Ar­se­nal Lon­don

Based in Lon­don, Ar­se­nal ranks among the most suc­cess­ful teams in Eng­lish foot­ball (as­so­ci­a­ti­on foot­ball) his­to­ry. Play­ing in the coun­try’s top di­vi­si­on (Foot­ball Le­ague First Di­vi­si­on to 1992, Pre­mier Le­ague the­re­af­ter) each se­a­son since 1919, the team has cap­tu­red 13 le­ague tit­les. Ar­se­nal has also won the Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­ti­on (FA) Cup 13 times.

The club was foun­ded in 1886. It took the name Royal Ar­se­nal after its first game, com­bi­ning the mo­ni­ker of the Royal Oak pub, where the team mem­bers met, with that of their work­place, the Ar­se­nal mu­ni­ti­ons fac­to­ry in Wool­wich. The name was chan­ged to Wool­wich Ar­se­nal in 1891. Wool­wich was drop­ped from the name after the 1912–13 se­a­son, when the team moved its home sta­di­um to the High­bu­ry sec­tion of the Lon­don bo­rough of Is­ling­ton. The club play­ed at Ar­se­nal Sta­di­um (com­mon­ly re­fer­red to as “High­bu­ry”) until 2006, when it re­lo­ca­ted to a new sta­di­um in Is­ling­ton’s Hol­lo­way district.

Ar­se­nal has a long-​standing ri­val­ry with ano­ther North Lon­don club, Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur. The two teams play the “North Lon­don derby” match ne­ar­ly every year. In the se­a­son be­fo­re World War I, Ar­se­nal fi­nis­hed fifth in the Se­cond Di­vi­si­on. But when the Foot­ball Le­ague re­su­med play in 1919 after the war, Ar­se­nal was con­tro­ver­si­al­ly pro­mo­ted to the First Di­vi­si­on over higher-​placing Tot­ten­ham. Ar­se­nal’s chair­man had argued that his club de­ser­ved pro­mo­ti­on be­cau­se of its lon­ger his­to­ry. The in­ci­dent fur­ther stir­red the ri­val­ry bet­ween the two teams.

While Ar­se­nal has re­main­ed in the top di­vi­si­on ever since its pro­mo­ti­on, its pe­ri­ods of great achie­vements have been wi­de­ly di­sper­sed. The club won five le­ague cham­pi­on­ships in the 1930s but only three total in the 50 se­a­sons from 1938–39 to 1987–88. Ar­se­nal went un­de­fea­ted in the 38 matches of the 2003–04 se­a­son, be­co­ming just the se­cond top-​division Eng­lish club to do so. It set a na­ti­o­nal re­cord by ex­ten­ding its un­be­a­ten streak into the next se­a­son to 49 con­se­cu­ti­ve le­ague con­tests in total. Ar­se­nal clai­med its 13th FA Cup in 2017. In ad­di­ti­on to its le­ague cham­pi­on­ships and FA Cup vic­to­ries, the club has won the Le­ague Cup twice (1987 and 1993) as well as the Eu­rope­an Cup Win­ners’ Cup (1994). Ar­se­nal’s stand­out play­ers have in­clu­ded for­wards Cliff Bas­tin and Den­nis Berg­kamp, goal­kee­per Pat Jen­nings, mid­fiel­der Liam Brady, de­fen­der Tony Adams, and striker Thier­ry Henry, who sco­red a club-​record 228 goals bet­ween 1999 and 2012.