How Declan Rice’s gypsy curse is responsible for Arsenal’s ongoing trophy drought | OneFootball

You’ll have seen this tweet. It’s possible you’ve thought about this tweet while doing the washing up or dreamt about it during your deepest magnesium-fuelled REM sleep, such is its ubiquity.

Since the account ‘West Ham Central’ posted this message in July 2023, accompanied by Rice lifting the Conference League trophy, it has been viewed over 50million times on X.

In almost three years since, it has acquired more depth than its initial bitterness and playground pettiness.

It has become the internet equivalent of a gypsy’s curse as Arsenal have seemingly developed an aversion to major silverware.

Back in 2023, Rice was about to sign for the upwardly mobile Gunners in a £105million deal, a transfer that had been signposted for months beforehand.

He’d been a Rolls Royce midfielder at West Ham, head and shoulders above his team-mates in a very good side. Captaining them to a first (proper) trophy in 43 years was the perfect send-off.

West Ham fans are renowned for holding a grudge – just ask ‘Big Fat Frank’ Lampard, Paul Ince or Jermain Defoe – but most understood Rice’s desire to play on a bigger stage.

But such was the faith in his talent that some Hammers supporters believed their star man could do better than Arsenal.

Treble-winning Manchester City had also submitted a bid and Rice would have slotted into their midfield alongside Rodri.

Pep Guardiola would have relished the opportunity to refine such a fine player technically and tactically, as would the likes of Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.

But Arsenal appeared a natural fit for Rice, a statement signing for a club poised to become perennial challengers for the Premier League title.

The initial reaction to West Ham Central’s tweet is a delight when viewed with the distance of time. Foaming Arsenal fans dismissing it with laughing emojis, hubristically claiming Rice would be the centrepiece of a trophy-guzzling dynasty.

Checking the replies in April 2026 reveal a very different flavour. You’d have got long odds on Arsenal being trophyless deep into Rice’s third season at the Emirates.

As it stands, Arsenal fans are lying low like a trench-raiding party in No Man’s Land, while everyone else proclaims the poster as football’s greatest visionary.

“Gather here if you are here from the future,” one typical reply reads. “The prophecy was foretold, no one believed it.”

Timestamps reveal the post’s durability, surfacing whenever Arsenal – or England – have fallen short of the finishing line.

If Arsenal fail to win either the Premier League or Champions League in May, Mikel Arteta may need to channel the energy of Proper Football Man Barry Fry.

In 1993, Fry became manager of Birmingham City and soon embarked on a 15-match winless run. He then learned of the 100-year-long curse alleged to have been put on St Andrew’s when the club moved there in 1906.

Dispensing with logic due to desperation, or simply figuring he had nothing to lose, Fry proceeded to urinate on all four corners of the pitch having been told this would break the curse.

Birmingham went on to win seven of their next 10 matches, with their manager presumably loading up on four-leaf clovers and rabbit’s feet with each victory.

We’re not sure what the internet equivalent would be. Some Arsenal fans are attempting to have the tweet removed due to copyright infringement, despite the clip coming from CBS Golazo, but screenshots would ensure its longevity.

Perhaps gutting the internet or simply travelling to X’s offices in San Francisco and p*ssing all over Elon Musk’s routers will do the trick.

The less radical option will be crossing all fingers and toes in the hope Arsenal get a grip. Or hope Arteta loosens his, encouraging some attacking ingenuity instead of the current self-defeating rigidity.

A word of caution though: Fry’s Birmingham were relegated at the end of the 1993/94 season. Curses are contrary by their very nature.

Even if Arsenal end their six-year trophy drought in May, this post already belongs in a museum as a pinprick to online hubris.