Arsene Wenger was the longest serving manager Arsenal has ever had, with the best win record of any manager who had managed over three seasons. His final match – a win at Huddersfield was a year ago on this day.
Also interesting to note that on this day George Graham ended the season as the top scorer for Arsenal with 11 – not something we would be too happy with today.
Meanwile coming up this afternoon, another entry in our series “Looking for Arsenal players” will be published.
Below are the anniversaries. Indexes to all our anniversary files can be found in the Pages column on the right side of the page.
13 May 1910: Representatives of the Football League had a discussion about Woolwich Arsenal’s financial problems and its future at its management committee meeting.
13 May 1904: Archibald Gray joined Woolwich Arsenal from Hibernian with whom he had won the Scottish League and Cup, playing 51 league games. He played in Arsenal’s first ever first division game.
13 May 1926: To conclude Chapman’s first season as Arsenal manager the club went on a six match European tour with the first game on this day: MTK Vörös Meteor (Budapest) 2 Arsenal 2 (28,000). Brain and Lee got the goals.
13 May 1933: Eddie Hapgood made his international début. In all he played 30 times for England. See also here
13 May 1939: England played away to Italy and drew 2-2 with Male and Hapgood in the team.
13 May 1967: Sheffield W 1 Arsenal 1. George Graham got the goal – his 11th league goal of the season to make him top scorer, as Arsenal finished unbeaten in the last 12 in Mee’s first season, and ended 7th in the league.
13 May 1970: Arsenal concluded their two match post-season tour of Cyprus with 13 Appollon (Cyprus) 0 Arsenal 2 (Marinello and George getting the goals).
13 May 1991: Birth of Francis Coquelin. He played for AS du Bourny, and Stade Lavallois before moving to Arsenal in July 2008. After loan spells with Lorient and Freiburg he returned to Arsenal and after a further five match loan to Charlton became the first choice defensive midfielder and was hailed by Thierry Henry as “the police officer”. He left Arsenal in 2018.
13 May 1996: Jason Crowe joined as a trainee. He played three times as a sub in cup games before moving to Portsmouth in 1999.
13 May 2005: Just two days after beating Everton 7-0, Arsenal finished the season with a 2-1 away defeat to Birmingham to come second in the league, 12 points behind Chelsea.
13 May 2007: Portsmouth 0 Arsenal 0. The draw left Arsenal 4th in the league. A win would have taken them to third. Portsmouth finished mid-table. Seven years later they were in the fourth tier.
13 May 2012: WBA 2 Arsenal 3, and Arsenal secured Champions League football once again -for the 15th consecutive season.
13 May 2018: Huddersfield Town 0 Arsenal 1. Arsene Wenger’s last match as manager. Arsenal ended the season in sixth, 37 points behind the champions. Particularly concerning was the decline in away form in which only 4 matches were won all season.
I just hope we can go one better next season and win more away games and compete against the likes of Man City et al. And try for top position and stick it to the likes of our enemies up the road, who think they’re North London’s only team, well think again, you’re not and never will replace Arsenal.