One-Nil to the Arsenal

When Arsenal striker Kai Havertz stepped up to take a penalty against Bournemouth last season, it felt like his career was a crossroads. The German forward had joined Arsenal from their London rivals Chelsea for a hefty £60 million transfer fee, but he still hadn’t found the back of the net. And critics were questioning whether all that money had been a waste.

But when Havertz smashed the penalty into the bottom left corner and wheeled away to celebrate, the Arsenal supporters erupted into a brand new song—a remix of Shakira’s 2010 World Cup hit “Waka Waka,” with new, bespoke lyrics: “sixty million down the drain, Kai Havertz scores again.”

The Arsenal fans were serenading their new striker and laughing at his critics by saying: “who’s a waste of money now?”

This bizarre scene exemplifies a European football tradition that has evolved into a folk art form over decades, particularly in the English Premier League. Every weekend, supporters fill stadiums with complex, often witty songs that blend pop culture with football passion—creating a soundscape unlike anything in American sports.

Local Pride

The tradition of football chanting dates back to the late 19th century, and the dawn of modern soccer. Back then many cities had multiple teams connected to local employers. Arsenal, for example, was originally made up of workers from a munitions factory.

The first recognized football song, “On The Ball City,” was written in the 1890s to celebrate the many teams of Norwich. Later when Norwich City FC was founded, the song was sung to celebrate this new combined team. Unlike today’s spontaneous crowd creations, early football songs were more like formal anthems sung right before kickoff as the players were walking out onto the field. Portsmouth FC had “Play Up Pompey,” which chimed perfectly with the town hall bells next to their stadium. Newcastle United fans sang a local folk song called Blaydon Races.

But the strange pop art-form of soccer songwriting didn’t really kick into high gear until the 1960s. And it all began in Liverpool.

Liverpool, The Beatles, and the Birth of Modern Football Songs

As The Beatles conquered the global music scene in the early 1960s, Liverpool FC was simultaneously dominating English football. And the convergence of these two cultural phenomena sparked a revolution in football chanting.

To express their local pride, Liverpool supporters began singing Beatles songs verbatim during matches at their famously atmospheric stadium, called Anfield.

And it wasn’t just the Beatles. Liverpool’s most iconic anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was popularized by the Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers and has become probably the most recognizable football song in the world. The emotional power of thousands of fans singing this ballad together created a template that other clubs would soon follow.

The Write-It-Yourself Era

Teams visiting Anfield were impressed not just by Liverpool’s prowess on the pitch, but by the wall of sound created by their supporters. And soon, fans across the country were inspired to create their own anthems.

But as Andy Lawn, author of We Lose Every Week: A History of Football Chanting, points out: not every city was as musical as Liverpool. Andy is also a fan of Norwich City, and he says: “We don’t necessarily have an artist that is from Norwich who is world famous. So what can we do? We can maybe change the words of the song. Everyone knows this tune and can sing this tune, but we can change the words.”

And thus began the tradition of football supporters creating their own remixes—taking well-known pop melodies and writing football-specific lyrics about their city, team, or rivals.

Arsenal fans, for instance, responded to criticism about their defensive, low-scoring style in the 1990s by embracing the chant “One Nil to the Arsenal” sung to the tune of Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West.”

“Arsenal fans being what they are, they turned that into a positive and dug their heels in,” explains James McNicholas, a sports writer for The Athletic who covers Arsenal. “They were going to be the meanest, nastiest, toughest team to break down in the league and celebrate every one of those one-nil wins…and they did that through song.”

From the Pub to the Pitch

Before social media, a football chant needed to go viral in the real world. There were no song sheets distributed at games—fans had to learn through repetition. A successful song might start with a few supporters in one corner of the stadium and gradually spread as others picked up the tune and lyrics.

Today, the internet has accelerated this process dramatically, allowing new songs to spread within hours rather than weeks or months.

Dan Gunning, an Arsenal season ticket holder who sits in the famous North Bank section of Emirates Stadium. When fans returned to stadiums after COVID, Dan and his friends made a concerted effort to improve the atmosphere. They decided to create a new song for team captain Martin Odegaard.

Inspiration struck while Dan was watching darts on YouTube. The theme song for the television darts program, “Chase the Sun” by Planet Funk, seemed perfect for football chants. Dan wrote Odegaard-specific lyrics and shared them with friends in a group chat, then posted a video on Twitter with his new lyrics rolling over the audio track. And it took off.

“I opened Twitter and just likes, retweets, posts, comments everywhere,” Dan recalls.

The next day at a home game against Everton, the song began in a pre-match pub, spread to the stadium concourse, and finally erupted in the stands when one of Dan’s friends boldly started singing it during the match. As more voices joined in, a new Arsenal classic was born. When Odegaard approached the fans after the game, thousands were singing his song.

Now that song is sung nearly every week: inside the stadium and by Arsenal fans watching the game in living rooms and bars all over the world. But even though he wrote a global hit, Dan isn’t precious about his songwriting. He and his friends don’t even really think of themselves as the authors of these songs. They are just offering up ideas to the supporters, and it’s the wisdom of the crowd that determines whether a song will stick.