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A question for Arsenal fans, do you support Arsenal or Arsenal FC? What do I mean, are they not the same thing? Alas, they are not the same thing, there is in fact a major difference...

Arsenal FC: In A League Of Its Own

by Maire Ofeire (Senior Writer)

36

1027 reads

History

October 20, 2008


A question for Arsenal fans, do you support Arsenal or Arsenal FC?

What do I mean, are they not the same thing?

Alas, they are not the same thing, there is in fact a major difference.

Many Arsenal fans will tell you that they are die-hard Gooners, but in fact what they mean is that they are die-hard fans of Arsene Wenger's Senior Men's team that play in the English Premier League. These are Arsenal fans.

Arsenal FC fans are those that support Wenger's men but also track the results of the Youth and Reserve teams and the Ladies Teams.

I am an Arsenal FC fan and also a fan of furthering women's participation in sport. In short, the women at Arsenal are heroes of mine.

 

Just what and who are Arsenal LFC?

Arsenal Ladies FC were formed in 1987 by the women's present General Manager and Men's present kit manager; Vic Akers.

The team play at Meadow Park, Borehamwood which has a capacity of 4,502.

Initially the team were amateur but turned semi-professional in 2002. Many of the players are employed by Arsenal to work with youth academy players, both male and female. The team are heavily backed by the club as they are sponsored by Nike and Fly Emirates whilst also being allowed to use the Emirates Stadium for big matches.

Unlike the men's senior team, the women's team is made up completely of players from Britain and Ireland. Eleven players are from England, four from Ireland, three from Scotland and one from Wales.

The best players are considered to be Faye White and goalkeeper Emma Byrne.

 

Are they any good?

Is the Pope Catholic?

In their short 21 year history they have won a massive 29 major trophies. This includes 10 FA Women Premier Leagues, 8 Women's FA Cups, 9 Women's Leagues Cups and 1 UEFA Women's Cup.

This makes them the most successful women's club in English football by quite a margin.

 

Ok, so they've won more trophies than the Arsenal men's team in the last two decades, but have they gone Unbeaten?

Actually they have!

Forget about Manchester United and their triple winning team or Arsenal's men going unbeaten, that is nothing compared to what the Arsenal Ladies achieved in the 2006-2007 season.

In that season they won all three domestic trophies and the UEFA Women's Cup to complete a magnificent quadruple. Many teams would consider that an accomplishment but not the Arsenal Ladies, they went one step further by not only going through the league unbeaten but also winning all of their 22 league games, scoring 119 goals and conceding just 10.

In addition, the Arsenal Ladies defeated Umea IK 1-0 in the European final, a team made up of full-time professionals whereas the Arsenal Ladies play as well as holding down full time jobs (either at the club or elsewhere).

 

So are they still as impressive?

Yes, although last season saw them win two trophies—the League and FA Cup. They went through the season unbeaten yet again (20 wins and 2 draws). Arsenal's last League defeat came against Charlton Athletic on October 15th, 2003 meaning the club have been unbeaten in the league for over four and a half years.

Additionally, during that spell Arsenal won a record 51 league games in a row, in a spell between November 2005 and April 2008.

This season they are on form as ever. Currently they top the League table with eight wins, having scored a massive 48 goals, conceding 10. Their nearest rivals are Everton Ladies with 18 points who have two games in hand over the Lady Gooners.

Once again they represent England in Europe and are through to the quarter final stage against Umea Ik.

Just last weekend the Arsenal Ladies added another milestone to their achievements - going 100 games unbeaten in the Premier League. The full rundown of this spectacular achievement can be found here.

 

Problems for the future

This team has been built on hard graft and the endeavour of the club to perform at every level.

However, Chelsea have been recently flashing the cash and signed two of Arsenal's better players Lianne Sanderson and Anita Asante.

The biggest threat is coming from the States where a professional League is due to start in 2009 and they have already "drafted" in Arsenal's Kelly Smith and Karen Carney. Vic Akers and other Arsenal board members are holding a number of meetings as how to combat this new league and threat to the club.

 

Have I secured any new fans?

I hope in this article I have turned a few more Arsenal fans into Arsenal FC fans.

These women are the real deal and can play some sublime football. Unfortunately for me I have barely 2 cents to rub together never mind the price of a flight, accommodation and match ticket to see Arsenal play in any of their forms.

However, to those that are in and around London I beg of you to go cheer the Ladies team on, a season ticket will set you back a mere £20—yes that is twenty pounds!!

Arsenal Ladies next match is away against Leicester on 02 November.

I will regularly update events for those interested.

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36 comments Last one added 8 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Benjamin Rogers 8 months ago

    The arsenal ladies are great, always nice to see them win and pick up trophies, they could probebly teach the men a thing or two about picking up trophies lol, They let three big players go last season and they are still the best team. Gpood old kelly smith, Great article mate :)

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      I agree Ben, they are great and Arsenal fans wouldn't be so depressed at the lack of trophies the men are bringing in if they looked at the haul of the ladies team. I think definitely in the case of Lianne Sanderson she left as opposed Arsenal leaving her go.
      Thanks for the comment.

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  2. Shyam Parthasarathi 8 months ago

    Great stuff Maire - some innovation, and great facts in the article.

    I'm an Arsenal F.C. fan, I don't follow the ladies football team as closely as I do the mens' but, I know a lot of the stuff that you've written - so that's good :)

    It's quite sad that the team that won the quadruple is getting dismantled so quickly - that team just kept on winning! It was amazing, and even now, I think we won a UEFA Cup game 7-2 recently.. so things are looking really good for Vic Akers' side.

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Cheers Shyam,

      Glad you are an FC fan too :-)

      I don't get to see the women's team play as much as I would like but I check the website at least twice a week to see how they are getting on. Yep they beat Zurich 7-2 but then lost 3-0 away to Lyon so have to play Umea in the quarters who of course have the excellent Marta in their team. Also beat Liverpool 11-2 in August :-)

      The big threat will come for the League in America, Emma Byrne is one of the best paid players but still only earns £40,000 a year which includes her salary for playing, working in the academy and doing sponsorship for Nike. What would Ca$hley Cole think?

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    • Shyam Parthasarathi 8 months ago

      He'll think she's earning about 5000 pounds a week lesser than she should be earning! ;)

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      As long as you don't text to tell him, you know how Ca$hley doesn't liked to be texted on "bad news".

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  3. agooner from goonerTV 8 months ago

    I support Arsenal FC, in that, I am a paying contributor to the finances of the club via various revenue streams they have. I am happy to see the support translate in to support for all levels of play and teams; EPL team, Reserves, Youth/Academy and the Ladies gunners.

    I've used the terms Arsenal and Arsenal FC interchangeably, whenever I am refering to any of the Clubs teams above. I don't make a distinction between the 2, and I don't know many others that do that either.

    But it would be great to see more stories and analysis of the ladies team, just as I am noticing more interest in the 'young guns' and the 'reserves'; both bringing exciting prospects of what could feed its way in to the Senior team. Arsene's youth policy has helped the Academy a great deal, and I am happy to say that both the youth/reserve club and the ladies team feature regularly on Arsenal TV...

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Thanks for the comment Dimitry. I used the terms "Arsenal" and "Arsenal FC" for two reasons. 1) as a way to start off the article and gather some interest since the beloved teaser is gone and 2)to show that there is a distinction, I am aware that people do not go around saying they support Arsenal FC, it is just to show that there is more to Arsenal as a club.

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  4. Joe G 8 months ago

    Nice job, Maire! It's not terribly easy to find women's games on tv here (aside from the US team), but I have managed to catch a few of the Arsenal Ladies' matches. They're easily the class of European women's club football. It looks like they've helped the English WNT improve quite a bit as well.

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      There are some other good women's team in Europe as well particularly in Scandinavia and a few in Germany. On the international front you'd have to saw Brazil are hot stuff at the moment, Marta is a dynamo and is a month younger than me.....

      Cheers for the comment Joe

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    • Joe G 8 months ago

      I was doing some digging earlier today and found that Germany and the US are the only two teams to occupy the #1 slot in the FIFA Women's rankings. I expect that'll change sometime soon thanks to Brazil , Sweden, et al. But they've got a lot of work to do to unseat the US.

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Yeah, the USA women's team has been on top for soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long. Mia Hamm was probably the first superstar (correct me if I'm wrong) of women's football but is is better now that a few more of the teams are coming to the fore.

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    • Joe G 8 months ago

      Yeah, we're starting to see some good rivalries take shape. Germany is moving up in the rankings, England is at #12 right now (thanks in no small part to these Arsenal Ladies) and Brazil is always going to challenge for silverware as well.

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Rep.Ireland are 28th we're one place ahead of Argentina woohoo

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  5. Jim Sheridan 8 months ago

    Awesome article Maire, 5 STAR POTD!!!!!!! Like I said Im learning. Slainte Jim

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  6. Willie Gannon 8 months ago

    Nice piece Mary. Their keeper Emma is from Celbridge in Kildare and is regarded as the best keeper in the world so they'll have to work hard to keep her.

    It's a pity the other sides don't take it as serious, but if it does well in the US and money can be made off it you'll probably see them do something then.

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Byrne is a class keeper, they had an interview with her in the Sunday Times recently and she has admitted she was approached by an American team but says she is happy in London for now. She is going out with a player from Milwall so hopefully she'll stick around.

      Chelsea are beginning to take it seriously and Fulham have normally put together a good team, hopefully it'll pick up more.

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  7. Anthony Sanchez 8 months ago

    Pretty impressive trophy haul! nice read Maire.

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  8. Salomon Gonzales 8 months ago

    My favourite women player is Eniola Aluko. Our ladies team signed her from Charlton, where she was a class of her own. Im sure you can catch the womens FA Cup final on BBC...

    Im not going to be overly critical but Ive watched a few games and its like putting myself through torture lol. Some decent players, like the above mentioned!!

    She'd probably take a lot MEN one on one lol...

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      No doubting there is a huge gap in the skills between men and women's soccer but give it time and i'm sure it'll pick up.

      Thing is you can have a great Ladies team put together and have them playing well and then one can go off and get pregnant (happened last year at Arsenal), imagine Fergie, Arsene and Big Phil having to deal with pregnant women and hormones ha ha ha :-P Now that would be good television!!

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  9. Michelle Alves 8 months ago

    Great article Maire!

    haha I'm so jealous of these lucky women! And they are pretty impressive :) Maybe they could teach the men's team a thing or two

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Cheers Michelle,

      Yep I'm jealous as hell too, least Arsenal as a club can claim to be adding a trophy to the cabinet each year :-P

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  10. Ian Tait 8 months ago

    Being a great lover of The Arsenal, it is great to see that not only do the Women's side play attractive football, they are rather atractive themselves. I think it would do wonders for womans football to see more of these games televised. We are spoiled for games here is South Africa, but just don't get to see the ladies play at all.

    Loved the article, keep them comming.

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Thanks Ian.

      Yes it would be good to get to see more Women's football and allow it to reach a wider audience. On eurosport they are showing women's underage tournaments now which can only be a good thing.

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  11. Saraswathi Siriginia 8 months ago

    Mary, kudos - bravo to you and bravo to the cause of women in sport :-) POTD it

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  12. Yoosof Farah 8 months ago

    £20 a season ticket, i'm definitely interested! i paid £175 for my season ticket with gillingham (men's team), but if i can see the best ladies team in england win almost every single game for just £20, then of course i am interested. anyway, good article mary, and kudos for promoting women's participation in sport.

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    • Maire Ofeire 8 months ago

      Thanks for the comment Yoosof,

      yep £20 is good value for money whatever way you look at it, I think it is £3 to get into individual games.

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  13. Ricky O'Neal 8 months ago

    Really good job with this article, 5 stars and pick from me!

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  14. dominica. 8 months ago

    Hm, thought I already left a comment on here, oh well.

    Love the article, especially since it's women!
    whoo-hoo. :)

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  15. Tahira Adams 8 months ago

    Yeah our Women's team rocks!!!! They are consistent and successful, I really wish the men would pick it up like this, because these women are really in a league of their own. I just wish they would show more women's football. Great article Marie!

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