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..:: ARSENAL Football Club ::..
i dont believe if there still human out there that don't know what ARSENAL FC is all about at least IF there is, they should have know that its a football club and not even close guessing it would be a yummy food. :P yeah, at least right? :) here... I'm gonna share with you guys about the history of my all time favorite football club.
In late 1886, a gaggle of workers from the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory decided to form a football team. They called themselves Dial Square as a reference to the sundial atop the entrance to the factory.
On December 11, 1886, Dial Square romped to a 6-0 victory over Eastern Wanderers; the first game in their initial guise. Shortly afterwards the name ‘Royal Arsenal’ was adopted.
A group of players from Nottingham Forest joined the Club and this connection with the future European Cup winners would spawn Arsenal’s famous red shirts. The group approached their former club, who had been formed some 20 years earlier, for spare kit. Forest duly obliged and Arsenal, dipped in red, never looked back.
Arsenal floated between a handful of different pitches in the Plumstead area in their early years. They started life on Plumstead Common but, for their second season, Royal Arsenal rented the nearby Sportsman Ground on Plumstead Marshes. It was here that the Club would enter the London Senior Cup for the first time. Although they were beaten by Barnes in Round Two the wheels were in motion. With increasing support, the Club rented the Manor Ground the following season.
Royal Arsenal’s first FA Cup appearance would take place here in 1889/90. During the same season Arsenal would secure a hat-trick of successes, winning the London Charity Cup, the Kent Senior Cup and the Kent Junior Cup.
The Club were on the move once again the following year, this time to the Invicta Ground, where they would stay for nearly six years.
An overall increase in playing success meant only one thing for the Arsenal – professionalism. This shocked football authorities and the Club were expelled from the London FA and boycotted by many southern clubs. During the same close season, the club changed their name to Woolwich Arsenal.
An increase in rent at the Invicta Ground meant that Arsenal had to move back to their old Manor Ground home, which they purchased outright; this would be the Club’s home until their move to Highbury in 1913. Shortly afterwards, their application to the Football League’s Second Division was successful.
Arsenal’s success was steady throughout the latter part of the 19th century and their league position improved until they achieved promotion to Division One in 1903. Three years later they reached the Semi-Final of the FA Cup two seasons running. However, Plumstead was not the ideal site for Arsenal and with the financial situation worsening and relegation threatening, up stepped Fulham chairman Henry Norris.
Norris recognised the need for a move, ear-marking Highbury as a suitable site. And, after relegation in 1913, the Club moved to its new home. Within two years of the move, ‘Woolwich’ was dropped from their title and the Club became known as ‘Arsenal FC’.
At the end of World War One the First Division was increased by two clubs, of which Arsenal were one. And under the guidance of new manager Leslie Knighton, Arsenal spent the first six seasons of peacetime achieving some moderate success. Chairman Norris wanted more and, in 1925, he advertised for a new manager. One particular applicant, a Yorkshireman by the name of Herbert Chapman, would change the Club forever.
The Wenger Years! Short-term tenures for Stewart Houston and Bruce Rioch followed George Graham’s departure but Arsenal were still in need of a long-term answer. This would be emphatically delivered in the form of a relatively unknown Frenchman who would change the Club forever.
Arsène Wenger arrived at Highbury in September 1996 after notable success at Monaco and a stint in charge of Japanese side Grampus Eight. He was the Club’s first boss from outside the UK.
Arsenal finished fourth that season but the new manager would officially announce his arrival in his first full campaign at the helm. At one stage in 1997/98 the Gunners trailed leaders Manchester United by 12 points. However, imperious form throughout the second half of the campaign saw Arsenal crowned Premier League champions with two games to spare. Within two weeks, the Gunners had added the FA Cup, securing the Double in Wenger’s first full season in charge.
As well as transforming Arsenal on the pitch, the new manager set about revolutionising his players’ lives away from the pitch, implementing cutting-edge training regimes and dietary systems. The Frenchman was meticulous in his squad construction, adding the likes of Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars to a team already boasting Arsenal institutions like David Seaman, Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp.
Another Highbury stalwart who continued to flourish under Wenger was Ian Wright. Already closing in on Cliff Bastin’s all-time goalscoring record when the Frenchman arrived, Wright finally scored his magical 179th goal against Bolton Wanderers on September 13, 1997. In the end, perhaps Wenger’s finest signing to date – Thierry Henry - would eclipse Wright’s tally a little over eight years later.
Henry signed in August 1999, after Arsène Wenger’s side had been denied back-to-back titles by one point by Manchester United in the previous May. At first, the Frenchman’s ability to adapt to the rough-and-tumble of the Premier League was questioned, but after failing to score in his first eight games, the former Juventus star plundered an impressive 26 goals that term. Final defeats in the Uefa Cup and FA Cup meant that Henry was still without any Highbury silverware. But not for long.
In 2001/02, Arsène Wenger’s side would surge to a spectacular Double, finishing 12 points clear of Liverpool in the Premier League. They sealed the title with a win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, just days after dispatching Chelsea 2-0 in the FA Cup Final.
ARSENAL FC 49 unbeaten match Team 03-04.
Despite lifting the FA Cup once more in 2002/03, back-to-back titles would again elude the Gunners. But they made up for that disappointment in the season that followed, completing an unbeaten title campaign and going on to eclipse Nottingham Forest's long-standing run of League games without defeat. Played 49, Won 36, Drawn 13, Lost None - that Arsenal side was truly 'Invincible'.
Wenger had conquered England but Europe still evaded him. A Quarter-Final defeat against Chelsea in 2004 was the closest Wenger’s Arsenal had come to the biggest prize in European football but that would all change in May 2006 when they went all the way to the Champions League Final in Paris.
ARSENAL FC legends. will always be for their contribution! Hail Gunners!
Arsenal were quickly becoming one of the most revered sides in Europe. And they underlined their ambition when, in February 2004, construction began on the Gunners' new state-of-the-art home at Ashburton Grove, a stone’s throw from Highbury. The new Emirates Stadium officially opened its doors in the summer of 2006 - a bold step into the future for a Club with a glittering past.
The new ARSENAL FC official home - Emirates Stadium.
