A lifelong Arsenal fan was buried in Chelsea kit, the priest was confused

An Arsenal fan somehow ended up being buried wearing a Chelsea kit in a bizarre turn of events.

Arsenal and Chelsea are of course huge rivals and it's not possible to have a fondness of one if you support the other. You'd have to pay an Arsenal fan a whole lot of money to wear a Chelsea shirt for a day and vice versa.

But an almighty mix-up meant one staunch Gunners fan wore the opposite jersey in his coffin and it was too late to stop it from happening.

A chap called David, who supported the North London his whole life, sadly passed away last weekend. The plan was to have him buried wearing an Arsenal shirt.

It was up to his girlfriend to pick the top and she went for the least-worn one because - after all - you've got to look smart in your grave.

But here's where the muddle occurred. Both Arsenal and Chelsea were sponsored by Emirates at a similar time and so David has been lowered to the ground wearing the Blues' white away shirt from circa 2003. Nightmare.

In fairness, it was in his collection - presumably as a joke, and his niece Linda Daly, a business reporter for the Irish Sunday Times, told the hilarious tale on Twitter.

They weren't able to switch up the attire and even the priest was left stunned.

She wrote: "My uncle David, a lifelong Arsenal fan, died on Saturday. As a nod to his beloved team, we decided to bury him in a Gunners jersey.

"His gf carefully selected the least-worn top from his collection. Today, we arrived at the funeral home. David is being buried in a Chelsea jersey.

"In her defence, it was an away Chelsea jersey from about 2003 - when Emirates was their sponsor. Someone must have bought it for him as a joke.

"Apparently, they can't change him now. But honestly, this turned a very sad situation into a hilarious one today."

"It was so funny," Ms Daley continued.

"Even when the priest came in and asked with confusion 'was he not an Arsenal fan?', we all cracked up. Poor David will be turning in his grave."

You have to applaud the family for seeing the funny side. Linda, meanwhile, has expressed her surprise at the traction her post got online.

"Well, I can't believe the most read thing I've ever written has turned out to be a tweet about my uncle David. If only my business articles did as well... Thanks everyone for all the wellwishes. We saw him off yesterday. He would have found it all very funny."

Here's hoping they make up for it with plenty of Arsenal related memorabilia at the gravestone.