BOSTON – “Arsenal,” the Boston bar sings in an English accent. Most of the crowd is sipping on a morning Guinness. Dillon’s is a reliable bar with an old spirit, built in 1887. Among the crowd is one ardent Arsenal fan, Dr. Michael Salmon.
Salmon is a cheery bloke who wears his hair slightly slicked back. He wore a Red Sox sweatshirt during our conversation and got emotional at times while reminiscing for this interview. He is a pharmacologist, approaches everything in life with a smile, and treats the Arsenal community with the same affection.
The life of an Arsenal supporter
Salmon comes from a family of Arsenal fans.
Now 60 years old, he recalls that Arsenal Football Club, the team he also refers to as family, was in a not-so-promising position before the game. The year was 1971. From North London to South, his soccer-fanatic family drove to watch the game that changed Salmon’s life.
Arsenal, established in 1886, won five League Championships in the 1930s and enjoyed steady success for the next two decades.
However, the 1960s would mark a “lean spell” for the team, according to Salmon. In 1971, on the fateful day, Arsenal had already won the league title and was aiming to complete “the Double” by also winning the Football Association Challenge Cup.
Salmon was five years old, sitting on the floor of his aunt’s home in Tadworth, just south of London. She had one of the few color TVs at the time, so over a dozen members of Salmon’s family were huddled around the bright screen.
The 1971 FA Cup Final was against Liverpool. The great teams, both famed for their red uniforms, tossed a coin to see who would wear their home colors: Arsenal lost. With Liverpool in red and Arsenal in yellow, the players ran across the deep green manicured Wembley field. Salmon’s family, robed in Arsenal Red, watched intently.
“If we could win the double for the first time as a club,” Salmon said, “That would be very unique and would certainly give bragging rights in North London for a long time. So there was a lot of excitement and anticipation.”
After ninety minutes, both teams were still scoreless. Salmon’s family and the rest of London were silent.
“In the first minute of extra time, Liverpool scored,” Salmon said, “Everyone was a bit devastated, and then Arsenal equalized. It looked like it was going to be a draw.”
For much of London, Charlie George was the player of the people. He was a common man and Salmon’s favorite player.
“In the last five minutes, my Arsenal hero scored the winning goal. A tremendous shot from 20 yards out to put in right in the corner. We won 2-1,” Salmon said.The silent living room roared, just as most spaces Arsenal fans took up at that defining moment.
Today, Salmon is living in Boston, far from his relatives, but still enthralled by his Arsenal family. Arsenal supporters call themselves “Gooners.” Various Gooner groups have popped up across the country as fans far from home search for their community and newcomers thrive.
The Gooners take Boston
The English Premier League is now packing a pub in Boston with Arsenal fans every game. Dillon’s, the official Arsenal bar for the Boston Gooners, roars with pride every time the team plays.
Once Boston’s first police and fire station, this historic Boylston Street landmark pays homage to the officers once based there and the firemen at their still-active station. This is expressed on the walls of the bar through countless first responder framed photos, patches and more. Dillon’s became home to the Boston Gooners after the group’s original home, the Irish pub Lir, was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dillon’s and Arsenal were established nearly at the same time. In 1886, one year before the station that became Dillon’s was built, a group of munition workers from Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory decided to form a soccer team. “Dial Square,” the team’s original name, was changed to “Royal Arsenal” after its first win on December 11.
The similarities do not end there. In 1997, Nick Hornby, a Gooner, wrote a book called “Fever Pitch” about his obsession with the team. In 2005, the book inspired an American movie about the Boston Red Sox. The two teams, separated by an ocean, are united by similarly adoring fan bases.
Jeff Werner, a graphic designer, chairman of the Boston Gooners, and secretary of Arsenal America, has been a friend of Salmon since early 2012. This is when Salmon crossed the pond and joined the Boston Gooners. Originally a Texan, Werner moved to Boston in 1998 and joined the Boston Gooners at its inception in 2009. A Boston College student started the group in his apartment building and later moved the gatherings to a bar called Blackthorn, an establishment that no longer exists.
“We have a very welcoming community,” Werner said. “We have a very diverse community … the only label we care about in this community is Gooner.”
The Boston Gooner community is eclectic and ever-growing. Its welcoming environment fosters a diverse group. Different accents, ages and identities gather at Dillon’s to celebrate the team they remain faithful to. With over 3,000 followers on Instagram, the community is engaged in person and online.
“I do this for the community,” Werner said. “The football is what keeps me involved.”
A big year for Arsenal
This season has been exciting and trying for Arsenal’s men’s team. Although these are the most popular games for the Boston Gooners, Dillon’s has been showing as many of the Arsenal women’s games as possible. Very successful in their standings, the women won the Champions League title last year.
This year, the men’s team has performed well and for Gooners worldwide, the impression has felt “different,” Salmon said. As with every season, the supporters remain faithful, even when success lulls. This season, the success has been there, and hope for winning various titles has remained at the forefront of Gooners’ minds.
Werner grew into his love for Arsenal after the 1994 World Cup, when he was 14. One of the names he knew was Dennis Bergkamp, an Arsenal legend. During the following World Cup, Bergkamp, playing for the Netherlands, scored a famous goal against Argentina. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, all right, I’m in,’” Werner said.
Werner does not identify with the term ‘fan’: “We’re not fans, we’re supporters … supporters support when things are going poorly as well as going well,” he said. That’s the kind of spirit all Arsenal fans glow with—love for the team when the players advance and hope that they will recover when they don’t.
“We don’t buy superstars, we make them”
This season is a culmination of several years of hope and maturity. Much of the team was trained in the Arsenal Academy, whose mission is to “create the most challenging & caring football academy in the world,” according to its website.
“At Arsenal, we don’t buy superstars, we make them,” Werner said. The certain academy-heavy demographic of the team is advantageous for Arsenal. Bukayo Saka is one of the most prominent players who completed the academy before entering the Arsenal team. Each game, around five players from the Arsenal Academy are involved and have truly pushed Arsenal’s status in the league.
Salmon remains a voice of comfort and reason for the Boston Gooners who worry about their status this season. He reminds them that “anything can happen” and to “keep the faith.”
Arsenal’s prominence in the US is expanding due to the availability of watching the games. Many Boston Gooners also make a yearly pilgrimage to London to see Arsenal play in person. Salmon will offer his season ticket to anyone in the community. Before, only a few channels streamed the Premier League, and were not accessible to most fans. Now, anyone can watch the games at any time. With more access comes more eyes and hearts involved.
Werner believes Arsenal to be a “worldwide phenomenon,” and the data supports that claim. Based on search traffic, Arsenal has the second-largest fan base in the UK and fifth-largest in the world, according to Hyperset Group. Arsenal’s outreach and growth throughout the years is impressive and Boston Gooners represent just a small sector of that community.
People form a line outside of Dillon’s Bar early on major match days. Once the door opens, all cheer and shuffle in. The vocal supporters make their way to the back room of the bar while the rest of the space begins to fill. The overcrowded pub spills onto the heated patio with a large, colorful screen.
A found family
The Boston Gooners are a community that reflects the evolution of Arsenal’s fanbase and its worldwide reach. Some supporters inherit Arsenal, while others choose it.
Esme Stone, a 21-year-old college student at the Boston Conservatory, is an Arsenal fan by blood. Her father has a season pass back in London, her hometown, and she grew up going to the matches with him. Stone enjoys the game-day environment of Dillon’s while far from home.
“Being with my fellow Gooners has always been something that’s been wonderful,” Stone said. “It’s so awesome to find that community in Boston, of all places.”
Supporters love the team and provide criticism when needed.
Vincent Versteeg and Fin Tole are friends in their mid-twenties. Tole doesn’t have any ties to England, but admits, “you kind of just have to pick a team.” Versteege agrees. The two had some advice for Arsenal: show more tenacity and take more risks. “We’ve played it a little too safe and robotic lately,” Versteeg said.
Other Boston Gooners stumbled upon the community by chance.
Yohannes Eyob is a middle-aged man who wears an Arsenal jersey with his first name on the back. He has been with the Boston Gooners for many years and recalls the group’s old bar, Lir, and the times he spent there before COVID.
“Growing up in Africa, we only really had one choice,” he said. “Arsenal.”
Now living in Boston for multiple decades, he’s found a home with the Gooners.
“It’s a community,” Eyob said. “I just want them to win this year.”
When Arsenal finally scored, Eyob, sitting to my left, put down his Bloody Mary, grabbed my shoulders, and cheered with his fellow Gooners.
The bartenders are never not pouring and serving when Arsenal plays. When the team scores, all briefly react, then get back to pouring, serving and most importantly, drinking.
“Every time they win, it’s always good for business,” manager of Dillon’s, Paul Bruno, said. “The spirits are high and the spirits are flowing.”
Bruno is all about business. Although he enjoys watching soccer as a sport, he has no affiliation with any team.
“Their [Arsenal’s] success in the league right now has done well for us, but overall they’re pretty much top of the table most seasons … we’ve always seen great support out of their fans,” Bruno said.
As I write, Arsenal are five points clear at the top of the Premier League and have just qualified for the Champions League Final. The next few weeks could see Arsenal win an extraordinary double, reminiscent of Salmon’s 1971 experience. This double has the added thrill of a European Champions League trophy, the first in Arsenal’s history. Whatever the outcome, the excitement levels in this Boston enclave will set new heights.
This weekly time together is not accidental; it’s an intentional act made by many in search of a community. For Salmon, everyone in the Boston Gooners is family.
“If someone said describe Arsenal in one word, I would say it’s family, which for me means both, you know, it’s part of the family I was brought up in. But really, more broadly, it feels like anyone who’s an Arsenal fan is part of that family,” Salmon said.
In Boston, that family is found at Dillon’s.
