Our writer went to a pub in Boston on a Sunday, expecting the television to be screening the Arsenal vs Man United game. He opened the door to find 200 Arsenal fans dressed in home colors chanting at the top of their voice.
On December 2nd 2017, the island bar at the LIR looked more like a rowboat floundering in the middle of a red-and-white sea. I pulled my oversized brown jacket close around me, and despite not wearing anything that would give away my loyalty, I felt unsafe. My friend had asked me to join her there to watch the Arsenal-Manchester Utd game. What I wasn’t expecting was over two hundred people packed into the bar for the game. There was barely enough space for me to stand, and I was surrounded by rabid Arsenal fans. I regretted my decision to take her up on the offer almost as soon as I set foot inside. You see, I am a fan of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, also known as the greatest club the world has ever seen. My club has had a long-standing rivalry with Arsenal, stemming from when Arsenal moved from Woolwich to North London in 1913, usurping “our” territory. It’s one of the largest rivalries in the English Premier League, and we do not get along.
The match that day went badly for Arsenal. They were losing 1-3, and the boisterous energy the bar had before the game slowly started to ebb away over the next two hours. The crowd booed and groaned at every mistake that was made, and admonished the referee for every decision (or non-decision) made against Arsenal. Seeing how low everyone’s spirits were, a small group of Arsenal fans tried to cheer them up by taking up one of their favourite chants: “What do we think of Tottenham?” they yelled, prompting the crowd to yell back the appropriate response: “SHIT!” Class acts, these Arsenal fans.
The whole “song,” proudly posted on the Boston Gooners website, goes: