Arsenal Fan TV host Robbie Lyle has hit out at the Arsenal fans who were guilty of singing ‘Feed the Scousers’ during Saturday’s Premier League game against Everton.
The Gunners emerged from their first ever match at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium with a precious 1-0 which saw them regain their place at the top of the table, having dropped to second prior to kick-off following Manchester City’s earlier comfortable victory over West Ham.
A typically competitive contest between two of English football’s biggest clubs was, however, overshadowed by the poverty shaming chants sung by a section of Arsenal fans and the hostile reaction it drew from the home support.
Lyle, who travels the length and breadth of the country to follow Arsenal and document their triumphs and failures through the eyes of his fellow fans, admitted he was shocked by what he heard being chanted from the terraces and the unique reaction.
He said: ‘I wanted to address the really controversial chanting that was going on from Arsenal fans during the game. My friend called me and asked me ‘Robbie what was that all about, what was the controversy, I know you were at the game’.
‘Now it was a chant that Arsenal fans were singing to the Everton fans. The chant was ‘Feed the Scousers, let them know it’s Christmas time’. It was started by Man Utd fans singing at Liverpool fans. Obviously Everton are from Liverpool as well, but Arsenal fans were singing it.
‘When Arsenal fans were signing it in the game, let me just say I wasn’t signing it but I was there with the Arsenal fans so I’m not trying to I’m holier than thou and better than any fan who was there, I just want to address it.
‘When some of our fans were singing, not all of them, you could see the Everton fans were really unhappy about it. Something really unusual that you see at football is that they were booing the chant.
‘Normally you sing a chant about an opposition fan they’re typically come back with their chant. It’ll go back and forth and it’s something we do in the UK that I love and it’s unique to our fans.
‘In Europe it’s more choreographed but here it’s more spontaneous but this one didn’t bring that response from Everton fans. They started booing and they were very very angry.’
The levels of animosity only became apparent for Lyle after the game whenhe was confronted by Everton supporters who made their feelings known while AFTV were attempting to conduct their usual post-match analysis of the game.
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‘After the game when we were doing interviews a lot of their fans were coming up to me and they were angry. We normally have a decent relationship with Everton fans, I like their fans.
‘Liverpool, Scousers as they’re labelled are very proud people and they don’t like this chant. They feel like they’re being belittled, they feel like we’re talking to them as if they’re a bit scummy. That is why we saw this response.
‘I’d say to the Arsenal fans who were unaware at first we shouldn’t chant this. I’m not the chanting police and I’m not trying to kill the banter but if you’re doing a chance and it’s obvious that this is going down terribly with the opposition fans who find it deeply, deeply offensive then I feel you’ve crossed the line and don’t do it.’
Arsenal fans are far from the only set of supporters to have aired this particular chant in recent weeks, with Nottingham Forest and Chelsea fans guilty in recent weeks.
Reacting to the latest incident of offensive chanting, Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford said: ‘That’s part of football. You’ve got to not get sucked into it as a club and as people from Merseyside.
‘It’s one of them. That’s football fans all over the country, all over the world, there’s going to be chants that people don’t like and it is what it is.
‘It doesn’t affect us on the pitch and hopefully it doesn’t affect our fans, but that’s football.’
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