Herbert Chapman: Arsenal's Innovator, the Arsene Wenger of His Day

At this moment in time, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has a mixed reputation with the Arsenal fans. After an indifferent start to the season and losing key players, it is fair to say Wenger is having a tough time.

It is unlikely that Wenger will be sacked, but improvement is needed fast. After being at the club for 14 years, the second longest-serving manager in the Premier League should be able to perform a recovery for the Gunners. 

If, however, Arsenal were to dispose of his services, they would be getting rid of the man who made the club where it is today, not necessarily on the pitch but the current stature of the club is all down to him. The club has been stamped by Wenger's identity.

But he is not the first manager to place his identity on Arsenal. Many of the characteristics of Arsenal, as well as modern football in general, are down to one man: Herbert Chapman.

Chapman was born in Kiveton Park, Yorkshire, in 1878. He started his career in football as a player, playing for many lower league sides, which meant that in order to play for a team he would have to find a job in that area, as there was very little or no pay for a footballer in those days.

In 1907, he rejoined one of his former clubs, Northampton Town, as a player-manager. It was here that he realized many teams didn't actually use tactics, with players rarely talking to each other on the pitch.

The introduction of tactics meant that Northampton became a much better team. It was also here where he suggested the idea of teams being promoted and relegated up and down the leagues by their league positions, not by voting, which was the way it occurred then.

There were spells for Chapman at Leeds City, then at Huddersfield Town, where he won two Football Leagues and the FA Cup. It was his success at Huddersfield that earned him the job at Arsenal in 1925.

That year a change in the offside rule made Chapman realize that there was no point having attacking players on the front line, as was the style of the time, many teams playing a 2-3-5 formation. He changed his team to a 3-4-3 formation, with two midfielders able to go back and help defend with the other two going forward to help attack.

This formation was called the WM. This formation also made it easier for Arsenal to counter-attack, a favorite tactic of Chapman since his Northampton days.

Chapman went on to win two league titles and an FA Cup with Arsenal, but tragically he died in January 1934, a cold he caught developed in pneumonia. He was only 55 years old.

But what about his legacy? Many of Chapman's innovations survive to this day, things that seem so basic and obvious to us were unheard of in his time. It was Chapman who came up with the idea of the manager picking the team, it was previously done by the board members.

It was his idea for teams to train and have meetings between matches, he also encouraged his players to play other sports during offseason in order to keep fit. 

Chapman was also an advocate of floodlit football matches. He had them installed at Highbury in 1932, but the FA disallowed Arsenal to use them for matches. They were only used so the team could train in the evenings. It took the FA until 1950's to legalize floodlit football matches.

He often took his teams to Europe to play friendly matches, and was supportive of a pan-European tournament 20 years before the European Cup was created.

Chapman was also one of the first managers to sign black and foreign players, signing striker Walter Tull whist at Northampton and trying to sign Austrian international Rudy Hiden for Arsenal, but the moved was blocked by the goverment's Ministry of Labour. 

Even some of the basics of football were his ideas, such as players wearing numbered shirts, the semi-circle on the penalty area to keep players back whilst a penalty is being taken, or a white ball being used as it was easier to see on a muddy pitch.

The 1930 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Huddersfield was the first instance of two teams walking onto the pitch side by side, in honor of Chapman's relationship between the two clubs.

And what about Arsenal themselves? Chapman is the reason they have white sleeves on their shirts, he even managed London Underground to change the name of the station next to Highbury from Gillespie Road to Arsenal.

Even the name was changed, with the team called "The Arsenal," but Chapman changed this to just "Arsenal" so their name would always appear at the top on any alphabetical list of Football League clubs.

It was simple ideas like these that has kept Arsenal at the forefront of football, something that stands to this day.