I guess we were lucky in our past. We started out as Dial Square but quickly changed to Royal Arsenal and then soon after to Woolwich Arsenal. All of these were connected to a munitions factory and gave us our cannon as the heart of our logos. We got a cannon, so shooting, firing, aiming, and yes, winning at these were what we did.
It is cool, it is red, and it is ours
So we have a cannon, what do other clubs have? A lot of birds and bees, lions and mythical looking creatures including Manchester United’s Devil. Some are not bad, some are quite good, some are simple, some look ancient and one, well, one poor team has a cock as its logo. But we should never laugh, they chose it, they must have known it would turn out to be true. Sorry, I can’t help it, I have to laugh.
Arsenal outfire all other teams
Even the newspapers and media must love our logo. It gives them all sorts of headlines whether we do good or bad – our young guns are firing or misfiring, The gunners are out gunned or Arsenal outgun the opposition. The gunners are firing blanks, the gunners are firing howitzers, Top guns, or dead guns. The headlines write themselves. Lazy sub-editors just wheel them out every time. I can’t think of any other team’s logo that suits football so well. I mean you can’t really say Brighton’s Seagulls shat on the opposition, can you? Or that Spurs had a cock rammed up their arse. Or that Manchester United’s Red Devils have been thrown into hell. It wouldn’t be nice, would it? You couldn’t say that on Sky or in a newspaper, but you could use any combination of guns and cannons, firing and shooting, hitting and missing for Arsenal and never once have to resort to a bad word.
The Devil is about to sink their ship
But also for us fans, we get to have a cool logo on our chest, and it has been shaken up many times so we can go retro and have it firing left or modern and firing right. If we buy socks, t-shirts, bedspreads, mugs or any sort of memorabilia, they are always enhanced by our sexy sign. We don’t have to get into bed with a lighthouse (if that is what Everton’s building is), or bees, or Newcastle’s weird looking whatever they are animals, or Manchester City’s boat that looks like it is about to be sunk by a red target, and I am not going to mention the Spuds again. Ours is cool and it is sexy. And above all it is relevant. Football is about shooting.
We are Arsenal
The great thing is that our logo says what we are, the greatest shooters ever. We were the first real greats of the current top three in England when we dominated the 1930’s and 1940’s. What does Liverpool’s strange bird say to you? I have no idea but maybe the flower it is carrying symbolizes that they will walk alone into the fire at the side of their crest. Manchester United’s Red Devil has a boat above it and it looks like the Devil’s fork is going to sink the boat. Man Utd are doing a good job of that at the moment and City may also have sunk their boat. Maybe all their logos are true?
Is that a red target about to sink their ship?
West Ham do have a pretty good crest with the two giant hammers which is their nickname and Crystal Palace do have an eagle which looks very serious as it goes about its business. Brentford’s bees I suppose show that they buzz around but never really get anywhere.
Burnley’s is…
The birds and the bees and whatever else
The real kicker is Burnley’s. Did they make a trip to Spain at some point and got Picasso and Dali drunk while conning them into designing their logo? I can’t make any sense of it anyway but what do I know about art? And seriously, what is that bird doing on the top?
We outgun them all
The truth is, most clubs logos and crests are strange, weird, vaguely mythological looking, and I can’t really see what they have got to do with football. Ours does. And ours looks good. Even the old black and white cannons indicate that we have some strength within us, they look formidable. And our shields which came afterwards have a happy, uplifting feel about them as well, the stars with their Christmassy feel allied to our positive motto give us a class that other teams don’t have.
Walking into the fire?
The modern one has been pared down. It is sleek and powerful. It can go 3D or it can go small or big and still be impressive. I don’t feel there is any argument. Our logo is the best. Our next task is to live up to our crest and logo and become what we once were, the best team ever. Go Arsenal!