Two founding clubs of the Football League meet for the first time.

Munitions workers from Woolwich facing one of English football's founding dozen; newcomers rarely chose tougher opposition for a first outing.
Arsenal, then known as Royal Arsenal, and Aston Villa first crossed paths in the late 1880s. Villa were already established as one of the dominant forces in English football, having been founded in 1874 by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel cricket team. Arsenal, formed in 1886 by munitions workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, were the upstarts from south-east London. Both clubs were among the twelve founding members of the Football League in 1888 (Villa) and early entrants to the professional game (Arsenal joined the Football League in 1893). The fixture quickly became a staple of the English football season.














