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Arsenal F.C.

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Arsenal F.C. (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) is a north London football team founded in 1886. They play at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury.

History

  Arsenal FC's Old Crest (Large)

Early years

Arsenal were originally called Dial Square. The club later changed its name to Woolwich Arsenal, and then to Royal Arsenal, and then back to Woolwich Arsenal again (the original founders were arms makers at the Woolwich armaments factory in south London). In 1893 they were the first southern team admitted to the Football League, partly caused by the refusal of other southern teams to play them after they turned professional. From 1893 to 1904, Woolwich Arsenal played in the 2nd Division of the Football League. They were promoted to the first division in 1904.

Arsenal wear a mostly red home kit, due to the charitable support of Nottingham Forest when the team donated their used kits at the end of a season. The kit of Forest stuck with Arsenal.

Arsenal were relegated in 1913, the same year they moved from their south London home to Arsenal Stadium (often referred to as Highbury) in north London. With the move came another change of name: from Woolwich Arsenal to The Arsenal (the definite article, you might say). Arsenal rejoined the first division in 1919 and have remained in the top division since that time, a record which no other English club can come close to matching.

This unbroken stretch of top-flight football has come much to the chagrin and longstanding enmity of Tottenham Hotspur (or 'Spurs', for short) and their supporters, who lost their first division place thanks to Arsenal. The first division was to be expanded and the decision to promote Arsenal, (who came fifth in the final league season before the war) rather than Barnsley or Wolves (who finished third and fourth), or to not relegate Spurs (who finished bottom of the first division), has been linked to dubious back room deals by The Arsenal's then-chairman and mastermind of the move from Woolwich to Highbury, Sir Henry Norris.

1930s to 1960s

In 1925, Huddersfield Town manager Herbert Chapman took over at The Arsenal. Under his leadership, a successful drive to rename the local tube station, Gillespie Road station, to Arsenal took place (the old name can still be seen picked out in tiles on the wall of the station). Chapman's Arsenal won the FA Cup in 1930 and the League in 1931. It can be said that Arsenal dominated the league during the decade of the 1930s. It was also during Chapman's era that the club lost the definite article from its name, becoming just Arsenal. It has been suggested by various people that Chapman himself instigated the change so that Arsenal would be at the top of the League's alphabetical list, a position they maintain among the 92 top clubs today: however, should Accrington Stanley gain promotion from the Conference, they will lose it. During the postwar era, Arsenal won several more trophies, but headed towards a decline in the late 1950s through the 1960s.

1970s to mid-1980s

Arsenal's performance in the 1970s was characterized by a few moments of brilliance, separated by long spells of disappointment. The highlight during this period was their first "Double" win in 1970/71. One need only read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch for a taste of the life of an Arsenal fan, or Gooner (after the team's nickname The Gunners), during the late 1960s through the mid-1980s.

The George Graham years

Under the management of George Graham, Arsenal once again rose to a regular spot at the top of the table, winning six major trophies in eight years. Arsenal's offside trap was known throughout the world (and provided a joke in The Full Monty), as was the paucity of their scoring rate and propensity for winning games by a single goal. This led to a standing joke amongst English football fans about the terrace chant "One-nil to the Arsenal" (to the tune of the Village People song "Go West") being a song consisting of a single verse. It is little known that the song originally came from French side Paris St. Germain, who sang "Allez Paris St. Germain" to this tune until Arsenal scored in their Cup Winners Cup match: the travelling support liked the song too much they took it and began singing "One-nil" at the musically appropriate points, and the "to the Arsenal" part was added shortly afterwards.

The rise of Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson provided a constant threat to Arsenal and, in fact to any team aiming at gathering silverware. Graham left Arsenal in 1994-1995 after being embroiled in a kickbacks for transfer contracts scandal. With his departure, Arsenal struggled under the management of Bruce Rioch and Stuart Houston, although Houston did lead the Gunners to the Cup Winners' Cup final.


Wenger's Arsenal

With the advent in 1996 of Arsène Wenger as manager, Arsenal began a rebuilding program with a crop of French players. The team has improved consistently under Wenger's management.

The agonising manner in which Arsenal lost the FA cup final in 2001 was a bitter blow to the clubs ambitions but Arsenal hit back in the 2001-2002 season as the club won the "Double" for the second time under Wenger. In the subsequent seasons they won the FA cup (2003) and Premier League (2004), the latter being clinched at White Hart Lane the home of local rival Spurs. By winning the Championship in 2004, Arsenal became the first side to do so without losing a single league match since Preston North End in the inaugural year, 1888. However, Preston only had to play 20 matches that season: Arsenal won their title after 34 of 38 matches.

Still, the team has yet to register top finishes in the UEFA Champions League. This may have contributed to Thierry Henry's failure to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2003, although he is the third player to win the PFA Player of the Year award in two different seasons (after Mark Hughes and Alan Shearer, and is the first to win the award in two consecutive seasons. So far, Henry and other key players have shown loyalty to the team and its manager by renewing their contracts rather than departing for the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid, where they would almost certainly be paid far greater amounts of money than at Arsenal.

2003-2004 season

In the 2003-2004 season, Arsenal achieved an impressive feat: winning or drawing every top-flight league game, something only Preston North End F.C. had previously achieved, in the inaugural season of 1888-1889. Besides playing at a far more competitive game than a century ago, Arsenal also had to play 38 games, compared with Preston's 22, and participated in domestic and continental cup competitions.

The Ladies team also won the Women's Premier League in the same season, besides winning the Women's FA Cup. The final game was marked with anticipation as a win by Fulham would gift them the title, while a draw would hand Charlton Athletic the championship. In the end, the club achieved a double Premier League title and a combined treble.

New stadium

Limitations at Highbury has led the club to monetary losses in recent seasons despite impressive domestic form. To close the gap with rivals such as Manchester United, Arsenal are currently in the process of building a new 60,000 seater stadium at Ashburton Grove, about 500m South-West towards Holloway Road (map). While this project has been delayed somewhat due to bureaucratic red tape and rising costs, the club has secured financing and hopes that its new stadium will enable it to continue to develop and compete at the very highest level of English and continental football.

Crest

Throughout the years the Arsenal crest has modified slightly now and then, resulting in a crest which had no author who could claim the copyright. At the beginning of the 2001-2002 season when Arsenal changed sponsor from Sega/Dreamcast to mmO2, they also introduced a new 'modern' crest. It received a mixed response from fans, some claiming that it had ignored much of Arsenal's history by removing the gothic text, latin motto (Victoria Concordia Crescit which translated means 'victory comes from harmony') and coat of arms.

Famous players

Achievements

  • FA Cups: 9
    • 1930 1936 1950 1971 1979 1993 1998 2002 2003

Three "Doubles": 1971 1998 2002
One Domestic Cup Double: 1993

For more details, including Arsenal's youth and ladies trophies see (for example) http://www.arseweb.com/history/honours.html

Top Scorers

As of April 26, 2004. 

                            Goals     Games       Average
 1   Ian Wright              185       288         0.64
 2   Cliff Bastin            178       395         0.45
 3 * Thierry Henry           151       255         0.59
 4   John Radford            149       475         0.31
 5   Ted Drake               139       184         0.76
 =   Jimmy Brain             139       232         0.60
 7   Doug Lishman            137       244         0.56
 8   Joe Hulme               125       374         0.33
 9   David Jack              124       208         0.60
10   Reg Lewis               118       176         0.67
11   Alan Smith              115       347         0.33
12   Jack Lambert            109       161         0.68
 = * Dennis Bergkamp         109       355         0.31
13   Frank Stapleton         108       300         0.36
15   David Herd              107       180         0.59
16   Joe Baker               100       156         0.64

* = still playing

Template:English Premier league

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