Arsenal have invited 40 people who have recently left care to Christmas dinner at the club this year.

According to Henry Winter from the Times, Arsenal have invited 40 people who used to be in care for Christmas dinner.

The Gunners realise that a lot of people are alone at this time of year and want to give those less privileged somewhere to go in order to combat this.

The Christmas dinner, set to take place at the club on December 25, has been organised by a project called Go Forward Youth. The organisation aims to tackle loneliness all year long for care leavers.

Arsenal in the Community, who are always amazing when it comes to charity efforts in Islington and the local area, decided to get on board and help 40 people who have left care have a jollier Christmas.

Arsenal in the Community’s Jack Ferguson said: “We are looking forward to making it a special day for these young adults and their children who may otherwise have spent Christmas alone. It will be great fun for everyone.”

Kadeema Woodbyrne of Go Forward Youth added: “This is Go Forward Youth’s launch event. We are enormously grateful for the generosity of Arsenal Football club in hosting this event for Islington care leavers. Go Forward Youth provides vital services for care leavers including respite at time of crisis.”

To put it mildly, being in care can be really tough and with around 90,000 young people passing through the care system every year, it’s not a small issue by any means.

While in care, young people often have someone to turn to during the festive period within the system. However, if they’ve just been released, they can often find themselves alone, which can be a struggle at any time but becomes particularly acute at Christmas.

It really is a fantastic cause and I couldn’t be prouder that Arsenal have, once again, shown how much they care about the local community.