The Arsenal Football Club, a professional football team with its main office in Islington, London, England, is known as Arsenal. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, which is the top level of English football. In addition to 13 league titles, the squad has won a record 14 FA Cups, two League Cups, sixteen FA Community Shields, one European Cup Winners’ Cup, and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (including one undefeated title). It is the third-most prosperous club in English football in terms of trophies won.
Arsenal became the first side from the South of England to join the Football League in 1893. They had reached the First Division by 1904.
History
Dial Square Football Club was founded in October 1886 by Scotsman David Danskin and fifteen other Woolwich munitions workers. The club was named after a workshop in the center of the Royal Arsenal complex. To assist start the club, each member gave sixpence, and Danskin also provided three shillings. On December 11, 1886, Dial Square played their maiden game against Eastern Wanderers and won 6-0. A month later, the team changed its name to Royal Arsenal, and its initial home was Plumstead Common, though they played there most of the time.
Bank of England Club, 1919–1953
With a new venue and First Division games, Arsenal’s budget expanded quickly, and attendance was more than double that of the Manor Ground. Herbert Chapman, the great manager of Huddersfield Town, was drawn to their location and record-breaking wage offer in 1925. In the following five years, Chapman constructed a new Arsenal. He brought in young players like Cliff Bastin and Eddie Hapgood, introduced Charlie Buchan’s novel spin on the developing WM formation, hired a dependable new trainer in Tom Whittaker, and wasted Highbury’s wealth on stars like David Jack and Alex James. Arsenal rapidly earned the moniker “Bank of England club” thanks to expenditure and ticket sales records.
