On this day in 1998 Freddie Ljungberg joined Arsenal as a player. He is now, of course, first team assistant to the manager and since joining from Halmstad in 1998 he has always been a crowd favourite.
He has also retained his long term willingness to relate to the fans – as when two of us spotted him last season before an under 23 game, and he most willingly came over to us and posed for photos. It isn’t that much to ask, but not every ex-player is willing to do it.
Freddie played 216 times for Arsenal and scored 46 goals before knocking up 25 games for West Ham. After that he played for Seattle Sounders, Chicago Fire, Celtic, Shimizu S-Pulse and Mumbai City, making a total of 391 appearances in his senior career. He also playd 75 times for sweden between 1998 and 2008.
His management career started in 2016 with one year with the Arsenal under 15s, before a spell as assistant coach with Wolfsburg. Last season he was in charge of our under 23s, and this season of course is assistant coach to the first team.
These have been very, very fast promotions and quite clearly he is rated by everyone as an excellent coach. Long may he stay with us.
Here are the anniversaries…
11 September 1893. The first ever league win. Woolwich Arsenal 4 Walsall Town Swifts 0; John Heath scored the first ever Arsenal hat-trick in the Football League. See also here.
11 September 1900: Jimmy Brain born. He played for Ton Pentre having worked previously as a coal miner and at the age of 23 he was sold to Arsenal.
11 September 1913: Rather curiously Arsenal played an away friendly with QPR on this day, using mostly a reserve team, which Arsenal won 2-0. This was probably part payment for the use of QPR’s ground for a practice match while Highbury was being completed.
11 September 1915: The “Group and Canvas” army recruitment scheme closed with Fulham council reporting 6210 volunteers – a far bigger number than in other council areas where the scheme had been far less effectively administered. As a result of this Henry Norris, the chairman of Arsenal, came to the notice of the authorities as an administrator for the first time.
11 September 1915: Arsenal’s second wartime league game – a 3-1 away defeat to Crystal Palace. on 11 September. Only 4000 people turned up – a sign that the wartime league would struggle to bring in the crowds.
11 September 1920: Arsenal beat Manchester City, with a very acceptable crowd of 42,000. The reports of the game noticed a general improvement in Arsenal’s play, although much of the commentary was on the fine late summer weather.
11 September 1922: Arsenal’s annual reports showed a huge drop in the amount of money owed by the club. The debt to Humphreys Ltd (the builders involved in developing Highbury) was now down to £317 from £16,000 in 1919. It was a real sign that Arsenal could become a debt free self-financing club within a year.
11 September 1929: Arsenal 3 Manchester City 2. Leonard Thompson played in this and three other games at the start of the season. Arsenal won the first three but after losing 5-2 to Aston Villa he was dropped and played just five more games before leaving the club.
11 September 1935: With Hapgood, James and Bastin missing there were worries about the day’s game but Arsenal beat Grimsby 6-0. Milne scored a hattrick, Beasley, Bowden and Drake getting the others.
11 September 1943: Alf Kirchen’s final match, played in the wartime league. In the war he joined the RAF as a physical training instructor, and played 116 wartime games for Arsenal scoring 81 goals but was injured in this game which meant he was unable to return to playing professionally after the war.
11 September 1946: John Roberts born in Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taff and played initially for Abercynon Athletic while also working as a railway fireman. He moved to Swansea Town in 1963, turned pro in 1964, gradually moving from being a forward to a centre half (number 5).
11 September 1971: Arsenal 2 Leeds 0. After three successive league defeats and one win, during which Arsenal scored just two goals, this was the match that mattered against a club that had become as big a rival to Arsenal as Tottenham.
11 September 1973: After 3 defeats and a draw, with Arsenal scoring 2 and conceding 10, Arsenal finally beat Sheffield Utd 1-0 on 11 September. The crowd was 29,434, with Kennedy getting the goal.
11 September 1976: Arsenal 2 West Ham 0. First game for Pat Howard having been signed two days before from Newcastle to cover for O’Leary and Simpson, both of whom were injured. Ross and Stapleton scored. See also here.
11 September 1979: Paul Davis’ first appearance for Arsenal, in Ted Drake’s testimonial against Fulham. It ended 2-2. See also here.
11 September 1998: Fredrik Ljungberg joined Arsenal from Halmstads BK. It was said that Arsène Wenger had never seen him play when he signed him. It seems unlikely but Ljungberg repaid the faith (if it was so) by scoring within seconds of coming on against Manchester United in his debut on 20 September 1998.
11 September 2003: 16 year old Cesc Fabregas joined Arsenal from FC Barcelona (for whom he had signed aged 10). It is said that his first coach, Señor Blai, reportedly did not select Fàbregas for matches against Real Madrid in an attempt to hide him from their scouts. The same story is told word for word about Bellerin.
11 September 2004: Arsenal won their 5th consecutive game of the season beating Fulham 3-0 away. In these five opening games Arsenal scored 3 or more each time, and scored a total of 18 goals.
11 September 2010: Arsenal continued their perfect home form beating Bolton 4-1 and making it 10 goals in two home games. Koscielny, Chamakh, Song, Vela scored.
