The Arsenal Anniversary Files
Latest article published by the Arsenal History Society
Managerial fantasies about West Ham, as a deep rot sets in. Arsenal in January 1925.
Below are the Arsenal (and occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the complete files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website. An index to the monthly Anniversary files can be found in the right column of this site under “Pages”
The current historical series on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal. An index of all our series can be found on the home page.
The AISA Arsenal History Society is part of the work of the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association. If you want to join AISA contact them at membership@aisa.org Alternatively you can join their new campaigns list and receive information on AISA’s work and campaigns by emailing campaigns@aisa.org
Today’s headline come from 1977.
5 August 1914: The general mobilisation of troops was ordered. The final member Henry Norris’ touring party in Holland managed to get the party’s car on a boat and returned safely to England.
5 August 1946: Ian Buchanan McPherson joined from Notts County. He had never played for County, and had been a youth player, and came in part exchange for Horace Cumner on the same day.
5 August 1961: Johnny MacLeod made his debut in friendly v Middlesbrough, having played 101 games for Hibs. He had been signed for £40,000 – a record for a winger and became a regular for the next three seasons.
5 August 1967: Continuing the tradition of playing the club that for many years owned shares in Arsenal (and at this point still did), a pre-season friendly was held between the two sides. Arsenal 3 Rangers 0.
5 August 1968: Oleg Luzhny born in Kiev. He started out playing for Torpedo Lutsk, and after a brief spell with SKA Karpaty Lviv moved to Dynamo Kyiv in 1989, captaining the side that got to the semi-finals of the 1999 Champions League, beating Real Madrid and Barcelona en route.
5 August 1977: The ever backwards looking Football League backed the Football Association’s ban on sponsors’ advertising themselves on player’s shirts. However, non-league clubs were permitted to show sponsor’s names on their players’ shirts.
5 August 1978: Having just beaten Borussia Dortmund Arsenal moved on to the Netherlands for a game against PSV on 5 August, which they lost 2-0.
5 August 1981: Last game for Sammy Nelson v AIK Stockholm. He was displaced by Kenny Sansom, and moved on to Brighton, having played 339 league games and scored 12 goals. It was a goalless draw and the start of a 4 match pre-season tour.
5 August 1983: Last game for Peter Nicholas. He had two full seasons as a regular for Arsenal but a series of injuries in the 1982/3 season reduced his potential and he left in October 1983 to re-join Crystal Palace for £150,000.
5 August 1986. David O’Leary Testimonial v Celtic. Arsenal lost 0-2. Quite remarkably he still had seven more seasons left in him at Arsenal.
5 August 1998: Nelson Vivas arrived from Lugano for £1.6m. However with Dixon and Winterburn (and later Silvinho and Luzhny) in the squad, Vivas’ main function was always to be a backup and 40 of his 69 appearances were as a substitute.
5 August 2003: In the final pre-season game Arsenal beat Rangers 3-0 at Ibrox to give 3 wins, 4 draws and 1 defeat in the series. Edu, Lauren and Campbell scored.
5 August 2011: Kyle Bartley loaned to Rangers playing 24 times for the club. During his time at Rangers the club came second in the Premier League, but were then demoted to the 3rd division as the club was wound up.
5 August 2012: A pre-season match in Abuja, Nigeria was planned then postponed, and eventually seemingly scrapped as a project.
5 August 2016: Kelechi Nwakali transferred to Arsenal from Diamond Football Academy for around £3m.
5 August 2016: Stefan O’Connor loaned to Maastricht for the season
5 August 2016: Julio Pleguezuelo loaned to Mallorca for the season.
5 August 2016: Arsenal beat Viking 8-0 in Stavanger as a warm up to the match against Manchester City in Norway two days later.
