Before every match at the Emirates Stadium, I walk up the steps to the right of the Armoury, turn right and go to Celebration Corner. I go to visit my hero- Aaron Ramsey- whose celebration, after his 2017 FA Cup winner, is pictured in collage with several other iconic Arsenal celebrations. But behind me is the most iconic Arsenal celebration cast in bronze for all eternity. 

Thierry Henry’s statue must surely be the most popular of the six that currently surround the stadium, and understandably so. Dennis Bergkamp and Tony Adams are the only other players immortalised at the home of the Arsenal, while revolutionary managers Herbert Chapman and Arsène Wenger keep an eye on proceedings. 

The only other statue is that of the club’s life president, Ken Friar, as a child situated next to the bridge named in his honour. All these men are deserving of their statues outside the Emirates, and we are forever indebted to them for the legacies they have left the club. But they only represent some of what the club has become. 

Since 1987, Arsenal have been trailblazers in the women’s game, but nobody associated with that half of the club is captured in bronze outside the stadium they call home. It is beyond time for that to change, and what better time than now, after Arsenal Women’s second European triumph. 

There have been calls in the aftermath of the 2025 Champions League for a statue, but why leave it at one? If you’re going to ask for something big, you might as well go all out, so here I hope to make the case for five Arsenal WFC statues outside the Emirates Stadium. 

Vic Akers

The story is well-known: in 1987, Vic Akers (the then-head of Arsenal’s community initiatives) founded Arsenal Ladies and over the next two decades he would manage the team and win absolutely everything. Eleven league titles, ten FA Cups, and nine League Cups, doing five doubles and four trebles in the process, while also going six years unbeaten in the league between 2003 and 2009, and a winning run between November 2005 and April 2008. 

Akers bowed out at the end of the 2008/09 season with a final treble to add to his honours list. But the crowning glory was, of course, the UEFA Women’s Cup victory in 2007, which completed the perfect quadruple. Some have tried to replicate it, all have failed. Arsenal Women, Champions of Europe – the only in the land. That deserves a statue.

Jayne Ludlow

She might not be the most obvious choice for a statue at first glance but, legendary Welsh midfielder, Jayne Ludlow was the captain on the pitch when Arsenal held off Umeå to claim European glory in 2007 with club captain Faye White sidelined by injury. Her rallying cry before the final has parallels to a more recent triumph: “I’m never gonna play in a World Cup. I’m never gonna play in a World Cup final, Wales are never gonna qualify. This is my World Cup final.” 

European victory aside, Ludlow was one of Arsenal’s key players during the club’s most successful period, captaining the side during the quadruple season, and making 356 appearances across 13 years. She won 26 major titles at the club and picked up three individual honours to go with it. 

Ludlow would also play an influential role in shaping the future of the club, working as a part-time physio for Arsenal during her playing days, she would work with youth teams and helped instil the club’s values and culture into the young players (a list which includes a young Leah Williamson). 

But the simplest reason Ludlow deserves a statue is this: if you look up Arsenal’s combined all-time goal-scoring records, Ludlow sits second with 211 goals. Only Thierry Henry has scored more. 

Kim Little

Joining the club for the first time at age 17 in 2008, Kim Little has made over 300 appearances and scored over 170 goals for Arsenal across two stints. Jayne Ludlow is the only woman to have scored more than her for the Gunners. Little has been the consummate professional and a model captain throughout her tenure at the club, becoming one of the club’s most loved players and an icon of the sport. 

She may not draw the headlines, but Little is universally admired in the game by players and staff, teammates and opponents alike. Joining a year after the club’s first European success, Little would win every trophy with Arsenal, save for the elusive Champions League. That is, until May 2025, when Captain Kim would lead Arsenal to a second European title with a famous 1-0 victory over Barcelona. 

Being from a smaller footballing nation, the Champions League was the biggest trophy reasonably achievable for Kim Little in her career – much like it was for Jayne Ludlow – and the team winning the title for Kim draws parallels across time to 2007. Despite chants of “Ten more years, ten more years, Kimmy Little”, it’s clear that she’s now in the twilight years of her playing career. What better way to honour her than to grant her the same right as legendary club captain, Tony Adams?

Renée Slegers

Admittedly, it’s probably a tad premature to call for a manager to get a statue less than a year into the role. But Renée Slegers has already assured her place in the history books amongst Arsenal’s greatest managers. Taking the role on an interim basis after Jonas Eidevall packed up and left, Slegers would resurrect a team that seemed down and out by October. Although the league campaign was unsalvageable by the time she took over, and the domestic cups would fall by the wayside, Slegers would galvanise her team and drive the Gunners to a second Champions League title. 

Arsenal would beat the champions of Germany, Italy, France and Spain as they ran the gauntlet from the first qualifying round to the final in Lisbon, in a European campaign for the ages. Knockout round comeback victories against Real Madrid and OL Féminin would set the stage for a final against juggernauts Barcelona. The victory was nothing short of a tactical masterclass and it’s a victory that will live long in the memory of everyone touched by this team. 

At the end of the WSL season, Slegers addressed the Emirates Stadium crowd and, with the Champions League final in mind, said “We are very humble, we will show respect, but we go there to win.” And win we did. 

Maria Petri

There will be more managers and players deserving of a statue at the Emirates in the future. In some cases, you can make a pretty compelling argument already, like for Leah Williamson. But football is not only about what happens on the pitch, and football without fans is nothing. We are all drawn to Arsenal, and specifically Arsenal Women, for our own reasons but we all share a common love, a sense of belonging, a sense of home. 

No single person creates a culture at a football club, but arguably no single person has done more to shape Arsenal’s culture than Maria Petri. An unabashedly positive voice at Highbury, the Emirates Stadium, Meadow Park and wherever the Arsenal would travel, Maria would loudly voice her support for the club over seven decades. Without a family of her own, Arsenal would become Maria’s home, and she would shape it into the home we share today. She would pass away in 2022, with supporters, players and the club paying tribute to her. 

“I shall be oh so upset when I die, I won’t be able to watch Arsenal anymore,” she once said to DAZN. Maria Petri was once a sole voice supporting the women’s team, but her support has blossomed into the tens of thousands who watch the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium each season. At home and away, in the stands and in the chants, in the scarves and in the rallying cry, Maria lives on. It’s a testament to her impact on the club that she not only shaped what we say but, indeed, how we say it: come on you Gunners.