It’s likely that you’ll have read during the week that Sunday’s North London derby at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be unusual from a visual point of view.
Due to the Premier League having concerns with regard to the volume of white on this season’s Arsenal shirt, they will be in their all-black change kit. It’s unknown whether the greater-than-normal quantities of navy on the Tottenham jersey were taken into account but below are last April’s game in N17 and how the current season’s kits measure up.
As outlined in the official club statement announcing the news – with the follow-on that Tottenham will change at Emirates Stadium in January – Arsenal said that they had enquired about wearing red shorts to lessen the overall clash but that suggestion was rejected, too.
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Instead, the Gunners will wear an alternative strip at Tottenham for the first time since the 1985-86 campaign.
The reason for that occurrence nearly four decades ago was because Tottenham, who had recently signed a deal with Hummel, had a new all-white primary kit – the first of four such instances, including last season – and the Football League rules at the time meant that shorts-clashes were not allowed.
While Arsenal had dabbled with red change shorts in the late 1970s, and even navy when it was unavoidable in 1982-83, the view in the club – initially driven by kit man Tony Donnelly, was that it was better to wear the full away kit rather than messing with the classic home look.
And so, twice in that season – Glenn Hoddle’s testimonial in August 1985 (a 1-1 draw) and the league game at the end of March 1986 (1-0 Tottenham), they trotted out at White Hart Lane in their yellow and navy kit.
For 1985-86, Arsenal had switched from Umbro to adidas but the kit set-up was still the same, with the new away strip very similar to its predecessor apart from the addition of the German’s firm three stripes.
While Tottenham’s home kit was still essentially the same, there were differences in that the Hummel logo and club crest were higher up to allow for greater visibility – the Hummel marking also had a white outline – while there was a new number style, too.
Another addition was a navy ‘second away’ kit (the term “third kit” didn’t come into common usage until the early 1990s). Though it was used sparingly (just three outings across its two-season lifespan), the shorts and socks were able to be used with the white shirts – in contrast to 1985-86, when the sky-blue away sets were used in the event of a clash, not always ideally.
Most of the time, the navy shorts appeared in away games but, for whatever reason, an exception was made for the league game at home to Arsenal on January 4, 1987. That in turn allowed the visitors to wear their home kit and they won 2-1.
The draw for the Littlewoods Cup semi-final brought the clubs together again and, after winning 1-0 at Highbury in the navy shorts, Tottenham wore them at home again for the second leg.
Another 2-1 win for Arsenal necessitated a replay – no away-goals rule or penalties back then – with Tottenham winning the toss for the choice of venue. Once again, they turned out in navy shorts and, once again, Arsenal won 2-1.
They went on to meet Liverpool in the final and they won that, too – no prizes for guessing the scoreline.
think this colour clashing lark is going a bit overboard – there is more than enough to differentiate the two kits. Madness imo. I’ll be expecting Plymouth and Norwich to be asked to remove the shades of green they wear next, seeing as it clashes with the colour of the pitch!