Arsenal Football club were formed in 1886 in Woolwich, south-east London, they were first known as Woolwich Arsenal. The Arsenal Chairman is Peter Hill-Wood and Arsenal has been a family owned club for many generations. Their home ground was in Plumstead South London before they moved to north London to play their football at Highbury in Islington in 1913.

They moved again 93 years later in 2006 to their current home The Emirates Stadium which holds 60,000 just minutes walk from Highbury. Arsenal also play in a red strip and are nicknamed the Gunners by the North London faithful. Arsenal had their most consistently successful period in the 1930,s winning five first division championships. The man responsible was Gunners heroine Manager Herbert Chapman who made that side the best in English league football. Former record goalscoring Cliff Bastin was a vocal point in the team, his goals were hugely responsible for Arsenal's glory.

The reds achieved their first of three double winning sides in 1971, they beat a strong Liverpool team to claim that year's Fa Cup. The double winning heroes included irishman Liam Brady. They won the fa cup again in 1979 in a thrilling encounter with Manchester United. Alan Sunderland scored the dramatic goal to beat United 3-2 and lift their first trophy in 8 years. Arsenal would experience a mediocre time until the arrival of ex player George Graham in 1986. He managed the side to the league cup trophy in 1987 with fellow scotsman Charlie Nicholas one of the key figures in that triumph.

They went on to win the league title in 1989 and 1991 establishing Graham as arguably their best manager since Chapman 50 years before that. They continued to win cups with Graham in charge adding the Fa cup in 1993. Strikers Alan Smith and Ian Wright along with legendary captain Tony Adams were the stars during Grahams tenure before he was dismissed in 1995 due to improper transfer dealings.
 
Current manager Arsene Wenger took on the managers role in october 1996. and won Arsenal the Premiership in his fisrt full season in charge in 1998 along with the fa cup for Arsenal's second domestic double. They went trophyless for 4 years before recording another double in 2002, players such as Robert Pires, Freddie Ljunberg and all-time record goalscorer Thierry Henry were Wenger's crown jewels. Arsenal made history in 2004 by going the entire 38 match season unbeaten, they were given the moniker 'The invincibles' and were arguably the greatest side in Premiership history. In 2005 they beat rivals Manchester United in the Fa cup final, Wengers 3rd fa cup in 4 years. Captain Patrick Vieira scored the winning penalty, but it was his departure that saw a recent demise and has sent Arsenal to three seasons  without a trophy to put in their historic cabinet.

The Gunners manged to reach the Champions Leahe places with a 4th placed finish. It did end up as another disapponting season for the underachieving reds who once again ended the season trophyless.

In 1994 the Reds won the European Cup Winners Cup, In 2006 they reached the 2006 Champions League final but lost out to a great Barcelona side 2-1. They finished the 2007-2008 season 3rd in the league without any silverware. Arsenal were comfortably knocked out in the Semi-finals of the 2009 Champions League by runners up Manchester United, a performance which humbled many of the North London faithful.

Despite much domestic glory Arsenal have experienced much heartbreak in the Champions league and have failed to ever lift the trophy, the one cup which has always eluded the Londoners. Profile by Chris Howe.

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