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Arsenal Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Holloway, London. The club was formed in Woolwich in 1886 as Royal Arsenal before it was renamed Woolwich Arsenal in 1893. They became the first southern member admitted into the Football League in 1893, having spent their first four seasons solely participating in cup tournaments and friendlies. The club's name was shortened to Arsenal in 1914, a year after moving to Highbury. In spite of finishing fifth in the Second Division in 1915, Arsenal rejoined the First Division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur when football resumed after the First World War. Since that time, they have not fallen below the first tier of the English football league system and hold the record for the longest uninterrupted period in the top flight. The club remained in the Football League until 1992, when its First Division was superseded as English football's top level by the newly formed Premier League, of which they were an inaugural member. In 2003–04, Arsenal completed a league season without a single defeat, something achieved only once before in English football, by Preston North End in 1888–89.
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Arsenal's first team have competed in a number of national, and in the early part of the club's history, regionally contested leagues such as the United League, the Southern District Combination and the London League Premier Division. Their record against each club faced in these discontinued competitions, in addition to the Football League and Premier League is listed below. Arsenal's first Football League match was against Newcastle United, and they met their 85th and most recent different league opponent, A.F.C. Bournemouth, for the first time in the 2015–16 Premier League season. The team that Arsenal have played most in league competition is Manchester United, who they first met in the 1894–95 Football League season; the 81 defeats from 195 meetings is more than they have lost against any other club. Liverpool have drawn 50 league encounters with Arsenal, more than any other club. Arsenal have recorded more league victories against Everton than against any other club, having beaten them 93 times out of 191 attempts.