Arsenal's top 10 away & third kits of the Premier League era - ranked

It was Arsenal’s reunion with adidas in 2019-20 that brought with it a new focus on kit design. All of the away kits from that partnership have been some of the club’s best, including this red and white design.

The pattern itself was inspired by the marble halls of Highbury, while the black logos and detailing allowed the red marbling to take centre stage.

Yellow and blue are Arsenal’s traditional away colours, and the club has reworked or replaced them altogether throughout the Premier League era. The 2003-04 kit was, in many ways, the perfect distillation of those colours.

The yellow was highlighter-bright and the blue detailing only appeared on the collar, ends of the sleeves and the now-iconic O2 logo. A kit fit for the Invincibles.

The yellow returned for the 2010-11 season, although the blue notes were replaced by a brown trim. Yellow and brown might not sound like a classic combination, but the use of the darker shade for a pinstripe motif – as well as around the collar and sleeves – made it one of the hidden gems from Arsenal’s back catalogue.

The Bruised Banana (more on that later) isn’t just one of Arsenal’s best-ever away kits, it's one of football’s best-ever away kits. Celebrating their new partnership, adidas and Arsenal revived the design for the 2019-20 season in a nod to the last time they’d worked together in the early ‘90s.

The kit was slightly different from the original, most notably in the pattern, which was slightly more subtle than its original. This is part of the reason why it didn’t match the first Bruised Banana kit, but it’s a banger nonetheless.

Arsenal’s 2001-02 away kit feels like a kit from a different era. Maybe it’s the archaic badge, used for the last time before it was modernised, or it’s the SEGA sponsorship that does it.

Despite the vibe it gives off, there are some forward-thinking changes from the previous yellow and blue designs, most notably the use of metallic gold for the base of the shirt. 

The first break with the yellow and blue came in 1994-95. Arsenal opted for two shades of blue instead, with a majority navy shirt finished with a light blue collar and sections on each sleeve. The highlight, however, was the subtle lightning pattern that ran down the shirt, managing to give the shirt an almost-herringbone look. 

Arsenal’s best-loved home shirt is the 2005-06 design, which replaced red and white with “redcurrant.” Two seasons later, the same colour made a welcome return on the away shirt, appearing as the trim on an all-white shirt.

The choice of white was apparently in tribute to Herbert Chapman, who introduced white sleeves to the club’s all-red jerseys.

It’s only a year old, but Arsenal’s 2022-23 away kit is already seen as one of its best. In part, that’s because of the immediate appeal of an all-black kit, but it's also due to the details added.

The shirt itself is covered with an abstract pattern in black and “carbon” before it is finished with bronze detailing on the club crest – in this instance, just the cannon – as well as the adidas logo and sponsor’s branding.

Following up the 1994-95 away kit, Arsenal and Nike kept with the blue colour palette for the following season. The lightning bolt motif also returned, although this time it appeared only on one side of the shirt, as the light blue section gave way to the darker base.

Finishing off the shirt was Nike’s Futura logo for the last time. The “Blue Lightning” design of the 1994-95 and 1995-96 kits went on to become the basis of Arsenal’s 2021-22 third kit.

It was never going to be anything else, was it? The original Bruised Banana made its debut during the final year of the First Division, and Arsenal kept using it for the inaugural Premier League season.

The shirt gets its name – and cult status – from the dark pattern that runs across the yellow shirt. adidas revisited this template for a number of other teams and took inspiration from the design for Arsenal’s 2019-20 kit, but nothing comes close to the original.