This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.
Today’s headline story comes in part from 1913 just a few months after Arsenal moved out of the Manor Ground in Plumstead to Highbury, it was reported engulfed in a fire. And the second part of the headline comes from 98 years later in a comment from Stan Kroenke.
Below are the Anniversaries from 1 October
Yesterday’s anniversaries are to be found at:
Our most recent article on Arsenal’s history…
Arsenal: March – May 1916. The team in decline, entry to football taxed for the first time.
The anniversaries
October 1895 (exact date unknown): Royal Ordnance Factories FC turned professional, suggesting either that the split between ROFFC and Royal Arsenal was not over professionalism, or that the management of ROFFC changed its mind, on seeing the success of Woolwich Arsenal after 1893.
1 October 1870: David Howat born in Preston. He played for Fishwick Ramblers, and Preston North End, before moving to Woolwich Arsenal for whom he played between 1889 and 1896.
1 October 1952: Arsenal and Racing Club de Paris continue their long series of friendlies. For the first time in the series Racing Club beat Arsenal 2 – 0 and perhaps because of this for only the second time the match was played in Paris in 1953.
1 October 1953: Derek Tapscott joined Arsenal from Barry Town for somewhere between £2000 and £4000 (depending on the source one reads). He had earlier had a trial with Tottenham, but was signed by Tom Whittaker after Tottenham turned him down.
1 October 1957: Ian Allinson born in Stevenage. He started out with Colchester Utd in became Young Player of the Year and a professional in October 1975. At the end of the 1976/7 season he scored the winning goal in the final game to gain promotion for the club.
1 October 1966: George Graham’s Arsenal debut and he scored – but the game finished Arsenal 2 Leicester 4.
1 October 1966: Bob McNab signed from Huddersfield. He had played for them 68 times between 1963 and 1966 before being signed by Bertie Mee in October 1966 – two months into his reign.
1 October 1969: Geoff Barnett signed from Everton for £35,000. Bob Wilson had a broken arm, and Mee was not sure about Malcolm Webster who had come up through the youth system. Webster did however make 3 appearances in 1969/70.
1 October 1994: Arsenal 1 Crystal Palace 2 left Arsenal with only two wins in the first eight league games. Even worse in five of those games Arsenal had failed to score. Arsenal were 14th, 14 points off the leaders, only 3 points off relegation in what was to be Graham’s final season as manager.
1 October 1996: Arsène Wenger officially took up duties, as Arsenal’s first non-UK manager, and rumours soon began to be circulated suggesting that he had been forced to leave his previous job because of a scandal. This eventually led to the later infamous confrontation with journalists and the “what rumours?”
1 October 1988: With Frank McLintock as part of their coaching team Millwall went top of the 1st division.
1 October 2000 Arsenal beat Man U as Henry, with his back to goal flicked the ball up before pivoting to strike the ball over Barthez. It started a five game winning run for Arsenal and was Man U’s first defeat of the season.
1 October 2016: Alan Smith’s article “My complicated relationship with Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal” in the Telegraph sought to excuse his attack in that paper on the players of his ex-club relating to the Man U game in the Invincibles season, an attack made while he was contracted to Arsenal to undertake friendly interviews with the players; an attack for which he has never felt it was right to apologise
- Arsenal day by day – over 5000 anniversaries of the club
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…
- Arsenal in the 30s
- Arsenal players in the 30s
- Arsenal in the summer
- The First League Season, including a review of each player who played in that season
- Arsenal day by day – over 5000 anniversaries of the club
- Arsenal in the 70s
There are details of many other series covered by this site on our home page.
