In 2006, the English soccer (football) season came down to the final day. In the Premier League, the top four teams advance to the European Champions League, while the team that finishes fifth goes into a secondary tournament of European teams. London club Tottenham Hotspur needed only to match the result of their nearby arch-rivals Arsenal to finish 4th, leaving Arsenal 5th and missing out. Tottenham were playing another London, club, West Ham United, away, while Arsenal were playing Manchester-area club Wigan Athletic in the last-ever game at their old stadium, Highbury, heightening the emotion further. The night before, while staying at the Marriott Canary Wharf (sequestered to avoid distractions), several "Spurs" players came down with food poisoning. Club management called the League office to try to postpone the game, to no avail. By kickoff, only one regular was still feeling ill, but Spurs lost to West Ham 2-1, while Arsenal came from 2-1 behind to win 4-2 and take the 4th spot. Ever since, Arsenal fans have sung "The Lasagne Song" -- one of many songs that soccer fans (sorry, football supporters) have sung to the tune of "Volare." I decided to write a full version. This sounds like the kind of thing that could have happened to the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Buffalo Bills, the Philadelphia Eagles, the pre-1994 New York Rangers. Or even, within England, to Newcastle United. But it didn't happen to them, it happened to Tottenham. This past Sunday, Arsenal smashed Tottenham, 5-2, and again showed, as another song goes, "There's only one team in London." (And it's not Chelsea.) Here's a contemporary link to the story, so you can see I'm not making this up. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/spurs-in-poisoned-lasagne-claim-624141

And here's a clip of the regular, much shorter version of the song in action, in a match between the North London rivals at Arsenal's new home, the Emirates Stadium. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZjk6qtyZCg