Arsenal’s most ludicrous transfer ever, and 76 goals in 11 games.

Latest article from the current series: Henry Norris at the Arsenal

Summer 1927: Sir Henry Norris leaves the Arsenal

The next episode is being published today


Special features

Highbury: from start to end with previously unseen pictures of the end of the stadium.

Meeting a player you have admired can be such a very strange experience.: Brian Talbot comes to the Arsenal Independent Supporters AGM.

Adventurer, criminal, wife beater, drunk, reprobate; the most prolific Arsenal goal scorer of all time.


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 1896 and 1964

7 November 1896: Notts C 7 Arsenal 4.  Only 3000 witnessed Arsenal’s biggest league aggregate game thus far.  The game was part of an amazing 11 league game sequence in which 76 goals were scored – fractionally under 7 per game.  The run included the 0-8 defeat to Loughboro and two games in which Arsenal scored six.

7 November 1901: William Gooing signed from Chesterfield.  He played 25 games this season and 94 league games in all before being sold to Northampton in the 1904/5 season.

7 November 1913: Hugh McDonald sold to Fulham – possibly because Henry Norris was a director of both clubs at the time (as the rules did not prohibit this, and Norris wasn’t the only “two club” man.)  McDonald suffered from the effects of poison gas in the war, and after being a publican in the post-war period died from the after-effects of the gas in 1920.

7 November 1914: Arsenal lost 3-0 away to Birmingham in front of 15,000. The two stalwarts, wingers Rutherford and Winship, were now missing.  With Groves and Norman making their first appearances of the season the forward line posed far less threat than normal, and Birmingham were able to push their half backs and inside forwards further forward, with no fear of a counter attack.

7 November 1917: The third battle of Gaza was fought as finally the British forces captured Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.

7 November 1918: Sir Henry Norris, Arsenal chairman, was appointed Chairman of the Ministry of Labour’s Advisory Committee on demobilisation.   Throughout his time in this office he argued for pensions for all injured soldiers, but the government would not relent.

7 November 1925: Final first team game for John (Jock) Robson against Man City – the shortest ever Arsenal keeper at 5 feet 8 inches.  He played 101 times for Arsenal, including 9 games in Chapman’s first season in 1925/6,

7 November 1931: Arsenal lost to Newcastle 3-2; Parkin making a rare appearance stepping in for Jones. However both Roberts at centre half and Jones, playing at  right half, sustained injuries which totally disrupted the team. Lambert and Jack scored, but the result was a real blow to retaining the title as the club dropped to 5th in the league.

7 November 1936:  Jackie Milne started a long run of games at outside left where Arsenal had already used Beasley and Compton.   He held the position until 13 February after which he got just one more game being replaced by Dennis Compton.

7 November 1964: Geoff Strong sold to Liverpool for just £40,000 – a ludicrous transfer if ever there was one.  He had scored 69 goals in 125 league games for Arsenal, and went on to become a legend at Liverpool where he is still remembered with much affection.

7 November 1970: Blackpool 0 Arsenal 1. This was League match 16 of the first Double season and Arsenal’s fourth consecutive win, but it still left Arsenal second, one point behind Leeds.  Radford scored in a game that was part of a sequence of four consecutive scoring matches for the centre forward.

7 November 1992: The six game winning run streak from 28 September ended with a 3-0 victory over Coventry in front of 27,693..  However it was followed by eight games without a win in which Arsenal only scored three goals

7 November 2003: Arsenal youth player Marcus Artry was imprisoned for nine years for sex attacks.   He was never heard of again in football circles.

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