Arsenal Football Club was originally founded in 1886 by employees of the the Dial Square workshop at the Royal Arsenal, which was an armaments factory in South-East London, in a district named Woolwich. Consequently, they were first named ‘Dial Square’ A Scotsman, David Danskin is the man said to have bought the first football for the club. Among the first players for the club was former Nottingham Forest goalkeeper, Fred Beardsley who would be the one to obtain a set of red kits, the colour the Arsenal still wear today. The first match for the new club took place on December 11, 1886 in an open field in the Isle of Dogs (another London district) against a club known as the Eastern Wanderers in which the club won 6-0. What is interesting is that other than the date of this match, everything else written so far may possibly be a myth.

By Christmas however, they had changed the name of their club to Royal Arsenal. They originally played on Plumstead Common before moving to Manor Ground in 1888. Royal Arsenal would move away and then return to Manor Ground as Invicta Ground proved too costly for them. Playing in the amateur leagues proved fruitful for Royal Arsenal as they won a couple of trophies and largely outclassed the other amateur clubs from London. But it wasn’t all rosy for them as the professional clubs attempted to sign their players and they were subsequently banned for amateur football for being too professional, which relegated them to only playing friendlies and in the FA Cup. So 1893 in a bid to gain access into the Football League, Royal Arsenal changed their name to Woolwich Arsenal and became a limited liability company, and attempted to buy the Manor Ground. This ended up working and Woolwich Arsenal began life in the Second Division, where they would spend eleven years, generally finishing mid-table every year.
Under the guidance of manager Harry Bradshaw, Woolwich Arsenal would gain promotion to the First Division, where they would lose their manager before the season started to Fulham. They would never come close to challenging for the League title due to financial concerns. Their playing grounds were on the South side of London where most clubs in the division were on the North side, and so to stay afloat they were forced into selling their top players, which resulted in smaller attendances for home matches. In 1910 Woolwich Arsenal went into voluntary liquidation as they were on the verge of bankruptcy when Sir Henry Norris, the chairman of Fulham FC, and other businessmen bought the club.
Norris was well aware of the financial difficulties of the location of Woolwich Arsenal and so attempted to merge the club with Fulham, and when that failed, attempted to have them play on alternating Saturdays, which also failed. And so Norris focused on finding a new location for the club, eventually setting his sights on Highbury, in North London, which was met with opposition from the fans and the residents of Highbury. Norris forced it through and spent 125,000 pounds on a new Stadium (9.5 million in 2010 prices) Having been relegated back to the Second Division, Woolwich Arsenal would move to Highbury in 1913, and change their name from ‘Woolwich Arsenal’ to ‘The Arsenal.
After four years of no competitive football due to World War 1, The Arsenal would gain promotion into the First Division in a dubious way. In the final season of football in 1914, Arsenal had finished in 6th place, but the First Division was expanding from 20 clubs to 22 and two clubs were to be given the extra two places in the division. Chelsea was given the one place, despite being relegated in the previous season. The other club that had been relegated was none other than Tottenham Hotspur, and they were in the running for the extra place along with Barnsley and Wolves, who had finished ahead of Arsenal. Despite all this, Norris argued that The Arsenal should obtain promotion due to their “long service to league football” and the League board agreed, voting 18-8 to promote The Arsenal. It was alleged that they only managed this promotion due to bribery by Norris with his good friend and chairman of Liverpool, John McKenna, and has fueled the long-standing intense rivalry with Tottenham every since. It has also been argued that Norris was aware of match fixing before the war by Liverpool and Manchester United and used it as a tool to be promoted. Whatever the case, The Arsenal gained entrance into the First Division in 1919 and have never left since, holding the record for the longest unbroken stretch of top-flight football.




After some very poor showing and narrowly avoiding relegation, Norris had enough of his manager Leslie Knighton and hired Herbert Chapman in 1925. Chapman would put his stamp on The Arsenal, changing the way the club did things. Chapman changed the training philosophy and physiotherapy regimes and added numbers to the players shirts, a practice that is now common-place across the footballing world. He also altered the kit, adding white sleeves in 1933, and insisted The Arsenal be known as just ‘Arsenal’ so they would be the first club in alphabetical order every time. He even managed to change the name of the nearby tube station from Gillespie Road to Arsenal, which now has a 52 metre mural to commemorate the team’s move from Highbury in 2006. Chapman also changed the way the game was played on the pitch with the new formation now called ‘WM‘ which can also be described as a 3-2-5 or a 3-2-2-3. It proved so successful that by the late 1930s, most clubs had adopted this formation
In Hebert Chapman’s first season in charge, Arsenal made their best finish ever in the league by placing second, but the next few seasons had them stay mid-table. Norris allowed Chapman to spend large sums of money however, and nearly won their first ever trip to the FA Cup final, losing 1-0 to Cardiff City. Three years later, and after buying Arsenal greats Cliff Bastin, David Jack and Alex James, Arsenal made the FA Cup final once more, this time defeating Chapman’s old club
Huddersfield Town 2-0 and earning the clubs first ever major trophy. They then won the League title for the first time in 1931, recording their best ever win against Grimsby Town, 9-1, which still stands. In 1932 Arsenal lost the FA Cup Final to Newcastle 2-1 after they had a goal that was wrongly awarded as a goal kick. The 1932-33 season would see Arsenal win their 2nd league title.
In January 1934, Herbert Chapman would suddenly pass away from pneumonia, but that would not stop the winning ways as they would win the League again that season, as well as 1934-35 and 1937-38 and another FA Cup in 1936. Arsenal were such a strong club that in 1934, England had seven Arsenal players start a match and defeated the then, World Champions Italy 3-2, and is still a record for most players from a single club starting a match for England. On March 9, 1935 Arsenal saw it’s largest ever attendance for a match versus Sunderland, counting 73,295 fans at Highbury.
The Second World War would suspend all competitive football for the 1939-40 season, and Highbury was used as an ARP station (Air Raid Precautions), and had a bomb destroy the North Bank roof and setting fire to the terrace. With Highbury taken Arsenal played their home matches at White Hart Lane while football still continued, although the matches do not count in official statistics as star players would play as ‘guests’ for various clubs when not in the armed forces.
The war claimed nine first team Arsenal players, the most of any club in the top flight. Arsenal were also afflicted with a heavy financial burden of repairing their war damaged stadium, and consequently struggled when regular club football began once again in 1946, finishing 13th. Tom Whittaker took over as manager and won the League title in the 1947-48 season. They would then win the FA Cup in 1949-50, a 2-0 win over Liverpool. After nearly winning the Double in the 51-52 season, but failing in both competitions, Arsenal won their 7th League title the following year in what was one

of the closest title races ever, narrowly beating Preston North End only on goal average. The title would ultimately prove to be Arsenal’s last trophy for seventeen long years.
Tom Whittaker would pass away in 1956, and Arsenal would try and fail with Jack Crayston, George Swindin and Billy Wright as managers, generally finishing mid-table, and having to endure Tottenham winning the double in 1961. On May 5, 1966 Highbury would see it’s lowest ever attendance be recorded with 4,554 in the stands, and having only one player in England’s 1966 World Cup winning squad, a far cry from the successful and prosperous times under Chapman and Whittaker. Wright, then the manager, was fired and the Arsenal board made the odd appointment of their club physiotherapist Bertie Mee to replace him.
The appointment of Bertie Mee was so surprising that he himself requested to return to his old role if he proved unsuccessful after one year. Alongside assistant Dave Sexton, Mee promoted players from the youth team, boys who would become household names in Charlie George, John Radford, and Ray Kennedy. Alongside Frank McLintock and Peter Shorey, they reached the League Cup in 1968 and 1969, but losing each one. They managed to make it into Europe for the 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup however, winning it and ending their long trophy drought. The 1970-71 campaign then came, in which Arsenal recorded their first double winning campaign where they won the FA Cup and the League title, winning the league by defeating Tottenham at White Hart Lane on the last day, and defeating Liverpool 2-1 in extra time at Wembley. (And *we* complain about six years. Try 17 and then let’s talk crisis) Sadly the double winning side was broken up shortly after this, and after finishing 16th and 17, Bertie Mee gave his resignation.



Terry Neill would be appointed manager, and his time at the helm witnessed the strong emergence of an Irish core of Liam Brady, Pat Rice, Frank Stapleton, Pat Jennings, and David O’Leary which gave Arsenal a still-strong following amongst the Irish. While Neill’s time at the club was in the midst of the Liverpool dominance, he still managed to direct the club to three FA Cup finals in 1978, 79, 80 but only winning it in 79, when Alan Sunderland won the match in injury time to record a now-famous win. The 1979-80 season saw Arsenal play a record breaking 70 matches and reaching two finals, the FA Cup loss to West Ham and losing the finals in Europe to Valencia on penalties.
The summer of 1980 saw Liam Brady leave for Juventus and apart from 1982-83, Arsenal continued to make the top four, but never looked like winning anything. The lost both Cup semi-finals that year and and Terry Neill struggled to manage the club, arguing with key players as a drinking culture immersed itself at Arsenal. After losing to Third Division Walsall in the League Cup, Neill was fired in Decemeber 1983 and replaced with Don Howe, under whom Arsenal would fare no better. And when Howe heard the board had approached Terry Venables (then at Barcelona) he resigned and Steve Burtenshaw was named caretaker while the club searched for a replacement. Alex Ferguson, then at Aberdeen in Scotland, was approached, but he rejected Arsenal and six month later would find himself at Manchester United.


In May 1986 former Arsenal player, George Graham was appointed manager of Arsenal. Graham would slowly sell off older players and promote from the youth team and was able to dictate a stronger sense of discipline at the club, something the previous managers had attempted and failed at. In Graham’s debut season, Arsenal was able to with the League Cup, coming from behind in the final against Liverpool with a double by Charlie Nichols. This was in the midst of a UEFA English ban for European competitions in relation to the Heysel disaster, and so Arsenal missed out on the 87-88 UEFA Cup.


The 87-88 campaign saw Arsenal lose the League Cup final to Luton Town, but Graham was building a squad that would continue to improve with their young defense coming together under captain Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn. This, buoyed by the terrific midfield of David Rocastle, Michael Thomas and Paul Merson and goal-scoring sensation Alan Smith, in 1989 Arsenal would finally win their first League title since 1971, and would do so in stunning fashion. Arsenal led the league since Christmas, but allowed Liverpool, who were going for the Double, to overtake them by losing to Derby County and drawing at home to Wimbeldon. The final match of the season was at Anfield and Arsenal were required to win by two goals in order to win the title. With 90 minutes gone, Arsenal were up 1-0 when this happened:


And Arsenal were League Champions.
Arsenal would have to wait until the 1990-91 season to find success again, and had to do so despite losing two points after a on-field brawl with Manchester United at Old Trafford, and losing Tony Adams for four months when he was sent to prison for drunk driving in December that year. However, they only lost one league match the entire year, and won the title by seven points.
After signing Ian Wright from Crystal Palace in 1991 and losing David Rocastle to Leeds United the year after, Arsenal became known as ‘Boring, boring Arsenal’ depending on their stout defense and the goal-scoring prowess of Wright to win games. The FA Premier League was then created for the 1992-93 season, in which Arsenal were one of the founding members, and became the first club to win the FA Cup and League Cup double. The following year Arsenal won their second European trophy, defeating Parma 1-0 in the Cup Winner’s Cup final in Copenhagen.


Arsenal were forced to sack George Graham February 1995 when it was found he had taken an illegal payment of a player. Bruce Rioch took over at Arsenal, who guided Arsenal to the Cup Winner’s Cup Final, but lost to Real Zaragoza from a 40 yarder in the 120 minute; a howler by David Seaman. The summer of 1995 saw him Rioch sign Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp, breaking the English transfer recorded at the time. He was sacked just before the 1996 season over a dispute about the transfer funds.
Arsenal then made the audacious and obscure decision to hire Frenchman Arsene Wenger from Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan to manage their club. Wenger changed the club, completely eliminating the drinking culture that was prevalent at the time, changing the diets and training methods of the players, and brought about a change in tactics. Wenger brought in unknown players such as Patrick Vieira, Nicolas Anelka, Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars in 1997 and with George Graham’s noturious defense, Wenger became the first foreign manager to win the 1997-98 League title. Arsenal won the Double that year, winning the FA Cup. Ian Wright left that summer, having broken Cliff Bastin’s goalscoring record, his tally at Arsenal ending at 185 goals.
The next few years were trophy-barren at Arsenal, despite signing Freddie Ljungberg and Thierry Henry. The rivalry with Manchester United fired up 1998-99 however as Arsenal finished 2nd in the League to United, and lost the FA Cup semi-final replay in extra time to them as well. The next season Arsenal again finished second best to Manchester United, this time by 18 points, and lost the EUFA Cup final in 0-0 game that went to penalties in Copenhagen to Galatasaray. The 2000-01 season saw Arsenal finish 2nd yet again to Manchester United, and lost in the FA Cup to Liverpool; as well as losing on the ‘away goals rule’ in the Champions league quarter-finals to eventual finalist Valencia.



The 2001-02 season became memorable as Arsenal’s furious attacking side lead by Thierry Henry won the Double for a record-tying third time. Arsenal were the only club to score in every game of the League that season, and went unbeaten away from home. They defeated Manchester United in the FA Cup, before also beating Chelsea in the finals. The 2002-03 was notable when Arsenal became the first club in over 20 years to retain the FA Cup title when they defeated Southampton in the final, but lost out on the League title to United losing their final game of the season at home to Leeds.
That Last match day defeat to Leeds would become Arsenal’s last loss for over a year, and the 2003-04 season saw the rise of the ‘Invincibles’ where they won 26 and drew 12 matches, finishing 11 points clear of Chelsea in second place. Preston North End in 1888-89 is the only other team to have ever completed such a feat.



The following season Arsenal extended their unbeaten run to 49 consecutive League matches, an English league football record, when they finally lost to Manchester United. They failed to win the title that year as the newly cash rich Chelsea finished 12 points ahead, but managed to win the FA Cup for their 3rd time in four years.
The 2005-06 season was largely disappointing, and Arsenal barely managed to obtain fourth place and their Champions League spot when St. Totteringham’s day came on the very last match day when Sp*rs lost to West Ham and Arsenal won their last ever match at Highbury stadium over Wigan. In the Champions League however, Arsenal made it the Finals against Barcelona, but a silly red card to keeper Jens Lehmann early in the match had Arsenal desperately defend a 1-0 lead for most of the game, before two late goals by Barca took the title away.
Arsenal completed the move from historic Highbury to the Emirates stadium July 2006. Highbury was limited to only 38,500 seats after standing was banned in English football, and with the club unable to expand the stadium and needing to increase revenue streams to compete with money-giant clubs like Chelsea and Manchester United, a move down the road to Ashburton Grove was made. To facilitate the move in a manner that did not destroy the club financially, Arsene Wenger was forced to sell off highly paid stars and transition the club with youngsters, while still managing to be highly competitive and keep the fans into the massive 60,000+ stadium. Since the move Arsenal have stayed in the Champions League, qualifying for the competition for 14 years in a row, and have remained competitive in the Premier league, but ultimately collapsing the final months of the campaigns.
December 11, 2011 saw Arsenal play at home and marked Arsenal’s 125 year in existence, and Arsenal celebrated the occasion the only way they know how; with style and class. The great-great-grandson of Fred Beardsley, the man who sourced the Arsenal original kit, assisted Vic Akers with the club’s kits and was brought onto the pitch in the pre-game ceremony. Supporters’ Stories were installed on benches outside the Armoury. A sixpence was thrown by referee Howard Webb at kick-off. Inside the players’ tunnel, celebrations of the 5-3 over Chelsea, and Henri Lansbury Sp*rs goal have been included on the walls. Arsenal had the Royal Artillery and Orchestra playing outside the stadium. The 1970s greats Bob Wilson, Charlie George, Frank McLintock, John Radford and Terry Neill were all introduced onto the Emirates pitch, followed by David O’Leary, Paul Davis, George Graham, Alan Smith, Anders Limpar and Ian Wright. Members of the Invincibles then took to the pitch, Ray Parlour, Robert Pires, Jens Lehmann, Lee Dixon, Lauren and Thierry Henry showed up. The great-grandchildren of founder David Danskin carried the matchball to begin the game. They even ensured there was a cannon alongside side the pitch.


Perhaps the best part of the weekend was the Friday prior, when Arsenal unveiled the statues of Herbert Chapman, Tony Adams and Thierry Henry outside the Stadium. So many greats could have been chosen, but it’s difficult to argue with the man who revolutionized football in the 1930s, the winning-est club captain, and the Arsenal’s record goal-scorer.


May there be more greatness to come for the beloved and storied club.

taken from arsenal.theoffside.com

Lowyat in service 2003-2004
Kimhoong in service 2004-2011
liez in service 2011-2013