There I was, standing in front of Chelsea’s jubilant players on the touchline at the Hawthorns, when Michy Batshuayi came over to me. Ten minutes before, he had sealed the Premier League title for Chelsea with the winning goal against West Brom.
In 2015, Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla had picked up one of my pitchside cameras after the FA Cup final victory over Aston Villa, and taken a few out-of-focus snaps with team-mates. This time, Batshuayi came over to me, but didn’t say a word. I had three cameras on me at the time, one over each shoulder and one round my neck. He grabbed at one so I gave it to him; it seemed like a pre-conceived idea on his part.
Antonio Conte was jumping up and down in front of me and I needed the camera and lens he had, so I asked Batshuayi for it back. He returned it, but then proceeded to take another of my cameras. He alternated between pointing it at his team-mates and the Chelsea fans. At first I thought it was just a bit of a joke, but I really needed all of them.
Eventually, he returned the second camera. He had taken 86 shots across both cameras. I’m not sure how keen a photographer he is. Certainly many images were out of focus, or taken at jaunty angles. He also needs to be careful not to crop feet out of the bottom of his images. Watch that framing!
