HISTORY    

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Arsenal is an English team from North London. It was founded in 1886 by Daniel Danskin and was known as Royal Arsenal Its stadium is "Highbury", which capacity is about 38,500. It was their stadium since 1913. Arsenal has won the English Championship a total of 11 times and has won the FA Cup for 7 times. Arsenal remains the only club in English football history to have won both domestic Cups in the same season. They won the FA Cup and League Cup in the same season in 1993, beating Sheffield Wednesday in the finals of both competitions. 1993 has been the only time when the finalists in both English Cup competitions were the same teams, Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday. The Gunners have been in the top flight for a record 80 seasons and still counting. Now Arsenal's coach is Arsene Wenger. Their address is Avenell Road, London N5 1BU.

The first game of the new club was against a team called Eastern Wanderers on the 11th December 1886. The game was played on a piece of open ground that someone had found on the Isle of Dogs. Apparently the pitch (if it could be called that) was shapeless with one portion being described as a ditch by some and as an open sewer by others. Still, history says that Dial Square won the game 6-0. This result filled the players with enthusiasm and resulted in a meeting at the Royal Oak, next to Woolwich Arsenal Station, on Christmas day 1886.
The meeting was called to solve three major problems. These problems were, a shortage of name, kit and somewhere to play. Apparently, no-one was happy with the name Dial Square, and a combination of Royal Oak and Woolwich Arsenal resulted in the regal sounding name Royal Arsenal which was met by approval from all. The decision for choice of kit was almost as easy, Fred Beardsley wrote to Nottingham Forest asking for help. Forest generously sent Beardsley a complete set of red shirts and a ball. Plumstead Common recreation area as home venue was the third decision arrived at on that fateful Christmas day.

The first official fixture that Royal Arsenal played at Plumstead Common was against Erith. The final result was a 6-1 home victory.

Royal Arsenal won the Kent Senior Cup, the Kent Junior Cup, and more significantly, the London Charity Cup. The latter was concluded with a 3-1 win over Old Westminsters at the Manor Ground in front of 10,000 people.

1891 Name changed to "Woolwich Arsenal"

1893 Woolwich Arsenal joined the Football League's Second Division and moved its homeground from Plumstead to Manor Field.

1904 Woolwich Arsenal Promoted! The arrival of Harry Bradshaw as manager in 1901 resulted in a 4th position, followed by 3rd, and 2nd in 1904 gaining Woolwich Arsenal promotion to the Football League First Division.

1910 Arsenal was forced into liquidation in due to increasing debts. A merger idea was suggested then for the club to merge with Fulham but that did not materialise.

1913 New Stadium. Highbury has been the homeground for Arsenal since 1913. But it all started far away in Woolwich, in the south of London. The clubs first game did not take place anywhere near the Arsenal or Woolwich. The players crossed the Thames to a piece of open ground on the Isle of Dogs. The ground was something between a ditch and a open sewer. Dial Square (as Arsenal was named at that first match) won the match against Eastern Wanderers 6-0. The game took place 11 Dec. 1886. On Christmas 1886 they all meet in the pub Royal Oak, next to the Woolwich Arsenal station. There they decided to use the name Royal Arsenal. The name came from combining that of the pub they were sitting in with their place of work. In 1891 they changed the name to Woolwich Arsenal, but the Football League insisted on calling the club Royal Arsenal until 1896. In the need of a better place to play, they took some public land nerby. The obvious choice was Plumsted Common. This was not a perfect place, as it's been used by Royal Horse Artillery as a manoeuvering ground. The first match on their new ground (and with the new name) was against Erith on 8 January 1887. Woolwich Arsenal won the match 6-1. This was the first formal fixture. In the midseasson -87-88 the club moved again. This time to The Manor Ground next to Royal Arsenal East. The first match here was against Millwall Rovers on 11 February 1888. It was a draw 3-3. They stayed there until the move to Highbury in August 1913. The last match at Manor Ground was against Middlesbrough on 26 April 1913. A draw 1-1. This day Arsenal said goodbye to their name and home and moved to Islington in the north of London. The move up north to Islington came as a result of very few supporters and no money in the bank. Nobody know when and how they ended up with Highbury. The land was owned by St. John's College of Divinity, and there where two football pitches, two cricket pitches and some tennis underground station. Arsenal paid £20 000 (gigantic amount of money at that time) for a 21-year lease. In 1925 the club paid another £64 000 to by the whole site. The first game at Highbury was against Leicester Fosse. A game Arsenal won 2-1.

- Highbury Stadium -

1914 Name changed from "Woolwich Arsenal" to "Arsenal"

1919 Arsenal managed to secure a place in the First Division despite finishing fifth in the Second Division.

1925 Manager Herbet Chapman joined Arsenal in and went on to build one of the finest team in English Football as the Gunners dominated the local scene in the 1930s. Arsenal won the English Championship five times in the 30s and the club has since maintained a rather consistent performance as they continue to win honurs both in England and later in Europe.

1927 Arsenal Appear in the F.A. Cup Final for the first time On 23rd April 1927, Arsenal met Cardiff City in the F.A. Cup Final at Wembley's Empire Stadium. The team was: Lewis, Parker, Kennedy, Baker, Butler, John, Hulme, Buchan, Brain, Blyth, Hoar. Unfortunately, the visit was not a happy one, as Arsenal were defeated 1-0 with Hugh Ferguson scoring the all important goal for Cardiff. The day goes down in Football history for being the only time that the F.A. Cup has left England.

1930 Saturday 26th April 1930. After 44 years, Arsenal finally achieved their first success. It was the day that Arsenal wrote themselves into the record books. The 55th F.A. Cup Final saw Arsenal defeat Huddersfield Town (the dominant team of the late 20's) 2-0 infront of a crowd of 92,488 with goals from Alex James in the 17th minute and Jack Lambert in the 83rd minute. The team was: Preedy, Parker, Hapgood, Baker, Seddon, John, Hulme, Jack, Lambert, James, Bastin. The game will also be remembered for the vivid image of the airship Graf Zeppelin flying 2,000 feet above Wembley during the first half, and King George handing over the trophy.

1931 Arsenal WIN the Football League Championship for the first time 1930-31 was a massive success for the Gunners from start to finish. Arsenal established a record points total at the time with 66 points, while they scored an remarkable 127 goals. They also beat Grimsby Town 9-1 at Highbury (this result still stands as their biggest ever in the First Division). They only lost four games, and had an identical home and away record of 14 wins, 5 draws and 2 defeats. Jack Lambert also set up an Arsenal record of 38 League goals in a season. Arsenal finished that way:

1935 Highbury Record Attendance set. On the 9th March 1935 Arsenal welcomed visitors Sunderland to Highbury. Unfortuanately the 73,295 RECORD ATTENDANCE were only thrilled with the cramped conditions as the final score was 0-0.

1963 Arsenal enter European competition with a BANG! On 25th September 1963 Arsenal met Staevnet of Denmark in the away leg of the Inter-Cities Fair Cup (the predecessor of the Fairs Cup, which evolved into todays UEFA Cup). Goals from Baker (3), Strong (3) and MacLeod ensured that Arsenal were triumphant 7-1. The FIRST European competition game was wonderfully successful. Unfortunately, Arsenal were defeated in the following round by RFC Liege.

1966 Arsenal play in the Football League Cup for the first time on the 13th September

1966 Arsenal met Gillingham at Highbury in the 2nd round of the League Cup. Our entry into the competition was by no means overwhelming as a final result of 1-1 only resulted in a replay. The second game was also a 1-1 draw, with Arsenal finally securing victory by 5-0 in the second replay. Unfortunately, the "Cup Run" finished with a 1-3 home loss to West Ham in the 3rd round.

1968 Arsenal reach the Football League Cup Final for the first time In just their second season in the competition, Arsenal reached the final! Unfortunately, Leeds United have not proven to be good opponents for Arsenal in the final rounds of competitions, and March 2nd.

1968 was to be no different. A single goal by Terry Cooper proved decisive on the day as Arsenal lost 0-1. The final turned out to be the only game in the competition that Arsenal failed to score in.

1970 Arsenal was the Fairs Cup winners. That competition was later renamed the UEFA Cup.

1971 and 1998 Arsenal won both the League and FA Cup, becoming only the second club in English Football history to win the "Double" twice. The other club to do this was Manchester Utd (1994 and 1996). However, no one including the Red Devils had yet to emulate Arsenal in English Cup competitions when in 1993, the Gunners won a unique double as they bagged both the FA Cup and the League Cup in the same season.

1979 Arsenal Crush Manchester United in the F.A. Cup Final of the Century!

1993 The North bank gets a facelift as Highbury becomes all seater. As the "Football League First Division" changed into the "Premier League", the famous all standing "North Bank" became the 12,500 seater two tier new revitalised "North Bank" housing both a restaurant and the new Arsenal Museum. Building work progressed throughout the season reducing the grounds capacity during the work to 29,000. The building work was to be disguised by a mural (75 yards wide and 18 yards high) to both protect the building site, and provide some sort of atmosphere (the mural was a picture of the stand fully adorned with supporters). Whilst the mural had both supporters and critics alike, it fell foul of political correctness when someone noticed that none of the faces on it were black. This was quickly corrected, but still leaves the question of how such an obvious error could happen in the first place...

1994 The Gunners won the Cup Winners' Cup and that leave only the European Champions Cup before Arsenal joined that exclusive small list of clubs who have won all three major European Club Trophies.

2002 Arsenal won the FA Cup and the Premiership. The FA Cup Final was against Chelsea. The final result was 2:0 after goals by Parlour and Ljungberg. The title in Premiership was decided a round before the end in a match against Manchester United on Old Trafford won by Arsenal with 0:1.