Arsenal F.C. league record by opponent

A coloured photograph of a group of men, dressed in red. They are walking in order to form a line. A man dressed in a green shirt places his hands together and raises them, in direction to his right. To the far right of the photograph, there is a man dressed in a blue kit, in line with three men who are dressed in black. Behind them is a placard with the words 'Barclays Premier League'.
Arsenal players lining up prior to a league match against Chelsea in April 2012.

Arsenal Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Holloway, London. The club was formed in Woolwich in 1886 as Royal Arsenal before it was renamed Woolwich Arsenal in 1893.[1] They became the first southern member admitted into the Football League in 1893, having spent their first four seasons solely participating in cup tournaments and friendlies.[2] The club's name was shortened to Arsenal in 1914, a year after moving to Highbury.[3] In spite of finishing fifth in the Second Division in 1915, Arsenal rejoined the First Division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur when football resumed after the First World War.[4] Since that time, they have not fallen below the first tier of the English football league system and hold the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the top flight.[5] The club remained in the Football League until 1992, when its First Division was superseded as English football's top level by the newly formed Premier League, of which they were an inaugural member.[6] In 2003–04, Arsenal completed a league season without a single defeat, something achieved only once before in English football, by Preston North End in 1888–89.[7]

Arsenal's first team have competed in a number of national, and in the early part of the club's history, regionally contested leagues such as the United League, the Southern District Combination and the London League Premier Division. Their record against each club faced in these discontinued competitions, in addition to the Football League and Premier League is listed below. Arsenal's first Football League match was against Newcastle United,[8] and they met their 85th and most recent different league opponent, Bournemouth, for the first time in the 2015–16 Premier League season. The team that Arsenal have played most in league competition is Manchester United, who they first met in the 1894–95 Football League season; the 83 defeats from 204 meetings is more than they have lost against any other club. Liverpool have drawn 52 league encounters with Arsenal, more than any other club. Arsenal have recorded more league victories against Everton than against any other club, having beaten them 100 times out of 202 attempts and becoming the first team in English history to attain a century of wins against another club.

  1. ^ Soar & Tyler (2011), p. 24.
  2. ^ Joy (1952), p. 9.
  3. ^ Joy (1952), p. 32.
  4. ^ Joy (1952), p. 28.
  5. ^ "Club profile – Arsenal". Premier League. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  6. ^ Rodrigues, Jason (2 February 2012). "Premier League football at 20: 1992, the start of a whole new ball game". theguardian.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  7. ^ Hughes, Ian (15 May 2004). "Arsenal the Invincibles". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  8. ^ "Woolwich Arsenal play their first game". Arsenal F.C. 11 February 2009. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2013.