- – Thanks to our Football Kit Podcast colleague Gav Hope for this info – stay up to date with his marvellous work here
Last Saturday, Norwich City beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0, a result to keep the visitors firmly in the EFL Championship relegation mire.
The mix of colours are likely to give a Proustian rush to those of us of a certain age – one of the clubs was in the top three in each of the first three seasons of the Premier League – trivia-lovers will enjoy the fact that Norwich were third in 1992-93 having scored 61 goals and conceded 65 whereas they scored 65 and conceded 61 in 1993-94 but it was only good enough for 12th place.
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However, what makes the kit match-up noteworthy in 2026 is the fact that, in their 15th away league game of the season, Rovers were wearing their primary kit for the first time.
Changing when there is no clash is a fairly modern phenomenon – raising the ire of Twitter accounts like Kit Crimes – though in the case of some lower-league clubs there can be a pragmatism based on not wanting to constantly wear and launder one set of kit while others lie idle. Another consideration is that there might be different main sponsors on the away and/or third strip compared to the home, with deals based on minimum usage.
Our take, for what it’s worth: rightly or wrongly, we’re a lot less offended by it when the club is in recognised change colours – e.g. Arsenal in yellow or blue – or when the kit is a reversal of the club’s normal scheme, such as Napoli’s Champions League visit to Benfica in December.
The aforementioned Arsenal don’t have a yellow strip this season – by all accounts, one will be back in the kit room for 2026-27 – and the Gunners were in their lightning-bolt-inspired blue shirts at Brentford on Thursday night, when a 1-1 draw simultaneously moved them four points clear at the top of the table and kept them in perpetual crisis.
We said shirts above – the default shorts and socks are navy but at the Gtech Community Stadium Arsenal wore grey alternative shorts and socks.
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It’s the same look as appeared away to Athletic Club in the Champions League.
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However, while Uefa mandate that shorts-clashes be solved, the Premier League do not and this was the first such occurrence for Arsenal since the game at Southampton in 2019-20.
