About Me
Full name Arsenal Football Club
Nickname(s) The Gunners, Gooners
Founded 1886 as Dial Square
Ground Emirates Stadium, Holloway Islington London
Capacity 60,432
Chairman Peter Hill-Wood
Manager Arsne Wenger
League FA Premier League 2004-05 Premier League, 2nd
HISTORY
Arsenal were founded as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, but were renamed to Royal Arsenal shortly afterwards. They renamed themselves again to Woolwich Arsenal after turning professional in 1891. The club joined the Football League in 1893, starting out in the Second Division, and won promotion to the First Division in 1904. However, the club's geographic isolation resulted in lower attendances than those of other clubs, which led to the club becoming mired in financial problems. In 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, they moved across the Thames to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, north London. They dropped "Woolwich" from their name the following year. Arsenal only finished in fifth place in 1919, but nevertheless were elected to rejoin the First Division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, by reportedly dubious means.
In 1925, Arsenal appointed the highly successful Herbert Chapman as manager. Chapman had won the league with Huddersfield Town in 1924 and 1925, and he brought Arsenal their first period of major success. His revolutionary tactics and training, along with star players such as Alex James and Cliff Bastin, laid the foundations of the club's domination of English football in the 1930s. Between 1930 and 1938, Arsenal won the First Division five times and the FA Cup twice, although Chapman did not live to see all of these achievements, as he died of pneumonia in 1934. In addition, Chapman was reportedly behind the 1932 renaming of the local London Underground station from "Gillespie Road" to "Arsenal", making it the only Tube station to be named after a football club.
Following the suspension of English professional football during World War II, Arsenal won the league in 1948 and 1953 and the FA Cup in 1950. However, their fortunes began to wane; unable to attract players of the same calibre as they had in the '30s, the club spent most of the 1950s and 1960s in trophyless mediocrity. Even former England captain Billy Wright could not bring the club any success as manager.
Arsenal's second successful era began with the surprise appointment of club physiotherapist Bertie Mee as manager in 1966. After losing two League Cup finals, they won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, their first European trophy, in 1970. This was followed by an even greater triumph: their first League and FA Cup double in 1971. However, the following decade was characterised by a series of near misses. Arsenal finished as First Division runners-up in 1973, lost three FA Cup finals (1972, 1978 and 1980) and lost the 1980 Cup Winners' Cup final on penalties. The club's only success during this time was an FA Cup win in 1979, with a last-minute 32 victory over Manchester United that is widely regarded as a classic.
Arsenal's players and fans celebrate their 2004 title win with an open-top bus paradeThe return of former player George Graham as manager in 1986 brought a third period of glory. Arsenal won the League Cup in 1987, Graham's first season in charge. This was followed by a League title win in 1989, won with a last-minute goal in the final game of the season against fellow title challengers Liverpool. Graham's Arsenal won another title in 1991, losing only one match, the 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 that he had taken kickbacks from agent Rune Hauge for signing certain players,[2] and he was sacked in 1995. His replacement, Bruce Rioch, lasted for only one season, leaving the club after a dispute over transfer funds.
The club's success in the late 1990s and 2000s owes a great deal to the appointment of manager Arsne Wenger in 1996. Wenger brought new tactics, a new training regime and several foreign players who complemented the existing English talent. Arsenal won a second league and cup double in 1998 and a third in 2002. In addition, the club reached the final of the 2000 UEFA Cup (losing on penalties to Galatasaray), were victorious in the 2003 and 2005 FA Cups, and won the Premier League in 2004 without losing a single match, which earned the side the nickame "The Untouchables"; in all, the club went 49 league matches unbeaten, a national record. Arsenal have finished in either first or second place in the league in eight of Wenger's nine seasons at the club, and they are one of only three teams (along with Manchester United and Chelsea) to have won the league title during the past decade. However, they have been unable to replicate their domestic success in the Champions League, though in 2005-06 they reached the competition's semi-finals for the first time in their history
CREST
Royal Arsenal's first crest, unveiled in 1888, featured three cannon viewed from above, pointing northwards, similar to the crest of the Borough of Woolwich. 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 cannon. In 1922, the club adopted its first single-cannon crest, featuring 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 it. In 1949, the club unveiled a modernised 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 (meaning "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 numerous revisions of the crest, Arsenal were unable to copyright it; 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,[3] Arsenal sought more comprehensive legal protection. Therefore, in 2002 they introduced a new crest featuring more modern curved lines and a simplified style, which was copyrightable. 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 supporters, with some claiming that it had ignored much of Arsenal's history by removing the blackletter text, motto, and coat of arms.
COLOURS
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. The shirt was a darker shade of red than the club's modern-day colours, almost purple, and was worn with either white or dark red shorts.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. The team have stuck with the combination since, aside from two seasons. Firstly, in 196364 the kit reverted to all red, but this proved unpopular and the white sleeves returned the following season. Secondly, as 200506 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 their usual colours at the end of the season.Arsenal's home colours have been the inspiration for at least two other clubs. In 1909, Sparta Prague adopted a dark red kit like the one Arsenal wore at the time; in the 1930s, Hibernian adopted the design of the Arsenal shirt sleeves in their own green and white strip. Both teams still wear these designs to this day.Arsenal's away colours are traditionally yellow and blue, although they wore a green and navy 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 200102 season. However, many Arsenal fans feel that the blue shirts bring 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 200506 away colours are yellow and dark grey.
STADIUMS
Arsenal Stadium, widely referred to as Highbury, was Arsenal'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. 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, and had a capacity of 57,000 until the early 1990s. The Taylor Report and Premier League regulations forced Arsenal to convert Highbury into an all-seater in time for the 1993–94 season, reducing the capacity to just under 39,000 seated spectators. This capacity had to be reduced further during Champions League matches to accommodate additional advertising hoardings, so much so that for two seasons (1998–99 and 1999–00) Arsenal played Champions League home matches at Wembley, which could house more than 70,000 spectators.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 whose owners objected to expansion. These limitations have prevented the club from maximising the revenue that their domestic form could have brought in recent seasons. After considering various options, Arsenal decided in 1999 to build a new 60,000-seater stadium at Ashburton Grove (since renamed the Emirates Stadium), about 500 metres south-west of Highbury. The project was initially delayed by red tape and rising costs, but construction was completed in July 2006 and the stadium is 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; the stadium will be known as Emirates Stadium for at least until 2021, and the airline will be the club's shirt sponsor until the end of the 2013–14 season.
SUPPORTERS
Arsenal have a large and loyal fanbase, with virtually all home matches selling out; in 2005-06, Arsenal had the sixth-highest average attendance in England (38,184). Arsenal fans often refer to themselves as "Gooners", the name being derived from the team's nickname, "The Gunners". The club's location, adjoining both wealthy areas such as Canonbury and Barnsbury, mixed areas such as Finsbury Park and Highbury, and largely working class areas such as Holloway and Stoke Newington has meant that Arsenal's supporters have come from across the usual class divides. Arsenal have the highest proportion (7.7%) of non-white attending supporters of any club in English football, possibly because of the high proportion of ethnic minorities in north London.Like all major English football clubs, Arsenal have a number of domestic supporters' clubs, including the Official Arsenal Football Supporters Club, which is affiliated with the club, and the Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association, which maintains an independent line. The club's supporters also publish fanzines such as The Gooner, Highbury High, Gunflash and the less cerebral Up The Arse!. In addition to the usual English football chants, Arsenal's supporters sing "One-Nil to the Arsenal" (to the tune of "Go West") and "Boring, Boring Arsenal", which used to be a common taunt from opposition fans but is now sung ironically by Arsenal supporters when the team is playing well.In recent times, a supporter's attachment to a football club has become less dependent on geography, and Arsenal now have many fans not just from London but all over England and the world. While there have always been small pockets of supporters abroad, Arsenal's support base has widened considerably with the advent of satellite television, and there are now significant supporters' clubs in Scandinavia, South East and East Asia and the United States. A 2005 report by Granada Ventures, which owns a 9.9% stake in the club, estimated Arsenal's global fanbase at 27 million, the third largest in the world.[12]Arsenal's longest-running and deepest rivalry is with their nearest major neighbours, Tottenham Hotspur otherwise known as 'the yids', with matches between the two being referred to as North London derbies. Matches against other London sides, such as Chelsea and West Ham United are also derbies, but the rivalry is not as intense as that between Arsenal and Tottenham. In addition, Arsenal and Manchester United have had a strong on-pitch rivalry since the late 1980s, which has intensified in recent years when both clubs have been competing for the Premier League title
OWNERSHIP
Arsenal's parent company, Arsenal Holdings, operates as a public limited company. However, Arsenal's ownership is considerably different from that of other football clubs. Only 62,000 shares in Arsenal have been issued, and they are not traded on a public exchange such as the FTSE or AIM; instead, they are traded infrequently on OFEX, a specialist market. As of December 2005, Arsenal's market capitalization value is £290m, and the club made a pre-tax profit of £19.3m in the 2004-05 financial year.Currently, the club's largest shareholders are Danny Fiszman (a London diamond dealer) and Nina Bracewell-Smith (wife of the grandson of former chairman Sir Bracewell Smith), who hold 25.2% and 15.9% respectively. Vice-chairman David Dein holds 14.6% while club chairman Peter Hill-Wood owns less than 1%. Arsenal's board of directors hold the majority of the club's shares, but in recent years, with Arsenal becoming a significant media asset, outside organisations have bought into the club. These include entertainment firm Granada Ventures (a subsidiary of ITV plc) (9.9%) and hedge fund Lansdowne Partners (2.7%); Lansdowne used to have a stake in Manchester United before selling it to Malcolm Glazer.
STATS AND RECORDS
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 668 times. The record for a goalkeeper is held by David Seaman, with 563 appearances.Current Arsenal captain Thierry Henry is the club's top goalscorer with 215 goals in all competitions (as of September 9, 2006), having surpassed Ian Wright's total of 185 in October 2005. Wright's record had stood since 1997, a feat which overtook the longstanding total of 178 goals set by winger Cliff Bastin in 1939. Henry also holds the club record for goals scored in the League (164, as of May 7, 2006), a record that had been held by Bastin until February 2006.Arsenal's record home attendance is 73,707, for a UEFA Champions League match against RC Lens on November 25, 1998 at Wembley Stadium, where Arsenal 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. The capacity of Emirates Stadium is 60,432, so it is unlikely that these records will be broken in the foreseeable future.Arsenal have also set records in English football, most notably the most consecutive seasons spent in the top flight (80 as of 2006-07) 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 (who played only 22 matches) in 1888–89.Arsenal also set a UEFA Champions League record during the 2005-06 season by going ten matches without conceding a goal, beating the previous best of seven set by A.C. Milan. They went a record total stretch of 995 minutes without letting an opponent score; the streak finally ended in the final against Barcelona, when Samuel Eto'o scored Barcelona's equaliser in the 76th minute.
Current squad
No. Position Player
1 GK Jens Lehmann
2 MF Abou Diaby
4 MF Cesc FÃ bregas
5 DF Kolo Touré
6 DF Philippe Senderos
7 MF Tomá,, Rosický
8 MF Fredrik Ljungberg
9 MF Júlio Baptista
10 DF William Gallas
11 FW Robin van Persie
12 DF Lauren
13 MF Aliaksandr Hleb
14 FW Thierry Henry (captain)
15 MF DenÃlson
16 MF Mathieu Flamini
17 MF Alexandre Song
19 MF Gilberto Silva (vice-captain)
20 DF Johan Djourou
21 GK Mart Poom
22 DF Gaël Clichy
24 GK Manuel Almunia
25 FW Emmanuel Adebayor
27 DF Emmanuel Eboué
30 FW Jérémie Aliadière
31 DF Justin Hoyte
32 FW Theo Walcott
34 DF Matthew Connolly
