Arsenal are one of the most historic English clubs, with their red kit being infamous in football. Their crest is a little more confusing, with a lot of people not understanding the history behind Arsenal’s badge.
Why is the Arsenal badge a canon? The Canon originally comes from military influence in Woolwich where the club was originally located. Despite the team moving over 80 years ago, Arsenal have kept the badge. The word Arsenal itself means “a collection of weapons and military equipment”; it is this military heritage that the great club draws both their name and their logo from.
Arsenal football club originally began as the Woolwich Arsenal football club, Woolwich being a district in southeast London. The football club began there and so it took the name and the badge from the area. At the start of the 20th century, Woolwich was known for its arms manufacturing complex which dated back to the 17th century.
This manufacturing complex was such a large part of Woolwich that the coat of arms was heavily military-influenced. Arsenal decided to put cannons on their original crest as a reference to Woolwich where the club was from. Arsenal decided to keep the canon as part of their badge even when they moved away from Woolwich.
In 1913, Arsenal moved to a new stadium in North London, leaving Woolwich behind. Despite this, the canon still remains the crucial element of the badge, as it was when the crest was first created. While the current badge looks a lot different to the first one, the canon is still crucial.
In fact, as the crest continued to change they still had a similarity to the crest of the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse in Woolwich. The crest today is a lot cleaner and more modern than the original, but it still prominently features the canon on the badge.
When did Arsenal flip the canon?
In the early 2000s, Arsenal were looking to the future. They were already planning for a new stadium to be built, which would become the Emirates. The club decided to update the badge for the 2002 season and it is the modern one that you still see used today.
Arsenal fans at the time will have noticed that the canon was flipped when the new badge was created. This flipping of the canon happened in 2002 when they updated the badge. Originally, the canon had been facing the west, which had been the case since 1949. Arsenal did this to embrace the future and move forward, with Arsenal seeing it as the perfect time to do so.
Has Arsenal ever been relegated in their history?
Arsenal are one of the most successful teams in English football and part of that is their long history in the top flight. Arsenal have only ever been relegated from the top division once, all the way back in 1913.
Arsenal had a terrible 1912-13 season, finishing bottom of the Football League, which was the top division of English football. Arsenal had been in the top flight since 1904 and were coming off the back of a good season where they finished in 10th two seasons in a row.
But their 1912-13 season was very poor, they finished the season with just three wins to go along with 12 draws. They finished the 38-game season with just 18 points, by far the lowest in the league. They finished bottom of the table, ten points off Chelsea who survived having finished in 18th. At the time, only two teams were relegated but that did not save Arsenal.
It was not a great time for Arsenal to get involved as they had just agreed on a deal to move the club to north of the river, to the Arsenal Stadium. The First World War prolonged Arsenal’s stay in the Second Division, with the team finishing fifth in the Second Division last pre-war season.
But Arsenal benefitted from the fact that the First Division decided to vote on who would be promoted when the league restarted in 1919. In a very controversial vote, Arsenal were promoted to the First Division. What made the vote more controversial was that Barnsley and Wolverhampton Wanderers were not promoted despite finishing above Arsenal.
Arsenal were also promoted ahead of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who were relegated from the First Division at the same time. What is incredible in Arsenal’s history is that they have never been relegated since then. They came close to being related two years in a row, finishing in 19th in 1923-24 and 20th in 1924-25.
In their time in the Premier League, Arsenal have never really been close to relegation, finishing 10th in the first season of the league in 1992-93. This is their lowest-ever finish in the Premier League.
Why did O2 stop sponsoring Arsenal?
O2 were the shirt sponsor for the successful Arsenal sides of the 2000s. But fans will have noticed that Arsenal have not featured the O2 sponsorship for the last decade.
It does not seem like there was any bad blood when the two sides decided to move on separately. In 2012, O2 announced that they decided not to renew the partnership with Arsenal. O2 said they decided not to renew their Arsenal deal in order to focus on their partnerships with The O2, O2 Academy venues and England Rugby.
Are Arsenal a big club?
There have been a lot of jokes about Arsenal over the last few years, considering they are not in the best form. But Arsenal are certainly still a big thing. For one thing, they are still one of the most successful teams in the history of English football. They are the third most successful team in English football.
With 14 more trophies than Chelsea in fourth, Arsenal have a lot of history. Not only that, but they are one of the most followed teams in England. Arsenal have a huge fan base which have been very vocal over the last few years. This fan base is one of the biggest in the country and certainly makes Arsenal a big club.
Those factors, along with their streak in the top division means that Arsenal are certainly still a big club.