Thumping Everton 6-1 away. Twice. What an anniversary

Today – September 6 – is a day of anniversaries.  You will know that, I’m sure.  On this date we had the First match at Highbury 1913.  In fact so important is the date in Arsenal’s history there are two more articles here just on that date: The Day it Began and Season Ticket Prices  

But 6 September deserves another recollection.  Because on that day in 1958 we beat Everton 6-1 away for the first time.  And I say for the first time, because we did exactly the same thing again on 15 August 2009.  Today I’d like to write a few words about both games.

1958/9 was the first season with George Swindin in charge, and it was by far his best season – we came third in the league – although that figure hides the fact that we were 11 points behind the champions: Wolverhampton W.  Everton came 16th and were no more likely to be relegated than we were to win the league.

The Everton away match was our fifth of the season, and we won two and lost two of the openers.  But we had already knocked up a 5-1 victory at home to Leicester.  Our team on the day was

Kelsey

Wills         Dodgin       Evans

Ward                          Docherty

Clapton Groves Herd Bloomfield Nutt

After this game we found ourselves 8th in the league.  However we also scored a 6-1 win in the next match, at home to Bolton and that took us up to 3rd.  Things looked good for the new manager – especially when in the following match we beat Tottenham 3-1 and went top.

Everton however were in a very different position, losing all of their first six matches and being firmly rooted to the bottom of the league – a position they kept until October.

Letting in six wasn’t their worst defeat however.  Tottenham beat them 10-4 at the Lane in October.

Arsenal however were also not averse to letting in six that year, being beaten 6-3 away by Luton and 6-1 away by Wolverhampton.   What really did for us that year was that after a run from December to February in which we won six, drew two and lost none, we went for seven games without another win.

As for the second 6-1 on 15 August 2009 I have a special reason to remember that since on Untold I was sold bold as to make a prediction that Arsenal would win 7-1.  And I will never forget that with 3 minutes to go, and the score 6-1 Ramsey had the most glorious obvious chance to score and he blasted it wide.

This was the first match of the season, in which Arsenal came 3rd and Everton 8th.  Everton had no other disasters that season – and in fact only let three goals in four times during the rest of the campaign.

Our results were more erratic.  We won the next game at home to Portsmouth 4-1, but then lost two, before going on a four match winning run.  We only got six in the league once more – against Blackburn – but I remember that game too, because I was sitting straight behind the Sky commentators and letting them know my views on the match throughout.  I watched a recording of the game later, but sadly they took no notice of me.

So there it is – 6-1 away to Everton.  Twice, with the first of these being on the same day of the year as our very first match at Highbury.  Happy birthday Arsenal.

 The club that changed football

Making the Arsenal

——————

• September 1970.  Arsenal 2 Tottenham 0.  What next?
• David Jack, sublime genius
• 2nd September 1912: Looking back to the AGM and the opening fixture
• 2nd September 1893: Woolwich Arsenal’s first ever league game
• How the boo-boys of the 1930s almost destroyed a wonderful player
• Remember transfer deadline day in 2011.  5 signings in one day

The main series: 

• Islington 100: celebrating 100 years of Arsenal in Islington
• Arsenal’s Anniversaries
• The Managers index