Arsenal have officially confirmed their new kit deal with German sportswear manufacturer Adidas.
A deal has been rumoured for some time, with the club set to earn £300million over the course of five years.
At £60m-per-season, that marks the partnership out as the third most lucrative in world football, equal with Chelsea but behind Manchester United’s deal with Adidas and Barcelona’s with Nike, which are worth £75m and £140m-a-year respectively.
The agreement will come into effect on July 1 2019, when the Gunners’ current deal with Puma expires, meaning Unai Emery’s side will be kitted out in Adidas from the start of next season.
Arsenal and adidas have agreed a new kit partnership, effective from July 1, 2019 pic.twitter.com/ceZzq0elgs
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 8, 2018
It will signal the end of Arsenal’s relatively brief five-year association with Puma, which came after two decades with Nike.
Arsenal last wore Adidas during the 1993/94 season, while Gunners fans will have fond memories of the iconic Adidas kit that the side wore during the 1988/89 title win, when the league was won at Anfield in the final minutes of the season.
Arsenal earned a ninth successive victory across all competitions and their sixth straight win in the Premier League with a 5-1 defeat of Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Alexandre Lacazette twice put the north London side ahead either side of Andre Schurrle’s equaliser before substitutes Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Aaron Ramsey helped put the game well beyond the hosts in the final half-an-hour.
Arsenal are now just two points off of the joint-top trio of Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool having scored the second-highest number of goals in the league with 19 in eight games.
And following their explosive display on the banks of the Thames, Jenas thinks that Arsenal look in better condition than they did under Emery’s predecessor Arsene Wenger in recent years and expects defences to be wary of their attacking threat.
Arsenal were cast aside as possible title contenders earlier this season when they started off with sloppy defeats to City and Chelsea, but are being mentioned as possible dark horses as a result of their winning streak.
Yet Pundit Jenas thinks that Arsenal might still struggle to even gain Champions League qualification – which they have missed out on in both of the last two seasons – and highlighted their back-line as a concern.
He said : “Nine wins out of nine? I don’t think anyone’s overlooking that they’re getting better.
“I think defensively there are still issues for me that would just keep them outside of that top four but they seem to be in a better place to have a good run at it this year I’d say.”
Emery meanwhile is focused on his Arsenal side simply showing consistent improvement rather than getting into title talk.
“We lost the first two matches against Manchester City and Chelsea,” he said to the media in his post-match press conference.