Arsenal Football Club: News, Squad, Fixtures and the African Story

Arsenal are a football club from north London, known as the Gunners and formally as Arsenal Football Club (Arsenal FC), who play in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium. They were champions of England in 2025-26, their first league title since 2003-04, and a record 14 FA Cups are also to their name. South African readers who search for soccer Arsenal are looking for the same club.

Following Arsenal from this continent is a little like having a cousin in London: you hear the news every day and you celebrate the good days as if you were in the room. The live blocks above carry everything that changes (the Arsenal news, the squad, the fixtures, the results and the table), while the words below explain how to read them and why the club matters so much to Africa.

Who Are Arsenal FC, the Gunners?

Workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, south-east London, founded the club as Dial Square on 4 October 1886. The club's name and nickname trace back to the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, where the founders worked. Home since July 2006 has been the Emirates Stadium, a ground with a listed capacity of 60,704. When a commentator says the Arsenal or the Gunners, he is pointing at the same club.

Where Is the Latest Arsenal News and Transfer Talk?

The latest Arsenal news sits in the headline feed above, a rolling list with the newest story first. It carries team news before a match and transfer news, and Arsenal are often linked with new players when a window opens. The manager is named at the top of the squad block. How should you read a rumour? Treat it as interesting, not as settled. Check whether a story is a reported bid or a signed contract before you carry it into the viewing centre as Arsenal news.

How Do You Follow Arsenal Fixtures, Results and the Table From Africa?

The Arsenal fixtures list shows every match the Gunners have ahead of them in the Premier League and the cups, with each kick-off given in WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT together. Results sit beside it as full-time scores with the scorers, and the league table (the log, to South African readers) ranks the clubs by points, then goal difference, then goals scored. A table is only a photograph of one day, so read Arsenal's row alongside the games still to play. The broadcaster for your country is shown beside each fixture, so you can see where to watch every match.

How Is the Arsenal Squad Set Out?

The Arsenal squad above is listed by position, from goalkeepers through defenders and midfielders to forwards, with a nationality beside every name. The names change with every window, so read the list for who is there now. The nationality shown is the country a player represents, which can hide a second story, since a player listed under one country may have family roots in another. For the Super Eagles, a place in the Arsenal FC squad has long been a route to a bigger stage, as Nwankwo Kanu showed.

What Have Arsenal Won?

Arsenal were champions in 2025-26, their first league title since 2003-04. The FA Cup is the competition they have made their own, with a record 14 wins that include the 2020 final against Chelsea (2-1). Seven of those cups were lifted under Wenger, a record for any manager, and the first League and FA Cup double arrived in 1970-71, the season after the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was won in 1970.

Arsenal won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1994 and qualified for the Champions League for 19 consecutive seasons from 1998 to 2017, an English record. They reached the final in 2006 and 2026, losing 2-1 to Barcelona in 2006 and to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties in 2026 after a 1-1 draw. The records block above will show any new European honour.

From Woolwich to the Emirates: The History in Brief

Seven years after those Woolwich workers formed Dial Square, Arsenal joined the Football League in 1893 as its first southern club, and they reached the First Division in 1904. Highbury became home in September 1913 and it stayed home until May 2006. That is 93 years in one ground, long enough for grandfathers and grandsons to have watched from the same stand, before the Emirates Stadium opened to them in July 2006.

The modern club was shaped by Wenger, who was appointed in October 1996 and stayed until the end of the 2017-18 season. His finest side went unbeaten through the 2003-04 Premier League season, part of a run of 49 league matches from 7 May 2003 to 24 October 2004 that set a national record. That team set the standard that Arsenal supporters across Africa still celebrate, and the 2025-26 title, which was 22 years in the waiting, added a new chapter.

Why Is Arsenal So Loved Across Africa?

When Wenger arrived in 1996, no African player was in the first-team squad of any Premier League top-five club, and by 2018 sixteen had played for him at Arsenal. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon followed from Borussia Dortmund in January 2018 for a then club record £56m, joining in the final months of the Wenger era.

If one match explains the bond, it is Arsenal's meeting with Chelsea in October 1999. The Gunners were 0-2 down when Nwankwo Kanu scored a hat-trick in 15 minutes to win it 3-2. He had joined in February 1999 and stayed until 2004, winning the FA Cup in 2001-02 and 2002-03. His story is bigger than goals. Kanu won Olympic gold with Nigeria at Atlanta in 1996, had heart surgery that November, returned to football in April 1997 and was African Footballer of the Year in 1996 and again in 1999. He founded the Kanu Heart Foundation in 2000, so his name carries weight at home that has little to do with a scoreline.

That history is why the red shirt is a familiar sight from Lagos and Accra to Nairobi, Kampala and Johannesburg, and why a friendly argument with a supporter of a rival club is never hard to start. The league title of 2025-26 and the Champions League final of 2026 changed the tone of that conversation, and the banter is better for it.

Arsenal Women: European Champions in 2007 and 2025

Arsenal Women were founded in 1987 as Arsenal Ladies, and they have a European record that deserves a paragraph of its own. They won the UEFA Women's Cup in 2006-07, and they became European champions for the second time on 24 May 2025 by beating Barcelona 1-0 in the Women's Champions League final. That second title arrived a year before the men reached their own final in 2026. If you follow the Gunners for trophies, the women's side belongs on your viewing list alongside the men's fixtures.

Which Arsenal Games Matter Most, and What Time Do They Kick Off?

In London the fixture that matters most is the North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur, the neighbours from the same part of the city. Nwankwo Kanu's hat-trick in 15 minutes against Chelsea in October 1999 shows how Nigerian supporters watch these big games. The derby comes round twice in a league season, home and away, and a cup draw can add another.

Kick-off times are set in UK time, so the conversion is worth learning once. Accra is on GMT all year, Lagos (WAT) is one hour ahead of GMT, Johannesburg (SAST) is two hours ahead, and Nairobi and Kampala (EAT) are three hours ahead. The UK keeps GMT from late October to late March and moves one hour ahead for the rest of the year, when every local time below falls an hour earlier. Evening games are the ones to plan for in East Africa, where a 20:00 start in London can mean 23:00 on the clock. Check the fixtures list before every match and set your reminder in local time, because the seat nearest the screen goes first.