Below are the anniversaries of Arsenal for 11 April
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The latest article on Henry Norris at the Arsenal is…
Arsenal in January 1922. Norris returns, progress resumes
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.
11 April 1885: Luton Town formed. They later claimed to be the first professional team in the south, but only offered professional contracts to two players. Royal Arsenal were the first club to go professional en masse in 1891.
11 April 1891: Arsenal 1 Old Carthusians 2. London Charity Cup semi-final replay. Arsenal played again in this competition in the 1960s, but by then it seems to have been a competition for the reserves.
11 April 1896: Arsenal 2 Millwall Athletic 2. 9,000 turned up for the friendly against the rivals from across the water.
11 April 1898: William Elcoat took up the post as Arsenal manager. He totally changed the team, but after one season only two of them survived in Bradshaw’s first game: Ord the goalkeeper and Dick, the centre half.
11 April 1910: Arsenal beat champions Aston Villa 1-0, and thus gave Arsenal valuable points in their battle with relegation. However Villa, having already won the league, put out a reserve side and Chelsea and Middlesbrough protested vigorously but to no avail.
11 April 1914: Leeds City 0 Arsenal 0. Henry Norris met Leeds’ manager Herbert Chapman for the second time. Leeds were wound up after the war and Chapman barred from football for life – but he later appealed and joined Huddersfield.
11 April 1919 Sir Henry Norris wrote an open letter complaining about the behaviour of the London Combination’s committee, in relation to their holding an appeal hearing without him present to represent Arsenal’s position.
11 April 1931: Arsenal beat Grimsby 0-1 away with Lambert scoring for the first time in four games. Aston Villa were at home to Sheffield United and won 4-0 leaving Arsenal 5 points clear with a better goal average at the top of the table.
11 April 1936: Last appearance for Frank “Tiger” Hill. He went on to manage five different league teams over a 20 year period post-war.
11 April 1959: Tommy Docherty gained his 25th and last Scottish cap. He played 83 league games for Arsenal between 1958 and 1961.
11 April 1961: Bob Dylan made his first live appearance. You might not be aware that on the internet there is also Untold Dylan – that gets quite a big audience too.
11 April 1962. Fulham 5 Arsenal 2. The result came just two weeks after a 4-5 home defeat to Aston Villa. During the run of six games of which these were part Skirton scored five and Strong scored six.
11 April 1964: Arsenal 0 Blackburn 0. Arsenal had brought forward their final home game in order to install undersoil heating in the summer. The matchday programme included a note saying that a meeting among London clubs had agreed to fix next season’s ground entry price at 4 shillings (20p) with an enclosure for schoolchildren added (admission 10p).
11 April 1977: Arsenal 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0. The result edged Tottenham closer to the second division and took Macdonald, who scored, a little closer to the Daily Express’ prize of £10,000 to the first player to get 30 goals in the season. He needed 8 from 7 more games.
11 April 1978: Arsenal’s hopes of a runners’ up spot dropped as relegation threatened QPR beat Arsenal 2-1. Brady got Arsenal’s goal (a penalty) right at the end.
11 April 1987: Arsenal 2 Charlton 1. Crowd: 26,111. After 10 league games without a win, during which Arsenal scored two goals, Arsenal finally got a victory. Paul Davis and Martin Hayes scored.
11 April 1992: Paul Merson got a hat-trick as Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 4-1. It was the start of a five match run to the end of the season in which Arsenal scored 15 goals.
11 April 1998: Arsenal 3 Newcastle Utd 1. Manninger’s record of 8 consecutive games without conceding ended on the 31st league game of the 2nd Double season. The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.
11 April 1999: Arsenal 0 Man U 0 FA Cup semi final. It was a pivotal moment at which point either Arsenal or Man U (or of course neither) could win the Double.
11 April 2004: Newcastle 0 Arsenal 0. The 32nd league game of the unbeaten season. It was the third of four 0-0 draws during the season.
11 April 2009: Alex Song scored his first premier league goal. Wigan 1 Arsenal 4 was Arsenal’s fifth successive win during which the club scored 16 goals, after having scored none in the previous four, and just four in the previous eight. Silvestre, Walcott and Arshavin scored the other goals – all coming in the last half hour.
11 April 2015: Burnley 0 Arsenal 1. Ramsey’s goal in 12 minutes gave Arsenal their 8th consecutive Premier League win. The unbeaten run continued for two more games.
