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Everton responded to a section of Arsenal supporters' 'poverty chants' during the 1-0 win at the Hill Dickinson Stadium as many react to the incident
Unacceptable. Embarrassing. Shameful.
All words I would appropriately associate with what was witnessed from a section of individuals amongst the travelling Arsenal support inside the Hill Dickenson Stadium on Saturday evening. The Gunners came away with all three points on the night, but 24 hours later, there was a horrible taste left when it became clearer what had transpired during the game.
Sitting on the other side of the ground and many, many rows up in the press box, it was not immediately obvious what had spurred the home crowd to boo the Arsenal supporters. I turned to a colleague beside me, who, like me, was distracted and more focused on the game and our work, and didn’t know then what had sparked the reaction.
Chanting in grounds and tongue-in-cheek choruses of well-known anthems is nothing new inside stadiums. In fact, between rival supporters, it can sometimes spark funny retorts of a light-hearted and organic nature.
This is the culture that makes football fandom a great thing, and it must be said from someone covering the club around the world, Arsenal, on the whole, have one of, if not the best, groups of travelling support in the country and provide amazing support and noise to their team everywhere they go.
Yet, what is not normal is for chants to spark choruses of boos from those in the firing line. This reaction from a home crowd should be enough to realise this goes beyond the dreaded “football banter” tagline, which is so often peddled in these moments and, sadly, was done by many in its wake.
You also tend not to see clubs’ cinema-like screens have dedicated displays ready in response to certain chanting. In fact, the only established protocol for announcements to be made inside football stadiums comes in relation to very serious, racially-motivated chants, which can even spark pauses in play, and rightfully so.
So again, if there needed to be a signal that this ‘poverty chanting’, as it has been coined, crosses a line, the display of the “Fans Supporting Foodbanks” logo during the game after the chanting had been heard is the second indication on the night.
The next is the notable response which has been seen in its wake. Patrick Boyland, Everton correspondent for The Athletic, wrote: “It was estimated that, between 2024 and 2025, almost three million emergency food parcels were distributed by Trussell Trust food banks in the UK — in the sixth-biggest economy in the world.
“Too many are suffering. The irony is that the fans arguably doing the most to combat food insecurity are the ones being subjected to poverty chanting. It’s high time ‘Feed the Scousers’ was put to bed for good.”
Chief football writer for The i Newspaper, Daniel Storey, posted on X in response to the display in the stadium: “Brilliant from Everton. Poverty chants are gross, and s*** and boring, and fans of every club that sing them should do better.”
Storey's last line is key here because the importance of disassociating the incident with Arsenal fans solely is vital. Condemning the incident and the individuals, but recognising the broader issue.
Henry Winter, speaking on TalkSport, condemned the chants and made reference to the work done by both Arsenal and Everton in their respective communities. “Just on a serious note, I was really disappointed with Arsenal fans,” he said. “They should be above that, those who were singing it, anyone who sings that is just wrong.”
Winter is right to cite the work Arsenal have done not just in their local community but also in others, specifically helping Everton and the Fans Supporting Foodbanks cause, as shown below.
football.london understands that there is extreme disappointment from inside the club. What was sung is seen as the complete antithesis of what the club stands for and its values.
That disappointment extends broadly to any supporter of any club who decides to engage in singing such chants.
On this week’s episode of Seeing Red, our own unofficial Arsenal podcast, I was, as always, joined by our Chief Football Writer, John Cross, and we discussed the incident. Here is what Cross had to say on the matter.
“Yeah, I was appalled by it, actually,” he said. “I thought on the TV you were very much aware of it when you were watching the game on Sky on Saturday night, and you could hear it, the chant.
“You could also hear the reaction to it. Everton very cleverly put [the logo] on the giant screen to highlight the issue that they were supporting food banks. And Everton, I have to say, blows my mind about what they do as a club in the community.
“I've seen it at close quarters, and they are up there with the best, if not the best, in the Premier League, at connecting with the community.
“It takes me back to being a fan in the eighties. It's cliched, it's outdated.
“It's a very, very offensive and wrong stereotype, which is appalling, frankly. It was wrong then.”
While some might argue that these issues needn’t be addressed and they’d be better off ignored as to avoid bringing them more energy, this simply is not how you tackle problems. If you do nothing, the most likely outcome is that nothing will change.
“The reason you have to highlight it is that I always remember, you know, years ago, a couple of really bad anti-Semitic songs that were sung by some Arsenal fans at Spurs games and beyond frankly," Cross added.
“And looking back, I cannot believe that those were sung and they're not really now because it was exposed and because it was talked about. I really found it so offensive.
“I love Liverpool as a city. It's brilliant. I love going, and that doesn't have anything to do with what I know about Liverpool whatsoever; it's warm hearts and generosity the whole way. That is so outdated, so offensive and wrong.”
The last thing to say is to those who are frustrated that it appears to be Arsenal who are facing the backlash regarding a chant which has been sung for many years by groups far beyond just this section of Gunners fans. I get it, I empathise, I understand why that is frustrating.
Why is the energy here? Why is it now? Why not then?
And it should be clear that this is not just about Arsenal; it hurts to hear it because it’s the club I associate myself with. It’s the club that has my energy, and therefore it compels me to call it out now.
Should I or others who are just calling it out now have done it sooner? Absolutely.
In my case, my ignorance of not being alert to it before now is my excuse, but it’s been made clear enough to be that will not be the case for all. But bluntly, who cares about that?
What matters is taking the first step. If it’s from an Arsenal game and from some Arsenal fans, that this horrible, outdated, unfunny chant gets the attention it deserves to curb fans of any club singing it again, great.
It’s not an Arsenal problem; it's just a problem. Arsenal's supporters backing the club's campaigns have helped to bring in more than £20,000, and 70 crates of food and household essentials across 23 men's and women's matchdays during the 2024/25 season.
It’s high time, therefore, that these issues are brought more so into the light, and condemned, and I am glad that based on both the evidence of the actions from thousands of Arsenal supporters and the understanding from within the club that this is clearly an issue neither conducted nor defended by the majority within the fan base.
You can listen to the Seeing Red Arsenal podcast episode in full here as Tom and John discuss the win over Everton, whether Ethan Nwaneri has a future in the squad and further discussion around the poverty chanting witnessed on Merseyside.
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