“Everton were so ordinary they made Arsenal look average.” What year was that?

Below are the anniversaries of Arsenal for 10 April

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The latest article on Henry Norris at the Arsenal is…

Man U take over from Arsenal at the bottom of the League

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The current series: 

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, our current series of articles is on Henry Norris at the Arsenal.  The series is being worked on daily, and the articles thus far are here.

A list of many of our major series (including complete detailed reviews of Arsenal in the 30s and Arsenal in the 70s, and links to the anniversaries throughout the year, is given on the AISA Arsenal History Society home page.

Here are the anniversaries.

10 April 1897: Arsenal 1 Arsenal Reserves 2.  Such games (often called Reds v Blues) were common for many years at the start of the season, and occasionally near the end of the season, and the reserves were not supposed to win!

10 April 1903. For some reason Arsenal liked being in Chesterfield.  On this day they beat Chesterfield Town 3-0 and then on 25 April the result was Chesterfield Municipal 0 Arsenal 1 (Shanks).  

10 April 1915: Arsenal beat Bury 3-1 with 12,000 at Highbury: the first time that Arsenal had won two games in a row since February 6.  The day saw the start of a new London-wide recruitment campaign in football grounds to convince yet more young men to sign up.

10 April 1919: The Committee of the London Combination ordered the game between Fulham and Arsenal to be replayed on this day.  However a set of appeals and counter appeals resulted in a final Fulham appeal being heard without Henry Norris being told about it – which resulted in him leaving Fulham for good.

10 April 1919: Leslie Knighton joined Arsenal as the club’s first post-war manager.  Towards the end of his tenure Arsenal struggled against relegation and he was relieved of his duties in 1925 to be replaced by Chapman.  His autobiography and Sunday newspaper “revelations” written 20 years later made numerous serious allegations against Henry Norris, which have since been shown to be unfounded.

10 April 1920: Arsenal beat title chasing Burnley 2-0 meaning that WBA had won the league for the first, and as it turned out only, time.   20,000 turned up to Highbury to see Bradshaw and Pagnam get the goals. Arsenal went up to 12th and had seven points and nine teams separating them from Blackburn in 21st.

10 April 1925  Sunderland 2 Arsenal 1.  First game for Bill Seddon.  He was signed 18 months before from Gillingham and made 69 league appearances.  He got his first run in the side in November.

10 April 1936: Arsenal beat West Brom 4-0 after seven games without a win.   It was the first home win since 1 February and only the second since beating Middlesbrough on 9 December.

10 April 1937: Man City v Arsenal – the biggest game of the season.  City were one point behind with one game in hand. Herbie Roberts was forced to drop out to be replaced by the inexperienced Bernard Joy at centre half and City won 2-0, to go top of the league in front of  75,000.

10 April 1939: George Curtis played his first match for Arsenal having served his apprenticeship with Margate, and left after 11 league games in 1946/7.  He went on to become manager of numerous clubs and the Norwegian team. He died in 2004.

10 April 1948:  Arsenal won the First Division Championship by drawing with Huddersfield 1-1 with four games to go.  Arsenal lost one and drew two of the remaining games before winning the final match 8-0.

10 April 1954: Final appearance for Joe Mercer, aged 39.  He won the league twice with Arsenal, and was also Footballer of the Year in 1950.  And yet Everton refused to pay for an operation he need, Villa sacked him after he had a minor stroke, Manchester City sacked him appallingly after he brought them major triumphs… Only Arsenal it seems, offered him any sense of class and stability.

10 April 1954: League debut for Derek Tapscott Arsenal 3 Liverpool 0 – with Tapscott scoring two of the goals.  He had come from Barry Town on 1 October 1953 and went on to play 119 times for Arsenal.

10 April 1971: Southampton 1 Arsenal 2.  League match 35 of the first Double.  Arsenal were now three points behind Leeds with two games in hand.  Radford and McLintock scored.

10 April 1976: Everton 0 Arsenal 0, 20,774 in the crowd.  The Daily Mirror said that Everton were so uninspired and ordinary that they managed to make Arsenal look average, and summarised the game as “90 of the dreariest minutes imaginable.”  

10 April 1979: Arsenal 1 Tottenham 0.  53,896 saw Stapleton score. But in the remaining seven matches Arsenal had only one more win… 5-2 against Chelsea.

10 April 2011: Jens Lehmann played against Blackpool after Almunia was injured in the warm up.  It was his 200th Arsenal game, and he had been brought in as an emergency sub while doing his coaching badges.

10 April 2017: Arsenal lost 3-0 away to Crystal Palace making the record  just two wins and one draw in the last seven league games.

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