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Throughout the years, pretty much every club in the Premier League will have had their highs and lows when it comes to the kits that they’re sporting.
When it comes to Arsenal, it feels as if they’ve been on a very solid run recently, whether it be the revitalised bruised banana shirt or the classic red and white colours – although this year’s strips may buck that trend.
With these kits in mind, Football FanCast has looked back through history to find the 10 worst kits ever to grace the turf at Highbury or the Emirates.
Kicking things off with a shirt from a few years ago that certainly divided opinion – something which can be repeated for the majority of this list, in truth.
The 2020/21 season came with a very tidy home kit, as well as a navy and pink number for the third shirt, but the colour palette for the away strip wasn’t quite as well-received, with the red on the white looking more like blood splatter as opposed to the marble halls at Highbury.
In that shirt, Arsenal staggered to an underwhelming eighth-placed finish in the Premier League.
This was Mikel Arteta’s first full season in charge, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom with his side winning the Community Shield and getting to the semi-finals of the Europa League, where they lost to eventual winners Villarreal.
We’re putting a goalkeeper kit under the microscope here, as it fits in well alongside some of these underwhelming outfits.
Wojciech Szczęsny was the Arsenal goalkeeper for most of the 2010/11 season, and along with some below-par green numbers that he wore, this snazzy pink shirt was a little garish.
One of the more notable moments from that season was not a positive one for Arsenal as the Polish shot-stopper wore the pink strip when he conceded four goals against Newcastle United.
The design on the sleeves is certainly a bit of an eyesore, but the pink just takes it up (or down) a notch from the black and light blue versions, which featured in the Gunners’ win over Barcelona and defeat to Birmingham City at Wembley respectively.
Red and white is so synonymous with Arsenal Football Club that one would be mistaken for thinking that there is no way to butcher that.
But in their last season as the manufacturers back in 2018/19, Puma did exactly that as they added a pink stripe on the sleeves, while the layout just seemed a bit clunky.
The aforementioned stripe was also accompanied by the Visit Rwanda sleeve sponsor.
The Gunners’ exploits that year appeared to mirror the kit itself, with Unai Emery failing to qualify for the Champions League in his first season by losing in the Europa League final and finishing outside of the top four.
Arsenal faltered in their final year under Arsene Wenger, and their underachievements in this blue effort from Puma were arguably foreshadowed by its iffy design.
In fact, Arsenal won just 2 of 12 outings in light blue, with both victories coming in the Europa League. They even lost at home wearing blue when beaten by Graham Potter’s Ostersund side, before prevailing on aggregate.
As for the kit itself, the transition from light to dark blue just didn’t work; it didn’t feel very ‘Arsenal’ at all.
Arsenal’s home kits have always been primarily red with some white to accompany it, so when the away kit in 2007/08 was the opposite, the Emirates faithful were intrigued.
The red was much darker, but either way, having white as a primary colour for the rivals of Tottenham Hotspur was a peculiar move, and one that shouldn’t be revisited anytime hereafter.
They did have their moments in this strip, though, with Arsenal pulling off a huge victory at the San Siro against AC Milan thanks to goals from Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor.
It has to be said that they did fall at the next hurdle in white, as late goals from Steven Gerrard and Ryan Babel won the quarter-final tie for Liverpool at Anfield. Steer clear of white in future, please.
This could be a controversial one, but the yellow/burgundy mixture from 2010/11 receives a no from us.
While yellow has become synonymous with Arsenal – primarily with blue – it’s by no means a guaranteed hit on its own. This mustard yellow and burgundy combination was tidy enough, but fails to deliver on the kind of throwback we *think* Nike were going for, here.
Exiting the cup and Champions League in this kit won’t help the more recent memories, either. One look at this and you immediately picture Robin van Persie seeing red, right?
After beating Hull City in the FA Cup final when sporting the classic Arsenal red, they faced Aston Villa the following year at Wembley and took to the field in their yellow away kit.
The yellow aspect of it wasn’t anything bad, but the dark blue sleeves just didn’t really work alongside the red of the sponsors and squad numbers.
When you lift a piece of major silverware, though, no one can really have any complaints.
Another controversial one, here – and it’s Adidas’ latest effort. The fluorescent yellow is bad enough, but the needless tyre tracks and awful colour combinations just make it downright ugly.
20 years on from the Invincibles season, you can’t help but feel Adidas has missed a trick in not going for the easy win of an anniversary-inspired strip – especially given their track record. And all this after coming up with one of the club’s best away kits in ages (perhaps ever) with last year’s all-black design.
You can’t expect perfection every time, but this feels like a major step backwards. Admittedly, it works rather well with the shorts, so maybe it’s a grower. Can’t help but feel next summer’s release will be a drastic improvement, though.
The sky blue and navy away kit of the 2011/12 season is very lucky not to have made this list, and it may have been slightly saved by the fact that an even worse strip was produced for the following season.
Signing Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla in the same window is a commendable feat, it has to be said, even when one considers the loss of Robert van Persie that same summer. Unfortunately, their transfer activity was not matched by Nike’s idea to a) go for stripes; and b) make a total mess of it.
The absolute monstrosity that tops this list is almost a decade old now, and it is definitely for the best that it is left in the past.
Having previously visited the 2014/15 season, we are back there, but with the third kit this time around.
Dark blue and light blue as a contrast is something which can be very hit-and-miss, and this shirt certainly fits into the latter category.
One memorable moment that Arsenal fans got to witness from this kit was when Danny Welbeck scored a winner in the FA Cup quarter-final against his previous employers, Manchester United.
But they suffered some chastening nights in Europe, including a poor showing against Borussia Dortmund before being dumped out of the Champions League by Monaco despite winning on the night.
At least Arsenal limited this embarrassment to the cup competitions.
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