened on Thursday.

Twenty-five years. It has been 25 years since Cologne played in an international competition. Since then, we have been relegated five times, nearly went bankrupt and made a sponsorship deal with a non-existent company from Cyprus.

Then, there was 20 May and the last fixture of last season. Grown men cried like babies when our Japanese striker Yuya Osako scored the second goal against Mainz that finally secured Cologne’s place in the Europa League. The next important date was 25 August when the draw for the group stage took place. Who did we draw? Only Arsenal away, at the Emirates, against a side that normally plays in the Champions League.

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Moreover, London is not too far from Cologne and it was immediately very clear that anyone who could would make the trip to the English capital. There was disappointment because Cologne were allocated 2,900 tickets – the club have nearly 100,000 members and 20,000 wanted to be in attendance.

The club made a fair decision to secure tickets for the people who have been members for more than 20 years and for those who travelled to all the away games over the years, even in 2.Bundesliga and places such as Aue, Sandhausen and Heidenheim. Even during those dark days, thousands of fans travelled, which shows the extreme love and passion they have for the club.

So it was not a big surprise to see that nearly 20,000 gathered in Highbury for the “Fan March” to the stadium. It was absolutely fantastic to see so many partying and drinking peacefully in a foreign city – you do have to remember that it was the biggest game of the past 25 years for us.

The local authorities could have cooperated better with people who knew what was going to happen. “You do not care if you don’t have a ticket, you just go to London,” – that’s what everybody said. People were ready to spend a lot of money for tickets and apparently some touts were ready to profit. It would therefore have been a good idea to check who had a ticket beforehand – that could have prevented some of the incidents before the game with fans trying to get in even though they did not have a ticket. A better consultation and information policy between the police, Arsenal, Cologne and the fans would have made the whole thing a lot smoother.

It was foreseeable that more than 2,900 would make the trip, a bigger allocation would have been the best solution. The whole of London seemed to be surprised and that is a bit naive.

There were moments that were rather intense but my experience was that the Cologne ultras, the “normal” Cologne fans and the police acted commendably, in a very de-escalating manner. At one point a police officer, for example, took out her mobile to show the official Cologne Twitter account had announced the game would start later. That eased the pressure.

This video has been removed. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. Köln fans wait outside Emirates Stadium – video

Everything that happened after these incidents was completely peaceful – and normal. Even outside of the stadium and during the time people had to wait to get in, Cologne chants were all over the place. When the gates were finally opened, Cologne fans happily went in and crowded at least one quarter of the stadium. It was bizarre to see that stewards did not carry out a full body search as they do in Germany. They just waved us through.

On the flipside, we are not used to being asked to sit down in a stadium, but then that did not last long either. A couple of minutes into the game, the steward just said: “Fuck it, let them sing and stand.” They even laughed when we started to sing “You only sing when you’re winning” after Arsenal equalised.

In general, the way Cologne supporters expressed their intense love for the club was absolutely outstanding and some Arsenal fans said they had never experienced such an atmosphere before. For Cologne fans it was the best night of our lives and we’d like to thank the police, Arsenal stewards and supporters and everyone in London for allowing us to enjoy it.

Arne Steinberg is the managing editor of the FC Cologne fanzine effzeh.com