Derby County 95-97: Arsenal were the second team released and were issued with PL code of 02 and received 19 sculpts in total. The players officially released in this kit though only amounted to eight. Those eight were David Seaman, Martin Keown, Tony Adams, Nigel Winterburn, Paul Merson, David Platt, Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright. Master models of Lee Dixon, Chris Kiwomya, John Hartson and Steve Bould were later produced and released in the following seasons kit. John Jensen, David Hillier, Steve Morrow, Glenn Helder, Paul Davis and Ray Parlour were also sculpted but were never released. Paul Davis career had come to an end and his master model was not fully completed. David Hillier, Steve Morrow, Ray Parlour had production models produced and must have been very close to release. John Jensen and Glenn Helder had tooling masters produced meaning they too were very closed to being release. Chris Kiwomya came the closest being released in this kit as he was supposed to be part of a 4 player pack which never came to be released in stores. 

Custom Sculpts: Their were 8 players released and 4 more players later produced for the 96/97 season that can be repainted. There are also two other players in Stefan Schwarz and Kevin Campbell who also played in this kit. There are a further 6 masters which leaves me with a total of 6 custom sculpts to create who will be the following; Eddie McGoldrick, Paul Dichov, Alan Smith, Andy Linighan, manger Bruce Rioch and his assistant Stuart Houston.

Kit Usage: Arsenal debuted their new kit at the beginning of the 94/95 campaign in which the defeated Man City 3-0 at Highbury, in which Kevin Campbell opened the scoring within two minutes, before Steve McMahon put the second into his own net and Ian Wright finished city off in the second half. The last use of this kit was on the last day of the 95/96 season against Bolton who fate was already resigned to the Championship, all goals coming in the second half with Bolton going ahead thanks to Andy Todd before David Platt and Dennis Bergkamp rescued all three points for Arsenal. It was actually an important win as both Everton and Blackburn would have finished higher than Arsenal who would have missed out of European competition.

Achievements 96/97:
Division One: 2nd (Promoted)
FA Cup: R3 (4-2 loss to Leeds United)
League Cup: R4 (1-0 loss to Leeds United)

Achievements 96/97:
Premier League: 12th
FA Cup: Quarter Finals (2-0 loss to Middlesbrough)
League Cup: R2 (3-2 aggregate loss to Luton Town)



A fairly mixed bag for Arsenal finishing mid-table but then entering the UEFA cup quilifying stages by finishing 5th in the 95/96 season. Two swift exits from the FA Cup to lower league opposition is countered by decent runs in the League Cup progress to the Quarter Finals in 94/95 and Semi Finals in 95/96. 

Make & Sponsor: Derby's kit was supplied by Puma (Japanese electronics manufacturer) sponsored them. This is probably one of the most accurate kits Corinthian produced aside from the fact that the red they used had more of an orange tint to it. The shorts would have been better represented if two fine vertical strips of red ran parallel to each other rather than just one thick vertical line. Aside from this, there really isn't much Corinthian got wrong. Yellow was the tampo print colour chosen for the badge, a metallic gold like that of the French national squad badge would have also been quite a nice touch.
Rating: 9/10

Pack Releases:

Single Blisters: All 8 players were available via single blister purchase

4 Packs:

12 Pack:
N/A