Arsenal’s programme is under the spotlight today as we reveal the latest in our series of current season Premier League reviews. Read our full notes on the issue below and click here to see all of the 2019/20 programmes.
Arsenal’s issue is once again one of the most attractively presented programmes in the league. Boasting high-quality design and artwork throughout, including some imaginative presentation of stats and data, the issue is a pleasure to read. Unfortunately, the range of original content seems somewhat reduced since last season, when the programme included several features related to Arsenal’s 100th consecutive top-flight season.
In particular, the issue lacks much in the way of historical content. ‘Culture Club’ is a three-page retro feature that looks at connections between Arsenal and popular culture. In the Bournemouth issue for example, the column profiles winger Peter Marinello, who joined Arsenal in January 1970. Although he failed to make much of an impact on the pitch, Marinello enjoyed the limelight off it, appearing on Top of the Pops and being the poster boy for the Milk Marketing Board, among others. ‘At Home With’ has Arsenal players recording how their family lives have influenced their football careers. A little different to a lot of standard player features, the article is perhaps not interesting enough to justify the four pages afforded to it. A related ‘retro’ image sees an Arsenal star of the past pictured at home. Of more interest is ‘Arsenal Life’, which provides profiles of Arsenal staff members who have worked for the club for over 20 years. This offers an interesting insight into how football has changed off the field in recent decades. The programme also includes a current player feature, which incorporates some high-class photography, and a ‘Junior Gunners’ pull-out section.
The programme offers club information as extensive as any issue in the league, with detailed coverage of Arsenal’s various teams. ‘Arsenal Academy’ presents an in-depth 12-page look at the Gunners’ youth and development squad teams. The section includes a player interview with one ‘Young Gun’, which runs to three pages, while ‘Academy Alumni’ features one player who came through the Gunners’ youth ranks but who is now plying their trade elsewhere. There is a page of academy news, as well as match reports that include team line-ups and photographs, including one double-page image from the game. ‘The Breakdown’ shows results, fixtures, and tables for the under-23 and under-18 teams, plus a page of appearance records for the academy players. Arsenal Women are covered on two pages, with match reports, results and fixtures, and news from the squad.
The section on the visiting club, which is fronted by a striking graphic in the club’s colours, runs to six pages. These include profiles of various key players and a fact-file, as well as notes on the club’s form and transfer activity. There is a head-to-head image that contains various stats, a piece on the visiting club’s manager, and ‘Scouting Report’, which offers a detailed look at the club’s tactical set-up and ways in which the team’s players can be deployed.
Coverage of first-team matches is suitably detailed, running to four pages for each game. These include line-ups, match stats, and ‘first-half’ and ‘second-half’ reports, as well as images from the match. The coverage also includes ‘Chalkboard’ which adds some tactical analysis. Manager and captain columns are presented over three pages each, making use of full-page photography to accompany the text. There are three pages of club news in ‘Voice of Arsenal’, which are accompanied by ‘Picture of the Week’ – a two-page image which, in the Bournemouth issue, showed some of Arsenal’s young stars in recent Europa League action. There are also three pages on the work of the Arsenal Foundation and the club’s community work. As with the academy teams, ‘The Breakdown’ provides a beautifully presented stats section for the first-team, making good use of Arsenal’s colours and various different graphics to enliven the data.
There is not another programme in the league that is as well designed as the Arsenal issue. Nor is there an issue containing as much club information. However, this season’s issue perhaps just lacks the weight of original content to compete with the very best in the division.