This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.
You might also enjoy our new feature on the home page: the most popular articles on this site in the past week.
Here are the stories from this day in history… The answer to our question is with the anniversary of 8 January 1999.
8 January 1887: Royal Arsenal (as opposed to Dial Square FC) played their first game – against Erith on Plumstead Common. Arsenal won 6-1, part of an opening sequence of three matches in which the club scored 23 goals. See also here.
8 January 1910: Sheffield United 2 Woolwich Arsenal 0. Arsenal’s disastrous run continued amidst financial rumours, which took the club to the edge of bankruptcy. Rescue however was on hand in the shape of Henry Norris, later in the year.
8 January 1916: Arsenal 4 Croydon Common 2. The game showed that the Common, continued to play during the war. But it was the only Southern League club not to continue after this season, and thereafter several Common players turned out for Arsenal, eventually transferring to Arsenal in 1919. .
8 January 1921: George Grant, the alleged “Chinese international” having played In 57 times and scored four goals.for Woolwich Arsenal, The Arsenal and Arsenal, now played against Arsenal in the FA Cup. It ended QPR 2 Arsenal 0.
8 January 1927: Sheffield U 2 Arsenal 3 as Arsenal started the journey to their first FA Cup final. Prior to the arrival of Herbert Chapman, Arsenal had reached the cup semi-final twice – in 1906 and 1907, but had lost both times.
8 January 1949: Arsenal 3 Tottenham 0 in FA Cup round 3. It was the first FA Cup match between the two. McPherson, Roper and Lishman scored. It was the first time in four seasons Arsenal had made it past the third round.
8 January 1957: Don Roper returned to Southampton after 10 glorious years at Arsenal, but his return ended in a dispute that soured relations with the club for the rest of his life.
8 January 1962: David Court signed as a professional. He returned to Arsenal as head of youth development and became the last member of the Swindin era at the club.
8 January 1972: Stoke City 0 Arsenal 0, in front of a typical Stoke crowd of just 18,965. Alan Ball failed again to find his way into the game and the travelling fans began to show a little impatience with their new star. He did not help his cause when, having one of the best chances of the game, (as he received Armstrong’s centre on the far post) he then missed the goal utterly.
8 January 1980: Arsenal 2 Cardiff 1, FA Cup 3rd round replay, part of another adventure that ended at Wembley. Sunderland got both goals after a 0-0 draw, meaning that Arsenal had now gone 13 FA Cup games without defeat.
8 January 1999: Jermaine Pennant joined Arsenal from Notts C for £2m. Although highly talented, he was beset with personal problems, and only played 11 times for Arsenal, but did get a hat trick in the first game of the 49 unbeaten run.
“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are both available on Kindle, and we have a small number of copies of the printed edition available at £10 each. Details are here.
The latest posts from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal
May 1919: war football ends and the wonderful Alf Baker is signed
Yesterday’s anniversaries:
Lauren dropped, Cygan recalled. Just another game in the unbeaten season.
What’s on the Arsenal History Society site
An index to the various series that contain over 1,700 articles on this site concerning the history of Arsenal appears on our home page. Our current series is “Henry Norris at the Arsenal”
