With such a rich history, Arsenal is one of the most loved clubs in all of football. With an enormous international following, the club has see many successes through the years. Withdrawn only once, in 1913, they continue their longest streak in the top flight and are the third most decorated in English football history.
Arsenal history begins in Woolich
In Woolwich, Kent, in southeast London, a group of mainly Scottish workers including David Dunskin and fifteen others established Dial Square Football Club. The new team was located in the laboratory at the heart of the Royal Arsenal Complex. Each member contributed sixpence, and Dunskin added three shillings to help the formation of the club. Being blacksmiths who were charged with making weapons, the term “the Gunners” took.
Soon after, when the name of the Royal Arsenal Football Club was adopted in a game at the Royal Oak Stadium, they started playing at Plumstead Common, but later moved to the former pig farm Sportsman Ground near Plumstead Marshes in 1887.
The first trophies for the Royal Arsenal were the Kent Seniors Cup and the London Charity Cup from 1889-90, followed by the Cup for Seniors held in London in 1890-91. Royal Arsenal won the first Arsenal trophy in 1890 and 1891. This was the only FA Cup that Arsenal won during their stay in southeast London. They were, however, the first South England club to join the Football League in 1893 and reach the first division in 1904.
Shortly thereafter, the club turned professional and changed its name to Woolwich Arsenal, becoming a full member of the Football League in 1893 (the first club in the southern parts of the country). The next period was full of difficulties for the club; In addition to being unable to form a team that could fight for the title, Arsenal were geographically isolated from the rest of the league, leading to low attendance. Declining attendance due to financial difficulties among the munitions workers and the emergence of more affordable football clubs in other parts of the city led the club to bankruptcy in 1910.
The Move to Highbury
In 1913, shortly after joining the second division, Woolwich Arsenal moved to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, north London, and with Tottenham Hotspur, created a derby in North London. They gave up Woolwich’s name a year later and became known as their current Arsenal Football Club. As the English league management tried to change the league, the Arsenal football team was invited to rejoin the first division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
The Second World War meant that the football league was suspended for seven years, but Arsenal regained the championship in the second 1947-48 season after the war. Arsenal dominated English football for the first time in the 1930s, with five league victories and two FA championships.
Arsenal Managers, Legends
Legendary Herbert Chapman, who had just led Huddersfield to his first two of three consecutive titles, was named manager and over the next 9 years transformed Arsenal from a middleweight divisional club into one of the big names in world football. Herbert Chapman would certainly never have been forgotten by Arsenal fans, and his work at Highbury ensured that even after his death, the clubs’ football successes continued as the Gunners ended the 1933/34 League campaign and ended the decade as a force. you have to reckon with having collected two more championship titles and one football league.
After the First World War, when the football league resumed in 1919, Arsenal, who was ranked fifth in the second division before the war, was relegated to the first division instead of Tottenham Hotspur because of Arsenal. The chairman claimed that his club is worth upgrading. Due to its long history, this further intensified the competition between the two teams.
The club has been transformed during the long tenure of manager Arsene Wenger, who was appointed in 1996. Arsene Wenger became the team manager in 1996 and has held this position longer than anyone else in the history of the club.
Between 1996 and 2004, Arsenal won three leagues and three FA Cup titles. The 2003-2004 season was particularly eye-catching because the club did not lose a single Premier League when “The Invincibles” were rampant all season long.
A Filled Trophy Case
Arsenal have won thirteen First Division and Premier League titles, ten FA Cups and became the first London club to qualify for a UEFA Champions League final between 2005 and 2006. It would be interesting to know that Arsenal are the seventh richest football team in the world, right after London rivals Chelsea.
