Today we take a look at Arsenal’s programme for the 2021/22 season. You can read our full review below and click here to visit our 2021/22 page with details of each club’s issue for the season.
The Gunners have produced another typically well-presented programme for the 2021/22 season. As with recent seasons, each issue includes 84 pages, which benefit from nice clean page layouts and easy to read text, complemented by lots of high-quality images.
Inside, the content of the programme offers some variations from Arsenal programmes from the last few years. For example, rather than retaining the standard columns from head coach and captain, each issue includes an extended column under the heading ‘Official Voice’. This provides the thoughts of significant figures from the club in different issues – from the owners to the manager – providing an interesting alternative to the often rather generic columns that open many clubs’ programmes.
‘Red, White and Green’ is another recurring feature that looks at what the club are doing in the area of sustainability, with several news items and articles – including one in the Watford issue about encouraging supporters to get involved in the ‘upcycling’ of unsold matchday programmes. ‘Gallery’ meanwhile presents a series of images past and present, each over two pages with a sidebar detailing the context of the picture.
Club information is, as we’ve come to expect from Arsenal, thorough and comprehensive. There are sections on both the club’s academy teams and Arsenal Women, compiling recent news and a detailed set of statistics, as well as a profile of one academy player in ‘Young Gun’. Each issue includes several pages of news, while ‘Community Voice’ looks at a project being supported by Arsenal in the Community, with a further page devoted to the work of the Arsenal Foundation. There is action from previous matches, including images, match details and a timeline of key moments from the game. The first team results and fixtures section is perhaps the best presented in the league, making excellent use of the space afforded by the double-page spread, and intelligently deploying colour to help readers navigate the information presented.
Original content is more limited. The pick of the articles is ‘Behind the Headline’, which looks at a moment from the archives and the story behind the headline that went with it. Each article runs to five pages and presents the story in welcome depth, alongside several images from the time. The Watford issue, for example, recounted the story of the 1930 FA Cup Final when Arsenal met Huddersfield Town – a match famous for the appearance overhead of the Graf Zeppelin airship. In a similar vein is ‘Behind the Graphic’, which provides the detail behind a recently published infographic – an article that provides a perfect example of how to blend imagery, text, and stats. In addition, there is an extended player interview over eight pages.
Opposition coverage is reduced from previous seasons’ efforts, down to just five pages, although the section is still worth a read. An opening article considers the visiting club’s form, before providing a profile of the manager and several key players. Fortunately, the section retains ‘scouting’ notes from the always informative Michael Cox. This part of the programme could certainly be strengthened by the addition of one or two more features on the opposition.
Overall, this is an eye-catching issue that leads the pack in terms of presentation, showcasing the benefits of simple page designs and use of space. The programme focuses predominantly on providing details on all the latest from across the club, which is a natural enough choice, but this does mean it suffers in comparison to the very best issues in the league when it comes to depth of content and opposition coverage.