Founded in 1886 in Woolwich, South London, Arsenal are one of the most successful teams in England.
The club was set-up by a group of Scots working at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. They initialy used the name Dial Square but changed it to Royal Arsenal in 1893 when they moved back to the Manor Ground (previously Manor Field) from the Invicta Ground. They had previously caused uproar amongst their fellow clubs in the Southern League by going professional, like the Northern teams who had set-up the Football League in 1888. Arsenal saw that this was the way forward and were the first Southern team to join the League in 1893.
The club has worn red shirts since their formation. Two former Nottingham Forest players were founding members of the team and wrote to their old club to ask for help. Forest sent a set of shirts and a ball - Arsenal wore red shirts, white shorts and dark blue socks initially. The distinctive white sleeves were added in 1933.
The team had a large support at this time and were reasonably wealthy; paying Ł4,000 to purchase Manor Field and then to make it into a first-class ground. The team performed well initially, gaining promotion to Division One | 
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