Arsenal has always been a singing club. It’s one of the things I most love about going to football. The creativity mostly comes from away fans as they make up songs on trains, in buses, in pubs and in away concourses all over the land. I remember my son and I going to Leicester away and visiting an away pub just ten minutes from the ground. As we walked in we were hit with a wall of noise. A lad was standing on a table, pint in hand, leading chorus after chorus of a song which was new then, but soon became a terrace favourite.
Danny Ceballos
Danny Ceballos!
Drinks Estrella, Eats Paella
The boy is f*cking magic!
I first went to Highbury in the seventies. Apart from the band of the Metropolitan police, there was another ritual in front of the North Bank. As the players warmed up, we would sing their names and their songs. Liam Brady was my favourite back then. We serenaded him with
One Liam Brady!
There’s only one Liam Brady!
But that wasn’t good enough for Chippy. He wouldn’t acknowledge the fans until we broke into a song which actually had been Charlie George’s originally, now reworked for Brady.
Brady, Brady, Brady, Brady
Born is the King of Highbury!
At which point he would raise an iconic arm and salute us!
Another one was
“We all agree
Rixy is better than Hoddle!” (Spoiler – he wasn’t).
There are so many favourites over the years. A couple just for memories (share yours in the drinks)
He’s tall
He’s shit
He plays when no-ones fit
Big Cygan, Big Cygan, Big Cygan!
Don’t blame it on the sunshine
Don’t blame it on the moonlight
Don’t blame it on the good times
Blame it on Eboue!
But this piece is about this last, Premier League winning, season. There are fans that make a lot of noise (Palace, Newcastle). There are fans that only have one song (Sp*rs and that dreadful dirge). Right now, I don’t think there is any team with more songs about individual players. I counted 18 of the current first team squad who had their own songs sung this last season. Here they are, with just the first line (full lyric available on request).
Individual players
Hincapie (Pierro Hincapie, the Arsenal get excited just to see him play)
Saliba (Tequila!)
Gabriel (You’ll fall in love, I know you will)
White (Benny Benny White, Benny White, Benny Benny White!)
Saka (Saka, Saka, running down the wing! Saka, Saka, hear The Arsenal sing!)
Lewis-Skelly (49, 49 Lewis-Skelly!)
Rice (“We got him half price” which morphed into “He said it’s not done, he said it’s not done” in May)
Zubimendi (Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next year you gave it away, this year, to save me from tears, I’ll give it to Zubimendi!)
Martinelli (His name is Gabi! He’s from São Paulo! And he plays for Arsenal!)
Trossard (Trossard again ole ole!)
Havertz (Waka waka hey hey!)
Gyokeres (He comes from Sweden, the girls are very nice)
Odegaard (first heard at Goodison three years ago, “Been dreaming all day of our number 8, Martin Odegaard Oi! Oi! Oi!)
Merino (woah, woah woah woah woah, woah woah woah woah, Mikel Merino!)
Timber (Jurien Timber, he’s our Dutch defender, he never gives the ball away!)
Dowman (Super, super Max, super, super Max, super, super Max, super Maxie Dowman!)
Eze (My favourite player song of the year and worth quoting in full)
You can hear them crying at the Lane
Eberichi scores again
He called Mik Arteta, he said Wow!
F*ck off Tottenham, I’m a Gooner now!
Madueke (da da da, Noni Madueke!)
I can only count four current players without their own song: Raya, Calafiori, Mosquera and Norgaard. Work in progress!
Team songs
You know all the usual ones and they all appeared, including a ten minute long version of “So Paddy got up” at Portsmouth. The most frequently sung team song as the season went one was of course
We won the league at Anfield!
We won it at the Lane (Twice!)
Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford
No-one can say the same!
Mikel Arteta’s Army!
We’re Arsenal through and through
We’ll sing this on the North Bank
And in the Clock End too!
Ole, ole ole!
The brilliant North London forever was one of the sounds of this season. And the old self deprecating Arsenal humour follower the spirit of “Boring Boring Arsenal!” with
“Set piece again!
Set piece again
Set piece again Ole Ole!”
At West Ham, as we began to believe, a couple of songs rang out. Firstly, when Trossard scored and some of the Arsenal fans in the home end outed themselves by celebrating and were roughed up, the away fans immediately struck up with
“We sit where we want!
We sit where we want!
We are the Arsenal
We sit where we want!”
And quickly followed by a repost to all the Arsenal haters out there
“We are unbearable!
We are unbearable!
We are unbearable!
We are unbearable!”
But my favourite team song of the season, was the one sung when Thomas Frank was the manager up the road and pictured holding an Arsenal branded coffee cup. It was particularly loud and frequently repeated as we stuffed them at White Hart Lane.
“Arsenal Boys, are on a bender
Thomas Frank is a silver member!”
Have a good Summer all.
Great stuff, C100. You’re quite right, it’s the away games where the creativity shines and the new sings are born. There’s a sense of unity travelling away which is hard to describe but which manifests itself in an old fashioned sense of British bloody mindedness – We are here for a good time and we’ll bloody well have one whether you like it or not!
Loved your review of the songs and trip down memory lane to the time of Sergeant Alex Morgan and the Metropolitan Police Band. How we used to long for him to drop the baton when they marched at half time and he threw it yards up into the air in front of the North Bank. Sometimes we were rewarded with a laugh at the police, most times not!
And well done for steering clear of the more, er, expletive laden songs. Although one I occasionally hear away, relating to the Clock End and our preference for carnal adventures over pugilistic ones, still makes me chuckle!
Great stuff, C100.
My first visit to the Emptihad coincided with Adebayor’s transfer to the 115ers. I was surprised when I walked into the area under the terracing to hear a new song being rehearsed at full volume by our travellers.
I really liked it. Ade didn’t – to the extent that it resulted in an assault on RvP and then a wide-eyed, deranged kind of run toward us when he scored. Remember all of that and the song? Of course you do.
“He’s 5 feet 4; He’s 5 feet 4,
We’ve got Arshavin; F*ck Adebayor!”
Kolo Toure had taken the HS2 to Manchester the season before and was also playing that day in a light blue moon shirt. In contrast to Ade, he was very well received by our travelling support which he graciously acknowledged.
Thanks for this joyful piece C100 . It’s the soundtrack to an unforgettable season .
The atmosphere home and away has been transformed under Arteta and he has established a marvellous connection with the fans- one that brought North London, indeed most of London, to a halt a few weeks ago.
Remember poor old Arsene being abused by our away fans at Stoke? Those days are thankfully long gone . These ditties are evidence of that
I reckon this would work well as a new song for Max Dowman. Using Heaven Is A Place On Earth by Belinda Carlisle:
Ooh baby do you know what that’s worth?
Max Dowman is the best on earth
He’s only 16, he hates Spurs
Max Dowman is the best on earth
Cheers C100!
Thanks for an excellent review of the Gooner canon. It is an absolute pleasure to read and stimulates many warm memories. We don’t seem to run through the player collection during the pre-kick-off final warm up like we used to but the emergence and near-total participation in ‘North London Forever’ more than makes up for that – it nearly always moistens my conjunctivae. However we really do need the songsmiths to produce a song for David Raya! And there really must be an Italian song to which Ricardo Calafiori scans.
Bath@5- How about “Quando” by Tony Renis!
For the eagle-eyed and eared, this is what Murph and the Magic Tones (!) are singing in The Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood pitch up to get the band back together!
All together now-
Dimmi quando tu verrai?
Riccardo Calafiori!
You’re welcome!
Works for me, CER!
A successor for Per??
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7395399/2026/06/26/arsenal-academy-manger-pascal-de-maesschalck-mertersacker/?
I never expected to think about a song for Bruno Guimaraes – but apparently we made a verbal offer yesterday to the Barcodes
Mention of Per reminds me of his song
“Big fuc*ing German!
We’ve got a big fuc*ing German!
Big fuc*ing German
We’ve got a big fuc*ing German!”
Evidently it frightened the life out of him at first. “Why are they swearing at me? Is it because I’m German?” He had to be reassured that the song was one of admiration and affection.
Mentioning Per means I have to mention Rob Holding and the FA Cup final when he and Per completely closed down Diego Costa of Chelsea.
“Rob Holding
Y’know
He’s better than Cannavaro!”
And to complete the roster of centre backs of that era
“Ain’t nobody
Like Koscienly
Makes me happy
Makes me feel this way!”
C100 reminded me of the quite epic performance that the BFG gave in that 2017 Final . He was very short of match fitness but used all his experience aided by Scruz’s best mate to defy Chelsea . Sadly Ospina let in a weak Costa effort flapping at the ball like Wayne Sleep hailing a taxi but Per was magnificent. When we signed him I thought he’d be disastrously slow but he showed the value of intelligence and a great footballing brain . We’ve benefited from that brain over the last few years .
TTG @11 – just to remind you, we won that Cup Final 2-1! I vividly remember Rob Holding capering around with delight in front of us at the end of the game!
TTG@11 -” …Like Wayne Sleep hailing a taxi…”!
Genius!
TTG @11, you win the Dave Faber Analogy of the Month award.
I appreciate the reminder C100 but feeble as I am I remembered that we won the Cup ( most unexpectedly) that day! I remember Olivier Giroud producing an incredible cross for Aaron Ramsey to head home and then I remember us almost scoring about five times in the last few minutes .
Jeremy Corbyn was sitting very close to me. It was just before the General Election . Chav fans had classlessly gone to the ground in specially commissioned Double shirts . They were rightly very embarrassed after the game .
It was a fine day !
Thanks C100, lots of great songs old and new.
Talking of centre backs, just before my time we
signed John Roberts and my Dad told me his song was
“6ft 2,
eyes of blue
Big John Roberts is after you”
Not startlingly original or anything but my Dad liked it for some
reason.
For younger readers I should mention that the song may have been
a little better than Roberts but it was ever thus with transfers 😃
@9:TTG, I have several verbal offers I’d like to make to the Barcodes 😂
@11 but thanks for this memory of our BFG, I thought that cup final was Per’s finest hour.
He showed immense character that day
I was surprised we bid for Guimares but it seems to be true.
Looks a bit disruptive and undisciplined to fit with MA well,
on the other hand MA turned Xhaka round.
Anyway, I doubt Riyadh Rovers want to sell Tonali and Guimares
in the same window,
Matt@18 – especially when they have already sold Gordon for a good fee.
– Re Xhaka- I’m not sure Arteta turned him round rather than played him 20 yards further up the pitch where his regular brainfarts were rendered less calamitous.
For all those of you who were praying for an early return to base for our lads from the World Cup – hard luck. The fifteen Arsenal players playing for nine countries have all qualified for the knockout stages. Just as the players would have wanted.
Which almost certainly represents 15 players we will start the season without.
Bring your boots on August 21st.
If you buy the level of players that we do, having them busy in international tournaments is just a fact of life. There’s no point griping about it. But the schedule does need looking at.
Lovely idea, C100 – a lot of fun to read through those.
I might take you up on the offer of “full lyrics available “ as my all too infrequent appearances lately have left me a bit out of date ! Actually if you could sing them for us and paste the voice notes …? Too much …?
One long song from the old days without swear words was –
“Fulham can stay at the Cottage
Southampton can stay at the Dell
And as for Tottenham Hotspur
Well they can go to hell
And we’ll drink, drink together
In front of the AFC
And we’ll drink, drink together
In front of the AFC”
So I remember that, to the tune of the Eton Boating Song, as I was singing it as part of our school choir that had been hired by the local amateur dramatics society. It was performed at The Orange Tree in Totteridge just down the road from where David Dein and Arsene Wenger would later live in Pine Grove.
In front of the AFC referred to the badges mounted on the front of the North Bank stand. I should point out I was much too young to be drinking anyway !
Trev, my voice is only any good if diluted with 3000 (at any away game) or 57,000 other Gooners. But I’m happy to post full lyrics and an approximation of the tune if you specify the songs.
@20 C100, if only Scotland. had someone good enough to play for Arsenal he might be on a flight ‘hame ramorra’. Then again, if we had such a player, perhaps the whole team might still be competing in the next stages. Didn’t we sign some lad (sorry, wonder kid) from St Johnstone a year or so ago? Wonder what happened to him.
I think the real problem for Scotland was that Finn Russell’s PE teacher told him he had to play rugby not football. We could have swapped fat arse McGinn into our rugby team’s front row and played Finn as our number 10. Sorted.
I checked – Callan Hamill was the sixteen year old who was torn away from St Johnstone’s academy at a tender age having already played in St J’s first team vs Dundee at Dens Park.
Good enough to play against Dundee, good enough to play against Haiti or Cape Verde and their likes any day of the week in my opinion. Questions have to be asked about why he wasn’t on the aeroplane. 🙂
On a more serious note, CER, have you and 21CG seen anything of this young man on your travels?
A quick Google shows that Hamill has not yet appeared for the first team. 21CG of course often covers the age group teams for the Gooner so he may know more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callan_Hamill
BtM@26. I’ve seen Hamill play a few times. Playing at right back or right centre half. Looks good but in no way ready for anything approaching the first team.
We also signed a Scots centre forward for the u21’s/18’s. Name escapes me temporarily. Again looks good but again nowhere near ready for 1st XI.
C100@22- 15 players out of our potential starting eleven, including the entire on-pitch leadership team and you dont think it’s a concern? I’ll have a pint of that please….
Btm- further research shows Hamill is only 17 and the forward, Evan Mooney, is only 18, so no panic. I think both seem to have been brought in to plug perceived quality gaps in the academy teams.
January sees the arrival of a kid called Ozhianvuna from Shamrock Rovers and August 27 sees the arrival of 2 quite amazing looking Ecuadorean twins. Looks quite possibly like a plan to turbocharge further the academy.
Btm- further research shows Hamill is only 17 and the forward, Evan Mooney, is only 18, so no panic. I think both seem to have been brought in to plug perceived quality gaps in the academy teams.
January sees the arrival of a kid called Ozhianvuna from Shamrock Rovers and August 27 sees the arrival of 2 quite amazing looking Ecuadorean twins. Looks quite possibly like a plan to turbocharge further the academy.
Good. Thanks, CER. The future looks bright and I bet the SFA are combing through the records on these two Ecuadorians for a ‘visit by Uncle Hamish’ all these years ago which gives them the right to play in Dark Blue.
Joking apart, Ecuador looked really good the other night, I enjoyed watching them and thought to myself, hmm, perhaps we ned more Ecuadoreans……lo and behold.
I’m off to see Olivia Chaney at Kings Place tonight. Any fans?
CER @28. I didn’t say I wasn’t concerned. I said there was stuff all we could do about it so no point in moaning! Many other Prem teams will be in the same position.
Which is the team with the most players at the World Cup? Manchester City with 19.
https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/4672599/which-premier-league-clubs-have-the-most-players-at-the-2026-world-cup
Cheers, c100. I always enjoy reading your reports from the terraces. This one captured our season in the words the supporters sang for the players as we finally reeled in that league trophy, so happy days!
Tuchel on Reese James injury “you could not see that coming” made me laugh
out loud. Perhaps we can borrow Wan-Bissaka from the DRC.
I also wanted to post the Monty Python old dears doing the mustn’t grumble
sketch but I couldn’t find it on You Tube ☹️
And it’s goodbye to Steve Clarke after Scotland are officially out.
Not sure what my fellow ‘holics from o’er the border will think but
I thought he made a decent fist of it over seven years given the
players he had available.
@31 BtM, my brother saw Olivia Clarke 10 years ago at a Sandy Denny tribute. Thought she was better live than her records, apparently she knocked out a decent version of Who Knows Where the Time Goes as well.
OM @36, I too thought Clarke did remarkably well given the paucity of talent at his disposal. Making a silk purse (well not quite) out of a sow’s ear comes to mind. I now expect another 28 years in the shadows, given his possible successors. My hopes for the Scotland team withered and died in the 1980’s during which the pattern of brave but ultimately futile efforts to get out of the group stages of World Cup or European Finals was conclusively established but that was then to be followed by “Please leave to avoid further embarrassment!” Much to my surprise, Clarke restored the former pattern in this competition. However, I can now relax and enjoy the competition, angst-free, and support the most attractive team, as has become my wont over several decades.
Watching England play and indeed watching Arsenal last season, it’s increasingly obvious that “ Saka! Saka! Running down the wing! “ (tenuous link to the topic of this blog) just isn’t fit. So what’s the answer? One solution could be to give him a real rest and time for treatment in the first half of the season. Perhaps don’t sell Nwaneri and play him/Dowman in rotation with Noni for the first three months of the season.
Trev I’d be interested in your professional opinion. If he really hasn’t recovered from complications following his Achilles surgery (as has been mooted) what’s the answer? Rest and exercise? More surgery? What sort of timescale could be involved?
Seems to be a day for stepping down, best of luck to Ben Stokes.
Things haven’t gone so well recently but lest we forget he had some really great
days for England. Things had been looking a bit grim when Stokes and McCullum came in
but I thought they put on a cracking show for us for a while
Ben Stokes is one of the all time greats for England. Over 7000 runs, over 250 wickets and a good and imaginative Captain. Only Jacques Kallis has matched those numbers and he didn’t Captain South Africa
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