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Below are the Arsenal (and for historical context, 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” on the right of the screen.
The index to the current historical series on this site can be found at Henry Norris at the Arsenal. An index of all our main series can be found on the home page.
The anniversary files: our headline today comes from 1978. Seven new anniversaries added since this day last year.
21 October 1893: Arsenal lost 1-4 to Small Heath. It was the second in a run of three games in which they conceded 15 goals.
21 October 1912: Athletic News announced, wrongly, that Arsenal would move to Harringey Park the following summer. The most likely explanation was that Henry Norris had been spotted as he toured the area looking at possible sites although it is quite possible that Norris had his car parked at the site, having had his driver drop him off in Highbury.
21 October 1922: Arsenal were away to Newcastle who were 10th (Arsenal 18th) but with only one point between them. With Milne and Roe making their first appearances of the season and Hopkins his second, Arsenal got a 1-1 draw, Hopkins getting the goal.
21 October 1925: John Barley signed for Arsenal. He never really made progress at Highbury and on 3 May 1929 transferred to Reading after just eight first team games with Arsenal.
21 October 1939: Arsenal beat Charlton 8-4 in the wartime League south “A”.
21 October 1961: Arsenal beat Manchester United 5-1; biggest win over Man U at Highbury. Skirton (2) Eastham, Barnwell, Ward got the goals in front of 54,099
21 October 1967: Ian Ure won his final Scotland cap. He played 11 times for Scotland and four times for the Scottish League.
21 October 1970: Sturm Graz 1 Arsenal 0. With Arsenal playing in four competitions and using the first team throughout the media were full of the “too many games,” view and their immediate demise was predicted. Curiously it didn’t happen like that.
21 October 1972: Although Bob Wilson was now fit after his long lay off, he didn’t come straight into the Arsenal team, but had to wait for five more games before regaining his place. The first of these “Wilson in waiting” games ended Crystal Palace 2 Arsenal 3. Playing without Ball, Arsenal moved into an end-to-end approach, attacking in numbers with the ball, withdrawing in numbers when the ball was lost.
21 October 1978: Arsenal 1 Southampton 0, Brady got the goal. With just one win in the last four this was a relief, but better it was the start of a 10 match unbeaten run including seven wins ending with Tottenham 0 Arsenal 5 when Brady scored a goal still celebrated. See also here
21 October 1998. Arsenal drew 1-1 with Dynamo Kiev with the club’s 7th highest home crowd of all time. Bergkamp got the goal and Silvestre scored an own goal
21 October 2001: Death of Bertie Mee. In 1986 Bertie Mee had returned to football and become the general manager of Watford FC. He remained a director there until 1991
21 October 2008: Fenerbahçe 2 Arsenal 5. Adebayor, Walcott, Diaby, Song and Ramsey scored. It meant Arsenal had nine goals in the last two champions league games.
