The longest run in the 1st division begins by exposing corruption

Here are the Anniversaries from 30 August – part of our regular daily look at Arsenal’s history.

Our most recent article on Arsenal’s history is As the death toll mounts Arsenal keep playing: October 1914

30 August 1913: the first ever match played at the Gillespie Road ground, later renamed Highbury.  It was the third training match of the pre-season, with the previous two being played at Fulham and Millwall as the pitch was not ready.  This game was played behind closed doors, and was probably between the first team and the reserves although no exact details are available.

30 August 1919: Arsenal started the longest run in the top division in the history of English football by coincidence playing the same team that they played in their first league game.  The match was lost 0-1 to Newcastle.  It was also the first match as manager for Leslie Knighton plus the first appearance of Alfred Baker, Henry White and Ernie Williamson.  Although Arsenal’s rise to the 1st Division is often told as being corrupt, it actually came about through revelation by Arsenal’s chairman of the match fixing of other teams and his demand for the corruption to be resolved.   More details on this will be published in the current series “Henry Norris at the Arsenal”.

30 August 1924: At the start of his last season ironically Leslie Knighton started with a winning sequence of three games – his best start ever with Arsenal – with the result  Nottingham Forest 0 Arsenal 2.  Ramsay and Woods scored in front of a 20,000 crowd.

30 August 1930: Gerrit Keyser (sometimes spelled Keizer) debut in a 4-1 away win at Blackpool.  Despite only playing in one defeat in the first 12 games of the season, he was dropped and never played for the club again.  This game was the first of five consecutive wins and a nine game unbeaten sequence.

30 August 1939 – Arsenal officially sanctioned to wear numbered shirts for the first time in a league match:  Arsenal 1 Blackburn 0 in front of a 17137 crowd.  After one more match the season was abandoned.  The club had worn numbered shirts on 25 August 1928 but had been ordered to stop by the League.

30 August 1997: Arsenal 0 Tottenham 0.  Arsenal were fifth in the table in the 5th league match of the 2nd Double season, but still undefeated.   The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

30 August 2002:  Rami Shaaban transferred to Arsenal from Djurgårdens.  He played just five league games for Arsenal before moving on to Brighton and Hove Albion.

30 August 2011: Armand Traoré joined Queens Park Rangers for £1.5m.  He had played 13 games for Arsenal, and had loan spells with Portsmouth and Juventus.

30 August 2011: Park Chu-Young joined Arsenal from Monaco for £1.8m.  He only played one league game and was soon moved onto Celta Vigo on loan.

30 August 2016: Lucas Pérez signed from Deportivo La Coruña for around £17m..

30 August 2016:  Shkodran Mustafi signed from Valencia for £35m – making him the club’s joint second most expensive player, with him commanding the same fee as Sánchez three seasons before.

30 August 2016: Calum Chambers given a season long loan with Middlesbrough, who were eventually relegated.

 



Elsewhere on this day, on 30 August 1860 the first regular railway service was established in Britain. It was also the day in 1963 that a direct telephone line was established between the White House and the Kremlin.


 

The current series from the Arsenal History Series being developed on this site is  Henry Norris at the Arsenal, covering all aspects off the life and work of the man who rescued Arsenal from extinction, secured the club’s future by moving it to Highbury, and then brought in Herbert Chapman as manager.

The previously untold tale of how it was that Norris came to choose Highbury as the suitable location for Arsenal’s new ground.

The series is being worked on daily, and the articles thus far are here.

Among the many other series we have run are…

There are details of many other series covered by this site on our home page.

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