The Arsenal Football Club, otherwise known as simply Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Domestically, Arsenal have won 14 league titles (including one unbeaten), a record 14 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 18 FA Community Shields and a Football League Centenary Trophy. In European football, they have won one European Cup Winners' Cup and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. In terms of trophies won, it is the third-most successful club in English football, and one of the most successful clubs in world football.
Arsenal was the first club from southern England to join the Football League in 1893, officially joining the First Division in 1904. Arsenal carries the longest active streak continuously in the top division (over 105 years and counting) and completed the 20th century with the highest average league position of any club. Arsenal has won the second-most top-flight matches in English football history. In the 1930s, Arsenal won five League Championships and two FA Cups, with another FA Cup and two more Championships coming after the war. In 1970–71, it won its first League and FA Cup double. Between 1989 and 2005, the club won five league titles and five FA Cups, including two more doubles. Between 1998 and 2017, Arsenal qualified for the UEFA Champions League for an English football record of nineteen consecutive seasons. The club finished as Champions League runners-up in 2006 and 2026.
In 1886, munitions workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich founded the club as Dial Square. In 1913, the club crossed the city to the Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, becoming close neighbours of Tottenham Hotspur, thus creating the North London derby. Herbert Chapman won the club its first silverware, and his legacy enabled a trophy-laden period in the 1930s. He helped introduce the WM formation, floodlights, and shirt numbers; he also added the white sleeves and brighter red to the club's jersey. Arsène Wenger was the club's longest-serving manager and won the most trophies. He won a record seven FA Cups, and his third and final title-winning team set an English record for the longest top-flight unbeaten league run at 49 games between 2003 and 2004, receiving the nickname "The Invincibles".
In 2006, the club moved to the nearby Emirates Stadium. With an annual revenue of £616.6m in the 2023–24 season, Arsenal was estimated to be worth US$3.4 billion by Forbes, making it the world's eighth-most valuable football club, while also being one of the most followed sport teams in the world on social media. The motto of the club is Victoria Concordia Crescit, Latin for "Victory Through Harmony".
1886–1912: Dial Square to Royal Arsenal
In October 1886, Scotsman David Danskin and fifteen fellow munitions workers in Woolwich formed the Dial Square Football Club, named after a workshop at the heart of the Royal Arsenal complex. Each member contributed sixpence, and Danskin also added three shillings to help form the club. Dial Square played their first match on 11 December 1886 against the Eastern Wanderers and won 6–0. The club had been renamed Royal Arsenal by January 1887, and its first home was Plumstead Common, though they spent most of their time playing at the Manor Ground. Their first trophies were the Kent Senior Cup and London Charity Cup in 1889–90 and the London Senior Cup in 1890–91; these were the only county association trophies Arsenal won during their time in South East London. In 1891, Royal Arsenal became the first London club to turn professional.
Royal Arsenal was renamed for the second time upon becoming a limited liability company in 1893. They registered their new name, Woolwich Arsenal, with the Football League when the club ascended later that year. Woolwich Arsenal was the first southern member of the Football League, starting out in the Second Division and reaching the First Division in 1904. Falling attendances, due to financial difficulties among the munitions workers and the arrival of more accessible football clubs elsewhere in the city, led the club close to bankruptcy by 1910. Businessmen Henry Norris and William Hall became involved in the club, and sought to move them elsewhere.
1912–1925: Bank of England club
In 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, the club moved across the river to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury. In 1919, the Football League controversially voted to promote The Arsenal, instead of relegated local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, into the newly enlarged First Division, despite only finishing fifth in the Second Division's last pre-war season of 1914–15. Later that year, The Arsenal started dropping "The" in official documents, gradually shifting its name for the final time towards Arsenal, as it is generally known today.
With a new home and First Division football, attendances were more than double those at the Manor Ground, and Arsenal's budget grew rapidly. With record-breaking spending and gate receipts, Arsenal quickly became known as the Bank of England club.
1925–1934: Herbert Chapman's legendary Gunners
Arsenal's location and record-breaking salary offer lured star Huddersfield Town manager Herbert Chapman in 1925. Over the next five years, Chapman built a revolutionary new Arsenal. Firstly, he appointed a new trainer, Tom Whittaker who would one day rise to become a fabled Arsenal manager himself. With the help of player Charlie Buchan, implemented the nascent WM formation which would serve as a stable bedrock to his outfit. He also captured young talents such as Cliff Bastin and Eddie Hapgood, whilst also lavishing Highbury's high income on stars such as David Jack and Alex James.
Transformed, Chapman's Arsenal claimed their first national trophy, the FA Cup in 1930, and League Championships followed in 1930–31 and 1932–33. Chapman also presided over off-pitch changes: white sleeves and shirt numbers were added to the kit; a Tube station was named after the club; and the first of two opulent Art Deco stands was completed, with some of the first floodlights in English football. Suddenly, in the middle of the 1933–34 season, Chapman died of pneumonia.
1934–1947: Shaw, Allison and the Second World War
Chapman's death meant work was left to his colleagues Joe Shaw and George Allison, with both proving to be shrewd and consummate custodians of Chapman's Arsenal team, seeing out a hat-trick of league wins with the 1933–34, 1934–35, and 1937–38 titles, and then furthermore winning the 1936 FA Cup.
World War II meant the Football League was suspended for seven years. While Arsenal were paraded by the nation as a symbol of solidarity with war efforts, the war took a huge toll on the team as the club had had more players killed than any top flight club. Furthermore, debt from reconstructing an ambitious North Bank Stand redevelopment greatly bled Arsenal's resources.
1947–1962: Tom Whittaker's meteoric Gunners
Despite this period of turbulence and churn, Arsenal returned to win the league in the second post-war season of 1947–48. This was Tom Whittaker's first season as manager, and meant the club equalled the champions of England record. Whittaker, despite his humble and modest disposition, was oft-referred to as the "brains" behind Chapman's legendary Arsenal side. He gathered a successful and highly skilled Arsenal side in spite of greatly limited resources, with a fiery and expansive style that drove great fanfare at the time.