FC Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 or FC Schalke 04, is a German football club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Schalke has long been one of the most popular football teams in Germany, even though major successes have been rare since the club's heyday in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Brazil was a great South American football nation, but in the 1930s still stood in the shadow of Argentina and Uruguay: in both 1930 and 1934 they were eliminated in the first round of the World Cup. There was nevertheless no doubt that Brazil was an outstanding footballing nation, and they were eager to prove it at the 1938 World Cup in France, where they alone represented South America after

In the close season Arsene Wenger talked about making the Emirates more "Arsenal". So we waited to see what was to happen.

When the Emirates was opened four summers ago, it was clear that the money had run out and there were many blank, concrete clad walls. Arsenal fans accepted this as a short term measure knowing that things would improve.

England, the home of football, had refused to participate in the first World Cups of the 1930s due to disagreements on their qualification as part of the British championship (where they competed against Scotland, Wales and Ireland) as well as some arrogance that England was the "King of football" anyway.

And I know who it is. It is Sofie, who correctly answered the trivia question, correctly chose to reside in the UK, and correctly had her name drawn out of a rather large and unwieldy wooden salad bowl by General Ambrose "Kettledrum" Aloysius, of the 3rd Union Cavalry Division of Rockland, Maine. General Aloysius, who was originally slated to draw a ping-pong ball from a functioning lottery agitator, was forced to resort to the salad bowl when he unexpectedly executed a sharp military step-turn in the vicinity of the agitator and rendered it inoperative with the protuberant end of his scabbard.

After speculation and leaks, Arsenal have unveiled their new away kit. The kit is "midnight-blue" with a pin stripe effect and polo collar, said to be worn by Arsenal's all conquering 1930s teams (lets hop this inspires this team).
.
The Arsenal website states that the design celebrates "the sartorial excellence of the Club's London birthplace," whatever that may mean!

In the early days of the World Cup draw, in the 1930s, organizers from FIFA gathered around a table and drew lots from a hat. Once it was Jules Rimet's grandson Yves who got the job of picking the lots. Until relatively recently, the draw still consisted of men in suits from FIFA doing the honors.

A few weeks ago I subtly hinted at a new project that was going to revolutionize the site, bring the planets into harmony, and redeem all the time we've wasted on cheap North Korea jokes. It's still a few weeks away, but I'm hard at work in the background getting the parts in readiness. Sadly, this means the foreground is going to continue to be a bit sparse for a while, but don't worry.

This week, Arsenal Station will look back at the decade that has come and gone with a few features including a few decade review articles from me and our guest contributors and a piece with my own personal rankings of the players and moments or matches of the decade. Enjoy and Happy New Year!