As a United fan, this was a tricky one to write! I've gone over all the Arsenal shirts since 1990 to bring you my top 5. Looking at the periods of manufactures, the early 90s Adidas shirts, late 90s Nike shirts and the more recent Adidas shirts have been the best period in my option. The later period with Nike and the Puma shirts is best forgotten about. I cannot see anyone collecting the Puma home shirts from that period! I'll follow this blog up with one about the 5 worst Arsenal shirts!
Spoiler alert - I don't like home shirts!
My 5 Best Arsenal Shirts From 1990 Onwards
I'll go through them in reverse order. The 22/23 season shirts aren't taken into consideration as they've not been out long. I do like the black and gold away, it's just not top 5 material yet.
No 5 - 1991/1992 Away Shirt - Bruised Banana
This is possibly the most classic Arenal away shirt there is. You cannot have a top 5 Arsenal shirts without this one in it. For me, it comes in at number 5. It's a jazzy and bold shirt and looked amazing on the players. Arsenal and JVC just work together, an amazing shirt with a simple sponsor - Some modern sponsors could learn from this!
The shirt was re-imagined again in the 19/20 away shirt. It was toned down with the design blending more into the yellow, but it was a nice shirt.
No 4 - 2020/2021 Away Shirt
I love this shirt! I am not sure how popular it is among Arsenal fans but this is a modern classic for me. Designed to match the marble from Highbury this is a strong design that looks amazing. It is even better in the player spec version or player issue in the long sleeve.
I can imagine this design getting used again and getting a twist in 20 years' time it is that good a design. I think this is a shirt that will grow and grow in popularity over the coming years.
No 3 - 2001/2002 Away Shirt
Another sponsor that works well for Arsenal was SEGA. This is an iconic gold shirt that was used in the last year of SEGA sponsorship. It was also used as the third shirt in the 2002/2003 season but with O2 as the sponsor.
The shirt followed a similar Nike template and this colour way of the gold with a blue trim really worked for Arsenal.
No 2 - 2021/2022 Third Shirt
This could be an unpopular selection going with such a modern shirt in the second position - but it's my blog and my opinion! This shirt is a modern triumph of a third shirt with a bus seat pattern. Officially, accoutring to Adidas, it's a re-imagination of the lightning bolt shirt and it really works.
For me, this is the best Arsenal shirt of the last 20 years and one of the best reimagining of a 90s shirt that I've seen. It's different enough to be a top shirt in its own right but still nods back to the original.
No 1 - 1995/1995 Away Shirt
It did not take me long to select this as the number 1 shirt. If I think of the best Arsenal shirts this is the first one that comes to mind. It's bold, it's got a lightning bolt, what's not to love?
The home shirt also had a lightning bolt pattern in the red material but it was not as stand out as the away shirt.
What do you think of my top 5? Drop me a tweet to @casualfootshirt on Twitter or @casualfootballshirts on Instagram with your top 5.