LONDON — Presidential politics can be a humbling business. Local renown is revealed, uneasily, to be just that: It translates poorly onto a bigger stage, allowing a man accustomed to instant, cell-phone-picture-frenzied celebrity on the boardwalks of the New Jersey shore to stroll in awkward anonymity through a packed stadium in London.  So it went here on Sunday for Chris Christie, a big shot bereft of an audience, in a city he professes to adore and to visit frequently.  “Who?” asked Graham Upson, a 55-year old soccer fan inside the frigid Emirates Stadium on Sunday, who seemed blissfully unaware of Mr. Christie’s presence in the stands, not to mention his very existence.  New Jersey? Brash governor? Presidential hopeful? Mr. Upson, dressed in a blue down jacket with a red knit cap over his heard, stared back blankly. “I’ve been to New York a few times,” he offered.  Inside, where the lines for beer (and, consequently, bathrooms) snaked across the hallways, slight inebriation did little to focus the British mind on the governor of New Jersey.  “I’ve vaguely heard of him,” said Michael Rabbett, 67, as he sipped red wine from a plastic cup (“wine beer,” he noted). He paused to let the name roll around in his head. “He’s in the background of my head. But not really,” he concluded.  Alerted to Mr. Christie’s reputation for voluble candor as well as his party affiliation, Mr. Rabbett asked his own question. “Has he told that lady from Alaska to shut up?”  No, he was informed. Mr. Christie had not attempted to silence the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. “Well why not?” he inquired.  It was an unfamiliar sensation for Mr. Christie, a likely Republican presidential candidate in 2016, who is traveling to London on a three-day trade mission, the kind of jaunt intended to build his credibility as a potential commander in chief.  Back in the United States, he may be loved or loathed, but he is the subject of firmly held views, honed over years of YouTube video clips, shouting matches and zingers.  London, he said, was a beloved getaway for him and his wife, Mary Pat.  “It’s one of our more favorite places to come, so we are very familiar with this city as tourists,” the governor said during an impromptu news conference on a street outside the stadium, where Arsenal handily defeated Aston Villa.  Mr. Christie said he was unbothered by his low profile in the financial capital of Europe.  “I don’t think I have to worry about that,” he said. “I’m not running for anything in the United Kingdom anytime soon.”  At long last, a man emerged from the throngs (and they were almost all men here) who registered faint recognition of Mr. Christie, sort of.  It turned out he had already been queried by a different reporter, asking the same question.  “You want to know,” he interrupted, “if I know who Senator Christie is, right?”
Interviews with soccer fans showed few were aware of Gov. Chris Christie’s attendance at the Arsenal vs. Aston Villa game or who he even was.