Formed: 1886
Nickname: The Gunners
UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: (2006)
• UEFA Cup: (2000)
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1994; (1980), (1995)
• UEFA Super Cup: (1994)
Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 13 (2004)
• FA Cup: 10 (2005)
• League Cup: 2 (1993)
History
• Arsenal began life as a team of munitions workers from the Royal Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich, south-east London – hence their nickname, the Gunners. In 1913 the club’s owner, entrepreneur Henry Norris, took the club across the Thames to Highbury and a wider supporter catchment area. There the team adopted its current name having previously been called Dial Square FC, Royal Arsenal FC and Woolwich Arsenal FC.
• Their pedigree was established in the 1920s under the great moderniser Herbert Chapman, and although he died suddenly in 1934, Arsenal continued to enjoy success. Between 1930 and 1938, the Gunners claimed five league titles and two FA Cups.
• Consistent success deserted them until the late 1960s, when former club physiotherapist Bertie Mee built a team capable of winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970 and the domestic league and cup double a year later.
• George Graham, a stalwart in that double-winning lineup, returned Arsenal to the forefront of the English game in the late 1980s. His defensively stout team won the league in 1988/89 and 1990/91, before lifting the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1993/94.
• Arsenal’s reputation as dour but effective changed radically with the arrival of little-known French manager Arsène Wenger in October 1996. Putting the accent on fluid, attacking football, ‘Le Professeur’ led the Gunners to three Premier League crowns and four FA Cup wins, not least guiding the so-called ‘Invincibles’ through an unbeaten Premier League campaign in 2003/04. Wenger also took the club to their first UEFA Champions League final in 2005/06, and masterminded the move from Highbury to their current stadium.
Club records
Most appearances: David O’Leary (722)
Most goals: Thierry Henry (214)
Record victory: 12-0 on two occasions, most recently at home against Loughborough AFC (Second Division, 12 March 1900)
Record defeat: Loughborough AFC 8-0 Arsenal (Second Division, 12 December 1896)
From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52280/profile/index.html
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