Arsenal Football Club are a Premier League football club based in Holloway, London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, they have won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and a joint record 11 FA Cups.
Arsenal's success has been particularly consistent: the club has accumulated the second most points in English top-flight football,[2] holds the ongoing record for the longest uninterrupted period in the top flight, and would be placed first in an aggregated league of the entire 20th century.[3] Arsenal are the second side to complete an English top-flight season unbeaten (in the 2003–04 season), doing so under almost twice the matches of the previous team.
Arsenal were founded in 1886 in Woolwich and in 1893 became the first club from the south of England to join the Football League. In 1913, they moved north across the city to Arsenal Stadium in Highbury. In the 1930s, they won five League Championship titles and two FA Cups. After a lean period in the post-war years they won the League 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. Since neighbouring Tottenham Hotspur, the two clubs have had a fierce rivalry, the North London derby.
Arsenal has one of the highest incomes[4] and largest fanbases[5] in the world. Forbes's 2014 estimate put Arsenal as the fifth most valuable association football club in the world, valued at more than $1.3 billion.[6]
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Arsenal Football Club were formed as Dial Square in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, south-east London, and were renamed Royal Arsenal shortly afterwards.[7] The club was renamed again to Woolwich Arsenal after becoming a limited company in 1893.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] Arsenal only finished in fifth place in the second division during the last pre-war competitive season of 1914–15, but were nevertheless elected to rejoin the First Division when competitive football resumed in 1919–20, at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Some books have reported that this election to division 1 was achieved by dubious means.[11]
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.[12] 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.[13]
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