Arsenal was the first club from southern England to join the Football League in 1893, and it reached the First Division in 1904. Relegated only once, in 1913, it continues the longest streak in the top division,[3] and has won the second-most top-flight matches in English football history.[4] In the 1930s, Arsenal won five League Championships and two FA Cups, and another FA Cup and two Championships after the war. In 1970–71, it won its first League and FA Cup Double. Between 1989 and 2005, they won five League titles and five FA Cups, including two more Doubles. They completed the 20th century with the highest average league position.[5] Between 1998 and 2017, Arsenal qualified for the UEFA Champions League for nineteen consecutive seasons.
In 1886, munitions workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich founded the club as Dial Square. In 1913 the club crossed the city to Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, becoming close neighbours of Tottenham Hotspur, and creating the North London derby. Herbert Chapman, who changed the fortunes of Arsenal forever, won the club its first silverware, and his legacy brought the club domination in the 1930s. He helped introduce the WM formation, floodlights, and shirt numbers;[6] he also added the white sleeves and brighter red to the club's jersey.[7]Arsène Wenger is the club's longest-serving manager and has won the most trophies for it. He won a record seven FA Cups, and his title-winning team set an English record for the longest top-flight unbeaten league run at 49 games between 2003 and 2004, receiving the nickname The Invincibles.
In 2006, the club moved to the nearby Emirates Stadium. With an annual revenue of £367.1m in the 2021–22 season,[8] Arsenal was estimated to be worth US$2.26 billion by Forbes, making it the world's tenth-most valuable football club,[9] while it is one of the most followed on social media.[10] The motto of the club is Victoria Concordia Crescit, Latin for "Victory Through Harmony".
Royal Arsenal squad in 1888. Original captain David Danskin sits on the right of the bench.
In October 1886, Scotsman David Danskin and fifteen fellow munitions workers in Woolwich formed Dial Square Football Club, named after a workshop at the heart of the Royal Arsenal complex. Each member contributed sixpence and Danskin also added three shillings to help form the club.[11][note 1] Dial Square played their first match on 11 December 1886 against Eastern Wanderers and won 6–0.[15] The club had renamed to Royal Arsenal by January 1887,[14][16] and its first home was Plumstead Common,[14] though they spent most of their time playing at the Manor Ground. Their first trophies were the Kent Senior Cup and London Charity Cup in 1889–90 and the London Senior Cup in 1890–91; these were the only county association trophies Arsenal won during their time in South East London.[17][18] In 1891, Royal Arsenal became the first London club to turn professional.[19]
Royal Arsenal renamed for a second time upon becoming a limited liability company in 1893. They registered their new name, Woolwich Arsenal, with the Football League when the club ascended later that year.[20][21]: 5–21 Woolwich Arsenal was the first southern member of the Football League, starting out in the Second Division and reaching the First Division in 1904. Falling attendances, due to financial difficulties among the munitions workers and the arrival of more accessible football clubs elsewhere in the city, led the club close to bankruptcy by 1910.[22][21]: 112–149 Businessmen Henry Norris and William Hall became involved in the club, and sought to move them elsewhere.[23][21]: 22–42
1912–1925: Bank of England club
In 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, the club moved across the river to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury.[24][25][26] In 1919, the Football League controversially voted to promote The Arsenal, instead of relegated local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, into the newly enlarged First Division, despite only finishing fifth in the Second Division's last pre-war season of 1914–15. Later that year, The Arsenal started dropping "The" in official documents, gradually shifting its name for the final time towards Arsenal, as it is generally known today.[27]
With a new home and First Division football, attendances were more than double those at the Manor Ground, and Arsenal's budget grew rapidly.[28][29] With record-breaking spending and gate receipts, Arsenal quickly became known as the Bank of England club.[30][31]
1925–1934: Herbert Chapman's legendary Gunners
Arsenal's location and record-breaking salary offer lured star Huddersfield Town manager Herbert Chapman in 1925.[32][33] Over the next five years, Chapman built a revolutionary new Arsenal. Firstly, he appointed an enduring new trainer Tom Whittaker who would one day rise to become a fabled Arsenal manager himself.[34] With the help of player Charlie Buchan, implemented the nascent WM formation which would serve as a stable bedrock to his outfit.[35][36] He also captured generational young talents such as Cliff Bastin and Eddie Hapgood, whilst also lavishing Highbury's high income on stars such as David Jack and Alex James.
Transformed, Chapman's Arsenal claimed their first national trophy, the FA Cup in 1930, and League Championships followed in 1930–31 and 1932–33.[37] Chapman also presided over off-pitch changes: white sleeves and shirt numbers were added to the kit;[note 2]a Tube station was named after the club;[41][42] and the first of two opulent, Art Deco stands was completed, with some of the first floodlights in English football.[29] Suddenly, in the middle of the 1933–34 season, Chapman died of pneumonia.[43]
1934–1947: Shaw, Allison & the Second World War
Chapman's death meant work was left to his colleagues Joe Shaw and George Allison, with both proving to be shrewd & consummate custodians of Chapman's excellent Arsenal team, seeing out a hat-trick of league wins with the 1933–34, 1934–35, and 1937–38 titles, and then furthermore winning the 1936 FA Cup.[44][45]
World War II meant the Football League was suspended for seven years. While Arsenal were paraded by the nation as a symbol of solidarity with war efforts, the war took a huge toll on the team as the club had had more players killed than any top flight club.[46] Furthermore, debt from reconstructing an ambitious North Bank Stand redevelopment greatly bled Arsenal's resources.[47][29]
1947–1962: Tom Whittaker's meteoric Gunners
Despite this period of turbulence & churn, Arsenal returned to win the league in the second post-war season of 1947–48. This was Tom Whittaker's first season as manager, and meant the club equalled the champions of England record.[48] Tom Whittaker, despite his disarming humble & modest disposition, was oft-referred to as the "brains" behind the charismatic Chapman's legendary Arsenal side.[49][50] He gathered a successful & highly skilled Arsenal side in spite of greatly limited resources, with a fiery and expansive style that drove great fanfare at the time.[51]
They won a third FA Cup in 1950, and then won a record-breaking seventh championship in 1952–53 making Arsenal the most successful team in English history at the time.[52][53]
1962–1984: Billy Wright, Bertie Mee and Neill's cohorts
Arsenal were not to win the League or the FA Cup for another 18 years. The '53 Champions squad had aged, and the club failed to attract strong enough replacements.[54] Although Arsenal were competitive during these years, their fortunes had waned; the club spent most of the 1950s and 1960s in mid-table mediocrity.[55] Even former England captain Billy Wright could not bring the club any success as manager, in a stint between 1962 and 1966.[56]
One of Mee's double winners, George Graham, returned as manager in 1986, with Arsenal winning their first League Cup in 1987, Graham's first season in charge. New signings Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon and Steve Bould had joined the club by 1988 to complete the "famous Back Four", led by homegrown player Tony Adams.[63][note 3] Graham's credo of prioritising defensive excellence seemingly clashed with the club's traditional expansive motif and with the young player demographic at the club at the time; however, it quickly gained a cult following after initial successes.[64]
After completing the only unbeaten Premier League season, a unique gold trophy was commissioned to Arsenal.
The club metamorphosed during the tenure of French manager Arsène Wenger, who was appointed in 1996. Attacking football,[69] an overhaul of dietary and fitness practices,[note 4] and efficiency with money[note 5] defined his reign. Accumulating key players from Wenger's homeland, such as Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, Arsenal won a second League and Cup double in 1997–98 and a third in 2001–02. In addition, the club reached the final of the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup, were victorious in the 2003 and 2005 FA Cup finals, and won the Premier League in 2003–04 without losing a single match, an achievement which earned the side the nickname "The Invincibles".[78] This feat came within a run of 49 league matches unbeaten from 7 May 2003 to 24 October 2004, a national record.[79]
Arsenal finished in either first or second place in the league in eight of Wenger's first nine seasons at the club, although they never won the title in two consecutive seasons.[80]
The club had never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League until 2005–06; in that season they became the first club from London to reach the final in the competition's fifty-year history, but were beaten 2–1 by Barcelona.[81] In July 2006, they moved into the Emirates Stadium, after 93 years at Highbury.[82]
Arsenal reached the final of the 2007 and 2011 League Cups, losing 2–1 to Chelsea and Birmingham City respectively. The club had not gained a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup until, spearheaded by club record acquisition Mesut Özil, Arsenal beat Hull City in the 2014 FA Cup Final, coming back from a 2–0 deficit to win the match 3–2.[83] A year later, Arsenal completed another victorious FA Cup campaign,[84] and became the most successful club in the tournament's history by winning their 13th FA Cup in 2016–17. However, in that same season Arsenal finished fifth in the league, the first time they had finished outside the top four since before Wenger arrived in 1996.[85] In his 21st and final season, Arsenal under Arsene Wenger finished sixth and won the community shield.[86][87] Wenger departed Arsenal following the end of the season, on 13 May 2018.[88]
2018–2020: post-Wenger revolution
After conducting an overhaul in the club's operating model to coincide with Wenger's departure, Spaniard Unai Emery was named as the club's new head coach on 23 May 2018. He became the club's first ever 'head coach' and second manager from outside the United Kingdom.[89][90] In Emery's first season, Arsenal finished fifth in the Premier League and as runner-up in the Europa League.[91][92] On 29 November 2019, Emery was dismissed as manager and former player and assistant first team coach Freddie Ljungberg was appointed as interim head coach.[93][94][95]
2020–: Arteta era
On 20 December 2019, Arsenal appointed former club captain Mikel Arteta as the new head coach.[96][97] Arsenal finished the league season in eighth, their lowest finish since 1994–95, but beat Chelsea 2–1 to earn a record-extending 14th FA Cup win.[98] After the season, Arteta's title was changed from head coach to manager.[99] On 18 April 2021, Arsenal were announced as a founding club of the breakaway European competition The Super League;[100] they withdrew from the competition two days later amid near-universal condemnation.[101] Arsenal finished the 2020–21 season in eighth place once again, not qualifying for a European competition for the first time in 26 years.[102] In the 2022–23 Premier League season, Arsenal returned to the Champions League by coming second to Manchester City. Arsenal led the league for most of the season, but suffered a series of losses at the end of the run, setting a record for most time spent on top of the table without actually winning the league.[103]
Crest
Crests of Arsenal F.C. prior to current current crest
Royal Arsenal's first crest, adopted in 1888, two years after the formation of the club
Unveiled in 1888, Royal Arsenal's first crest featured three cannons viewed from above, pointing northwards, similar to the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich (nowadays transferred to the coat of arms of the Royal Borough of Greenwich). These can sometimes be mistaken for chimneys, but the presence of a carved lion's head and a cascabel on each are clear indicators that they are cannons.[104] This was dropped after the move to Highbury in 1913, only to be reinstated in 1922, when the club adopted a crest featuring a single cannon, pointing eastwards, with the club's nickname, The Gunners, inscribed alongside it; this crest only lasted until 1925, when the cannon was reversed to point westward and its barrel slimmed down.[104]
In 1949, the club unveiled a modernised crest featuring the same style of cannon below the club's name, set in blackletter typography, and above the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington and a scroll inscribed with the club's newly adopted Latin motto, Victoria Concordia Crescit (VCC) – "victory comes from harmony" – coined by the club's programme editor Harry Homer.[104][105] For the first time, the crest was rendered in colour, which varied slightly over the crest's lifespan, finally becoming red, gold and green. Because of the numerous revisions of the crest, Arsenal were unable to copyright it.[106] Although the club had managed to register the crest as a trademark, and had fought (and eventually won) a long legal battle with a local street trader who sold "unofficial" Arsenal merchandise,[107] Arsenal eventually sought a more comprehensive legal protection. Therefore, in 2002 they introduced a new crest featuring more modern curved lines and a simplified style, which was copyrightable.[108]
The cannon once again faces east, and the club's name is written in a sans-serif typeface above the cannon. Green was replaced by dark blue. The new crest was criticised by some supporters; the Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association claimed that the club had ignored much of Arsenal's history and tradition with such a radical modern design, and that fans had not been properly consulted on the issue.[109]
Until the 1960s, a badge was worn on the playing shirt only for high-profile matches such as FA Cup finals, usually in the form of a monogram of the club's initials in red on a white background.[110]
The monogram theme was developed into an Art Deco-style badge on which the letters A and C framed a football rather than the letter F, the whole set within a hexagonal border. This early example of a corporate logo, introduced as part of Herbert Chapman's rebranding of the club in the 1930s, was used not only on Cup Final shirts but as a design feature throughout Highbury Stadium, including above the main entrance and inlaid in the floors.[111]
From 1967, a white cannon was regularly worn on the shirts, until replaced by the club crest, sometimes with the addition of the nickname "The Gunners", in the 1990s.[110]
In the 2011–12 season, Arsenal celebrated their 125th anniversary. The celebrations included a modified version of the current crest worn on their jerseys for the season. The crest was all-white, surrounded by 15 oak leaves to the right and 15 laurel leaves to the left. The oak leaves represent the 15 founding members of the club who met at the Royal Oak pub. The 15 laurel leaves represent the design detail on the six pence pieces paid by the founding fathers to establish the club. The laurel leaves also represent strength. To complete the crest, 1886 and 2011 are shown on either sides of the motto "Forward" at the bottom of the crest.[112]
Arsenal's original home colours. The team wore a similar kit (but with redcurrant socks) during the 2005–06 season.
White sleeves first appeared on the shirt in 1933.
Yellow shirt with blue trim and blue shorts are Arsenal's traditional away colours.
Since the 1990s, Blue has been prominently used for either the away or third kit.
For much of Arsenal's history, their home colours have been bright red shirts with white sleeves and white shorts, though this has not always been the case. The choice of red is in recognition of a charitable donation from Nottingham Forest, soon after Arsenal's foundation in 1886. Two of Dial Square's founding members, Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates, were former Forest players who had moved to Woolwich for work. As they put together the first team in the area, no kit could be found, so Beardsley and Bates wrote home for help and received a set of kit and a ball.[113] The shirt was redcurrant, a dark shade of red, and was worn with white shorts and socks with blue and white hoops.[114][115]
In 1933, Herbert Chapman, wanting his players to be more distinctly dressed, updated the kit, adding white sleeves and changing the shade to a brighter pillar box red. Two possibilities have been suggested for the origin of the white sleeves. One story reports that Chapman noticed a supporter in the stands wearing a red sleeveless sweater over a white shirt; another was that he was inspired by a similar outfit worn by the cartoonist Tom Webster, with whom Chapman played golf.[116] Regardless of which story is true, the red-and-white shirts have come to define Arsenal, and the team have worn that combination ever since that time, aside from two seasons. The first was 1966–67, when Arsenal wore all-red shirts;[115] this proved unpopular, and the white sleeves returned the following season. The second was 2005–06, the last season that Arsenal played at Highbury, when the team wore commemorative redcurrant shirts similar to those worn in 1913, their first season in the stadium; the side reverted to their normal colours at the start of the next season.[116] In the 2008–09 season, Arsenal replaced the traditional all-white sleeves with red sleeves that bore a broad white stripe.[115]
Arsenal's home colours have been the inspiration for at least three other clubs. In 1909, Sparta Prague adopted a dark red kit like the one Arsenal wore at the time;[116] in 1938, Hibernian adopted the design of the Arsenal shirt sleeves in their own green-and-white strip.[117] In 1941, Luis Robledo, an England-schooled founder of Santa Fe and a fan of Arsenal, selected the main colours for his newly created team. In 1920, Sporting Clube de Braga's manager returned from a game at Highbury and changed his team's green kit to a duplicate of Arsenal's red-with-white-sleeves-and-shorts, giving rise to the team's nickname of Os Arsenalistas.[118] These teams still wear those designs to this day.
For many years Arsenal's away colours were white or navy blue. However, in 1968 the FA banned navy shirts (they looked too similar to referees' black kit), so in the 1969–70 season Arsenal introduced an away kit of yellow shirts with blue shorts. This kit was worn in the 1971 FA Cup Final when Arsenal beat Liverpool to secure the double for the first time in their history. The yellow and blue strip became almost as famous as their iconic red-and-white home kit.[119][120] Arsenal reached the FA Cup final again the following year wearing the red-and-white home strip and were beaten by Leeds United. Arsenal then competed in three consecutive FA Cup finals between 1978 and 1980 wearing their "lucky" yellow and blue strip,[119] which remained the club's away strip until the release of a green and navy away kit in 1982–83. The following season, Arsenal returned to the yellow and blue scheme, albeit with a darker shade of blue than before.
When Nike took over from Adidas as Arsenal's kit provider in 1994, Arsenal's away colours were again changed to two-tone blue shirts and shorts. Since the advent of the lucrative replica kit market, the away kits have been changed regularly, with Arsenal usually releasing both away and third choice kits. During this period the designs have been either all blue designs, or variations on the traditional yellow and blue, such as the metallic gold and navy strip used in the 2001–02 season, the yellow and dark grey used from 2005 to 2007, and the yellow and maroon of 2010 to 2013.[121]
Until 2014, the away kit was changed every season, and the outgoing away kit became the third-choice kit if a new home kit was being introduced in the same year.[122]
After Puma began manufacturing Arsenal's kits in 2014, new home, away and third kits were released every season. In the 2017–18 season, Puma released a new colour scheme for the away and third kits. The away kit was a light blue, which faded to a darker blue near the bottom, while the third kit was black with red highlight. Puma returned to the original colour scheme for the 2018–19 season.[123]
From the 2019–20 season Arsenal's kits are manufactured by Adidas.[124] In the 2020–21 season, Adidas unveiled the new away kit to
mark the 15-year anniversary of leaving Highbury. The new away kit is white, with a marbled pattern to replicate the iconic marble hall in the East stand of Highbury.[125]
Before joining the Football League, Arsenal played briefly on Plumstead Common, then at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, then spent three years between 1890 and 1893 at the nearby Invicta Ground. Upon joining the Football League in 1893, the club returned to the Manor Ground and installed stands and terracing, upgrading it from just a field. Arsenal continued to play their home games there for the next twenty years (with two exceptions in the 1894–95 season), until the move to north London in 1913.[130][131]
Widely referred to as Highbury, Arsenal Stadium was the club's home from September 1913 until May 2006. The original stadium was designed by the renowned football architect Archibald Leitch, and had a design common to many football grounds in the UK at the time, with a single covered stand and three open-air banks of terracing.[29] The entire stadium was given a massive overhaul in the 1930s: new Art Deco West and East stands were constructed, opening in 1932 and 1936 respectively, and a roof was added to the North Bank terrace, which was bombed during the Second World War and not restored until 1954.[29]
Highbury could hold more than 60,000 spectators at its peak, and had a capacity of 57,000 until the early 1990s. The Taylor Report and Premier League regulations obliged Arsenal to convert Highbury to an all-seater stadium in time for the 1993–94 season, thus reducing the capacity to 38,419 seated spectators.[132] This capacity had to be reduced further during Champions League matches to accommodate additional advertising boards, so much so that for two seasons, from 1998 to 2000, Arsenal played Champions League home matches at Wembley, which could house more than 70,000 spectators.[133]
Expansion of Highbury was restricted because the East Stand had been designated as a Grade II listed building and the other three stands were close to residential properties.[29] These limitations prevented the club from maximising matchday revenue during the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, putting them in danger of being left behind in the football boom of that time.[134] After considering various options, in 2000 Arsenal proposed building a new 60,361-capacity stadium at Ashburton Grove, since named the Emirates Stadium, about 500 metres south-west of Highbury.[135] The project was initially delayed by red tape and rising costs,[136] and construction was completed in July 2006, in time for the start of the 2006–07 season.[137] The stadium was named after its sponsors, the airline company Emirates, with whom the club signed the largest sponsorship deal in English football history, worth around £100 million.[138] Some fans referred to the ground as Ashburton Grove, or the Grove, as they did not agree with corporate sponsorship of stadium names.[139] The stadium will be officially known as Emirates Stadium until at least 2028, and the airline will be the club's shirt sponsor until at least 2024.[140][141] From the start of the 2010–11 season on, the stands of the stadium have been officially known as North Bank, East Stand, West Stand and Clock end.[142] The capacity of the Emirates now stands at 60,704.[143]
Arsenal's fanbase are referred to as "Gooners" – the name derived from the club's nickname "The Gunners". Virtually all home matches sell out; in 2007–08 Arsenal had the second-highest average League attendance for an English club (60,070, which was 99.5% of available capacity),[149] and, as of 2015, the third-highest all-time average attendance.[150] Arsenal have the seventh highest average attendance of European football clubs only behind Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Schalke 04.[151][152][153][154] The club's location, adjoining wealthy areas such as Canonbury and Barnsbury, mixed areas such as Islington, Holloway, Highbury, and the adjacent London Borough of Camden, and largely working-class areas such as Finsbury Park and Stoke Newington, has meant that Arsenal's supporters have come from a variety of social classes. Much of the Afro-Caribbean support comes from the neighbouring London Borough of Hackney and a large portion of the South Asian Arsenal supporters commute to the stadium from Wembley Park, North West of the capital. There was also traditionally a large Irish community that followed Arsenal, with the surrounding Islington and particularly the nearby Archway area having a large community of residents with Irish heritage. But Irish migration to North London is recently much lower than in the 1960s or 1970s.
Like all major English football clubs, Arsenal have a number of domestic supporters' clubs, including the Arsenal Football Supporters' Club, which works closely with the club, and the Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association, which maintains a more independent line. The Arsenal Supporters' Trust promotes greater participation in ownership of the club by fans. The club's supporters also publish fanzines such as The Gooner, Gunflash and the satirical Up The Arse!
There have always been Arsenal supporters outside London, and since the advent of satellite television, a supporter's attachment to a football club has become less dependent on geography. Consequently, Arsenal have a significant number of fans from beyond London and all over the world; in 2007, 24 UK, 37 Irish and 49 other overseas supporters' clubs were affiliated with the club.[155] A 2011 report by SPORT+MARKT estimated Arsenal's global fanbase at 113 million.[156] The club's social media activity was the fifth highest in world football during the 2014–15 season.[157]
In addition to the usual English football chants, Arsenal's supporters sing "One-Nil to the Arsenal" (to the tune of "Go West") and also regularly sing "Who's that team they call the Arsenal", "Good Old Arsenal" (to the tune of "Rule, Britannia!") and "We're the North Bank/Clock End Highbury". The fans also chant "Boring, Boring Arsenal" in self-deprecating reference to Arsenal's reputation during the 1970s and 1980s as an overly defensive, cautious team.[161]
Arsenal playing against rivals Tottenham, in a game known as the North London derby, in November 2010
Arsenal's longest-running and deepest rivalry is with their nearest major neighbour, Tottenham Hotspur; matches between the two are referred to as the North London derby.[162] There also exists a rivalry between Arsenal and Chelsea. In addition, Arsenal and Manchester United developed a strong on-pitch rivalry in the late 1980s, which intensified in the early 2000s when both clubs were competing for the Premier League title. During the 2010s and now the 2020s, a competitive rivalry with Manchester City began during the Arteta era following a close title race in the 2022-23 Premier League season.[163][164][165]
Mascot
The club mascot is Gunnersaurus Rex, a smiling, 7-foot-tall green dinosaur, who first appeared at a home match against Manchester City in August 1994 (or 1993). He is based on a drawing by then-11-year-old Peter Lovell, whose design and another similar idea won a Junior Gunners contest; his official backstory is that he hatched from an egg found during renovations at Highbury.[166][167][168][169][170][171]
The same person, Jerry Quy, has been inside the suit from the start; in early October 2020, as part of cost-cutting brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the club made him redundant from that and his other part-time job in supporter liaison, together with 55 full-time employees, although they later said Gunnersaurus could return after spectators were allowed back in stadiums.[170][172][173] An online fundraiser was begun for Quy,[173] and Mesut Özil offered to pay his salary himself as long as he remains with Arsenal.[174][175] In November 2020, in advance of COVID-19 regulations being relaxed to allow supporters to attend home games from 3 December, Arsenal announced that Gunnersaurus would return, to be played by a roster of people that could include Quy if he wished.[176][177]
The largest shareholder on the Arsenal board is American sports tycoon Stan Kroenke.[178] Kroenke first launched a bid for the club in April 2007,[179] and faced competition for shares from Red and White Securities, which acquired its first shares from David Dein in August 2007.[180] Red & White Securities was co-owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov and London-based Iranian financier Farhad Moshiri, though Usmanov bought Moshiri's stake in 2016.[181] Kroenke came close to the 30% takeover threshold in November 2009, when he increased his holding to 18,594 shares (29.9%).[182][183] In April 2011, Kroenke achieved a full takeover by purchasing the shareholdings of Nina Bracewell-Smith and Danny Fiszman, taking his shareholding to 62.89%.[184][185] In May 2017, Kroenke owned 41,721 shares (67.05%) and Red & White Securities owned 18,695 shares (30.04%).[178] In January 2018, Kroenke expanded his ownership by buying twenty-two more shares, taking his total ownership to 67.09%.[186] In August 2018, Kroenke bought out Usmanov for £550m. Now owning more than 90% of the shares, he had the required stake to complete the buyout of the remaining shares and become the sole owner.[187] There has been criticism of Arsenal's poor performance since Kroenke took over, which has been attributed to his ownership.[188]Ivan Gazidis was the club's Chief executive from 2009 to 2018.[178][189]
Arsenal's parent company, Arsenal Holdings plc, operates as an unlisted public limited company, whose ownership is considerably different from that of other football clubs. Only 62,219 shares in Arsenal have been issued,[178] and they are not traded on a public exchange such as the FTSE or AIM; instead, they are traded relatively infrequently on the ICAP Securities and Derivatives Exchange, a specialist market. On 29 May 2017, a single share in Arsenal had a mid price of £18,000, which sets the club's market capitalisation value at approximately £1,119.9m.[190] Most football clubs are not listed on an exchange, which makes direct comparisons of their values difficult. Consultants Brand Finance valued the club's brand and intangible assets at $703m in 2015, and consider Arsenal an AAA global brand.[191] Business magazine Forbesvalued Arsenal as a whole at $2.238 billion (£1.69 billion) in 2018, ranked third in English football.[192] Research by the Henley Business School ranked Arsenal second in English football, modelling the club's value at £1.118 billion in 2015.[193][194]
Arsenal's financial results for the 2019–20 season showed an after tax loss of £47.8m, due in part to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[195] The Deloitte Football Money League is a publication that homogenises and compares clubs' annual revenue. Deloitte put Arsenal's footballing revenue in 2019 at £392.7m (€445.6m),[196] ranking Arsenal eleventh among world football clubs.[157] Arsenal and Deloitte both listed the match day revenue generated in 2019 by the Emirates Stadium as €109.2m (£96.2m).[196]
In popular culture
Partly due to their proximity to the Alexandra Palace transmitter, Arsenal have appeared in a number of media "firsts". On 22 January 1927, their match at Highbury against Sheffield United was the first English League match to be broadcast live on radio.[197][198] A decade later, on 16 September 1937, an exhibition match between Arsenal's first team and the reserves was the first football match in the world to be televised live.[197][199] Arsenal also featured in the first edition of the BBC's Match of the Day, which screened highlights of their match against Liverpool at Anfield on 22 August 1964.[197][200]Sky's coverage of Arsenal's January 2010 match against Manchester United was the first live public broadcast of a sports event on 3D television.[197][201]
As one of the most successful teams in the country, Arsenal have often featured when football is depicted in the arts in Britain. They formed the backdrop to one of the earliest football-related novels, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939), which was made into a film in the same year.[202] The story centres on a friendly match between Arsenal and an amateur side, one of whose players is poisoned while playing. Many Arsenal players appeared as themselves in the film and manager George Allison was given a speaking part.[203] The book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby was an autobiographical account of Hornby's life and relationship with football, and with Arsenal in particular. Published in 1992, it formed part of the revival and rehabilitation of football in British society during the 1990s.[204] The book was twice adapted for the cinema – the 1997 British film focuses on Arsenal's 1988–89 title win, and a 2005 American version features a fan of baseball's Boston Red Sox.[205]
Arsenal have often been stereotyped as a defensive and "boring" side, especially during the 1970s and 1980s.[206][207] In the 1997 film The Full Monty the principal characters move forward in a line and raise their hands, deliberately mimicking the Arsenal defence's offside trap, in an attempt to co-ordinate their striptease routine.[203]
Fifteen years later an almost identical scene was included in the 2012 Disney science-fiction film John Carter (director and co-writer Andrew Stanton, a notable overseas supporter of the club), along with other visual cues and oblique dialogue hints and references to the club throughout the film.[208]
Another film reference to the club's defence comes in the film Plunkett & Macleane, in which two characters are named Dixon and Winterburn after Arsenal's long-serving full backs – the right-sided Lee Dixon and the left-sided Nigel Winterburn.[203]
In August 2022, Amazon Prime Video released an eight-episode docuseries called All or Nothing: Arsenal.[209][210] It documented the club by spending time with the coaching staff and players behind the scenes both on and off the field throughout their 2021–22 season, in which they were the youngest team in the Premier League with an average starting age of 24 years and 308 days – more than a whole year younger than the next team.[211][212]
In the community
In 1985, Arsenal founded a community scheme, "Arsenal in the Community", which offered sporting, social inclusion, educational and charitable projects. The club support a number of charitable causes directly and in 1992 established The Arsenal Charitable Trust, which by 2006 had raised more than £2 million for local causes.[213] An ex-professional and celebrity football team associated with the club also raised money by playing charity matches.[214] The club launched the Arsenal for Everyone initiative in 2008 as an annual celebration of the diversity of the Arsenal family.[215] In the 2009–10 season Arsenal announced that they had raised a record breaking £818,897 for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. The original target was £500,000.[216] In 2022, Arsenal and Adidas partnered up to launch the "No More Red" campaign to support the long-standing work being done by Arsenal in the Community to help keep young people safe from knife crime and youth violence. To promote the event, the club launched an exclusive all white kit that was not commercially available and only awarded to individuals who are making a positive difference in the community.[217]
Save the Children has been Arsenal global charity partner since 2011 and have worked together in numerous projects to improve safety and well-being for vulnerable children in London and abroad. On 3 September 2016 The Arsenal Foundation has donated £1m to build football pitches for children in London, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan and Somalia thanks to The Arsenal Foundation Legends Match against Milan Glorie at the Emirates Stadium.[218] On 3 June 2018, Arsenal played Real Madrid in the Corazon Classic Match 2018 at the Bernabeu, where the proceeds went to Realtoo Real Madrid Foundation projects that are aimed at the most vulnerable children. In addition there will be a return meeting on 8 September 2018 at the Emirates stadium where proceeds will go towards the Arsenal foundation.[219]
Arteta was Arsenal's club captain during his playing career, he was appointed Arsenal's head coach in December 2019.[237]Arsène Wenger managed Arsenal from 1996 to 2018, he is the club's longest serving manager.[238]
Thierry Henry is Arsenal's record goalscorer, with 228 goals in all competitions.[246]
Arsenal's tally of 13 League Championships is the third highest in English football, after Manchester United (20) and Liverpool (19),[247]
and they were the first club to reach a seventh and an eighth League Championship. As of June 2020, they are one of seven teams, the others being Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Manchester City, Leicester City and Liverpool, to have won the Premier League since its formation in 1992.[248]
They hold the highest number of FA Cup trophies, with 14.[249] The club is one of only six clubs to have won the FA Cup twice in succession, in 2002 and 2003, and 2014 and 2015.[250]
Arsenal have achieved three League and FA Cup "Doubles" (in 1971, 1998 and 2002), a feat only previously achieved by Manchester United (in 1994, 1996 and 1999).[80][251]
They were the first side in English football to complete the FA Cup and League Cup double, in 1993.[252]
Arsenal were also the first London club to reach the final of the UEFA Champions League, in 2006, losing the final 2–1 to Barcelona.[253]
Arsenal have one of the best top-flight records in history, having finished below fourteenth only seven times. They have won the second most top flight league matches in English football, and have also accumulated the second most points,[4] whether calculated by two points per win[4] or by the contemporary points value.[254] They have been in the top flight for the most consecutive seasons (98 as of 2023–24).[3][255][256] Arsenal also have the highest average league finishing position for the 20th century, with an average league placement of 8.5.[5]
Arsenal hold the record for the longest run of unbeaten League matches (49 between May 2003 and October 2004).[79] This included all 38 matches of their title-winning 2003–04 season, when Arsenal became only the second club to finish a top-flight campaign unbeaten, after Preston North End (who played only 22 matches) in 1888–89.[78][257] They also hold the record for the longest top flight win streak.[258] Arsenal set a Champions League record during the 2005–06 season by going ten matches without conceding a goal, beating the previous best of seven set by AC Milan. They went a record total stretch of 995 minutes without letting an opponent score; the streak ended in the final, when Samuel Eto'o scored a 76th-minute equaliser for Barcelona.[81]
David O'Leary holds the record for Arsenal appearances, having played 722 first-team matches between 1975 and 1993. Fellow centre half and former captain Tony Adams comes second, having played 669 times. The record for a goalkeeper is held by David Seaman, with 564 appearances.[259]Thierry Henry is the club's top goalscorer with 228 goals in all competitions between 1999 and 2012;[246] he surpassed Ian Wright's total of 185 in October 2005.[260] Wright's record had stood since September 1997, when he overtook the longstanding total of 178 goals set by winger Cliff Bastin in 1939.[261] Henry also holds the club record for goals scored in the League, with 175,[246] a record that had been held by Bastin until February 2006.[262]Declan Rice holds the Arsenal record signing price after a deal with West Ham United was completed in July 2023, for an initial £100 million. This easily surpassed the former record of £72 million for Nicolas Pepe.
Arsenal's record home attendance is 73,707, for a UEFA Champions League match against Lens on 25 November 1998 at Wembley, where the club formerly played home European matches because of the limits on Highbury's capacity. The record attendance for an Arsenal match at Highbury is 73,295, for a 0–0 draw against Sunderland on 9 March 1935,[259] while that at Emirates Stadium is 60,161, for a 2–2 draw with Manchester United on 3 November 2007.[263]
Chart showing Arsenal's league positions since admission to the Football League in 1893
Arsenal's first ever silverware was won as the Royal Arsenal in 1890. The Kent Junior Cup, won by Royal Arsenal's reserves, was the club's first trophy, while the first team's first trophy came three weeks later when they won the Kent Senior Cup.[264][265] Their first national senior honour came in 1930, when they won the FA Cup.[266] The club enjoyed further success in the 1930s, winning another FA Cup and five Football League First Division titles.[51][267] Arsenal won their first league and cup double in the 1970–71 season and twice repeated the feat, in 1997–98 and 2001–02, as well as winning a cup double of the FA Cup and League Cup in 1992–93.[268] The 2003–04 season was the only 38-match league season unbeaten in English football history. A special gold version of the Premier League trophy was commissioned and presented to the club the following season.[269]
When the FA Cup was the only national football association competition available to Arsenal, the other football association competitions were County Cups, and they made up many of the matches the club played during a season.[265] Arsenal's first first-team trophy was a County Cup, the inaugural Kent Senior Cup.[17] Arsenal became ineligible for the London Cups when the club turned professional in 1891, and rarely participated in County Cups after this.[19][271] Due to the club's original location within the borders of both the London and Kent Football Associations,[272] Arsenal competed in and won trophies organised by each.[17][271]
During Arsenal's history, the club has participated in and won a variety of pre-season and friendly honours. These include Arsenal's own pre-season competition the Emirates Cup, begun in 2007.[273] During the wars, previous competitions were widely suspended and the club had to participate in wartime competitions. During WWII, Arsenal won several of these.
Notes
^Woolwich and Plumstead were officially part of Kent until the creation of the County of London in 1889.
The Arsenal History provides primary sources on the name, first meeting, and first match.[12]Bernard Joy says Danskin was captain at founding.[13] Danskin was made official captain the next month.[14]
^The new shirts are exhibited in The Arsenal Shirt.[38] Newspaper accounts of the addition of white sleeves are provided by Mark Andrews.[39] The contemporary discussion around the first use of shirt numbers, and its initial trial by Chelsea F.C., is provided by Neil Glackin.[40]
^Martin Keown was the 'fifth' member of the Back Four, but did not play for the club between 1986 and 1993.
^These changes have received contemporary attention,[70] and later praise[71] and skepticism.[72] For context of the broader use of science in English football, see Soccer Science.[73]
^Several analyses indicate strong league performance across the Wenger period, given Arsenal's footballing outlays, including a regression analysis on wage bills,[74] regression on transfer spending,[75]
regression on both,[76] and a bootstrapping approach for the period 2004–09.[77]
^ abcKelly, Andy; Andrews, Mark; Attwood, Tony (1 August 2012). Woolwich Arsenal FC: 1893–1915 The club that changed football. Hamilton House. ISBN978-1860837876.
^Wilson, Jonathan (2013). Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics (Fifth anniversary fully revised and updated ed.). Orion Publishing Group, Limited. pp. 42–56. ISBN978-1-4091-4586-8.
^A 2005 poll of English football fans rated the 1979 FA Cup Final the 15th greatest game of all time. Reference: Winter, Henry (19 April 2005). "Classic final? More like a classic five minutes". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
^Moore, Glenn (13 August 1996). "Rioch at odds with the system". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
^
Kuper, Simon; Szymanski, Stefan (24 May 2012). "Chapter 6: Do managers matter? The cult of the white messiah". Soccernomics (revised and expanded ed.). HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN978-0-00-746688-7.
^Rodríguez, Plácido; Késenne, Stefan; García, Jaume (30 September 2013). "Chapter 3: Wages transfers and the variation of team performance in the English Premier League". The Econometrics of Sport. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 53–62. ISBN978-1-78100-286-5.
^Taylor, David (21 October 1999). "Arsenal gets a complex". The Architects' Journal. Archived from the original on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
^"All Time League Attendance Records". nufc.com. NUFC. 22 September 2015. Archived from the original on 6 April 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016. Some pre-war attendance figures used by this source were estimates and may not be entirely accurate.
^Markham, Tom. "WHAT'S YOUR CLUB REALLY WORTH?". sportingintelligence.com. Sporting Intelligence. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
^"Nick Hornby". The Guardian. London. 22 July 2008. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2008. Critically acclaimed and commercial dynamite, Fever Pitch helped to make football trendy and explain its appeal to the soccerless
^Levy, Glen (5 July 2010). "Fever Pitch". Time. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
^Ross, James M (28 August 2009). "England – List of Champions". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
^Ross, James M (12 June 2009). "England FA Challenge Cup Finals". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 January 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
^Ross, James M (12 June 2009). "England FA Challenge Cup Finals". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 October 2008. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
^Stokkermans, Karel (24 September 2009). "Doing the Double: Countrywise Records". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
^Collins, Roy (20 May 2007). "Mourinho collects his consolation prize". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2009. Chelsea's Cup came wrapped in an extra ribbon, only the second team after Arsenal in 1993 to win both domestic cups.
^ abKelly, Andy (24 February 2017). "Arsenal's First Superstar". The Arsenal History. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
Attwood, Tony; Kelly, Andy; Andrews, Mark (1 August 2012). Woolwich Arsenal FC: 1893–1915 The club that changed football (first ed.). First and Best in Education. ISBN978-1-86083-787-6.
Elkin, James; Shakeshaft, Simon (1 November 2014). The Arsenal Shirt: Iconic Match Worn Shirts from the History of the Gunners. Vision Sports Publishing. ISBN978-1-909534-26-1.
Soar, Phil; Tyler, Martin (3 October 2011). Arsenal 125 Years in the Making: The Official Illustrated History 1886–2011. Hamlyn. ISBN978-0-600-62353-3.
Sowman, John; Wilson, Bob (18 January 2016). Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953 – 1970: A view from the terrace. Hamilton House. ISBN978-1-86083-837-8.
Whittaker, Tom; Peskett, Roy (1957). Tom Whittaker's Arsenal Story (First ed.). Sporting Handbooks.
Further reading
Andrews, Mark; Kelly, Andy; Stillman, Tim (8 November 2018). Royal Arsenal: Champions of the South (First ed.). legends publishing. ISBN9781906796594.
Callow, Nick (11 April 2013). The Official Little Book of Arsenal. Carlton Books Ltd. ISBN978-1-84732-680-5.
Lane, David (28 August 2014). Arsenal 'Til I Die: The Voices of Arsenal FC Supporters. Meyer & Meyer Sport. ISBN978-1-78255-038-9.
Maidment, Jem (2008). The Official Arsenal Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive A–Z of London's Most Successful Club (revised ed.). Hamlyn. ISBN978-0-600-61888-1.
Spurling, Jon (21 August 2014). Highbury: The Story of Arsenal in N.5. Orion. ISBN978-1-4091-5306-1.
Stammers, Steve (7 November 2008). Arsenal: The Official Biography: The Compelling Story of an Amazing Club (First ed.). Hamlyn. ISBN978-0-600-61892-8.
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