By Tony Attwood
Total cock up of my notes this morning. Sincere apologies – note to self, try not to write an article the morning after.
I’m deleting much of this article because I got everything back to front. The bits about earlier history were right, but not about the last season at Highbury. Stupid really because I was there.
To clarify, the last season at Highbury opened on 14 August 2005 with a game against Newcastle. The first season at the Emirates opened on 19 August 2006 with a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa. What makes the whole thing even more annoying is that the anniversary file actually has the correct date for the first season at the Emirates and notes Gilberto as scoring the first goal in the first league game.
The other bits are safe to keep (I think)
THE FIRST AT HIGHBURY
It was never the plan to start life at Highbury in the second division but it was always likely that we would start with an unfinished stadium, and that was certainly what we had.
The opening game, back in the second division was on 6 September 1913 as Arsenal beat Leicester Fosse 2-1 in front of 20,000.
So first game of the first and the last season were both 2-1 victories. There is an article on the first day at Highbury here
THE END OF PLUMSTEAD
The last season at Plumstead started later, as was the habit those days, with a 0-0 draw against Manchester United in front of 10,000 at the Manor on 2 September 1912. There are details here.
More on these three seasons in contrast as we progress through the year.
And hopefully a better resume next time around.
Criously u jerk…u neva seem to amaze me….arsenal first competitive match at emirates was a one all draw against villa, while d first was dennis bergkamp’s testimonial against ajax which arsenal won two one nd it was in 2006 not in 2007….arsenal brought in tomas rosicky, william gallas, julio baptista on loan nd theo walcott….. as well…windbag….we sold ashley cole, robert pires, sol campbell……….
We sold reyes too…henry left a year later in 2007
The last season at Highbury was 2005/06, I know this as it was the year I got married and the theme of our wedding was red current. We first played at Ashburton Grove in August 2006 as attended some games before migrating to Australia in the November. So please get your dates right if you are to write for AISA.