From the “1-0 to the Arsenal” years of George Graham through to the free-flowing football under Arsene Wenger, the Gunners have had some hideous kits – a crime not unique to them, admittedly, given the collective loss of plot apparently suffered by kit designers across the country in roundabouts the mid-80s. Using the Premier League era as our source, Sport.co.uk picks the best and worst Arsenal kits to have coloured Highbury and the Emirates stadium over this period…
BEST: 1996-1998 home kit
Since Rupert Murdoch invented football in 1992, this Nike design has come the closest to matching the classic simplicity of Arsenal’s 1960s/1970s home kits. Absent is the sharp blue outline that would taint subsequent jerseys, and the JVC sponsorship is a nostalgic throwback to fractionally simpler footballing times. Dreamcast is rather too effeminate a word to adorn a football shirt, 02 looked like a pessimistic prediction for every home game, while Fly Emirates reads too much like a command, particularly for the more anarchic factions of the Gunners’ support.
Sport.co.uk commends Arsenal’s 1996-1998 home kit for eschewing the pointless lines and flashes which came to characterise later designs. Points are deducted for the completely unnecessary zigzag pattern, although it is at least not a foreground concern like it was on the club’s rather disgusting 1994-996 jersey.
Classic moment: Tony Adams racing onto a Steve Bould through ball and smashing home the Gunners’ 4th in a 4-0 against Everton at Highbury on the penultimate day of the 1997/98 season. Given the personnel involved, it stands as one of the most unlikely goals in Arsenal’s history and was the perfect way to celebrate a title which had already been wrapped up.
Suggested name & number: Eddie McGoldrick, 21
WORST: 2002-2003 away kit
Euch. Historicalkits.co.uk describes it as “a revolutionary shirt in navy blue with a striking geometric pattern on a broad vertical panel”, but we can’t work out whether it looks more like an inside-out Smurf or a portal to another dimension that’s appeared in someone’s washing machine. What’s more, the pattern inside the 0 of the 02 reminds us of a certain unflattering photograph of Britney Spears (or at least a part of her). Displaying the kind of vomit-inducing photoshop gimmickry usually reserved for goalkeepers’ shirts, this Nike-designed shirt claws back some credit for appearing to faintly portray the face of Buddha within its pelvic nether regions. Or maybe this correspondent has had too much coffee. Have a closer inspection and see if you can spot him, here.
He looks uncharacteristically angry, though.
Classic moment: Thierry Henry’s stunning goal as Arsenal come from 2-0 down to claim a point at West Ham United.
Suggested name and number: Cygan, 18