Est. 1886 · An Independent History
From a Woolwich munitions workshop called Dial Square to the Emirates today: 140 years of the club, told in photographs.
Begin the StoryThe Timeline
The Beginning
Formed by workers at the Royal Arsenal armaments factory in Woolwich, southeast London, the club played its first match on 11 December 1886 under the name Dial Square, taken from a workshop on the factory site. Within weeks they renamed themselves Royal Arsenal, then later Woolwich Arsenal.
Turning Professional
In 1893 the club turned professional and joined the Football League, the first southern club to do so. Two decades at the Manor Ground in Plumstead followed, but poor transport links and thin crowds pushed the club toward a dramatic decision: crossing the river entirely.
Crossing the River
Arsenal relocated north of the Thames to Highbury, Islington, dropping 'Woolwich' from the name a few years later. Local clubs objected loudly, and Tottenham have never entirely stopped bringing it up. It also worked: the club swapped a poorly connected corner of Plumstead for a site with an Underground station at the end of the road.
The Chapman Revolution
Herbert Chapman arrived in 1925 and reinvented the club, and arguably the sport itself. He pioneered the WM formation, pushed for floodlit football and numbered shirts, and got the local Tube station renamed after the club. Under Chapman, Arsenal won their first major trophies and became the dominant force of 1930s English football.
The First Golden Age
Five League titles and two FA Cups arrived across the decade, built on Chapman's system and carried on after his sudden death in 1934. Arsenal became English football's first true superclub, the team every other side measured itself against.
Wenger's Revolution
Arsène Wenger transformed Arsenal's fitness culture, diet, and playing style, building teams anchored by Adams, Vieira, Bergkamp and Henry. The 2003/04 season remains the high-water mark: 38 league games unbeaten, the Invincibles, a feat unmatched in the Premier League era.
A New Home
After 93 years at Highbury, Arsenal moved to the 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium in 2006, one of the largest ground moves English football has seen. The new stadium went up a few hundred metres from the old one, so the club changed everything about its home without leaving the neighbourhood it had spent nearly a century in.
Silverware Returns
The trophy cabinet filled again at the new ground: FA Cups in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2020. Then, in 2025/26, Arsenal ended a 22-year wait for the league title, crowned Premier League champions under Mikel Arteta for a 14th English top-flight title in all. It took two decades at the Emirates for the ground to feel like it belonged to a title-winning team.
The Trophy Cabinet
The Legends
Manager
Architect of the modern game: the WM formation, floodlights, and Arsenal's first golden age.
Forward
Arsenal's top scorer for over 70 years until Ian Wright surpassed him in 1997.
Defender / Captain
One-club man and captain across three decades, lifting the league title in three different ones.
Forward
Arsenal's record goalscorer until Thierry Henry: explosive, prolific, beloved.
Forward
The Non-Flying Dutchman, with a touch and vision that redefined what a Premier League forward could be.
Manager
Revolutionised English football's approach to fitness and diet, and built the Invincibles.
Midfielder / Captain
The engine and heartbeat of Wenger's greatest teams.
Forward
Arsenal's all-time record goalscorer and the face of the Invincibles season.
Home Grounds
Home during the Woolwich Arsenal years in Plumstead, southeast London, a modest ground with the famous 'Spion Kop' terrace.
The club's spiritual home for 93 years, famed for its marble halls and Art Deco East Stand. Arsenal outgrew it as the Premier League era demanded a bigger stage.
A 60,000-seat ground built a few hundred metres from Highbury, big enough to pay for the football the club wanted to play. Every Arsenal season since 2006 has ended here.
The Badge
Arsenal's badge has evolved many times since 1888, but the cannon, a nod to the club's roots at the Royal Arsenal armaments factory, has remained a constant.
The crest was redesigned once more for the 2002/03 season into the shield still worn today: a simplified cannon mark, dropping the Islington borough arms and Latin motto scroll seen above. With Emirates Stadium on the horizon, the club felt it was the moment to move the badge forward as well, and the cleaner design was also easier to protect against counterfeit merchandise. It remains a registered trademark of Arsenal Football Club.
The final entry above is a one-off: the shirt for the 2011/12 season carried a special 125th-anniversary crest combining the current badge with 15 laurel leaves on the left, echoing the reverse of the six-pence coins the 15 founding members each paid to join, and 15 oak leaves on the right, for the Royal Oak pub where those founders used to meet. Underneath sat the word "Forward", one of the club's early mottos, flanked by the dates 1886 and 2011. The club reverted to the standard crest the following season, and it hasn't changed since.
Recommended Reading
A few books that go deeper than this page can. Some links below are affiliate links; if you buy through one, this independent project may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Phil Soar & Martin Tyler
The closest thing to a definitive club history, from Dial Square to the modern era, with archive photography throughout.
Shop on Bookshop.orgJon Spurling
A social history of the stadium and the Highbury neighbourhood that grew up around it over nine decades.
Shop on Bookshop.orgAmy Lawrence
A match-by-match account of the only Premier League side to go a season unbeaten, told through the players who lived it.
Shop on Bookshop.orgPatrick Barclay
A biography of the manager who built the first great Arsenal side and reshaped English football's tactics, and its marketing, along the way.
Shop on Bookshop.org