This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.
Below are the Anniversaries from October 5
- Our headline stories come from this day in 1923 and 1953.
Yesterday’s anniversaries are to be found at:
Our most recent article on Arsenal’s history…
Arsenal wartime league tables and player appearances: 1915/16
Coming shortly, how Tottenham came to leave White Hart Lane and play at Highbury.
Today’s anniversaries
5 October 1889: First ever FA Cup match played by Arsenal as Royal Arsenal beat Lyndhurst 11-0, although there is some debate over which Lyndhurst it was, but the club in Hampshire which is still playing, claim the honour. See also here
5 October 1896: Rushden Town 5 Woolwich Arsenal 3, United League This was Arsenal’s first season in the league, in which they generally played their first team players. They continued in the league for three years after which they moved into the Southern District Combination.
5 October 1912: After starting the season with four successive defeats Arsenal recovered with three unbeaten including this 0-0 draw with Oldham. However the relief was short lived as Arsenal did not win again until March.
5 October 1923: Albert Sigurður Guðmundsson – the Arsenal player who became Icelandic Minister of Finance, was born.
5 October 1925: The new WM plus zonal marking high speed counter attack system played for the first time in a 4-0 victory over West Ham. It was gradually refined as players were found who could exactly meet the demands of the new system
5 October 1927: Samson Haden sold to Notts County for £1350. He went on to play 289 league games for Notts C, scoring 36 goals. After that he became player manager and manager of Peterborough, but after that we lose sight of him.
5 October 1929: Cliff Bastin league debut for Arsenal in a 1-1 away draw against Everton. He went on to play 21 games in his first season, scoring seven.
5 October 1936: Gerry Ward born in Stepney. He was signed by Tom Whittaker who was convinced he had a great future at the club, and made him the youngest ever player to start a match for Arsenal.
5 October 1953: First game for Len Wills in the floodlight opening friendly at QPR which Arsenal won 3-1. He first played for Eton Manor FC, an amateur club formed by several well-to-do families to support young men and boys in the East End of London.
5 October 1954: Dynamo Moscow 0 Arsenal 5 making Arsenal the first English club to play in the Soviet Union. The attendance was 90,000
5 October 1964: Frank McLintock signed from Leicester for £80,000. He had played in two Leicester cup final sides (1961 losing to Tottenham, 1963 losing to Man U) but won the League cup final in 1964 beating Stoke over two legs.
5 October 1966: Debut for John Woodward v WHU, in the league cup. Arsenal lost 1-3 at Highbury, with David Jenkins scoring his only goal of the season. John made just two starts and came on once as a sub for Arsenal.
5 October 1970: Arsenal beat Tottenham at Highbury. Later they did it again at White Hart Lane in the last match of the season to win the league.
5 October 1974: Last game for Jeff Blockley, having played 52 league games for Arsenal. He was dropped and placed on the transfer list and sold in January 1975 to Leicester for half the fee Arsenal paid for him
5 October 2004: The name “The Emirates Stadium” was announced, with naming rights granted for 15 years alongside an eight year shirt sponsorship deal. The price was about £100m. Although the name did not leak out in advance, Arsenal did start buying web sites with EmiratesStadium in them although they forgot EmiratesStadium.info which Untold Arsenal used when it opened in 2007.
5 October 2014: Arsenal lost their first league game of the season 0-2 to Chelsea. Much was made of the fact that Arsène Wenger had not beaten José Mourinho in 12 games, and that Arsenal had dropped to 8th in the league.
On this day in 1969 the first two episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was previewed by the BBC to an audience of residents at two old people’s homes. It was perhaps to commemorate the fact that on this day in 1952 tea rationing was ended.
- 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
