Arsenal Odds

Arsenal Odds

As with most Premier League teams, betting on Arsenal odds is very popular. From Arsenal outright odds to Arsenal match odds, many bookmakers offer a range of different markets for bettors to profit on Arsenal results.

Arsenal outright odds can sometimes be subject to bookmaker offers, such as money-back specials or free bet offers. Odds on Arsenal to finish fourth and odds on Arsenal to win the treble are often enhanced by bookmakers, offering more value for bettors.

With them being one of the better sides in the division, Arsenal relegation odds are of course extremely long, but every sportsbook will offer odds on events such as this.

With Arsenal gaining a reputation in recent years as being a ‘fourth place’ team, meaning their aim each season is to just qualify for the Champions League, Arsenal 4th place odds are very common. 

History

Arsenal Football Club are a Premier League side who play at the Emirates Stadium in Holloway, London. One of the most successful clubs in the history of English football, Arsenal have played in the top flight of the English football system since 1919.

Arsenal F.C history starts in 1886, when workers from an armoury factory at Royal Arsenal called Dial Square set up a football team. To begin with, the team took the name Dial Square and later changed it to Royal Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal play their home football in North London, but originally they were a South East London side. Royal Arsenal played their first matches at Plumstead Common, and then at the Manor Ground. They then moved to the Invicta Ground before moving back to the Manor Ground a few seasons later. It was at the Manor Ground that Royal Arsenal won their first trophies - the London Senior Cup, the London Charity Cup and the Kent Senior Cup.

Another name change soon followed. Royal Arsenal changed its name to Woolwich Arsenal in 1893 and became the first Southern team to play in the Football League. The club spent eleven seasons in the Second Division before winning promotion in 1904.

Financial troubles hit the club and in 1910 Woolwich Arsenal went into liquidation. Henry Norris, who was the chairman of Fulham at the time, and William Hall were among a number of businessmen who bought the club.

The new owners wanted to move the club out of the Manor Ground and into new premises in the hope that attendances would improve. Arsenal were relegated from the First Division in 1912/1913 but the following year they moved the club to Highbury in North London. Another name changed followed, dropping the Woolwich and becoming known as The Arsenal. 

Football was suspended for the duration of the First World War, and resumed again in 1919. For the 1919/1920 season, the First Division was expanded from 20 to 22 teams. Chelsea, who finished in a relegation place in the previous season, kept their First Division place and a ballot was arranged to decide which team would take the last extra place. Tottenham had finished bottom of the Division but put themselves forward along with The Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Birmingham, Barnsley, Wolves and Hull City. The Arsenal won the vote amidst controversy and allegations of wrongdoing and bribery, though nothing was ever proven. This led to Arsenal and Tottenham feuding, a rivalry that still lasts to this day. Since 1919, Arsenal have never been relegated, and today hold the record of the most consecutive seasons in the top flight.

The Arsenal became simply Arsenal, and thanks to higher attendances at Highbury their bankroll began to grow. This enabled the club to sign Herbert Chapman as manager in 1925, offering him a record smashing salary. With this appointment, Arsenal went from strength to strength and five years later they won the first national trophy in Arsenal official history, the FA Cup. It was during this period that Arsenal gained the nickname the Bank Of England Club, thanks to their spending sprees.

The 1930’s was an extremely successful decade for Arsenal. The club followed their 1930 FA Cup victory with a First Division title in 1930/1931 and another shortly after in 1932/1933 season. 

Halfway through the following season, Herbert Chapman passed away and Joe Shaw and George Allison took the reigns. Arsenal won the title again that season, and twice more that decade along with another FA Cup in 1936.

After the resumption of the Football League after the Second World War, Arsenal won the First Division title again. The 1950’s started brightly for the club, with a third FA Cup win in 1950 and a record breaking seventh First Division title in 1952/1953.

However, after their title win in 1953, Arsenal’s success waned. No more major trophies were won until 1970, when Arsenal won their first ever European trophy in the form of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. This win seemed to revitalise the club, and the following season they won two trophies - the First Division title and the FA Cup, the first ‘double’ in Arsenal F.C history.

The 1970’s saw a fifth FA Cup victory along with two losing finals, and a loss on penalties in the 1980 European Cup Winners’ Cup final. 

The 1980’s saw another change in manager. George Graham, an ex Arsenal player, was given the manager’s job in 1986 and success came instantly. In his first season, Graham had added another First Division title to the Arsenal trophy cabinet. Arsenal’s ‘famous back four’ was developed around this time with the signings of Steve Bould, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn joining Tony Adams who had come through the ranks of the Arsenal Youth Team.

The season after, Arsenal were involved in one of the most dramatic finishes to a season in English top flight history. Arsenal played Liverpool at Anfield with both sides challenging for the title. Arsenal had to win the game by two goals to win another First Division crown. Arsenal went 1-0 up and in the final minute of the game, Michael Thomas found the net, making it 2-0 and winning Arsenal their ninth title.

The 1990/1991 season saw another title added to the Arsenal collection, in a season where Arsenal only lost one game. In 1993, Arsenal won another double, the FA Cup and the League Cup, and a European Cup Winners’ Cup title followed in 1994. However, controversy hit the club when it was discovered that manager George Graham had been receiving money in exchange for signing certain players, and was sacked in 1995. Bruce Rioch took over the reigns, but lasted for just one season.

1996 saw the appointment of Arsene Wenger, who has gone on to be the most successful and longest serving manager in Arsenal history. Two more League and Cup doubles followed in the 1997/1998 and 2001/2002 seasons, and two FA Cup wins in 2003 and 2005 ensured Wenger’s first decade in charge was an incredibly successful one.

In the 2003/2004 season saw the birth of ‘The Invincibles’. Arsenal won the Premier League, going all season without losing a single league game. 

After the FA Cup win in 2005, Arsenal didn’t win a trophy until 2014 when they won an eleventh FA Cup. Arsenal retained the trophy the season after, becoming the most successful FA Cup side at that time. They add to their FA Cup collection by winning the trophy in the 2016/2017 season, as well as the Community Shield later that year. These were the last trophies gained under the reign of Arsene Wenger, who left the club after 22 years in charge. Unai Emery is the current Arsenal boss.

Crest

The Arsenal football badge was first introduced in 1888. The Arsenal original crest, back when the club were known as Royal Arsenal, featured three cannons surrounded by an image similar to the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich’s Coat of Arms. 

In the 1920’s, the three cannons were replaced by a single cannon. A new Arsenal football crest was released in 1949. This was a more modern version of the original crest, and featured the Coat of Arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington. This was also the first badge to use the motto Victoria Concordia Crescit, meaning ‘victory comes from harmony’. 

During this time, Arsenal only ever used crests on their jerseys when they played in FA Cup Finals or other important games. The 1949 crest continued to evolve making slight alterations to style and colour. Over the decades, the colours within the crest have changed to red and then to gold, including making the cannon featured in the crest gold too.

For the club’s 125th anniversary, a new badge was developed for use in the 2011/2012 season. This featured oak leaves in a nod of respect to the founding members of the club who frequented the Royal Oak pub, and laurel leaves, which represented the money paid by the founding members to form the club.

Colours

Arsenal are famous for their red shirts with white sleeves, white shorts and white socks and for much of their history, the Arsenal team colours have stayed the same.

Nottingham Forest were the inspiration behind the original Arsenal football colours. When first formed as Dial Square, two former players from Nottingham Forest joined the club and brought with them Forest kits for their new club to wear. The Dial Square kit featured all dark red shirts, white shorts and black socks. The same colours were used when the club changed its name to Royal Arsenal, and in 1899 the short colour was changed from white to dark blue, and then changed back to white for the 1901/1902 season.

Over the next two decades, the Arsenal kit colours of dark red shirts, white shorts and black socks remained the same, apart from for two seasons when blue socks and then black and white socks were worn.

When Herbert Chapman was appointed manager in the 1930’s, he updated the Arsenal kit colours. The shirt colour was changed to a lighter and brighter red and white sleeves were implemented. White shorts were still worn but the colour of the socks changed to blue and white.

In the 1960’s, the Arsenal kit featured white socks once more, and the Arsenal team colours have stayed almost the same, aside from alternating between white socks and red socks from season to season.

For Arsenal’s 125th anniversary, the team wore a kit reminiscent of their early years consisting of dark red shirts, white shorts and dark red socks.

Arsenal away colours have changed over the decades. When away kits were first used, Arsenal wore a kit consisting of white shirts with black or white shorts. In recent years, other colours have been used such the famous yellow and blue strip, with green, gold, navy and grey being other regularly used away colours.

Arsenal Stadium

Arsenal first played on Plumstead Common, before moving to the Manor Ground on the other side of Plumstead. A move to the nearby Invicta Ground was short-lived, and the club returned to the Manor Ground where they stayed until 1913.

In 1913, Arsenal moved to a new home and a new stadium. Moving from South East London to North London, the new Arsenal stadium was known as Highbury. Designed by Archibald Leitch, who had designed other football stadia, Highbury consisted of one covered stand and three terraced open air stands. 

In the 1930’s, new stands were constructed at Highbury. A new West Stand and East Stand were built, and a new roof put on the North Stand terrace.

Over the next few decades, small changes were made to Highbury. Highbury could hold around 57,000 spectators but in the 1990’s, after Premier League clubs had to have all-seater stadia, the capacity was cut to just over 38,000. 

During the late 1990’s, the Arsenal hierarchy were looking at expanding Highbury. However, because the East Stand was a Grade II listed building and the other stands were close to residential housing, expansion was impossible. Instead, Arsenal looked at other sites where a new ground could be built and decided on Ashburton Grove, less than half a mile from where Highbury stood. The new Arsenal stadium was built and first used for the 2006/2007 season.

Due to sponsorship reasons, the Arsenal F.C stadium became known as the Emirates Stadium. Emirates also sponsor the Arsenal shirts. The Emirates Stadium sponsorship deal was the most lucrative deal in all of English football, being worth an estimated £100 million.

The Emirates Stadium capacity stands at 60,432, making it the third largest football stadium in England behind Wembley and Old Trafford.

Supporters

Arsenal supporters are known as the ‘Gooners’, a play on the ‘Gunners’, Arsenal’s nickname. Arsenal have a worldwide fanbase, with hundreds of Arsenal supporters clubs found in across the globe. The oldest Arsenal supporters club is the London branch, founded in 1949. Another well respected Arsenal F.C supporters club is the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association.

Arsenal merchandise is amongst the biggest selling in the world. It’s estimated that Arsenal sell around one million replica shirts each season, ranking them sixth behind Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea and Bayern Munich.

Arsenal’s estimated fanbase is said to be over 100 million worldwide. Their social media accounts are also amongst the most followed, with the Arsenal twitter page gaining over 8 million followers.

Arsenal supporters have a huge rivalry with those of Tottenham Hotspur. The origins of this rivalry is said to have begun when Arsenal took the place of Tottenham in the First Division in 1919, and has intensified since then. These two teams contest the North London derby.

Arsenal also have a rivalry with Chelsea and Fulham, but their main rivals aside from Spurs are Manchester United. This rivalry increased during the 1990’s and 2000’s when both of these sides were challenging each other for main English domestic trophies. Arsenal v Manchester United matches were often filled with drama, sendings off and other bad behaviour on the pitch, which led to off-the-pitch rivalries intensifying greatly.

The most famous Arsenal supporters song is ‘One Nil To The Arsenal’, sung to the tune of ‘Go West’. This harks back to George Graham’s managerial reign, when Arsenal’s defensive tactics led to many 1-0 scorelines.

Ownership

The Arsenal ownership structure consists of Stan Kroenke, who is the majority shareholder of the club owning around 67% of shares, and Red and White Securities, owned by Alisher Usmanov, who own around 30% of Arsenal shares. Kroenke first attempted to purchase Arsenal in 2007 and since then has steadily increased his shareholding to this day. In 2011, Kroenke bought the shares of Nina Bracewell-Smith, a descendant of Sir Bracewell-Smith who co-owned the club from the 1940’s to the time of his death, and Danny Fiszman, thus launching a takeover bid.

The most recent Arsenal F.C share price was quoted at around £15,000. Forbes rank Arsenal the second most valuable Premier League club, with a value of around £1.4 billion. 

Match day revenue, the main reason why Arsenal left Highbury, is said to be just over £100 million. This is the highest match day revenue amount than any other football club worldwide.

Stats

Arsenal took part in the first match to ever be commentated on live on radio when they played Sheffield United at Highbury in 1927. They were also the first club to play on television, when a match between the Arsenal first team and the Arsenal reserves was televised live in 1937. 

Let’s take a look at Arsenal player stats. David O’Leary leads the all-time Arsenal appearances list, with 722 appearances made for the club from 1975 to 1993. O’Leary also made more FA Cup and League Cup appearances for Arsenal than any other player. However, in terms of European football, Thierry Henry is Arsenal’s all-time appearance maker with 86 appearances in European competition.

Henry is also the Arsenal all-time leading goalscorer, scoring 228 goals in 377 games in two spells at the club. Thierry Henry joined Arsenal in 1999 and stayed at the club until 2007, before returning for a short stint in 2012.

The biggest home crowd Arsenal have played in front of (excluding Wembley which was used from 1998 to 2000 for Champions League games) was 73,295 against Sunderland in 1935. The highest attendance at the Emirates Stadium is recorded as 60,131 which was achieved when Arsenal played Manchester United in 2007.

The first Arsenal match took place in 1886 when the club was known as Royal Arsenal. Royal Arsenal beat Eastern Wanderers 6-0.

Arsenal’s biggest win came in 1900 when the team beat Loughborough 12-0. Arsenal’s biggest European win came in 2007 when they beat Slavia Prague 7-0 in the Champions League group stage.

Arsenal’s record league defeat also came against Loughborough, beaten 8-0 in 1896. Their biggest defeat in Europe came at the hands of AC Milan, who defeated the Gunners 4-0 in 2015, and Arsenal were again beaten by four goals when Bayern Munich beat them 5-1 in 2015.

Arsenal statistics 2015/16 read as Premier League runners up, FA Cup Sixth Round, League Cup Fourth Round, Champions League Round of 16 and Community Shield winners.

Arsenal Players 

Arsenal F.C players have included some of the best known names in world football. Notable ex Arsenal players names include Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira from their glory years of the late 1990’s and 2000’s; Tony Adams, Ian Wright and David Seaman; and Pat Jennings, Liam Brady and Charlie George.

The current Arsenal player of the year is Mesut Ozil, who is also Arsenal’s record transfer signing. Arsenal have a first team squad of 29 players, and the number of Arsenal players out on loan currently stands at five.

Arsenal player wages are amongst the highest in the Premier League. Arsenal’s estimated annual wage bill is £192 million.

Arsenal also have a very successful Ladies team. Arsenal Ladies are the most successful women’s side in English football to date, having won 43 major trophies.

Arsenal Ladies team trophies include two Women’s Super League titles, 12 Women’s Premier League titles, 14 Women’s Cups, ten Women’s Premier League Cups, four Continental Cups and one Women’s Champions League.

The Arsenal Ladies squad include some highly experienced international players. Alex Scott, Laura Bassett, Siobhan Chamberlain, Steph Houghton, Casey Stoney and Ellen White are just a small number of players who play or have played at Arsenal, and these six players are regularly included in England Women’s squads.

Arsenal Manager

The current Arsenal manager is Unai Emery, who took charge of the Gunners prior to the beginning of the 2018/2019 season. He replaced Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s longest serving manager, and he’s the 16th permanent manager of Arsenal.

The Arsenal manager before Wenger was Bruce Rioch, who was only in charge for a year. Rioch replaced one of Arsenal’s all-time successful managers George Graham in 1995.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger took charge of 1,235 matches at Arsenal. His win percentage stands at 57.2%.

Arsenal manager history in terms of trophies won starts with Herbert Chapman, who in his nine years in charge won two First Division titles and one FA Cup. The other Arsenal managers who won trophies are Joe Shaw, George Allison, Tom Whittaker, Bertie Mee and Terry Neill, and then continued with George Graham from 1986.

Honours

The Arsenal honours list in domestic football stands at 13 First Division/Premier League titles; 13 FA Cups, 15 FA Charity/Community Shields and two League Cups.

Arsenal have also won one European competition, winning the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1994.

The number of Arsenal EPL titles currently stands at three, with their last title won in 2004.

The Arsenal F.C honours list also includes four seasons where Arsenal won two trophies - either a League and Cup double or a domestic cup double. The seasons that saw Arsenal do the double were 1970/1971; 1992/1993; 1997/1998; and 2001/2002.