North London Forever

The song “North London Forever” is making me tear up today. Every time I hear it on social media, I start to lose it a little bit.

In actuality, “North London Forever” is the chorus from a Louis Dunford song called “The Angel”, a beautiful song that is essentially a love letter to Islington and North London. Dunford walks through real places and people from his upbringing, portraying both the hardship and the warmth of the community. 

The chorus of the song is massively popular among fans of Arsenal Football Club, based in North London. The chorus was adopted as a pre-match anthem at Emirates Stadium in 2022. The club now regularly plays it before games, and fans sing along in unison. Dunford himself is a lifelong Arsenal supporter, and he has said the song was both “a love letter” to where he was born and a tribute to the club and community around it.

I became an Arsenal fan—and a fan of global football—about ten years ago, when some friends took me to a local pub to watch a match broadcast live from London. I was so enraptured by the passion of the fans that I started following the team. Local fans were more than happy to share their knowledge and love of the game and of the team.

It was about this same time that I met Kasandra.

Although she was a fan of American football, basketball, and baseball, she followed me into the pub for matches. She would listen patiently as I tried to explain the game, the system of leagues, game strategy, and Arsenal players. She put up with my new fascination with the World Cup, the USMNT and USWNT, and the Premiere League. And even though she was and is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, Air Force Football (where her son played), the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Mavericks and, inexplicably, the Texas Longhorns, she quickly took to being a Gooner.

Our relationship has been marked by so many memories. Memories of travel, concerts, serving and worshipping together at our church, living through the pandemic, co-parenting our adult children, and so much more. However, as we celebrate today Arsenal winning the Premiere League for the first time in 22 years, I keep going back to those Arsenal moments.

Moments of going to Arsenal pubs in Phoenix, Denver, Austin, Nashville, London, Dallas, and even Maui. We’ve located and gone Arsenal pubs in other locations, even if it’s off-season or we weren’t there on game day. We’ve invited friends over for brunch and matches on TV. We’ve lingered in hotel rooms on a late Sunday morning until the match was concluded.

We both own a collection of Arsenal kits (the proper term for soccer jerseys), have a picture of our favorite player, Bukayo Saka, and a variety of other Arsenal memorabilia.

The pinnacle memory was making a trip to Emirates Stadium in London to watch Arsenal defeat the hated Liverpool FC 3-2, on the strength of a penalty kick by Saka.

I can’t help but feel emotional today—not only because Arsenal have lifted the league title, but because their story has become so deeply intertwined with ours. Their history has quietly grown into part of our own, a familiar thread woven through the memories we’ve built together.

For eight years now, we’ve walked side by side through life, and somewhere along the way, being Gunners became more than just fandom—it became a shared language, a rhythm we’ve lived by. Arsenal has been there in the background of it all, marking time, shaping moments, and holding space in the story of us.

On a weeknight in London, as Kasandra and I rode a bus across North London to watch a match at an Arsenal pub very close to the stadium, we met a young Gooner. This little black girl saw us and our Arsenal kits and struck up a conversation. She was so sweet and our meeting was a highlight of our trip. When she got to her stop, she waived sweetly and said “COYG” on her way off the bus. The best Arsenal fan in the world spoke the words all the Gooners know: Come On You Gunners.

Suddenly, Kasandra and I were citizens of North London. And we felt included in the words of the chorus:

North London forever

Whatever the weather

These streets are our own

And my heart will leave you never

My blood will forever

Run through the stone