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.

Colours

Arsenal's home colours have, for much of its history, been bright red with white sleeves and white shorts, though this has not always been the case. The choice of red is in recognition of a charitable donation from Nottingham Forest. Two of Dial Square's founding members, Fred Beardsley and Morris Bates, were former Forest players who had moved to Woolwich for work. As they put together the first team in the area, no kit could be found, so Beardsley and Bates wrote home for help and received a set of kit and a ball. The shirt was a darker, almost purple, shade of red than the club's modern-day colours, and was worn with either white or dark red shorts. Arsenal's colours inspired Sparta Prague to adopt a dark red kit in 1909, which they wear to this day.

Related Topics:
Nottingham Forest - Fred Beardsley - Morris Bates - Sparta Prague - 1909

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In 1933 Herbert Chapman, wishing his players to be more distinctly dressed, updated the kit, adding white sleeves and changing the shade to a brighter pillar box red. The team has stuck with the combination since, aside from two seasons. Firstly, in 1963-64 the kit reverted to all-red, but this proved unpopular and the white sleeves returned the following season. Secondly, as 2005-06 is the last season that Arsenal will play at Highbury, the team's shirts have temporarily reverted back to the original darker red, or "redcurrant", to reflect the colour worn in the first season at Highbury, in 1913. The club will return to its usual colours at the end of the season.

Related Topics:
1933 - Pillar box - 1963-64 - 2005-06 - 1913

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Arsenal's away colours are traditionally yellow and blue, although they wore a green and navy away kit for a short while in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s and the advent of the lucrative replica kit market, the away colours have been changed every couple of seasons. Generally, they have been either yellow and blue, or two-tone blue designs, although there was a metallic gold and navy strip for the 2001-02 season. Many Arsenal fans feel, however, that the blue shirts are bad luck - all three of the club's recent Premier League titles have come in a season where the team wore yellow or gold. The 2005-06 away colours are yellow and dark grey.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1990s - 2001-02 - 2005-06

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