Even Chapman couldn’t stop Arsenal being defeated by lesser teams

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The Anniversaries …

Below are the Arsenal (and for historical context, occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website.   You will also find links to the month by month listing of anniversaries in the right hand column of this page.


The big series

“Henry Norris at the Arsenal” is now complete.  The index to all the articles can be found at Henry Norris at the Arsenal.   We are now  preparing a more concise edition for publication as a book.

Arsenal in the 1930s: the complete history.  The most detailed review and analysis of Arsenal in the 1930s ever published.  The full index is here.

Arsenal in the 1970s: the complete history.  Every game reviewed and analysed.  The full index is here.


The Anniversaries for Today

Today’s headline comes from 1926.

23 January 1915:  Arsenal beat Stockport at Highbury 3-1 in front of just 6,000, showing just how far the war was disrupting the pleasure activity of the working men – even though there was still no conscription at this time.

23 January 1926: Arsenal were away to Liverpool who were 14th in the league before the game.  Chapman played his standard team but Arsenal lost 3-0, showing that in this first Chapman season although the club was much improved, it could still have sudden defeats – as happened earlier at Newcastle where Arsenal conceded seven

23 January 1932: Arsenal in the 4th round of the FA Cup, beat Plymouth Argyle who were riding high in the 2nd division (and went on to score 100 goals in the season) 4-2.  Plymouth had already beaten Manchester United 4-0 in the third round which explains the crowd of 65,386. Lambert (2), and Hulme scored, plus once again an own goal

23 January 1937: Arsenal made it nine without defeat.  Although Arsenal only lost one of the next 12 there were too many draws in the season and Arsenal finished 3rd in the league as Man City came through to win the league for the first time.  The following season Man City were relegated and Arsenal won the title for the 5th time in eight seasons.

23 January 1939: Alan Skirton born.  The announcer at one match prior to the game (before which there had been newspaper speculation that Skirton was being dropped), said,  “there is one change in the Arsenal line up from that shown in the programme.  Skirton is replaced by…. Skirton.”

23 January 1954: In a year of ups and downs Arsenal suffered 1-4 home defeat to Sunderland in front of 60,218.  It was one of ten matches during the season in which Arsenal were seen by over 60,000 despite sitting in mid-table for most of the year.

23 January 1965: Arsenal 4 Leicester 3 made it three wins in three with Radford and Baker each scoring four during January.  But Arsenal won only four more in the whole season, and ended up 13th.

23 January 1971: Portsmouth 1 Arsenal 1 (FA Cup 4th round), en route to the first Double.  The replay was on 1 February.  See Arsenal in the 70s part 3.  Storey scored with a penalty Wilson was acclaimed the hero by the Portsmouth manager.  George got his first goal since scoring in the 1-2 away defeat to Ipswich on 31 March 1970

23 January 2002: Leicester 1 Arsenal 3 – the match postponed from 1 January in  League match 23 of the third Double season.  Van Bronckhurst, Henry and Wiltord scored.

23 January 2005: Jermaine Pennant crashed his car and was charged with driving while banned, driving while drunk, driving uninsured, and giving a false name (“Ashley Cole”). He got a 90 days jail sentence, but was released after 30 days providing he wore an electronic tag – even on the pitch.

23 January 2005.  Stuart Taylor ended his 3 month loan with Leicester.  He had won a championship medal by playing as a sub in the final match of the season against Everton in 2002 with the title already won.  Richard Wright started in goal, and Taylor came on, after 85 minutes.

23 January 2006: Matt Poom joined from Sunderland as short term cover.  He made one appearance and later became Arsenal’s goalkeeper coach.

23 January 2007, Nic Anelka said that he would leave Bolton for Arsenal.  But on 30 August 2011 he signed another contract with Bolton.

23 January 2013: Arsenal 5 West Ham United 1.  Arsenal had 24 goal attempts. The match was due to be played on Boxing Day but postponed due to a tube strike.   Podolski, Giroud (2) Cazorla and Walcott got the goals.

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