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    Victory Grows Through Harmony

    Nico Bryan, April 2023

    So I’m a huge Arsenal fan and I always have been. I’m not sure why I do it to myself, because a bad Arsenal result can completely throw my weekend. And given Arsenal’s performances in the last 6 years, this has been a lot of weekends. Yet, before every season or before every game, somehow I find myself hopeful, optimistic and positive. They say it’s the hope that kills you. As my flatmate jests, ‘my love for football is the most abusive relationship I’ve ever been involved in’.

    But this year at Arsenal, under the tactical tutelage of former captain, Mikel Arteta, there are legitimate reasons to be positive. The club that only recently I would ironically refer to as ‘Tricky Mik’s Riproaring Reds’ are now top of the Premier League with 6 games to go. At the end of the pandemic they were asking fans to buy season tickets, now the waiting list is ten years’ long.

    “The whole club has become rejuvenated, partially by returning to the values that so many have identified with throughout its 135-year history.”

    But Arsenal fans aren’t just positive because results have improved. The whole club has become rejuvenated, partially by returning to the values that so many have identified with throughout its 135-year history.

    Upon joining Arsenal in 2019, Arteta emphasised ‘if you don’t have the right culture, in the difficult moments, the tree is going to shake’. But this wasn’t just the internal culture. Rather, Arteta identified fans’ disengagement as the root of Arsenal’s lacklustre performance between 2017-2019. ‘We need to engage them, we need to be able to transmit with our behaviours, our intentions what we want to bring to this football club’. Since then the club has undertaken various initiatives to improve fan engagement.

    “The Angel… is Arsenal’s answer to Liverpool’s ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.”

    After receiving ‘thousands’ of messages on social media about Louis Dunford’s ‘The Angel’, the club made it the pre-match anthem. Written by a north Londoner from a family of Arsenal fans, The Angel intimately describes the ‘narrow streets and roads’ of Highbury, and is Arsenal’s answer to Liverpool’s ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. It’s an excellent example of listening to your audience and, should it become associated with the club, is also building a sonic brand. Plus, it’s a great tune.

    Last year, the club released a series of collaborative ads with local businesses to help them inspire footfall during the cost-of-living crisis. This included a visit from Aaron Ramsdale to The Chip Inn in Finsbury Park and Rob Holding to The Tollington on Hornsey Road. At once esoteric and relatable, these light-hearted films were loved by fans and local businesses alike.

    And finally, following a series of workshops with fans, the washed-out Emirates Stadium has seen a vibrant renewal. Now eight new and unique tifos are wrapped around the stadium which capture Arsenal’s ‘rich history, [and] our values’. These artworks are, as Arsenal CEO Vinai Venkatesham puts it, ‘a real celebration of the Arsenal community’.

    The beauty of this new culture is that it is both reciprocal and cyclical. Arsenal fans become more invested and, in turn, Arsenal players perform better for their fans. It’s the embodiment of Victoria Concordia Crescit.