Team History



Full name Arsenal Football Club
Nickname(s) The Gunners
Founded 1886 as Dial Square
Ground Emirates Stadium
(Capacity: 60,355[1])
Owner Arsenal Holdings plc
Chairman Peter Hill-Wood
Manager Arsène Wenger

Arsenal Football Club (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. They play in the Premier League and are one of the most successful clubs in English football, having won thirteen First Division and Premier League titles and ten FA Cups, and hold the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the English top flight.

Arsenal were founded in 1886 and were the first Southern club to join the Football League, in 1893. They won their first major trophies in the 1930s, with five League Championship titles and two FA Cups. After a lean period in the post-war years they became the second club of the 20th century to win the League and FA Cup Double in 1970–71, and during the past twenty years have recorded a series of successes – in this time Arsenal have won a Cup Double, two further League and FA Cup Doubles, the Premier League title unbeaten, and became the first London club to reach the UEFA Champions League Final.

The club’s colours have traditionally been red and white, although these have evolved through history. Similarly, the club have changed location over time; the team were initially founded in Woolwich, south-east London, but in 1913 they moved north across the city to Arsenal Stadium, Highbury. In 2006 they made a less drastic move to their current home, the Emirates Stadium in nearby Holloway.

Arsenal have a large fanbase, who hold a string of long-standing rivalries with several other clubs; the most notable of these is with neighbours Tottenham Hotspur, with whom they regularly contest the North London derby. Arsenal are one of the richest clubs in English football (valued at over £600m as of 2008), and thanks to their stature, have regularly featured in portrayals of football in British culture. Arsenal Ladies are the most successful English club in women’s football and are also affiliated with the club.

Honours

Domestic

* First Division or Premier League[85] (English football champions)

Winners (13): 1930–31, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1947–48, 1952–53, 1970–71, 1988–89, 1990–91, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04
Runners-up (8): 1925–26, 1931–32, 1972–73, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05

* Second Division[85]

Runners-up (1): 1903–04

* FA Cup

Winners (10): 1929–30, 1935–36, 1949–50, 1970–71, 1978–79, 1992–93, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05
Runners-up (7): 1926–27, 1931–32, 1951–52, 1971–72, 1977–78, 1979–80, 2000–01

* League Cup

Winners (2): 1986–87, 1992–93
Runners-up (4): 1967–68, 1968–69, 1987–88, 2006–07

* Charity Shields and Community Shields[86]

Winners (12): 1930, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1948, 1953, 1991 (shared), 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004
Runners-up (7): 1935, 1936, 1979, 1989, 1993, 2003, 2005

European

* UEFA Champions League

Runners-up (1): 2005–06

* European Cup Winners’ Cup

Winners (1): 1993–94
Runners-up (2): 1979–80, 1994–95

* Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

Winners (1): 1969–70

* UEFA Cup

Runners-up (1): 1999–2000

* UEFA Super Cup

Runners-up (1): 1994