Sansom
Kenny Sansom remains Arsenal's most-capped player. After
arriving in August 1980 from Crystal Palace in a deal that took
Clive Allen and Paul Barron to Selhurst Park, the left back quickly
usurped the established Sammy Nelson. He also became an England
regular and racked up 86 England caps in total, 77 of which came
with Arsenal. Patrick Vieira is the nearest player to breaking the
record. He had 72 caps for France when they were eliminated by
Greece at Euro 2004.
Sleeves
Before the arrival of Herbert Chapman in 1925, Arsenal played in a
plain red shirt. The new manager launched the Arsenal kit as we
know it today. Chapman noticed someone at the ground wearing a red
sleeveless sweater over a white shirt. This inspired him to create
a new strip combining a red shirt with white collar and sleeves. It
also incorporated the Club badge, which was positioned on the
left-hand side of the shirt.
Smith
Alan Smith signed from Leicester in March 1987 but was immediately
loaned back to the The Foxes until the end of that campaign. He
even played against Arsenal at Highbury. A tall, intelligent
striker with expert distribution, he topped the First Division
scoring charts in 1988-89 and nodded home the first goal in the
dramatic finale at Anfield. He hit 22 goals in the 1991
title-winning season and, memorably, hit the clinching goal in the
Cup Winners Cup final of 1994. However, injury struck soon
afterwards and he retired in the Spring of 1995 with a record of
115 goals in 347 games. He is now a respected football
journalist.
Standard Liege
Arsenal went to Belgium for the second leg of their Cup Winners Cup
second round tie on November 3, 1993 with a 3-0 advantage over
Standard Liege from the home game. They went on to romp to a 7-0
victory with goals from Smith, Selley, Adams, Campbell (2), Merson
and McGoldrick. It remains the Club's most emphatic victory in
European competition.
Swindin
Having served Arsenal as a goalkeeper either side of the Second
World War, George Swindin was well known to the Highbury faithful
when he was appointed as manager in 1958. The Yorkshireman made
wholesale changes to a side that had performed in average fashion
the previous year and they paid dividends. Arsenal led the table in
February 1959 and seemed destined for the title. However they could
not hold on. A catalogue of injuries and the sale of free-scoring
striker David Herd did not help. Swindin left the manager's
seat in 1962 and went on to take charge at Cardiff and Norwich.
