It is often forgotten just how short the success of the 1970s double team was – and with a FA Cup semi-final defeat to Sunderland on this day in 1973, the dream of a long term dominant team was just about over. The Double and the Uefa Cup were the trophies, but there were to be no more – at least not for this team and not for this manager.
Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed football.
The paperback edition of this book has been noted as out of print for some time, but we’ve just found a couple of boxes of the book filed in the wrong place in our warehouse, so we now have some to sell. If you would like a copy of this account of Arsenal’s history which uncovered the stories of the split in the club, the attempts to destroy it, and its journey from Plumstead to Highbury.
The cost is £14.95 plus £2 postage. If you would like a copy simply email Tony@schools.co.uk with your details. I’ll acknowledge your order and confirm we have copies left, then you make the payment via Pay Pal or a bank transfer.
7 April 1900: Arsenal 5 New Brighton Tower 0. New Brighton Tower were one of the clubs created to fill a stadium (like Chelsea and Thames Association). Crowds of 4000 or less were common in the stadium that held 80,000. See also here
7 April 1902: Arsenal 2 Portsmouth 1. Southern Professional Charity Cup. Arsenal reached the semi-final but were knocked out by Tottenham.
7 April 1919: I know it’s not Arsenal but it’s important to me – on this day the Original Dixieland Jazz Band brought a completely new form of music to England. So successful were they that their three month tour was extended and extended. In the end they stayed for 15 months and transformed the entire music scene in England.
7 April 1928: Tottenham 2 Arsenal 0. A most disappointing result given that Tottenham were relegated at the end of the season. In the remaining seven games of the season Arsenal drew six and lost one.
7 April 1934: Arsenal 3 Huddersfield Town 1. With the league championship clearly between the last two teams of Chapman’s career, 55,930 packed Highbury to see Shaw’s team take a major step to the second consecutive league title.
7 April 1952: Arsenal reached the F.A. Cup Final by beating Chelsea 3-0 in the semi-final replay, at White Hart Lane. Cox got two of the goals making it five cup goals in three games.
7 April 1967: First game for Pat Rice. He could not have imagined that 50 years later he’d be parking his car below a 60,000 stadium for each home game as an honoured guest of the club.
7 April 1973: FA Cup semi-final no 12: 2-1 to Sunderland. This and coming runners up in the league was the final serious attempt of the 1971 Double side to achieve further success. A year on they were 10th in the league and out of the cup in the 4th round.
7 April 1979: Steve Brignall became the Arsenal player with the shortest ever career at the time. Liverpool 3 Arsenal 0 was his only game (as a sub) and his contract was cancelled the following December.
7 April 1980: Arsenal asked Tottenham to rearrange the derby at WHL as Arsenal had five games in 12 days, including a Cup Winners Cup match against Juventus scheduled two days after this. They declined and despite resting numerous players Arsenal won 2-1. It was also the Arsenal début for Paul Davis. He won the league, the league cup twice, plus the FA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup in a 16 year career.
7 April 1994: Death of Albert Sigurður Guðmundsson, the man who played for Arsenal and later became Icelandic Minister of Finance.
7 April 2008: Having pulled out of shareholdings with Liverpool and Man U, ITV sold its 50% shareholding in Arsenal Broadband to Stan Kroenke for £22.7m
7 April 2009: Robert Pires played for Villareal against Arsenal in the Champions League quarter final. It was a 1-1 draw.
