50 Fun Facts About Arsenal

Arsenal were founded in 1886 under what name, taken from a Royal Arsenal workshop in Woolwich?

Scotsman David Danskin and fifteen fellow munitions workers founded the club; it was Royal Arsenal by January 1887.

Arsenal's first ever match, in December 1886, was a 6-0 win over which side?

The club turned professional in 1891, the first in London to do so.

In 1893 Woolwich Arsenal became the first club from which region to join the Football League?

They reached the First Division in 1904 and moved north of the river to Highbury in 1913.

Which chairman moved Arsenal from Plumstead to Highbury in 1913?

'Woolwich' was dropped from the name with the move; the ground was laid out by Archibald Leitch.

Herbert Chapman was lured to Arsenal in 1925 from which club, where he had just won two league titles?

He became the first manager to win the league with two different clubs.

Which formation did Herbert Chapman implement at Arsenal, one that underpins most modern systems?

He also added white sleeves and shirt numbers, campaigned for floodlights and had a tube station renamed after the club.

Which London Underground station was renamed 'Arsenal' at Herbert Chapman's urging in 1932?

Chapman died of pneumonia in January 1934, mid-season, aged 55; a Jacob Epstein bust of him stands at the Emirates.

What was Arsenal's first national trophy, won under Chapman in 1930?

League championships followed in 1930-31 and 1932-33, then a hat-trick of titles from 1933-34 to 1934-35 and 1937-38.

Which architect, designer of many British grounds of the era, originally laid out Arsenal's Highbury stadium?

The famous Art Deco West Stand (1932) and East Stand were later designed by Claude Waterlow Ferrier and William Binnie.

Highbury's record attendance of 73,295 was set in March 1935 against which club?

By the time it closed in 2006 safety rules had cut capacity to 38,419.

The famous 'Marble Halls' of Highbury's East Stand were, strictly speaking, made of what?

The Art Deco facades were listed and preserved when the ground became the Highbury Square flats.

Who scored a hat-trick in the final match at Highbury, against Wigan Athletic on 7 May 2006?

He finished as the club's all-time top scorer with 228 goals and was voted its greatest player in a 2008 poll.

Which physiotherapist became acting Arsenal manager in 1966 and won the 1971 double?

His side also won the club's first European trophy, the 1969-70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

Who scored the extra-time winner in the 1971 FA Cup final that sealed Arsenal's first double?

Ray Kennedy had headed the title-clinching goal at Tottenham days earlier.

Whose injury-time winner secured a famous 3-2 FA Cup final victory in 1979 over Manchester United?

Graham Rix supplied the cross; it was the club's only trophy of a barren decade.

Who scored the last-minute goal at Anfield in May 1989 that won Arsenal the title on the season's final night?

Arsenal needed to beat Liverpool by two clear goals and did exactly that, 2-0.

Which manager, a 1971 double winner as a player, returned to Arsenal in 1986 and built the 'famous Back Four'?

His 1990-91 champions lost just one league match all season.

In 1993 Arsenal became the first club to do what in a single season?

Both finals were against Sheffield Wednesday.

Alan Smith's left-foot volley won the 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup final against which Italian side?

Arsenal lost the following year's final to Real Zaragoza to a last-second Nayim lob.

Ian Wright arrived from Crystal Palace in September 1991 for a then club-record fee of how much?

He was the club's top scorer for six seasons running and broke Cliff Bastin's record with a hat-trick against Bolton in 1997.

Which manager, greeted by the headline 'Arsène who?', was appointed in October 1996?

He arrived from Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan and stayed 22 years, the longest and most successful reign in the club's history.

The 1998 Premier League and FA Cup double had never before been achieved by whom?

He repeated the feat a few seasons later, a record-equalling third double for the club.

The 2003-04 'Invincibles' won the Premier League with what record?

The unbeaten league run stretched to 49 matches, from 7 May 2003 to 24 October 2004.

Arsenal's unbeaten league run of 2003-04 lasted how many matches?

It ended at Old Trafford in October 2004.

How did Arsenal win the 2005 FA Cup final, the last match of Patrick Vieira's Arsenal career?

The opponents were Manchester United; Vieira struck the winning penalty with his final kick for the club.

Which Arsenal goalkeeper was sent off early in the 2006 Champions League final in Paris?

Arsenal, the first London club to reach the final, led through Sol Campbell but lost 2-1 to Barcelona.

How many years had Arsenal spent at Highbury when they moved to the Emirates Stadium in July 2006?

The new ground at Ashburton Grove cost £390 million and holds 60,704.

Roughly how much did Emirates pay for a 15-year stadium naming deal including seven years of shirt sponsorship?

The stadium was officially opened by Prince Philip on 26 October 2006; Olof Mellberg of Aston Villa scored the first competitive goal there.

Whose testimonial against Ajax on 22 July 2006 was the first match played at the Emirates Stadium?

Statues of Adams, Henry, Chapman and later Bergkamp stand outside the ground.

Arsenal came from 2-0 down to beat which club 3-2 in the 2014 FA Cup final?

Wenger went on to lift the cup a record seven times.

On which date did Arsenal appoint former captain Mikel Arteta as head coach?

He replaced Unai Emery and won the FA Cup in his first half-season.

Arsenal's record-extending 14th FA Cup came in 2020 with a 2-1 win over which club?

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored both goals in an empty Wembley.

Arsenal first wore white sleeves in a 1933 match against which club?

The design has survived, with brief exceptions, ever since.

What is the English translation of Arsenal's Latin motto 'Victoria Concordia Crescit'?

The original club crest showed three cannons viewed from above.

Arsenal's rivalry with which club, created by the 1913 move north, is known as the North London derby?

The bad blood deepened in 1919 when Arsenal, not Spurs, were elected to the expanded First Division.

In Arsenal's controversial 1919 First Division election, they got 18 votes against how many for Tottenham?

Chairman Henry Norris allegedly argued Arsenal's 'long service to league football'; no proof of wrongdoing was ever found.

Arsenal have been in the top flight without a break since 1919. Roughly how long is that active streak?

It is the longest continuous run in the top division in English football.

Arsenal Ladies were formed in 1987 by Vic Akers, who held what job with the men's team?

The club rebranded as Arsenal Women in July 2017 and remains the most successful women's side in England.

Arsenal Women won their second UEFA Women's Champions League in May 2025 by beating which club 1-0?

Their first European title came in 2006-07, part of an unprecedented continental sextuple.

Arsenal's all-time record scorer joined in 1999 for around £11 million from which club?

Wenger converted him from a winger into a striker; he won the Premier League Golden Boot four times.

Arsenal claimed a 'record-equalling third Double' in which season?

The Invincibles season followed two years later.

How many league titles had Arsenal won by the end of the 2023-24 season?

By then Arsenal had 14 league titles and a record 14 FA Cups. One title, 2003-04, was won unbeaten; the last came in 2004.

By what nickname are Arsenal's supporters known?

The name derives from the club's own nickname, The Gunners; virtually every home match sells out.

Which American sports tycoon is the largest shareholder on the Arsenal board?

He first bid for the club in April 2007, competing with Red & White Securities for shares.

Who became Arsenal's first-ever 'head coach' when he succeeded Arsène Wenger in May 2018?

He was only the second manager from outside the United Kingdom in the club's history.

Arsenal wear red in recognition of an 1886 charitable donation from which club?

Two of Dial Square's founders had played for Forest, whose gift of kit set the colour that Herbert Chapman later brightened to pillar-box red.

In The Full Monty, the strippers co-ordinate by mimicking which Arsenal tactic?

The 1997 film played on the club's 1970s and 1980s reputation as a defensive, 'boring' side.

Who holds Arsenal's appearance record with 722 first-team matches between 1975 and 1993?

Fellow centre-half Tony Adams is second with 669, while David Seaman's 564 is the goalkeeping record.

Which ex-player became Arsenal's youngest-ever manager at 34 when he replaced Bertie Mee in 1976?

He signed Malcolm Macdonald and Pat Jennings and reached three straight FA Cup finals from 1978 to 1980.

Arsenal's 1927 home game against which club was the first League match broadcast live on radio?

Proximity to the Alexandra Palace transmitter also made a 1937 Arsenal exhibition the first match shown on television.