This week American billionaire Stan Kroenke upped his stake in the north London club to 29.9 percent, the threshold beyond which he will have to make an offer for the remaining shares.
The financial wheeling and dealing for control of the club has been going on since August 2007 when former vice-chairman David Dein sold his shares to Alisher Usmanov for 75 million pounds.
Arsenal were one of England's most traditional, conservative clubs with strong links to London's banking professions and public schools.
The club's current chairman Peter Hill-Wood is the latest incumbent of his upper-class family to head the club, while the family of director Lady Bracewell-Smith, who owns 15.9 percent of the club, has been associated with Arsenal for more than 70 years.
Hill-Wood though is now central to how the boardroom game will play out, as he is known to favour Kroenke becoming the club's new owner, rather than Uzbek-born Usmanov, who owns 25.5 per cent of the shares through his Red & White Holdings company.
Kroenke's background could hardly be more different to that of Hill-Wood, but the 62-year-old tycoon, known as "Silent Stan" is unlikely to want to bring in sweeping changes if he does assume ultimate control.
Instead he is likely to play a similar role to that of American Randy Lerner, who now owns Aston Villa and has allowed Martin O'Neill to run the playing side of the club without too much obvious upheaval.
Clearly, if he did take control of Arsenal and did start to interfere with manager Wenger's authority, he would immediately be cast into the wilderness by Arsenal's fans.
Apart from a few unhappy weeks last season when Arsenal's form faltered from its usual high standards, Wenger has had the undying devotion of the club's faithful since becoming manager in 1996.
Wenger is Arsenal's most successful manager and th
