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Arsenal F.C.

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For other uses, see Arsenal (disambiguation).
Arsenal
Full nameArsenal Football Club
Nickname(s)The Gunners
Founded1886
GroundArsenal Stadium,
Highbury, London
Capacity38,500
ChairmanPeter Hill-Wood
ManagerArsène Wenger
LeagueFA Premier League
2004-05Premier League, 2nd

Arsenal Football Club (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) is a football club from north London, and is one of the most successful clubs in English football. Founded in 1886, Arsenal has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles (the third most, behind Liverpool and Manchester United), and 10 FA Cups (the second most, behind Manchester United). Despite such domestic success, the team is yet to have similar success in the UEFA Champions League. Arsenal currently plays in the FA Premier League, and has finished either first or second in eight of the past ten seasons.

Although the club was founded in south-east London, it has played its home matches in north London at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury since 1913. In the summer of 2006, the club will move to the new 60,000-seater Emirates Stadium in nearby Ashburton Grove. Arsenal enjoy a fierce rivalry with Tottenham Hotspur, who play in nearby Tottenham.

History

Main article: History of Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal were founded as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, south-east London, before being renamed to Royal Arsenal and then later Woolwich Arsenal. The club played its early games in Plumstead, and entered the Football League in 1893. With attendances low, the club decided to move across the Thames to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, north London in 1913. The "Woolwich" was dropped from the club's name the following year.

Despite only finishing fifth in the Second Division, Arsenal were elected to join the First Division in 1919 at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, by reportedly dubious means. It wasn't until the arrival of manager Herbert Chapman in 1925 did the club have any major success, though; under Chapman, and his successor George Allison, Arsenal became the dominant team of the 1930s, winning the First Division five times and the FA Cup twice.

After the Second World War, Arsenal won another two titles and an FA Cup, but then entered a barren period, spending much of the 1950s and 1960s in trophyless obscurity. It wasn't until the surprise appointment of club physiotherapist Bertie Mee as manager in 1966 did the club return to success, winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970 (its first European trophy), followed by the club's first League and FA Cup Double in 1971. However, this glory was brief, and the following decade was characterised by a series of near-misses, Arsenal finishing as Division One runners-up in 1973, losing three Cup finals (1972, 1978 and 1980), and the 1980 Cup Winners' Cup final on penalties. The club's only success was an FA Cup win in 1979, in a last-minute 3-2 win over Manchester United that is widely regarded as a classic.

The return of former player George Graham as manager in 1985 heralded the club's return to the top; Arsenal won the League Cup in 1988 and followed it with a League title win in 1989, won with a goal in the final minute of the final game of the season against fellow title challengers Liverpool. Graham's Arsenal won another title in 1991, an FA Cup and League Cup Double in 1993, and a second European trophy, the Cup Winners' Cup, in 1994. However, Graham's reputation was tarnished when it was revealed he had taken kickbacks from agent Rune Hauge for signing certain players, and he was sacked in 1995.

The club's present-day success is largely thanks to the appointment of current manager Arsène Wenger in 1996. Wenger brought new tactics, a new training regime and a clutch of talented foreign players to the club, which complemented the existing English talent. Arsenal won a second double in 1998 and a third in 2002. In addition, the club was victorious in the 2003 and 2005 FA Cups, and won a League title undefeated in 2004. Under Wenger, Arsenal have become one of the "big three" clubs in England at the present time (along with Manchester United and Chelsea), but the club's domestic success has not yet been matched with similar achievements in the Champions League.

Crest

Arsenal's first crest from 1888
Arsenal's crest from c.1949-2002
File:Arsenal FC.png
Arsenal's crest since 2002

Royal Arsenal's first crest, unveiled in 1888, featured three cannons viewed from above, pointing northwards, similar to the crest of the Borough of Woolwich. These can 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. In 1922, the club adopted the first single-cannon crest, which featured an eastward-pointing cannon. This crest was only used until 1925, when the cannon was reversed to point westward, its barrel was slimmed down, and the club's nickname, 'The Gunners', was inscribed to the left of the cannon. In 1949, the club unveiled a modernized crest featuring the same style of cannon, the club's name set in blackletter above the cannon, and a scroll inscribed with the club's newly adopted Latin motto Victoria Concordia Crescit ("victory comes from harmony"). For the first time, the crest was rendered in colour – red, green, and gold – which varied slightly over the crest's lifespan.

Because of the crest's natural evolution, Arsenal was unable to copyright it. Thus, at the beginning of the 2001-2002 season, Arsenal introduced a new crest, which features more modern, curved lines, and a simplified style. 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 received a mixed response from fans, some claiming that it had ignored much of Arsenal's history by removing the blackletter text, motto, and coat of arms.

Colours

Arsenal's home colours have, for much of its history, been red 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. Two of Dial Square's founding members, Fred Beardsley and Maurice 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.

Home colours

The shirt was originally a dark, almost purple, shade of red, but in 1933 Herbert Chapman, wishing his players to be more distinctly dressed, updated the kit, adding white sleeves and changing the shade to a brighter pillar box red. The team has stuck with the combination since, aside from two seasons. Firstly, in 1963-64 the kit reverted to all-red, but this proved unpopular and the white sleeves returned the following season. Secondly, as 2005-06 is the last season that Arsenal will play at Highbury, the team's shirts have temporarily reverted back to the original darker red, or "redcurrant", to reflect the colour worn in the first season at Highbury, in 1913. The club will return to its usual colours at the end of the season.

Arsenal's away colours are traditionally yellow and blue, although they wore a green and black away kit for a short while in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s and the advent of the lucrative replica kit market, the away colours have been changed every couple of seasons. Generally, they have been either yellow and blue, or two-tone blue designs, although there was a metallic gold and navy strip for the 2001-02 season. Many Arsenal fans feel, however, that the blue shirts are bad luck - all three of the club's recent Premier League titles have come in a season where the team wore yellow or gold. The 2005-06 away colours are yellow and dark grey.

Stadium

Arsenal Stadium, widely referred to as Highbury, has been Arsenal's home since the club's move to north London in 1913. The original stadium was built 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. In the 1930s, the entire stadium was given a massive overhaul, with new Art Deco East and West stands constructed, and roofs added to the North Bank and Clock End terraces. At its peak, Highbury could hold over 60,000 spectators; this was greatly reduced when, in wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and the subsequent Taylor Report, the stadium was converted into an all-seater. Its current capacity is 38,500 (which is further reduced during Champions League matches to accomodate additional advertising hoardings), and expansion is restricted because the East Stand is now a Grade II listed building.

The Emirates Stadium under construction

These limitations in Highbury's capacity have prevented the club from maximizing the revenue their impressive domestic form could have brought in recent seasons. Although the club remains highly profitable, Arsenal are currently in the process of building Emirates Stadium, a new 60,000 seater stadium at Ashburton Grove, about 500m southwest, towards Holloway Road. While this project has been delayed by red tape (including final approval of the necessary compulsory purchase orders by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott) and rising costs, construction is now well under way, and the stadium is slated to be ready for the start of the 2006-07 season. The stadium is named after its sponsors, the airline company Emirates, with whom the club signed the largest sponsorship deal in English football history, worth approximately £100 million over the term of the deal. As a part of the deal the stadium will be known as Emirates Stadium for at least the first 15 years, and the airline company will become the club's shirt sponsor from 2006 until the end of the 2013-14 season.

As one of the most successful teams in the country, Arsenal have often featured when football is depicted in British culture. The club was the backdrop to one of the earliest football-related films, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939). The film is centred on a friendly between Arsenal and an amateur side, one of whose players is poisoned whilst playing. Many Arsenal players appeared as themselves, although only manager George Allison was given a speaking part.

More recently, the book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby is an autobiographical account of Hornby's life and relationship with football and Arsenal in particular. Published in 1992, it formed part of (and some say it played an active part in) the revival and rehabilitation of football in British society during the 1990s. The book was later made into a film starring Colin Firth, which centred on the club's 1988-89 League win.

Arsenal's perceived tendency to be defensive and "boring" through the 1970s and 1980s made the team the butt of jokes by many comedians, such as Eric Morecambe. The 1997 film The Full Monty includes a scene where the lead actors move in a line and raise their hands in mimicking the club's defence (the Arsenal off-side trap) in an attempt to co-ordinate their stripping.

The club is also mentioned in several Monty Python's Flying Circus sketches, and in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; a barman remarks that the impending end of the world is a "lucky escape" for Arsenal, who are playing that afternoon. Most recently, in the 2004 box office hit Ocean's Twelve the stars put on Arsenal tracksuits as part of one of their European heists.

Current first team squad

As of July 18, 2005:

Players out on loan

Famous players

Listed according to year of Arsenal first-team debut (year in parentheses):

Achievements

  • FA Cups: 10
    • 1930 1936 1950 1971 1979 1993 1998 2002 2003 2005
  • Three "Doubles": 1971 1998 2002
  • One Domestic Cup Double: 1993

Arsenal have won the League more times than any other team, except for Liverpool and Manchester United. Arsenal are one of the strongest sides in history, having finished below 14th only seven times, and never below 20th.

Statistics and records

Main article: Arsenal F.C. statistics

David O'Leary holds the record for Arsenal appearances, having played 722 first-class matches between 1975 and 1993. Fellow centre half and former captain Tony Adams comes second, having played 668 times. The record for a goalkeeper is held by David Seaman, with 563 appearances.

For many years, the club's top goalscorer was Cliff Bastin, who held the record from 1939 until 1997, with 178 goals in all competitions. Bastin's record was broken by Ian Wright, who soon after finished his Arsenal career with 185 goals to his name. Current Arsenal captain Thierry Henry is currently (as of July 2005) four short of Wright's record, on 181 goals, and widely expected to break it.

The club has also set records in English football, most notably the most seasons spent in the top flight (79, as of 2005) and the longest run of unbeaten League matches (49 between May 2003 and October 2004). This included all 38 matches of the 2003-04 season, making Arsenal only the second club ever to finish a top flight campaign unbeaten, after Preston North End in 1889.

Arsenal Ladies

Arsenal Ladies, founded in 1987, are the women's football club affiliated to Arsenal. Arsenal Ladies are one of the most successful teams in English women's football, having won the Women's Premier League seven times and the FA Women's Cup six times.

Official website

Fan sites

References

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