Arsenal

Arsenal’s long association with Umbro came to an end as they joined forces with German firm adidas.

The kits followed the same design, with the fabric pattern featuring the adidas three-stripe motif and the Arsenal cannon.

The Gunners, under new manager George Graham, won the Littlewoods Cup, beating Liverpool in the final.

What would prove to the last home kit of the first adidas era divided opinion, as the prominent red and navy striping intruded on the white sleeves – an almost-identical style was used by Norway.

The ‘bruised banana’ remained – the only instance of an adidas trefoil on a kit in the new Premier League for 32 years – and while there were no change shorts or socks used, Arsenal’s progress in the two domestic cups saw some variants there.

In both the finals of the Coca-Cola Cup and FA Cup, the Gunners met Sheffield Wednesday and squad numbers, with names over them, were trialled for those games, paving the way for their inclusion in the 1993-94 Premiership. Arsenal used a blockier style than had been seen in the league, with the adidas logo appearing for the FA Cup final and replay in May. For each game, there were special inscriptions to the left of the centralised crest.

With match officials in the Premier League wearing green shirts, Arsenal’s new first-choice goalkeeper top was blue. There was a green backup which was also sold but this mainly appeared in the cups, including the Wembley outings against Wednesday.

A grey version was used most often in the league when blue was not available and the early-season game away to Blackburn Rovers saw that rarest of beasts – a red Arsenal goalkeeper shirt, the first time in 20 years for such an occurrence.

Nike replaced adidas and immediately made their presence felt – the famous white sleeves were halved in size and, for the first time since 1982-83, the change kit was a colour other than yellow.

However, with teams still precluded from wearing black or navy in domestic cup competitions, Arsenal did appear in a yellow third strip in their Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final loss to Liverpool.

George Graham’s tenure as manager came to an end, dismissed after he admitted to receiving illegal payments pertaining to transfers.

In European competition, teams were still numbered 1-11 and the Arsenal digits in the European Cup Winners’ Cup were devoid of the Nike logo. The final, a 2-1 extra-time loss to Real Zaragoza, was the last European decider where teams were subject to the old European Broadcasting Union rule precluding shirt sponsors but it was also the first where players’ names appeared on the back.

As well as being the last competitive game Arsenal played without a sponsor’s logo on their shirts, it was the last time fielded 1-11.

The back five, Ian Wright and Paul Merson were all able to wear the same numbers as usual – though it was Merson’s last time wearing 10 for the Gunners as he would have to move to 9 that summer to accommodate Dennis Bergkamp.

Ray Parlour had often worn 11 and Stefan Schwarz would have moved from 15 to the 4 vacated by Paul Davis’s departure had he stayed (he joined Fiorentina in the off-season) while 9 was a natural fit for Hartson, who the Arsenal goal – Wright had scored in every round up to then.

That left Martin Keown, deployed as a defensive midfielder, with the incongruous number 7.

After two home kits with navy trim, it was black to just red and white but the new crest was a change from what the traditionalists were used to. White socks returned while the overall design was in keeping with the Nike dual-layer offerings seen at the 2002 World Cup.

That the multiple layers of blue on the away kit wasn’t a million miles from the advertising of new sponsors O2 can hardly have been a coincidence.

The 2001-02 third shirt was retained, with the new crest and O2 logo added, and worn with the new away shorts and socks. Arsenal remained unbeaten in this shirt.

Four goalkeeper shirts were used for the first time since 1992-93. All had the same design as used by most Nike teams – the grey and yellow version was the first choice and the one that was retailed.

The yellow and navy kit was not used often but it gained iconic status as David Seaman wore it for his wonder-save against Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-final. Oddly, it was worn alongside the gold third shirt that day.

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Having been unbeaten as they won the league in 2003-04, Arsenal – wearing home and away kits in Nike’s new T90 design – began with six straight wins and extended their run of games without defeat to 49 before a loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The next time they played United, a 4-2 defeat at Highbury in February, both clubs wore special patches as part of Nike’s ‘Stand Up, Speak Up’ anti-racism campaign.

The yellow away shirt from 2003-04 was retained as a third option, used at Crystal Palace and Portsmouth. It was used with the shorts from the new change kit, which had a different cut, a darker shade of blue and a more golden yellow.

Though a runaway Chelsea side took Arsenal’s crown as champions, there was some consolation with an FA Cup win. Winning the toss for colours as they met United again, Arsenal had a special inscription on the left breast, helping the balance the centred crest and Nike logo. After a scoreless draw, Jens Lehmann saved in the penalty shootout before captain Patrick Vieira’s last touch of a football as an Arsenal player won the cup for them.

Lehmann and his new colleague/rival Manuel Almunia had four different shirts to choose from during the campaign – the yellow a late addition after a couple of games where Arsenal ended up having to wear the blue goalkeeping option with the blue change kit.

As far as we can see, the charcoal shorts worn by Lehmann with the grey jersey early in the season were actually intended for the black shirt but never worn with it. Eventually, both the grey and black shirts ended up being used black shorts and socks.

One other notable thing with the goalkeeper shirts was Lehmann’s dislike for the high neck – he had his shirts specially converted.

While Arsenal did have a shirt with contrasting sleeves in the kit-room this season, they were on the change strip, which was intended as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of 1988-89, when the Gunners won the league in dramatic circumstances at Anfield.

By contrast, the primary jersey had a thick white stripe down the arms and the sides of the torso but could easily have passed for a kit worn by a club associated with solid red shirts.

After two decades with Nike, Arsenal joined forces with Puma, whose first set of themes was tied together with the heading ‘Future, Forever, Victorious’.

Naturally the home kit was the ‘Forever’ part, though it wasn’t the most traditional in that the neck was red and there was extra white panelling. Hooped socks made a welcome return.

The away kit was the ‘Victorious’ part of ‘Future, Forever, Victorious’ in reference to the club’s many big wins in yellow shirts. Similar in design to the home, it differed in not having raglan sleeves while a plunging v-neck was also present.

‘Future’ was the theme for the third kit – while Arsenal had utilised two-tone blue strips in the past, the diagonal striping and lime trim was a new departure.

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The navy stripes on the new home shirt called to mind the 1990-92 strip, while the white side panelling was reminiscent of Nike’s 1998-2000 offering. However, such was the quantity of the secondary colour that Arsenal had to change in the North London derby for the first time since 1985-86.

The all-black change kit was designed in collaboration with Labrum and paid tribute to the African heritage of many of the club’s players and supporters.

The third kit – “a bold, fashionable design with a hint of nostalgia” – was the first since the 1991-93 ‘bruised banana’ to feature the adidas trefoil. It was worn with goalkeeper shirts that also had the old logo, meaning their netminders appeared in five different kits during the season.

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