Gooners are by far the most disliked fanbase in the Premier League. How did they gain this unwanted status?
“Arsenal fans are insufferable”: this is a sentiment that in recent years has become a kind of universal truism, a reality so deeply ingrained in the psyche of the modern English football fan that to question it is to risk outing yourself as some sort of deranged secret Gooner.
The gloating celebrations and extreme emotions, the unhinged online activity, the perceived sense of entitlement: these Arsenal-coded behaviours have created an antipathy towards the current Premier League champions’ fanbase that seems to outstrip anything experienced by modern supporters of any of the other ‘Big Six’ clubs.
Are Arsenal fans universally-hated by supporters of other clubs?
But how did Arsenal fans become so hated in the modern football world? What exactly is it that irritates people? And is the hatred of Arsenal fans primarily just an indication of how much time we’re all spending online, and how fan media is rotting our brains?
Personally, I have no dog in this fight. As a Norwich City fan, I tend to find that supporters of the so-called ‘Big Six’ are all roughly as irritating and tunnel-visioned as each other. But it’s clear that there are several things going on here. While Arsenal antipathy has certainly ramped up under the reign of Mikel Arteta — an at times obscenely pretentious LinkedIn fanatic whose tactical dark arts, touchline gesticulation, and excessive use of hair gel has understandably rubbed many neutrals the wrong way — this sentiment dates back decades.
After I attempted to gauge public opinion via my football team’s WhatsApp group, North London-bred Gooner Billy Howard-Price fleshed out the history of the club’s outward perception: “The ‘same old Arsenal, always cheating’ chants, us using the offside trap [in the ’80s and ’90s], ‘boring boring Arsenal’ from the George Graham years: there’s a lot of interesting stuff at play there. Legitimate stuff that predates AFTV and perceived ‘North London elite’ stuff.”
Fellow Gooner Shay Olupona adds that “Boring Boring Arsenal applies to last season too. ‘Cornered’ the league, set piece FC ole ole etc.” It’s true that the perceived negativity and rigid play of Arteta’s title-winning side has worsened the hostility. But the hate was already there, and I’d argue that a huge amount of it stems simply from Arsenal fans being far more visible on social media than any other supporter base. And for that, we have Arsenal Fan TV to thank.
Launched by Robbie Lyle in 2012, AFTV quickly emerged as the UK’s most prominent football fan channel, its emotional stadium vox pops and astoundingly irrational studio debates becoming a huge part of English football lore over the last decade. The channel has been hugely influential beyond the capital, inspiring the birth of countless other fan media platforms around the country.
Every club has countless irritating fans; but the existence of AFTV, and the wider Arsenal social media eco-system that the club’s enormous London fanbase facilitates, has meant that annoying Gooners are ten a penny. Unrivalled exposure leads to unrivalled resentment.
“It becomes cyclical,” says Reading supporter Nick Mandolos. “Arsenal fans whine about being hated on social media = more people get annoyed by them, it goes round and round. A lot of people feel they’re looked down on by Arsenal fans, and so mock them mercilessly. AFTV was probably the killer. That and the jolly come lately, bucket hat-wearing middle class North London gooners.”
What’s interesting is that growing up in the 2000s, I remember the Gunners being largely admired for the attractive, free-flowing football they played under Arsene Wenger, which was perhaps even easier to enjoy because the club was no longer regularly winning titles. This suggests the hostility massively accelerated with the advent of social media, as well as the rise in more casual support prompted by both the Arteta era and the broader embrace of football culture amongst middle-class, urban indie types.
“Anecdotally, 90% of people who have only recently started following football support Arsenal, and they do harm the reputation of “real” supporters,” says Liverpool fan Pete McNelis. “I associate a certain type of Arsenal fan with the loud voice at the pub who doesn’t understand passing out from the back.”
It’s also worth considering whether there’s a more sinister element to some of the anti-Arsenal agenda. Specifically: is it a coincidence that the Premier League club with by far the most diverse matchgoing fanbase, the club far more closely associated with Black British culture than any other, is also the one that everyone finds unbearable?
Evidently, there are tons of valid concerns that have handed Arsenal the unwanted but in many ways justified status of having the most irritating fanbase. But given how deeply entrenched unconscious racial biases are in the UK (see: BBC’s The Traitors), I don’t think it’s a massive stretch to suggest that this could factor into some people’s outlook.
The idea of the insufferable Gooner has a range of legitimate foundations, and is linked to events that have played out across the stadiums, press conferences, and broadcast studios of English football over many years.
But Arsenal antipathy is also an interesting reflection of changing social dynamics, shifts in who watches football and what cultural cache is attached to the sport. Above all, it’s about an ever-growing engagement with football via our unhinged, rage-baiting social media culture, a culture that discourages nuance and rewards idiocy. In this context, the insufferable Arsenal fan has risen above the parapet; but that doesn’t mean we should all accept this characterisation as a universal truth.
