The manager who sent his apology to Arsene Wenger by horse

This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day  files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.

Here are the stories from this day in history…  Our headline story comes from 3 January 1999.


3 January 1911: Winston Churchill the home secretary took the unprecedented step (one which has since never been repeated) of personally leading the Metropolitan Police in action against a criminal gang – in this case a group of Latvian anarchists who were trapped in a house in Sidney Street in the East End of London following a jewel robbery.

3 January 1913: Ralph James Evans Birkett was born in Dartmouth, Devon, (or according to other sources Newton Abbot, or Ellacombe Torquay neither of which are far away) on 3 January 1913 (or 9 Jan in other sources).  He joined Arsenal in 1933 for £1518 and was one of Chapman’s last signings.

3 January 1925: A 1-2 away defeat to Liverpool starts a run of 6 consecutive defeats during which Arsenal scored just two goals.  It was the run which finally ensured that Leslie Knighton would be replaced by Herbert Chapman as manager.

3 January 1934: Despite feeling unwell Herbert Chapman went to watch the Arsenal “A” team.   Mr Chapman was warned to take it easy, but he refused, and tragically died from pneumonia on January 6, aged 55.

3 January 1951: Having been rejected by Wolverhampton Dennis Evans was signed by Arsenal for £1500.   He subsequently played over 200 games for Arsenal – his only club.

3 January 1977: Alan Hudson, the man who quite amazingly gave Stoke City creativity, made his debut with Arsenal in a 1-1 draw with Leeds in front of 44,090 spectators.

3 January 1981: Everton 2 Arsenal 0.  After 3 consecutive FA Cup finals, Arsenal went out in the third round.  The same happened in 1982 (a 3rd round defeat to Tottenham), and Arsenal did not reach another cup final until 1993.

3 January 1994: Arsenal 0 QPR 0.  The start of a five match sequence of drawn games.  Two were goalless, three were 1-1.  This was the second sequence of draws this season – in October Arsenal had played four consecutive goalless games.

3 January 1998: Arsenal 0 Port Vale 0 (FA Cup round 3 – the first cup game of the second Double.)   The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

3 January 1999: Sir Alex Ferguson’s notorious speech published in Sunday Times in which he claimed Arsenal were responsible for numerous fights on the pitch in what was the most blatant piece of public ref-fixing seen thus far.  Ferguson claimed he then apologised, but Arsène Wenger said, “If he sent an apology it must have been by horse”.

3 January 2011: Aaron Ramsey’s loan with Nottingham Forest which aimed to help him recover after his horrific injury was completed successfully.

 


“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are both available on Kindle, and we have a small number of copies of the printed edition available at £10 each.   Details are here.


 

The latest posts from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal

Arsenal in March 1919: the London Victory Cup and its consequences

Yesterday’s anniversaries: 

Arsenal manager charged with running an illegal lottery

What’s on the Arsenal History Society site

An index to the various series that contain over 1,700 articles on this site concerning the history of Arsenal appears on our home page.  Our current series is “Henry Norris at the Arsenal”

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