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Arsenal

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Honors
  • Premier League Titles (3): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04
  • First Division Titles (10): 1930–31, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1947–48, 1952–53, 1970–71, 1988–89, 1990–91
  • FA Cup (10): 1930, 1936, 1950, 1971, 1979, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005
  • League Cup (2): 1987, 1993
  • Charity Shields and Community Shields (11+1): 1930, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1948, 1953, 1991 (shared), 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004
  • European Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1994
  • Inter-Cities Fairs Cup / UEFA Cup (1): 1970
Home Grounds
  • Manor Ground (1888-1990), (1893-1913)
  • Invicta Ground (1890-1893)
  • Highbury (1913-2006)
  • Emirates Stadium (2006-)
Front Office
  • Chairman: Template:FlagiconPeter Hill-Wood
  • Manager: Template:FlagiconArsene Wenger
  • Nickname: The Gunners
Featured Arsenal Player
Groves

Perry Groves is seen here on the last day at Highbury. He is perhaps one of the terraces most enigmatic and beloved players in the club's history

See more Arsenal players


Featured Arsenal Team

The 70-71 Arsenal team stunned everyone by winning the domestic double of League Title and FA Cup.

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Arsenal Football Club is an English football club and presently compete in the Barclays Premier League. The club has been very successful, their thirteen top flight titles is only bettered by both Manchester United and Liverpool. Arsenal's total of 10 FA Cups is second only to Manchester United. The club has also won three domestic doubles of League Title and FA Cup (1970-71, 1997-98, 2001-02). Arsenal were the first club to complete the domestic cup double by winning both the FA Cup and the League Cup in 1993. In 2006 Arsenal became the first London based club to compete in the UEFA Champions League final were they lost to F.C. Barcelona by a score of 2-1.

Team History[]

Origins[]

The origins of Arsenal Football Club can be traced to the Woolwich Arsenal, a government run munitions factory, located on the borders of rural Kent and the southern part of London. At that time the most popular sports in that area were cricket and rugby. It was a group of men from outside this area who worked at the munitions factory who came together to form a football club.

One of the key members of this group was David Danskin a Scotsman from Kirkcaldy in Fife. When two players from Nottingham Forest, Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates, arrived at the works it inspired Danskin and three friends Elijah Watkins, John Humble and Richard Pearce to ask around to see who would be interested in joining the new team. Fifteen men paid sixpence to join the club and Danskin added three shillings of his own money.

The first game for the club came on December 11, 1886 against a club named Eastern Wanderers. The club quickly adopted the name of Dial Square, which was the name of one of the workshops within the Arsenal. The actual result is disputed, because there were a lack of cross bars and markings on the pitch, it is generally accepted that Dial Square won the match 6-0.

An Historic Meeting[]

Christmas Day of 1886 was indeed a very important day for the new club. It was on that day that the players held a meeting in which they set about to solve some rather obvious problems. The name of the club was one of the issues to be tackled. Dial Square proving to be unpopular. The new name was a combination of the name of the pub, Royal Oak, where the players were meeting and their place of work. Thus was born the name Royal Arsenal. Eventually though the club adopted the name Woolwich Arsenal in 1891.

The next bit of business to be sorted was the kit. The color red was adopted mainly because the former Forest players Beardsley and Bates already had shirts of this color. Beardsley then wrote to his former club asking if they could help outfit the rest of the squad. Forest was very generous and sent the red shirts and even a ball.

The last bit of business was finding a place to play. It became clear to the men in attendance that their only option was to use the closest bit of public land available, this happened to be Plumstead Common.

Entry to the Football League[]

When originally formed the club was an amateur side as was the norm in the London area. The London Football Association were very much against the move of the northern clubs towards professionalism. Jack Humble a club committee member and sometime goalkeeper was taken aback by the relative ease at which the professional clubs could attract the better players from the amateur sides. Seeing this Humble first proposed taking the club professional in 1891. The proposal was approved by a vast majority.

The backlash from this controversial move was that the London FA immediately banned Arsenal from all competitions. The only option available for the club was to then enter the FA Cup and also schedule friendlies against other professional clubs. The FA Cup became a very important competition for the club financially. However, in their first round cup tie in 1892 the club lost to Small Heath 5-1. The following year they again bowed out in the first round losing to Sunderland 6-0.

One other item of change produced by the move to go professional was that the club changed their name dropping the "Royal" and calling the club Woolwich Arsenal. This was more than likely done to deflect any further backlash from the London FA.

Given this lack of success something had to be done. In 1892 Arsenal held meetings to determine the likelihood of forming a southern division of the professional Football League. The original idea found favor of 12 clubs including Arsenal. Once more the London FA threatened to ban the member clubs so all of them save Arsenal dropped out.

With the collapse of the southern division idea only one option was left for Arsenal. At the end of the 1892-93 season the Football League decided to expand the Second Division from 12 clubs to 15. In addition to that, two further spots opened when Bootle resigned and Accrington refused relegation from the First Division. There were now five spots open in the Second Division. Newcastle United and Rotherham Town were given places immediately. The other three spots were voted upon and Liverpool, Woolwich Arsenal and Middlesbrough Ironopolis were granted entry into the Second Division. Woolwich Arsenal became the first team south of Birmingham and Burton to enter the Football League.

Woolwich Arsenal[]

Move to Highbury[]

Herbert Chapman Football Innovator[]

Crest, Colors, Kit[]

Current Squad[]

No. Player Position Country Join Date
1 Manuel Almunia GK Template:Team Spain July 14, 2004
2 Abou Diaby MF Template:Team France January 13, 2006
3 Bacary Sagna DF Template:Team France Jul 12, 2007
4 Francesc Fabregas MF Template:Team Spain September 11, 2003
5 Kolo Touré DF Template:Team Ivory Coast February 14, 2002
7 Tomas Rosicky MF Template:Team Czech Republic May 23, 2006
8 Samir Nasri MF Template:Team France July 11, 2008
9 Eduardo da Silva FW Template:Team Croatia July 3, 2007
10 William Gallas DF Template:Team France August 31, 2006
11 Robin van Persie FW Template:Team Netherlands May 17, 2004
12 Carlos Vela FW Template:Team Mexico January 1, 2008
14 Theo Walcott FW Template:Team England January 20, 2006
15 Denilson MF Template:Team Brazil August 31, 2006
16 Aaron Ramsey MF Template:Team Wales June 13, 2008
17 Alexandre Song MF Template:Team Cameroon August 12, 2005
18 Mikael Silvestre DF Template:Team France August 21, 2008
19 Jack Wilshere MF Template:Team England October 1, 2001
20 Johan Djourou DF Template:Team Switzerland August 1, 2003
21 Lukasz Fabianski GK Template:Team Poland May 26, 2007
22 Gaël Clichy DF Template:Team France August 4, 2003
24 Vito Mannone GK Template:Team Italy July 1, 2005
25 Emmanuel Adebayor FW Template:Team Togo January 13, 2006
26 Nicklas Bendtner FW Template:Team Denmark August 1, 2004
27 Emmanuel Eboué DF Template:Team Ivory Coast January 2, 2005
28 Amaury Bischoff MF Template:Team Portugal July 30, 2008
31 Justin Hoyte DF Template:Team England August 1, 2001
37 Paul Rodgers DF Template:Team England
39 Henri Lansbury MF Template:Team England July 31, 2007
40 Kieran Gibbs MF Template:Team England
41 Gavin Hoyte DF Template:Team England September 10, 2007
42 Fran Merida MF Template:Team Spain January 10, 2007
47 Mark Randall MF Template:Team England
50 Jay Simpson FW Template:Team England
Loaned On Loan To
6 Philippe Senderos DF Template:Team Switzerland AC Milan
30 Armand Traore DF Template:Team France Portsmouth
43 Nacer Barazite MF Template:Team Netherlands Derby County
-- Havard Nordtveit MF Template:Team Norway U.D. Salamanca
-- Vincent van den Berg MF Template:Team Netherlands F.C. Zwolle
-- Pedro Botelho MF Template:Team Brazil U.D. Salamanca
-- Kerrea Gilbert DF Template:Team England Leicester City


Managers[]

Records[]

Total Appearances[]

The following table lists the all time club leaders in appearances. Only competitive matches are included.

Rank Player Nationality Years League FA Cup League Cup Europe Community Shield Total Appearances
1. David O'Leary Template:Team Ireland 1975-93 558 70 70 21 3 722
2. Tony Adams Template:Team England 1984-02 504 53 59 48 4 669
3. George Armstrong Template:Team England 1961-77 500 60 35 26 0 621
4. Lee Dixon Template:Team England 1988-02 458 53 45 57 5 619
5. Nigel Winterburn Template:Team England 1987-00 440 47 49 43 5 584
6. David Seaman Template:Team England 1990-03 405 47 38 69 4 564
7. Pat Rice Template:Team Northern Ireland 1964-80 397 67 36 27 1 528
8. Peter Storey Template:Team England 1965-77 391 51 37 22 0 501
9. John Radford Template:Team England 1964-76 379 44 34 24 0 481
10. Peter Simpson Template:Team England 1964-78 370 53 33 21 0 477
11. Bob John Template:Team Wales 1922-37 421 46 0 0 3 470
12. Graham Rix Template:Team England 1975-88 351 44 47 21 1 464
12. Ray Parlour Template:Team England 1992-04 339 43 26 52 4 464
14. Martin Keown Template:Team England 1984-86, 1993-04 333 40 23 49 4 449
15. Paul Davis Template:Team England 1980-95 351 27 51 16 2 447
16. Eddie Hapgood Template:Team England 1927-44 393 41 0 0 6 440
17. Paul Merson Template:Team England 1985-97 327 31 40 22 3 423
17. Dennis Bergkamp Template:Team Netherlands 1995-06 315 39 16 48 5 423
19. Patrick Vieira Template:Team France 1996-05 280 48 7 68 4 407
20. Frank McLintock Template:Team Scotland 1964-73 314 36 34 19 0 403

Yearly Results[]

Template:Arsenal League Results

Video Gallery[]

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Picture Gallery[]

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See Also[]

Arsenal References[]

Notable Arsenal Blogs[]

Davis with the Warriors
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