Away colours
Gold in a strange season
In 2015–16 Arsenal wore gold and navy away from home while Leicester City rewrote the rules of English football. The shirt is a souvenir of a season that could have been.
2015–16 · The Emirates Age · 5 minute read
Not quite yellow
Arsenal's away shirts have often been yellow, and yellow has served the club brilliantly. Gold is a cousin, but a different personality: warmer, more decorative, a colour that suggests trophies rather than sunshine. Puma's 2015–16 away shirt leaned into that, pairing gold with deep navy. On television, under floodlights, it glowed.
The year everything was possible
This was the season when the usual giants stumbled. Chelsea, the reigning champions, collapsed. Manchester United and Manchester City were inconsistent. Arsenal, with Mesut Özil producing assist after assist, sat near the top for long spells and genuinely looked like title contenders. Özil finished the league season with nineteen assists, one short of the record at the time. Supporters dared to dream.
And then Leicester
The title went instead to Leicester City, whose story became one of the great sporting fairy tales. Arsenal actually beat Leicester home and away that season, but they dropped too many points elsewhere. They finished second, overtaking Tottenham on the final day, which offered some consolation. Second place, in the most open season for a generation, still felt like a missed chance.
Why it still matters
Shirts from near-miss seasons have their own appeal. They are bittersweet objects, reminders of a spring when it all seemed close. The gold away shirt is also simply beautiful, and it has aged better than many kits of the period. That combination of looks and story is why it shows up regularly in collectors' top tens.
Buying one today
Puma shirts of this era are relatively easy to find, which means fakes are common too. Check the crest construction, the inner neck labels and the sponsor print. An Özil 11 printing is the obvious choice for this season; ask for close photographs of the letters to make sure they match the official style.