It has been quite the whirlwind for local north London singer Louis Dunford. The singer and songwriter of ‘The Angel’, a song that has gone viral amongst the Arsenal fan base for its nostalgia and football anthem-esque melody, reached a new height today.
Arsenal invited Dunford to the club’s training facility. Dunford posted pictures to his Twitter page showing him meeting with manager Mikel Arteta.
The pair looked to be in good spirits and for good reason. A couple of weeks ago both Dunford and Arsenal’s 2022’s were in very different places. Dunford was performing his new song but had yet to see the Gunners fan base cause of its exponential growth in popularity that saw The Popham EP top the iTunes album charts on Tuesday.
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Whilst Mikel Arteta was seeing the club’s top-four challenge falter after three successive defeats to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton. Fast forward to today and Arsenal lead the race for the Champions League and Dunford is in dreamland at London Colney.
Arteta was asked about the track prior to Dunford’s visit was revealed later in the day in the Arsenal manager’s Leeds United pre-match press conference. He was, now unsurprisingly, very supportive of the idea. “I have had thousands and thousands of requests from all of our supporters to go and do something about it. We want to listen to them, it’s great,” Arteta said.
“Because they are bringing all of the initiatives now, we don’t have to do anything, it’s up to them. They feel it, they want to earn it. They do a lot of things around the stadium as well as we all notice. So, let’s give it a push you know if that’s what we want to do, and that’s how we want to be seen and feel like. I think there’s no better way than to go ahead and do it when you feel it.”
One of the key parts of Arteta’s vision when taking over the club was repairing the damage that had occurred between Arsenal and its fans. It is fair to say that the connection between the two sides is the strongest it has been for some time.
Certainly, a lot of that is to do with the on-field performances and potential top-four finish, but actions such as this emphasise the desire to want to do more. The introduction of the fan advisory board, ensuring Josh Kroenke attends some Fans’ Forums.
“That chemistry and that connection is growing every single week, and you can sense that the players certainly do it. They talk about the difference that it makes to play in the stadium, but even when we are away from home the incredible support that we get,” said Arteta regarding the impact of the fans’ importance this season.
“That was something that we were missing in the last two years, we discussed that many, many times. In my opinion that is the game-changer, it’s their energy and their emotions towards the team that is really contagious.”
It could end up being a massive season for Arsenal should their top-four ambitions be successful. To get there, the players, coach and fellow fans are going to need the unified support of the crowd and global supporter base. Louis Dunford’s anthem has put in the work to encourage that nostalgic togetherness of our north London, let’s hope Arsenal can do the rest.
