Arsenal 96-98: Continuing the Arsenal range, Corinthian finally released Lee Dixon, Steve Bould, Chris Kiwomya and John Hartson. Joining them were new releases of Patrick Vieira and Arsene Wenger, with Marc Overmars' Ajax model re-released for his Arsenal move. John Lukic narrowly missed out on his release but his Arsenal production model and unreleased collectors card can be found as well as his unreleased Leeds version which matches the kit of his successor, Nigel Martyn. Steve Morrow, Glenn Helder, David Hillier, Ray Parlour and John Jensen were still denied a release though which is a great shame. All of these reached the production stages and can be found sans tampo prints. 

Custom Sculpts: Andy Linighan, Gilles Grimandi and Pat Rice.

Kit Usage: Arsenal change of strip came at the start of the 96/97 campaign and made it's premier league debut at home against West Ham. A winning start to the season as Arsenal won 2-0 against the hammers thanks to a first half strike from John Hartson (who wasn't long set for a move to West Ham himself) and Dennis Bergkamp stretched the lead to two in the second half from the spot as Marc Reiper handled inside the box. Their last game in the premier league wearing this strip was against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Arsenal lost 1-0 despite Villa going down to ten men when Ugo Ehiogu was sent off in 24 minutes for two bookable offences. Dwight Yorke settled from the spot in the first half for the only goal of the game. 

Achievements 96-97:
Premier League: 3rd (UEFA Cup qualifiers)
FA Cup: R4 (1-0 loss to Leeds United)
League Cup: R4 (4-2 loss to Liverpool)
UEFA Cup: R1 (6-4 aggregate loss to Borussia Monchengladbach)

Achievements 97-98:
Premier League: 1st (Champions League qualifiers)
FA Cup: Winners (2-0 win against Newcastle United)
League Cup: Semi Final (4-3 aggregate loss to Chelsea)
UEFA Cup: R1 (2-1 aggregate loss to Panthessaloníkios Athlitikós Ómilos Konstantinopolitón)

A very successful campaign for Arsenal in this kit particularly in the 97/98 season after building on their previous 96/97 season. They captured the Double (winners of both the Premier League and the FA Cup) and a Semi Final place in the League Cup. Both UEFA campaigns were very poor, however they secured their place in the Champions League for the 98/99 season. The Wenger era had begun.

Make & Sponsor: Arsenal continued with kit supplier Nike and JVC as their sponsor. Again, Arsenal's kit was very accurate. The change of red was much closer than the previous red used on the 94-96 kit. All the main detailing is there, if they had included the extra band of the white on the end of the sleeve I would have probably rated it a 10. There are two other smaller details missing, the thin white line running from the top of the sleeve to the collar and the thin red line above the red rectangle on the side of the shorts. The V-neck on the collar also sat high and the red of the kit could have covered more skin on the players neck. The shirt also had "Arsenal" printed on the back down at the base (below the shirt number) but wasn't visible when the shirt was tucked into the shorts. Yellow was the tampo print colour chosen again where I do think metallic gold would have been better as commented previously. Another accurate paint-job for Arsenal.
Rating: 9/10

Pack Releases:

Single Blisters: 

Thirteen Arsenal players were available via single blister format including both kit variants of David Seaman. Bould, Hartson and Dixon did not receive single blister pack releases. Overmars, Vieira, Wenger and David Seaman's (third release) could only be obtained singularly. If you are also after the "Headliners" card variant, Adams, Wright and Bergkamp can only be picked up in single blister format and by choosing a blister with the hanging hook arm as opposed to an eye-lit with "Headliners" logo stamp (look for it beneath Corinthian's logo in the top right corner).

AR05: Kiwomya (5029310282215)
AR20: Wright (5029310501767)
AR21: Bergkamp (5029310501774)
AR22: Seaman (5029310501804)
AR23: Merson (5029310283090)
AR24: Adams (5029310283106)
AR25: Platt (5029310287425)
AR26: Keown (5029310501859)
AR27: Winterburn (5029310501866)
XXXX: Vieira
XXXX: Overmars
XXXX: Wenger
XXXX: Seaman

4 Packs:
Bould and Hartson were the special 4 pack releases but could also be obtained by purchasing the 12 Pack
 

AR4C: Adams/Merson/Platt/Wright (5029310282314)
AR4D: Bergkamp/Kiwomya/Bould/Hartson (5029310501873)

12 Pack:
You could only obtain Lee Dixon by purchasing the 12 Pack
 

AR12P: Adams/Merson/Wright/Platt/Seaman/Dixon/Keown/Bergkamp/Kiwomya/Bould/Hartson/Winterburn (5029310282321)