Arsenal Football Club

http://www.all-keyboard.com/,http://www.laptopfan-shop.com/,http://www.laptop-fan-shop.com/ Arsenal Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Holloway, London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups. Arsenal holds the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the English top flight and would be placed first in an aggregated league of the entire 20th century.^{[2Sony VAIO PCG-3B1M Battery} It is the second side to complete an English top flight season unbeaten (in the 2003–04 season), and the only one to do it across 38 matches. Arsenal was founded in 1886 in Woolwich and in 1893 became the first club from the south of England to join the Football League. In 1913, it moved north across the city to Arsenal Stadium in Highbury. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-3C1T Battery} In the 1930s the club won five League Championship titles and two FA Cups. After a lean period in the post-war years it won theLeague and FA Cup Double, in the 1970–71 season, and in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century won two more Doubles and reached the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final. Arsenal has a long-standing rivalry with neighbours Tottenham Hotspur, with whom it contests the North London derby. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-3D1M Battery} Arsenal is the fourth most valuable association football club in the world as of 2012, valued at $1.3 billion. Arsenal Football Club started out as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, south-east London, and was renamed Royal Arsenal shortly afterwards.^[4] The club was renamed again to Woolwich Arsenal after becoming a limited company in 1893.^{[5] Sony VAIO PCG-3G2M Battery} The club became the first southern member of the Football League in 1893, starting out in the Second Division, and won promotion to the First Division in 1904. The club's relative geographic isolation resulted in lower attendances than those of other clubs, which led to the club becoming mired in financial problems and effectively bankrupt by 1910, when they were taken over by businessmen Henry Norris and William Hall.^{[6] Sony VAIO PCG-5R1M Battery} Norris sought to move the club elsewhere, and in 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, Arsenal moved to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, North London; they dropped "Woolwich" from their name the following year.^[7] Arsenal only finished in fifth place in 1919, but were nevertheless elected to rejoin the First Division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, by reportedly dubious means.^{[8]Sony VAIO PCG-7141M Battery} Arsenal appointed Herbert Chapman as manager in 1925. Having already won the league twice with Huddersfield Town in 1923–24 and 1924–25 (see Seasons in English football), Chapman brought Arsenal their first period of major success. His revolutionary tactics and training, along with the signings of star players such as Alex James and Cliff Bastin, laid the foundations of the club's domination of English football in the 1930s.^{[9] Sony VAIO PCG-7143M Battery} Under his guidance Arsenal won their first major trophies – victory in the 1930 FA Cup Final preceded two League Championships, in 1930–31 and 1932–33. In addition, Chapman was behind the 1932 renaming of the local London Underground station from "Gillespie Road" to "Arsenal", making it the only Tube station to be named specifically after a football club.^{[10] Sony VAIO PCG-7151M Battery} Chapman died suddenly of pneumonia in early 1934, leaving Joe Shaw and George Allison to carry on his successful work. Under their guidance, Arsenal won three more titles, in 1933–34, 1934–35 and 1937–38, and the 1936 FA Cup. As key players retired, Arsenal had started to fade by the decade's end, and then the intervention of the Second World War meant competitive professional football in England was suspended. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-7154M Battery} After the war, Arsenal enjoyed a second period of success under Allison's successor Tom Whittaker, winning the league in 1947–48 and 1952–53, and the FA Cup in 1950. Their fortunes waned thereafter; unable to attract players of the same calibre as they had in the 1930s, the club spent most of the 1950s and 1960s in trophyless mediocrity. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-7162M Battery} Even former England captain Billy Wright could not bring the club any success as manager, in a stint between 1962 and 1966.^[13][14][15] Arsenal began winning silverware again with the surprise appointment of club physiotherapist Bertie Mee as manager in 1966. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-7181M Battery} After losing two League Cup finals, they won their first European trophy, the 1969–70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. This was followed by an even greater triumph: their first League and FA Cup double in1970–71.^[16] This marked a premature high point of the decade; the Double-winning side was soon broken up and the following decade was characterised by a series of near misses. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-41112M Battery} Arsenal finished as First Division runners-up in 1972–73, lost three FA Cup finals, in 1972, 1978 and 1980, and lost the 1980 Cup Winners' Cup final on penalties. The club's only success during this time was a last-minute 3–2 victory over Manchester United in the 1979 FA Cup Final, widely regarded as a classic.^{[13][17] Sony VAIO PCG-7153M Battery} The return of former player George Graham as manager in 1986 brought a third period of glory. Arsenal won the League Cup in 1986–87, Graham's first season in charge. This was followed by a League title win in 1988–89, won with a last-minute goal in the final game of the season against fellow title challengersLiverpool. Graham's Arsenal won another title in 1990–91, losing only one match, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-71312M Battery} won the FA Cup and League Cup double in 1993, and a second European trophy, the Cup Winners' Cup, in 1994.^[13][18] Graham's reputation was tarnished when he was found to have taken kickbacks from agent Rune Hauge for signing certain players,^[19] and he was dismissed in 1995. His replacement, Bruce Rioch, lasted for only one season, leaving the club after a dispute with the board of directors.^{[20] Sony VAIO PCG-7144M Battery} The club's success in the late 1990s and first decade of the 21st century owed a great deal to the 1996 appointment of Arsène Wenger as manager. Wenger brought new tactics, a new training regime and several foreign players who complemented the existing English talent. Arsenal won a second League and Cup double in 1997–98 and a third in 2001–02. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-7191L Battery} In addition, the club reached the final of the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup (losing on penalties to Galatasaray), were victorious in the 2003 and 2005 FA Cups, and won the Premier League in 2003–04 without losing a single match, an achievement which earned the side the nickname "The Invincibles".^[21] The club went 49 league matches unbeaten in that season, a national record.^{[22] Sony VAIO PCG-3C1M Battery} Arsenal finished in either first or second place in the league in eight of Wenger's first eleven seasons at the club, although on no occasion were they able to retain the title.^[13] As of June 2012, they were one of only five teams, the others being Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, and Manchester City, to have won the Premier League since its formation in 1992.^{[23] Sony VAIO PCG-3F1M Battery} Arsenal had never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League until 2005–06; in that season they became the first club from London in the competition's fifty-year history to reach the final, in which they were beaten 2–1 by Barcelona.^[24] In July 2006, they moved into the Emirates Stadium, after 93 years at Highbury.^{[25] Sony VAIO PCG-3H1M Battery} Arsenal reached the final of the 2007 and 2011 League Cup final, losing 2–1 to Chelsea and Birmingham City respectively. The club has not gained a major trophy since the 2005 FA Cup. Unveiled in 1888, Royal Arsenal's first crest featured three cannon viewed from above, pointing northwards, similar to the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-3J1M Battery} These can sometimes be mistaken for chimneys, but the presence of a carved lion's head and a cascabel on each are clear indicators that they are cannon.^[27] This was dropped after the move to Highbury in 1913, only to be reinstated in 1922, when the club adopted a crest featuring a single cannon, pointing eastwards, with the club's nickname, The Gunners, inscribed alongside it; ^{Sony VAIO PCG-8141M Battery} this crest only lasted until 1925, when the cannon was reversed to point westward and its barrel slimmed down.^[27] In 1949, the club unveiled a modernised crest featuring the same style of cannon below the club's name, set inblackletter, and above the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington and a scroll inscribed with the club's newly-adopted Latin motto, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-8161M Battery} Victoria Concordia Crescit "victory comes from harmony", coined by the club's programme editor Harry Homer.^[27] For the first time, the crest was rendered in colour, which varied slightly over the crest's lifespan, finally becoming red, gold and green. Because of the numerous revisions of the crest, Arsenal were unable tocopyright it. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-3C2M Battery} Although the club had managed to register the crest as a trademark, and had fought (and eventually won) a long legal battle with a local street trader who sold "unofficial" Arsenal merchandise,^[28] Arsenal eventually sought a more comprehensive legal protection. Therefore, in 2002 they introduced a new crest featuring more modern curved lines and a simplified style, which was copyrightable.^{[29] Sony VAIO PCG-5N2M Battery} The cannon once again faces east and the club's name is written in a sans-serif typeface above the cannon. Green was replaced by dark blue. The new crest was criticised by some supporters; the Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association claimed that the club had ignored much of Arsenal's history and tradition with such a radical modern design, and that fans had not been properly consulted on the issue.^{[30] Sony VAIO PCG-5P1M Battery} Until the 1960s, a badge was worn on the playing shirt only for high-profile matches such as FA Cup finals, usually in the form of a monogram of the club's initials in red on a white background.^[31] The monogram theme was developed into an Art Deco-style badge on which the letters A and C framed a football rather than the letter F, the whole set within a hexagonal border. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-5S1M Battery} This early example of a corporate logo, introduced as part of Herbert Chapman's rebranding of the club in the 1930s, was used not only on Cup Final shirts but as a design feature throughout Highbury Stadium, including above the main entrance and inlaid in the floors.^[32] From 1967, a white cannon was regularly worn on the shirts, until replaced by the club crest, sometimes with the addition of the nickname "The Gunners", in the 1990s.^{[31] Sony VAIO PCG-9Z1M Battery} In the 2011–2012 season, Arsenal celebrated their 125th year anniversary. The celebrations included a modified version of the current crest worn on their jerseys for the season. The crest was all white, surrounded by 15 oak leaves to the right and 15 laurel leaves to the left. The oak leaves represent the 15 founding members of the club who met at the Royal Oak pub. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-7171M Battery} The 15 laurel leaves represent the design detail on the six pence pieces paid by the founding fathers to establish the club. The laurel leaves also represent strength. To complete the crest, 1886 and 2011 are shown on either sides of the motto "Forward" at the bottom of the crest. For much of Arsenal's history, their home colours have been bright red shirts with white sleeves and white shorts, though this has not always been the case. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-7186M Battery} The choice of red is in recognition of a charitable donation from Nottingham Forest, soon after Arsenal's foundation in 1886. Two of Dial Square's founding members, Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates, were former Forest players who had moved to Woolwich for work. As they put together the first team in the area, no kit could be found, so Beardsley and Bates wrote home for help and received a set of kit and a ball.^{[4] Sony VAIO PCG-81112M Battery} The shirt was redcurrant, a dark shade of red, and was worn with white shorts and blue socks.^[34] In 1933, Herbert Chapman, wanting his players to be more distinctly dressed, updated the kit, adding white sleeves and changing the shade to a brighter pillar box red. Two possibilities have been suggested for the origin of the white sleeves. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-31311M Battery} One story reports that Chapman noticed a supporter in the stands wearing a red sleeveless sweater over a white shirt; another was that he was inspired by a similar outfit worn by the cartoonist Tom Webster, with whom Chapman played golf.^[35] Regardless of which story is true, the red and white shirts have come to define Arsenal and the team have worn the combination ever since, aside from two seasons. The first was 1966–67, when Arsenal wore all-red shirts;^[34] this proved unpopular and the white sleeves returned the following season. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-8152M Battery} The second was 2005–06, the last season that Arsenal played at Highbury, when the team wore commemorative redcurrant shirts similar to those worn in 1913, their first season in the stadium; the club reverted to their normal colours at the start of the next season.^[35] In the 2008–09 season, Arsenal replaced the traditional all-white sleeves with red sleeves with a broad white stripe.^{[34] Sony VAIO PCG-31111M Battery} Arsenal's home colours have been the inspiration for at least three other clubs. In 1909, Sparta Prague adopted a dark red kit like the one Arsenal wore at the time;^[35] in 1938, Hibernian adopted the design of the Arsenal shirt sleeves in their own green and white strip.^[36] In 1920, Sporting Clube de Braga's manager returned from a game at Highbury and changed his team's green kit to a duplicate of Arsenal's red with white sleeves and shorts, giving rise to the team's nickname of Os Arsenalistas. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-61111M Battery} These teams still wear these designs to this day. For many years Arsenal's away colours were white shirts and either black or white shorts. Since the 1969–70 season, they have worn yellow and blue, but there have been exceptions. They wore a green and navy away kit in 1982–83, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-51112M Battery} and since the early 1990s and the advent of the lucrative replica kit market, the away colours have been changed regularly. During this period the designs have been either two-tone blue designs, or variations on the traditional yellow and blue, such as the metallic gold and navy strip used in the 2001–02 season, and the yellow and dark grey used from 2005 to 2007.^{[38] Sony VAIO PCG-51211M Battery} As of 2009, the away kit is changed every season, and the outgoing away kit becomes the third-choice kit if a new home kit is being introduced in the same year.^[39] Arsenal's shirts have been made by manufacturers including Bukta (from the 1930s until the early 1970s), Umbro (from the 1970s until 1986), Adidas (1986–1994), and Nike (since 1994). ^{Sony VAIO PCG-51212M Battery} Like those of most other major football clubs, Arsenal's shirts have featured sponsors' logos since the 1980s; sponsors include JVC(1982–1999), Sega (1999–2002), O2 (2002–2006), and Emirates (from 2006). For most of their time in south-east London, Arsenal played at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, apart from a three-year period at the nearby Invicta Ground between 1890 and 1893. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-41111M Battery} The Manor Ground was initially just a field, until the club installed stands and terracing for their first Football League match in September 1893. They played their home games there for the next twenty years (with two exceptions in the 1894–95 season), until the move to north London in 1913.^[40][41] Widely referred to as Highbury, Arsenal Stadium was the club's home from September 1913 until May 2006. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-41111V Battery} The original stadium was designed by the renowned football architect Archibald Leitch, and had a design common to many football grounds in the UK at the time, with a single covered stand and three open-air banks of terracing.^[42] The entire stadium was given a massive overhaul in the 1930s: new Art Deco West and East stands were constructed, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-61412V Battery} opening in 1932 and 1936 respectively, and a roof was added to the North Bank terrace, which was bombed during the Second World War and not restored until 1954.^[42] Highbury could hold over 60,000 spectators at its peak, and had a capacity of 57,000 until the early 1990s. The Taylor Reportand Premier League regulations obliged Arsenal to convert Highbury to ^{Sony VAIO PCG-71112M Battery} an all-seater stadium in time for the 1993–94 season, thus reducing the capacity to 38,419 seated spectators.^[43] This capacity had to be reduced further during Champions Leaguematches to accommodate additional advertising boards, so much so that for two seasons, from 1998 to 2000, Arsenal played Champions League home matches atWembley, which could house more than 70,000 spectators. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-81111V Battery} Expansion of Highbury was restricted because the East Stand had been designated as a Grade II listed building and the other three stands were close to residential properties.^[42] These limitations prevented the club from maximising matchday revenue during the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, putting them in danger of being left behind in the football boom of that time.^{[45] Sony VAIO PCG-81111V Battery} After considering various options, in 2000 Arsenal proposed building a new 60,361-capacity stadium at Ashburton Grove, since renamed the Emirates Stadium, about 500 metres south-west of Highbury.^[46] The project was initially delayed by red tape and rising costs,^[47] and construction was completed in July 2006, in time for the start of the 2006–07 season. ^{Sony VAIO PCG-81212M Battery} The stadium was named after its sponsors, the airline company Emirates, with whom the club signed the largest sponsorship deal in English football history, worth around £100 million;^[49] some fans referred to the ground as Ashburton Grove, or the Grove, as they did not agree with corporate sponsorship of stadium names.^[50] The stadium will be officially known as Emirates Stadium until at least 2012, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-81212V Battery} and the airline will be the club's shirt sponsor until the end of the 2013–14 season.^[49] From the start of the 2010–11 season on, the stands of the stadium have been officially known as North Bank, East Stand, West Stand and Clock end.^[51] Arsenal's players train at the Shenley Training Centre in Hertfordshire, ^{Sony VAIO PCG-51111M Battery} a purpose-built facility which opened in 1999.^[52]Before that the club used facilities on a nearby site owned by the University College of London Students' Union. Until 1961 they had trained at Highbury.^[53]Arsenal's Academy under-18 teams play their home matches at Shenley, while the reserves play their games at Underhill, home of Barnet. ^{Sony VAIO VPCS13X9E/B battery} Arsenal fans often refer to themselves as "Gooners", the name derived from the team's nickname, "The Gunners". The fanbase is large and generally loyal, and virtually all home matches sell out; in 2007–08 Arsenal had the second-highest average League attendance for an English club (60,070, which was 99.5% of available capacity),^[55] and as of 2006, the fourth-highest all-time average attendance.^{[56] Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B battery} Arsenal has the seventh highest average attendance of European football clubs only behindBorussia Dortmund, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Schalke.^{[57][58][59][60]} The club's location, adjoining wealthy areas such as Canonbury and Barnsbury, mixed areas such as Islington, Holloway, ^{Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B battery} Highbury, and the adjacent London Borough of Camden, and largely working-class areas such as Finsbury Park and Stoke Newington, has meant that Arsenal's supporters have come from across the usual class divides. Like all major English football clubs, Arsenal have a number of domestic supporters' clubs, including the Arsenal Football Supporters Club, which works closely with the club, ^{Sony VAIO VPCF13M8E/B battery} and the Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association, which maintains a more independent line. The Arsenal Supporters' Trust promotes greater participation in ownership of the club by fans. The club's supporters also publish fanzines such as The Gooner, Highbury High, Gunflash and the less cerebral Up The Arse!. In addition to the usual English football chants, ^{Sony VAIO VPCF13Z0E/B battery} supporters sing "One-Nil to the Arsenal" (to the tune of "Go West") and "Boring, Boring Arsenal", which used to be a common taunt from opposition fans but is now sung ironically by Arsenal supporters when the team is playing well.^[61] There have always been Arsenal supporters outside of London, and since the advent of satellite television, ^{Sony VAIO VPCM13M1E/L battery} a supporter's attachment to a football club has become less dependent on geography. Consequently, Arsenal have a significant number of fans from beyond London and all over the world; in 2007, 24 UK, 37 Irish and 49 other overseas supporters clubs were affiliated with the club.^[62] A 2005 report by Granada Ventures, which at the time owned a 9.9% stake in the club, estimated Arsenal's global fanbase at 27 million.^{[63] Sony VAIO VPCM13M1E/W battery}