Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) are a football club based in north London. They play in the FA Premier League and are one of the most successful clubs in English football. Arsenal have won 13 First Division and Premier League titles (only Liverpool and Manchester United have won more), and 10 FA Cups (second only to Manchester United), although the team has yet to achieve similar success in the UEFA Champions League.

Arsenal in popular culture

As one of the most successful teams in the country, Arsenal have often featured when football is depicted in British culture. The club was the backdrop to one of the earliest football-related films, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939). The film is centred on a friendly between Arsenal and an amateur side, one of whose players is poisoned whilst playing. Many Arsenal players appeared as themselves, although only manager George Allison was given a speaking part.

Related Topics:
British culture - Film - The Arsenal Stadium Mystery - 1939

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More recently, the book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby is an autobiographical account of Hornby's life and relationship with football and Arsenal in particular. Published in 1992, it formed part of (and some say it played an active part in) the revival and rehabilitation of football in British society during the 1990s. The book was later made into a film starring Colin Firth, which centred on the club's 1988-89 title win.

Related Topics:
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby - Autobiographical - 1992 - 1990s - Colin Firth - 1988-89

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Arsenal's perceived tendency to be defensive and "boring" through the 1970s and 1980s made the team the butt of jokes by many comedians, such as Eric Morecambe. The theme is repeated in the 1997 film The Full Monty, in a scene where the lead actors move in a line and raise their hands, deliberately mimicking the Arsenal defence's offside trap, in an attempt to co-ordinate their stripping.

Related Topics:
1970s - 1980s - Eric Morecambe - 1997 - The Full Monty - Offside - Stripping

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The club is also mentioned in several Monty Python's Flying Circus sketches, and in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; a barman remarks that the impending end of the world is a "lucky escape" for Arsenal, who are playing that afternoon. Most recently, in the 2004 box office hit Ocean's Twelve the stars put on Arsenal tracksuits as part of one of their European heists.

Related Topics:
Monty Python's Flying Circus - Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - End of the world - 2004 - Ocean's Twelve

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