ARSENAL HAVE WON THE PREMIER LEAGUE!!!

I had something else scheduled for today but nothing else matters, really, because the team I’ve supported since first learning about and watching and falling in love with them in the 96-97 season (after having loathed football since experiencing nothing but boredom in my first full game, the ’94 World Cup final,) my team THE MIGHTY ARSENAL, have today won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years! And I was okay, I was happy, there in my kitchen in the cherry print shirt I promised football chat I’d wear in support of Bournemouth who, if they defeated or drew against our hated rivals in this penultimate game of the season, would ensure that we won the league after a grueling campaign that saw us secure our own necessary victory yesterday. And the valiant Cherries held on to a draw, and I gleefully celebrated with my friends online while finishing up some work in the kitchen, and then Arsenal posted this video to their Instagram:

Y’all, I bawled. Sitting there at my kitchen table, seeing the proud face of Arsène Wenger — the man who made me understand that football at its best is nothing less than art — as he congratulated the team on our victory, I finally broke down crying. I haven’t really stopped since. I’ve loved this club for well over half my life. Perhaps oddly, it has provided the kind of community and stability for me that religion does for most other people. In the social media era, it’s been easier too to connect with new friends who also care about the club… and unfortunately to be exposed to haters who have nothing better to do with their miserable lives than to troll us true believers. I’ve been with this club through thick and thin, and these past few decades, there’s been a lot of thin. Now, however and once more, we feast on victory.

But you know, this is primarily a book site, so I’m gonna recommend some books about Arsenal and football for those of you who want to get to know the Arsenal better, whether you’re new to the sport or a life-long fan (tho these books will probably be old hat to the latter category):

1. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby has long been considered THE seminal Arsenal fan text. So is it bad of me to admit that I’ve never actually read it? Fortunately, my local supporters group is all in on rectifying that defect in many of our educations. This memoir examines the life of a die-hard Gooner (as we’re called, well before the more recent usage of the term,) whose struggles reflect many of our own. And yes, they did make two films out of this, a very good one starring Colin Firth and an American adaptation which I couldn’t bring myself to watch because they made it about baseball.

2. Black Arsenal edited by Clive Chijioke Nwonka & Matthew Harle. Arsenal has long been on the forefront of embracing multiculturalism and integrating all our demographics, especially our Black players and supporters. This coffee table book celebrates that history. With contributions from Black icons like Ian Wright, Alex Scott (the English football player tbc, lol,) Spike Lee and so many other fans of all races, this book isn’t just a history of the Arsenal, it’s an absorbing look at Black and English sociology and history, and a glowing example of how we can all be better together.

3. The Wenger Revolution: The Club Of My Life by Amy Lawrence, Stuart MacFarlane & Arsène Wenger. Three of the most committed Arsenal fans and sports professionals have come together to produce another coffee table book that provides a pictorial look at some of the most important moments of the Wenger era. Ms Lawrence also wrote Invincible, an account of the season we went undefeated in the English Premier League, a once unthinkable feat that has yet to be replicated.

4. Wenger: My Life And Lessons In Red & White is Arsène Wenger’s own accounting of his rise and career managing the Arsenal to glory. Look, I’ve met the guy and I love him. He and I might not always agree, but we mostly do and he’ll always be an important figure to me.

5. Soccernomics by Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski was by far the best book for understanding world soccer back when I first read it in 2016. I genuinely do not know how it’s held up since, but the authors did just come out with a 2026 revised edition, which is well worth checking out. From my review of that earlier edition over on Goodreads:

And while the aim of this book is, ostensibly, to explain current football — sorry, soccer — statistics and predict future winners, it really has a more subtle, philosophical agenda: to prove, through sport, the efficiency of the free transfer of ideas, and the benefits to a nation’s pride (and happiness!) that comes from ensuring that its populace is well-fed and healthy. I think it does all this admirably, presenting hard data in chapters on the link between sports and suicide, sports and income, and sports and connectivity, among others.

6. And for something a little different, check out Leonard Gribble’s The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, a whodunnit that features the actual Arsenal squad of 1939. I haven’t actually read it yet but am hoping to float it to book club, and to fit in a viewing of the movie based on it!

There are, ofc, a ton more books you can check out to learn more (Tony Adams’ memoirs! Poorly Drawn Arsenal!) but these are a good place to start. Lmk if you liked any of them, or have your own recommendations! In the meantime, I’m gonna keep quietly crying over my wonderful team and what this victory means to all of us, players, staff and supporters alike.