Premier League clubs’ pre-match anthems

Anfield
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Every football club has its chants, even if they are taken from the same stock of tunes every other club uses – but not every side has an anthem.

We’re talking about the songs that get belted out, rain or shine, before matches. The kind of thing that people hold scarves aloft to, or which have been part of the pre-match tradition for so long that it would be unthinkable to remove them.

There may well be others around the grounds, but here’s a sampling of the big Premier League anthems you’ll hear every week as the teams get read out on Match of the Day.

Arsenal – North London Forever

North London Forever: Arsenal v Liverpool 04/02/2024. – SOAK IT IN #arsenal #gopro – YouTube

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Proof, if proof be need be, that a song need not necessarily actually be any good whatsoever to catch on as an anthem – and that even in the modern age, new traditions can still emerge as if they had been around forever.

The song (technically called ‘The Angel’, with the more popular title merely included in brackets) was only released in 2022 but quickly caught on among the Arsenal faithful and is now routinely belted out before kick-off at the Emirates Stadium.

Brighton and Hove Albion – Sussex by the Sea

Brighton fans singing “Sussex by the Sea” – YouTube

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The geographically-accurate song dates back to 1907 – as if you couldn’t tell from its charmingly pre-war language and sentimental subject matter – and has been Brighton and Hove Albion’s adopted song since at least 1910.

The title is thought to have been lifted from a Rudyard Kipling poem, but was re-written by Norman Wisdom, of all people, though only ‘we’re going up to win the cup’ remains from his revision.

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Chelsea – Liquidator

Chelsea ‘lights out – liquidator’ entrance – YouTube

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You know. ‘Der ner ner, der ner ner, der ner ner, clap clap clap clap, Chelsea!’ That one.

Liquidator remains a favourite of Wolves fans too, but the club have long self-imposed a paternalistic ban on playing it at Molyneux because of fans’ loud shouts of ‘f— off West Brom, the Wolves!’ when it’s played. Apparently they don’t want the bad language at the stadium, which of course you would never otherwise hear approximately every six seconds inside a football ground.

Crystal Palace – Glad All Over

Glad all over – Palace Fans – YouTube

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The Dave Clark Five hit from 1963 is used by a variety of clubs across England, but Crystal Palace are the only current Premier League club to run it as their main pre-match anthem.

Palace have been using it since 1964, and even reached the heady heights of number 47 in the charts to mark their appearance in the 1990 FA Cup final, as performed by the squad of the time. Why isn’t that a thing anymore?

Everton – Theme From Z-Cars

Zcars siren before Merseyside Derby || Gwladys Street – YouTube

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The origins of the song are disputed, but what we do know for sure is that it was used at the theme song for the 1960s TV show Z-Cars – a police drama set in a fictional town on Merseyside – and was a minor hit in 1962.

Everton quickly took it up, followed by Watford a couple of years later; Sunderland have also used it and then abandoned it.

Liverpool – You’ll Never Walk Alone

Goosebumps! Spine tingling rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone by Liverpool fans and players – YouTube

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Derived from the 1945 musical Carousel, the song was a number 1 hit in 1963 hit for Gerry and the Pacemakers – whose Liverpool roots naturally meant it was quickly adopted by Liverpool.

That version of the song remains the one played at Anfield to this day, and has since transplanted to Celtic, Borussia Dortmund and plenty more across the continent.

Manchester City – Blue Moon

Blue Moon – Man City song , Manchester City vs Manchester United , 03/03/2024 – YouTube

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Another old standard, first written in 1934 and covered by a long list of artists including Elvis Presley, but which really hit its peak when it reached number one the form of The Marcels’ 1961 doo-wop version.

What we’re learning here is that – Arsenal aside – football fans in the 1960s were far more receptive to adopting modern chart hits as anthems than they are these days, when 2003’s Seven Nation Army is about as modern as it gets. Shame.

Newcastle United – Going Home: Theme Of The Local Hero The 1983 film Local Hero has not particularly entered the cultural lexicon of the past 40 years, despite its critical acclaim, but Mark Knopfler’s theme song for it endures as Newcastle United’s pre-match anthem. Appropriate, really.

The wordless song isn’t particularly chantable, in truth, and sounds…well, let’s be honest, it’s a bit cheesy. But hey, that was the style of the time, and it works for them.

Nottingham Forest – Mull of Kintyre

MULL OF KINTYRE AGAINST LIVERPOOL AT THE CITY GROUND – YouTube

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Being in the right place at the right time is important in life, and that was the case for Mull of Kintyre, a 1977 hit for Wings that hit the popular consciousness midway through Nottingham Forest’s title win of 1977/78.

Forest first started playing it out through the public address system in 2008, and have retained it ever since. Fair play: it generates a hell of an atmosphere at the City Ground. Charlton Athletic also lay claim to the song, incidentally.

Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur – Oh When The Saints/Spurs

🎶 “Oh When the Spurs, Go marching in” #tottenham #liverpool #matchday #premierleague #spurs #coys – YouTube

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In all honesty, it’s a bit rich to call one of the three most generic songs in the football chant canon your ‘anthem’.

But Southampton, to their credit, are at least called ‘the Saints’, so fine, we’ll let them have it. Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur give it that extra bit of welly by playing a slow trumpet rendition over the loudspeakers before each game to get the crowd gradually singing along.

Steven Chicken has been working as a football writer since 2009, taking in stints with Football365 and the Huddersfield Examiner. Steven still covers Huddersfield Town home and away for his own publication, WeAreTerriers.com. Steven is a two-time nominee for Regional Journalist of the Year at the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, making the shortlist in 2020 and 2023.