This is the earliest football footage I have managed to find on YouTube so far and is apparently an Arsenal training session filmed just 11 years after they were originally formed.

Arsenal were founded in 1886 by a group of workers at the Woolwich armaments factory in south London and the club was first known as Dial Square. The name was soon changed to Royal Arsenal though and when the club turned professional in 1891 the name changed again to Woolwich Arsenal. The prefix was later dropped and the club became Arsenal Football Club. For a period, and probably when this was filmed, it was popularly known as The Arsenal though this was never the club’s official name.

Arsenal would have been in the 2nd Division at the time after they were elected into the Football League in 1893.  At the time there were only two divisions with the absorption of the rival Football Alliance a year earlier in 1892. Then a few years later in 1904 they gained promotion to the 1st division. The club survived in the first division for nine years with high points of that period coming in 1906 when they reached the semi-final of the FA Cup and in 1909 when a 6th place finish was achieved.

Relegation followed in 1913 but coincided with a major landmark in the club’s history. Having played for the previous 27 years at various sites in Plumstead, South London the club moved to its famous site at Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, North London. The move was instigated by the then chairman Sir Henry Norris who foresaw greater potential for the club in the north London catchment area. The first franchised football club some would say.