Ian Wright names ‘horrible’ song he hates rival fans singing about Arsenal | Football
Ian Wright admitted it was “horrible” when rival fans sang about Arsenal’s Champions League history as the Gunners never won it.
Arsenal are considered by many to be London’s greatest club – with 13 Premier League titles, a record 14 FA Cups and two Carabao Cup trophies.
The north London side have also won 17 Community Shields and are the third most successful club in English football behind Liverpool and Manchester United.
But Arsenal don’t have much pedigree on the continental scene, with just one European Cup Winners’ Cup and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
Arsenal’s men have never won the Champions League, formerly known as the European Cup, since its inception in 1955.
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The Champions League is one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the world and several other English clubs have won it, including Liverpool (six times), United (three times), Chelsea (twice), Nottingham Forest (twice), Manchester City (once) and Aston Villa (once).
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Wright said: “It’s horrible when people say, ‘(European Champions), you’ll never sing that.’
Arsenal’s best performance in the Champions League came in 2006, when they finished second to Barcelona after a run to the final.
Last season, Arsenal beat 15-time winners Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals before losing to Paris Saint-Germain in the last four.
Opta’s supercomputer currently places Arsenal as favorites to win the Champions League this season with an 18.64 percent chance.
Arsenal legend Wright, however, is adamant that Mikel Arteta would rather win the Premier League than the Champions League this season if he had to pick a trophy.
“I think he would take the Premier League,” Wright added. “I think Mikel, talking about his personality, he would want the Premier League… Then he can have that big exhale to go to the Champions League.”
Wright believes Arsenal have a “great chance” of winning their first Premier League title since 2004 this season, having finished runners-up in the last three seasons in a row.
“What last week did was reaffirm to people that, look, we have a great chance of winning the league,” Wright continued.
“I think we have the best team in the league at the moment, I don’t care what anyone says. It’s now up to the manager to make sure he puts the right plays on at the right time.
“We’ve seen a few results where I think he could have brought on different people to finish the game, but then he does his thing of bringing people on – he finished it well against Newcastle. He was more positive, exactly what we needed to be.
“Because last year when Liverpool made a mistake we couldn’t take advantage of it. We didn’t take advantage of it. But when we did that against Newcastle, people realized that it was a step forward in what we are trying to do and it shows that we are definitely in this fight as long as we can.
“Now, talking about Arsenal, everyone says, ‘Oh, it’s Arsenal now,’ because we’ve seen City and Liverpool falter.
“Arsenal are in charge now, and that’s where we see the mentality of our players. They’ve finished second three times – they know what to do. They’ve been chasing City and Liverpool for a few seasons. It’s their time now, so it’s up to them mentally to go out there and do it.