First footage of Arsenal?

By Kevin Widdop
It would make Arsene Wenger blush. Footage of the oldest recorded film of football is an insight into back-to-basics training routines, stationary defenders and vacant looks.

The 18-second video on the free sharing website, YouTube, sees a familiar phalanx of red-and-white-clad players bunched together in the box defending a corner. It is thought to be Arsenal training in 1887 at their first ground, Plumstead. It is played to the background of a cacophony of stuttering sound of film production.
There is also an empty, rundown stand, which is fenced in by wood and a peppering of supporters behind the goal. The penalty area is still in its infancy and has yet to become a 12-yard box. There is no sign of billboards or advertising which became mainstays of grounds shortly after they were opened.
But opinion remains divided. Some say it is a training session, others a match – and there are doubts about whether it is actually Arsenal. One thing however remains abundantly clear: the haphazard, disorientated shape of the team would make any manager squirm.