Arsenal Managers Ranked: From Chapman to Emery

As Unai Emery settles into the manager’s chair at the Emirates — the first man other than Arsène Wenger to occupy it since 1996 — it seems an appropriate moment to survey the full history of Arsenal’s managerial appointments. From innovators to caretakers, from geniuses to the frankly bewildering, Arsenal’s managers have shaped the club in ways that extend far beyond tactics and team selection.

Herbert Chapman (1925-1934)

The father of modern football management, and the man who transformed Arsenal from a middling south London transplant into the dominant force in English football. Chapman’s innovations were staggering in their scope: the WM formation, floodlit football, numbered shirts, the renaming of Gillespie Road tube station to Arsenal. He won three league championships before his sudden death in 1934 — a tragedy that robbed football of its most visionary mind. Chapman didn’t merely manage Arsenal; he invented what it meant to manage a football club. Number one, without question. As the managerial merry-go-round spun ever faster around the league, Arsenal remained an island of stability.

Arsène Wenger (1996-2018)

Twenty-two years. Three league titles. Seven FA Cups. The Invincibles. The move to the Emirates. The reinvention of English football’s relationship with diet, training, and foreign players. Wenger’s legacy at Arsenal is so vast, so multifaceted, that it resists simple summary. He was a revolutionary who became an establishment figure, an innovator who was eventually overtaken by the innovations he inspired. His final years were difficult — the trophy drought, the fan protests, the sense of decline — but they cannot and should not obscure the magnificence of what came before. Wenger is Arsenal, and Arsenal is Wenger. The two are inseparable. Read more about his greatest achievement in our Invincibles retrospective.

George Graham (1986-1995)

Graham took a talented but underachieving Arsenal squad and moulded it into the most formidable defensive unit English football had ever seen. Two league titles, an FA Cup, two League Cups, and a European Cup Winners’ Cup represent an extraordinary haul, achieved through a combination of tactical discipline, motivational excellence, and an almost pathological obsession with defensive organisation. The “boring, boring Arsenal” tag was meant as an insult; Graham and his players wore it as a badge of honour. His departure — forced out over an illegal payment scandal — was ignominious, but his achievements were substantial.

Bertie Mee (1966-1976)

The former physiotherapist who delivered Arsenal’s first Double in 1971. Mee was an unlikely manager — quiet, methodical, with none of the charisma that characterised his predecessors and successors. But he was shrewd, he was organised, and he had the good sense to surround himself with excellent coaches, chief among them Don Howe. The 1970/71 season — the League and FA Cup Double, sealed by Charlie George’s iconic goal at Wembley — was Mee’s masterpiece, and it alone secures his place in Arsenal’s pantheon.

Tom Whittaker (1947-1956)

Chapman’s disciple, who inherited the great man’s methods and applied them with considerable success. Whittaker won two league titles and an FA Cup, continuing Arsenal’s dominance into the post-war era with a quiet authority that never sought the spotlight. He is perhaps the most underrated manager in Arsenal’s history — a man whose achievements would be celebrated far more enthusiastically had he not laboured in Chapman’s enormous shadow.

Terry Neill (1976-1983)

The youngest manager in Arsenal’s history at the time of his appointment, and the man who presided over a period of genuine excitement at Highbury. Three consecutive FA Cup finals (1978, 1979, 1980), winning one, and a style of play built around the sublime talents of Liam Brady gave Arsenal an attacking verve that the club had sometimes lacked. Neill’s failure to win the league title remains a source of regret, but his contribution to Arsenal’s attacking heritage is significant.

Joe Shaw (Caretaker, 1934)

Shaw’s brief caretaker spell following Chapman’s death is noteworthy only because the team he inherited was so brilliantly constructed that it continued to win — securing the 1933/34 championship largely on momentum and muscle memory. Shaw deserves credit for holding things together during a period of genuine grief.

George Allison (1934-1947)

Chapman’s successor in the permanent role, Allison was a journalist and broadcaster rather than a football man, and it showed. He had the good fortune to inherit Chapman’s squad, winning two titles and an FA Cup, but the gradual decline of the team on his watch suggests that Allison was sustaining momentum rather than creating it. A competent custodian rather than a visionary leader.

Don Howe (1984-1986)

One of the finest coaches English football has ever produced, Howe was a disappointment as Arsenal manager. The defensive expertise that made him invaluable as an assistant proved insufficient when the full weight of managerial responsibility fell on his shoulders. His tenure was brief, unhappy, and ultimately forgettable — a rare misstep in a career of otherwise remarkable distinction.

Bruce Rioch (1995-1996)

One season. One significant signing — Dennis Bergkamp. One dismissal. Rioch’s Arsenal tenure was so brief that it barely registers in the club’s history, yet his one lasting contribution — bringing the Dutchman to Highbury — was of such staggering importance that it arguably justifies his entire employment. Whether Rioch knew what he had in Bergkamp, or whether the signing was made over his head, remains a matter of debate. Either way, Arsenal owe him a debt of gratitude.

Steve Burtenshaw, Stewart Houston, Pat Rice (Caretakers)

Various caretaker appointments over the decades, all of whom performed the thankless task of keeping the ship steady between permanent appointments. Rice, in particular, deserves mention for his extraordinary service to the club as player, coach, and assistant manager over a period spanning decades.

Unai Emery (2018-?)

The new man. Emery arrives with an impressive CV — three consecutive Europa League titles with Sevilla — and a reputation as a meticulous tactician. Whether he can fill Wenger’s shoes remains to be seen, but the early signs are cautiously encouraging. He inherits a squad in transition, a fanbase divided by the traumas of Wenger’s final years, and expectations that are simultaneously modest and sky-high. We wish him well. We reserve judgement. We wait, as we always do, with hope.