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Initially known as Dial Square after a workshop at the Royal Arsenal - where most of the original team worked - the club began life in 1886 under founder Daniel Danskin, a Scotsman from Kirkcaldy. From the earliest days until 1891, it played under the name Royal Arsenal.
The leading light at the time was former Nottingham Forest player Fred Beardsley, who got his old club to help out by giving him some spare red shirts and a football. Apart from a brief trial with red and light-blue stripes in 1895, the team played in an all-red strip until 1933.
A pig farm was among the local venues used until the club moved to the Invicta Ground at Plumstead in 1890. Becoming professional as Woolwich Arsenal in 1891, the club was elected to the Football League`s Second Division two years later. Not long afterwards, it bought a ground at Manor Field.
Promoted to the First Division in 1904, increasing debts forced the club into liquidation in 1910 - only to be rescued by property developer Henry Norris, who initially suggested a merger with Fulham.
Relegated in 1913 after winning only one home game, a new start was made, despite vociferous local opposition, at Highbury in North London. From 1914, the club was re-christened `The` Arsenal before, in 1927, it adopted the name which has become famous throughout the world.
Henry Norris grabbed the opportunity presented in 1919 when the First Division expanded. He managed to secure one of the two new places for The Arsenal, even though the team had finished only fifth in their division. The club holds the record for an unbroken run in the top-flight of English football.
Meanwhile, Mr Norris was forced out of the game because of financial irregularities, including his unauthorised use of a chauffeur. His final legacy was to recruit manager Herbert Chapman who, after his arrival in 1925, went on to build some of the club`s greatest successes in the Thirties.
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