Below I have selected about 30 Aston Villa related events from history – mostly matches between Arsenal and Aston Villa, but also including a couple of introductory notes that I think are of historical interest.
Hope you find it fun.
Tony.
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2 March 1888: Aston Villa write to five other clubs to propose the setting up of a Football League – which Arsenal eventually joined in 1893.
8 September 1888: The first Football League games were played – although without complete agreement on how the League table would be constructed. The first ever goal was an own goal by Aston Villa defender Gershom Cox.
13 March 1893: Arsenal prepared for entry to the Football League by playing friendlies against league clubs throughout this period. On this day it was Arsenal 0 Aston Villa 1
7 December 1896, Arsenal 1 Aston villa 3; benefit match for Joe Powell’s family after he died having been injured playing for Arsenal against Kettering
13 April 1906: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 1. The match was played on Good Friday and resulted in the first 30,000 crowd for a league game at the Manor Ground
11 April 1910: Arsenal beat champions Aston Villa 1-0, and protests were heard as Villa put out a reserve side. It was Arsenal’s final win of the season, but still enough to avoid relegation, Arsenal coming 18th out of 20.
24 January 1920: Arsenal v Aston Villa attracted 55,000 to Highbury., the highest crowd thus far for a match at the stadium.
24 February 1926. Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 0 in front of 71446 in the FA Cup. It was the biggest crowd thus far at Highbury
8 November 1930: Arsenal 5 Aston V 2. The first of nine games during the season where Arsenal score five or more.
14 March 1931: Aston Villa 5 Arsenal 1. Arsenal scored five or more goals nine times in the season, but let in five just this once. It was the only defeat in the last 19 games of the season.
1 April 1933: Joe Hulme got his 9th and last England cap, although even without him Arsenal still beat Aston Villa 5-0.
10 March 1934: Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 2. Shaw’s team went on their second winning run – this lasting seven games as Arsenal moved towards their second successive championship.
14 December 1935: Ted Drake scores seven in the 7-1 away win against Aston Villa. An 8th goal by Drake was controversially disallowed by the ref.
18 April 1936: Arsenal 1 Aston Villa 0. It was Arsenal’s only win in the last six games of the season and one of only two in the last 14 as the 3 times champions fall from grace.
5 January 1952: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 1. Start of ten match unbeaten run
12 March 1955: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 0. Start of 7 match winning run in which Arsenal let in only one goal
4 March 1961: Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 2. The first of six consecutive draws – Arsenal’s longest drawing run in the league.
31 March 1962: Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 5. The only other time that season Arsenal scored four that season was in a 4-4 draw with Leicester.
12 March 1983: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 0. FA Cup 6. Woodcock and Petrovic scored to take Arsenal through.
23 April 1994: Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2. Wright scored two goals to end the season with 23 league goals, but with no chance of ending higher than fourth the season fell away in the remaining three games.
14 February 1996: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 2, league cup semi-final. Bergkamp got both goals. The second leg one week later was a goalless draw, and Arsenal went out. It was the nearest Rioch got to a trophy with Arsenal.
21 February 1996: Aston V 0 Arsenal 0; league cup semi-final 2nd leg after 2-2 at Highbury. Arsenal thus exited the cup.
27 March 1982: Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 3. (Sunderland, two from Rix and Meade). It was the second of just two wins in 11 games between February 6 and April 12.
3 September 1988: Never take too much notice of the first home game. Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 3 was forgotten after the defeat of Liverpool on the last day of the season.
3 April 1991: Arsenal 5 Aston Villa 0. David Platt took over in goal for Villa with Nigel Spink injured. Campbell (2), Smith (2) and Davis showed no mercy.
10 May 1998: With the league won on 3 May, Arsenal took life easy in the 38th and final match of the second Double season losing 1-0 to Aston Villa, knowing that the Cup Final was still to come. The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.
13 December 1998: Arsenal lost 3-2 away to table topping Aston Villa. Having taken a 2–0 lead, through two goals scored by Bergkamp, Arsenal let in three goals in the second half to lose the match. This debacle is followed by a 19 match unbeaten run, and takes Arsenal to the edge of winning the championship themselves. This was the only game in which Arsenal conceded more than one goal all season.
17 March 2002 Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2. Part of a run of 13 consecutive wins. League match 30 of the 3rd Double season.
27 August 2003: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 0. The 3rd league match of the unbeaten season
5 February 2005: After two defeats in last three games Aston V 1 Arsenal 3 stopped the rot and started a 13 match unbeaten run to the end of the season.
1 April 2006: Arsenal beat Aston Villa 5-0 with goals from Adebayor, Henry (2), Van Persie and Diaby.
14 March 2007: Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 1 made it six wins and a draw in the last seven.
1 December 2007: Aston villa 1 Arsenal 2. Arsenal 5 points clear and papers talk of another unbeaten season.
24 March 2012: Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 0. 7th consecutive win during which Arsenal scored 21 goals.
23 February 2013: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 1 made it three league wins out of three and left Arsenal four points behind Tottenham.
Tony Woodcock’s 5 goals at Villa Park not worthy of a mention?
I’m disappointed that you didn’t have Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa; last game of the season and Villa won the title despite losing to us as Liverpool also lost and both sets of fans were very happy – the year was 1983 or 4?
It is famous, not for that reason but because it was my only ever appearance on TV! Last game of the season and we could not get in to the North Bank. We ended up paying a little bit more and standing on the West Terrace. After the match, in order to get out quicker, we scaled the wall separating the stand from the seating, behind. After standing for so long my legs were barely up to the task. Match of the Day showed the game, with the Clock End camera showing the view of happy crowds. I looked for myself and saw my legs and bum dangling on the wall as I struggled to get over. Happy days.
Actually Matt I was at that game and I seem to recall a major crowd invasion of the pitch after the match. I also remember thinking, well, if we can beat the champions like that then we are certainly going to win the league next season!!!
But the date was different and score were a little different: 2 May 1981, Arsenal 2 Aston villa 0. Crowd was 57,472 the biggest of the season. Young and McDermott scored our goals and we finished the season in third, seven points behind Villa.
Villa had come 7th in the season before, and so to most people their triumph was a surprise. The following season Arsenal slipped behind Tottenham to end up 5th while Villa went down to mid table 11th.
Thanks Tony. I have had it in my mind, for I don’t know how long, that the score was 3-0 so I am grateful to be corrected. I got the year way off too. You can see why I am not an historian!