London's Big Four Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tottenham Hotspur

In September 1882, a group of schoolboys, led by Bobby Buckle, all of whom were members of the Hotspur Cricket Club, decided to form a football section to play sport during the winter. Initially named the Hotspur Football Club, in April 1884, the club was renamed as Tottenham Hotspur, to avoid confusion with another Hotspur FC.

Initially playing friendly games against other local sides, the club's first competitive game in October 1885 in the London Association Cup. In 1892, the club joined the short-lived Southern Alliance, a league for clubs in the south-east.

This competition folded in 1893, but in 1895 Tottenham Hotspur turned professional, joining the Southern League in the summer of 1896. In 1900, the club win its first trophy, the Southern League title, while the following season saw it become the first club from outside the Football League since its formation in 1888 to win the FA Cup. Tottenham Hotspur was eventually elected into the Football League in 1908.

Answer: Chelsea

In 1904, Gus Mears purchased the athletics stadium at Stamford Bridge and sought to convert it into a stadium for football. After initially offering the stadium to Fulham FC, which was turned down, Mears elected to form his own club that, after a number of suggestions, was eventually founded as Chelsea FC in March 1905. Having been refused entry to the Southern League following objections by both Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur, the new club applied instead to join the Football League, being admitted two months after their formation.

The club played its first league game, a 1-0 defeat away to Stockport County, on 2 September 1905. The club was promoted to the First Division in their second season, and reached their first FA Cup Final in 1915, losing 3-0 to Sheffield United.

Answer: Arsenal

Arsenal was originally founded in October 1886 by a group of munitions workers at the Royal Arsenal complex in Woolwich. Initially named Dial Square, after a workshop area at the complex, the club was renamed a month after its formation as Royal Arsenal.

The club won the Kent Senior Cup and London Charity Cup in 1890, and the London Senior Cup in 1891, as well as entering the FA Cup for the first time in 1890. Coming up against professional sides from the north meant that the club faced the threat of its amateur players being lured away with the prospect of turning professional, and so in 1891 the club elected to turn professional itself.

However, this led to the London FAn banning the club from its competitions, as it retained its amateur ethos. Royal Arsenal attempted to set up a southern version of the Football League, but this was not successful, and the club faced bleak prospects until, in 1893, the Football League invited the renamed Woolwich Arsenal to join, becoming the first southern club in the competition.

Answer: West Ham United

West Ham United's history dates back to 1895, when the owner of Thames Ironworks, a shipbuilder located at Canning Town in East London, formed a works football club. Thames Ironworks FC won the West Ham Charity Cup in 1895, and the London League in 1897, before turning professional in 1898 upon their election to the Southern League Second Division, gaining promotion at the first attempt.

In June 1900, Thames Ironworks FC was disbanded, with its assets reincorporated into a newly formed club called West Ham United the following month.

The new club retained Thames Ironworks' place in the Southern League, but in addition also joined the Western League in 1901, winning the competition in 1907. In 1919, following the First World War, West Ham United were elected to the Football League Second Division, eventually winning promotion to the top flight for the first time in 1923.

Answer: Arsenal

Although Arsenal had been members of the Football League since 1893, the first decades of their membership had not brought any significant success, with the club moving regularly between the First and Second Divisions. However, in 1913, following the bombing of their ground in Plumstead by suffragettes, the club elected to move from their original home in Woolwich to Highbury in North London.

This set the stall for a turnaround in the club's fortunes, thanks to a doubling of attendances in their new home, which allowed the club to increase its budgets on players and facilities.

In 1925, the club was able to hire Herbert Chapman, the manager who had won two successive titles in 1924 and 1925 with Huddersfield Town. Under Chapman's leadership, the team was transformed through both the recruitment of a number of high quality players, new training methods and new tactics on the pitch.

In 1930, the club won their first national title, the FA Cup, while the following season, 1931, saw Arsenal become the first club from London to become league champions. During the 1930s, the club won the league title four more times, including three in succession from 1933 to 1935.

By the time another London club was able to win the league, in 1951, Arsenal had won the title six times.

Answer: West Ham United

The original Wembley Stadium was built to serve as the centrepiece of the British Empire Exhibition, a large expo intended reinforce the bonds between the nations and territories of the British Empire. While the Exhibition was intended to run between 1924 and 1925, the stadium itself was completed in April 1923, having taken just ten months to build.

As a result the Football Association had elected to hold its showpiece event, the FA Cup Final, at the venue. This took place on 28 April 1923, four days after the stadium had been officially completed, between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. West Ham, who were playing in the final for the first time, had also just achieved promotion to the First Division.

The game, which became known as the "White Horse Final", thanks to the famous photograph of Billie, a white police horse used as part of the efforts to control the record crowd, finished 2-0 to Bolton.

While the official attendance was 126,047, there are estimates that the actual number there ranges from between 150,000 to 200,000.

Answer: False

The 1991-92 Football League was the final season of the league in its original format, with the winners of its highest division being crowned the champions of England. Arsenal went into the season as reigning champions, having win the title the previous year.

It was also the first time since 1988 that Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United were all in the same division, as both Chelsea and West Ham had been relegated to the Second Division and subsequently promoted in the previous four seasons.

However, although Arsenal had the division's longest unbeaten run, a total of 17 games between February and May 1992, they were rarely in contention to win the title, which was eventually won by Leeds United, who finished top by four points over Manchester United. Arsenal eventually finished fourth, ten points behind the champions. Chelsea and Tottenham came 14th and 15th respectively, while West Ham ended the season in 22nd and missed out on a place in the inaugural season of the new Premier League.

Answer: Tottenham Hotspur

The first club to win the double of League Title and FA Cup had been Preston North End, in the inaugural season of the Football League in 1888-89, while Aston Villa had also achieved the feat in 1897. However, the achievement then proved spectacularly elusive, as the next team to achieve the feat was Tottenham Hotspur in 1961. Tottenham won their second league title that year (their first was in 1951), by eight points over second placed Sheffield Wednesday, with a record that included 31 victories and just seven defeats from their 42 league games.

Their progress in the FA Cup was equally serene, with the only blip being the need for a replay in their quarter-final with Sunderland. In the final, they eventually beat Leicester City 2-0 to become the first club in the twentieth century, and the first from London, to win the double. Ten years later, Arsenal achieved the feat in 1971, while Chelsea also won the double in 2010.

Answer: True

English clubs have competed in European competition almost since European tournaments were inaugurated in the mid-1950s. In 1960, Birmingham City became the first English side to reach a European final, when they played Barcelona in the final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

However, it was 1963 before an English side eventually won a European tournament, when Tottenham Hotspur were successful in the European Cup-Winners Cup, which they qualified for having won the 1962 FA Cup. Tottenham reached the final after victories over clubs from Scotland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, before they played the holders, Atletico Madrid, in the final, which was held in Rotterdam. Tottenham ended up dominating, and won 5-1 to win the first European trophy by an English side.

In less than a decade, all of London's big four had achieved European success in their first European finals, with West Ham winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1965, Arsenal winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, and Chelsea winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1971. All four have gone on to reach a number of European finals since then.

Answer: Chelsea

Following their league title in 1961, Tottenham became the first London club to enter the European Cup, and reached the semi-final in 1962, when they lost to Benfica. However, this was the furthest a London side had gone in the competition until it was matched by Chelsea in consecutive seasons in 2004 and 2005.

In 2006, Arsenal became the first London side to reach the final, where they were beaten by Barcelona 2-1, a feat matched by Chelsea in 2008. It wasn't until 2012 that a London side eventually won the competition, when Chelsea, playing against Bayern Munich in the German side's own stadium, won the Champions League final in a penalty shoot-out (the second time an English side had won the final against a team playing in their own stadium, following Liverpool's triumph at the Stadio Olimpico against Roma). Following Chelsea's success in 2012, they won the competition for a second time in 2021, while Tottenham also reached the final in 2019.