Did Osama bin Laden support, the head of Al Qaeda, actually support Arsenal?
Bin Laden is most well known for his role in masterminding the September 11 attacks, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 and prompted the United States to initiate the War on Terror.
But did he actually attend some games at the Clock End at Highbury? Well, so the story goes, including a game on this day in 1993 which led to a song about him being sung on the terraces.
Here are the anniversaries.
15 September 1890: Arthur Hutchins born. He played for Croydon Common of the Southern League before the 1st world war, a club that Henry Norris was possibly associated with. Hutchins then played as a guest for Arsenal during the war, over 100 times, after Croydon Common had ceased to play.
15 September 1894: Burton Swifts 3 Arsenal 0 with 3000 in the crowd. It meant Arsenal had played three won one and lost two in the League.
15 September 1900. James Ashcroft played on this day against Burton Swifts and in every subsequent match for four years thus creating a record in terms of the sequence of time, but not in terms of the number of games.
15 September 1913: Back in the second division Arsenal played their third game of the season, and secured their third win – beating Notts County 3-0.
15 September 1917: Arsenal played their third game of the season, and gained their third victory, this time 4-0 over the old rivals Millwall Athletic. As always there was a comparatively high crowd for this match – 11,000. And this for a wartime game.
15 September 1918: There were real signs of an end to the war as the Austrian Government sent a note to President Wilson suggesting an “unofficial” peace conference and the German Government make a peace offer to Belgium.
15 September 1922: John Elvey signed from Bolton Wanderers. He went on to play one game in the season – it was his only game for Arsenal.
15 September 1923: Arsenal 1 WBA 0; the second goal in two games for Voysey. After four straight defeats at the start of the season it was Arsenal’s second win in a 3-in-a-row run.
15 September 1930: The government announced that 90 railway stations would be closed to passengers because of the decline in the use of the railways. I imagine Sir Henry Norris was apoplectic on hearing the news – he was for years a lone advocate of the notion of subsidized train services to help the economy and encourage men to travel to find work.
15 September 1931: The Royal Navy went on strike in protest at its salary cuts.
15 September 1934: Arsenal played West Brom who in the previous five games had gained three wins, one draw and one defeat. The result was a 4-3 win to Arsenal. With Sheffield Wednesday losing and Preston and Sunderland both drawing the win helped Arsenal edge up the table to 4th
15 September 1953: Chelsea 0 Arsenal 2. Having won the league the previous season Arsenal had to wait until this, the 9th match of the campaign for their first win, by which time they were bottom of the league. Both goals came from Lishman.
15 September 1971: Arsenal’s first European Cup game: Stromsgodset IF 1 Arsenal 3. Simpson, Marinello and Kelly scored in Norway in front of 23,000.
15 September 1973: A 0-4 against Norwich was the biggest away win of the season in a campaign in which there was nothing much else to celebrate.
15 September 1979: Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 2-0 at Highbury, in front of 30,341. Brady was in the mood to be brilliant, while Sunderland and Stapleton looked as if they had been playing together as strikers for ever.
15 September 1993: Odense 1 Arsenal 2 in the Cup Winners’ Cup as Arsenal progressed towards victory in the competition. Wright and Merson scored with Keown conceding an own goal. This is one of the games which it was reported Osama bin Laden attended at the Clock End. There are reports of him buying a replica shirt for one of his sons in the club shop at Highbury.
15 September 1994: Omoria (Nicosia) 1 Arsenal 3 at start of CWC campaign towards the second consecutive final and the start of the Ian Wright scoring run of 12 consecutive games. Merson got the other two goals.
15 September 1997: Paul Shaw transferred to Millwall after 12 league games and 2 goals over six years, including loan spells with Burnley, Cardiff and Peterborough. He continued playing until 2011, amassing over 400 league games and scoring 106 goals.
15 September 2001: Arsenal beat Fulham away 3-1 to go top of the league. League match 5 of the third Double season. Ljungberg, Henry and Bergkamp scored to make it three wins, one draw and one defeat thus far.
15 September 2002: Arsène Wenger proclaimed, “We know we can win the league. We know we can be stronger. At this stage last season we were not as good as we are now.”
15 September 2007: A 3-1 win at Tottenham made it four wins and one draw in the first five games. Adebayor (2) and Fabregas scored, in a run of seven consecutive games in London, all of which were won.
15 September 2010: Arsenal beat Braga 6-0, launching a new season in the Champions League. Fabregas (2), Arshavin, Chamakh, and Vela (2) scored.
15 September 2010: Vladimir Petrović was named the new head coach of Serbia. In June 2009, Vladimir Petrović who had played for Arsenal in 1982/3 returned to Red Star Belgrade as manager but was sacked a year later and became manager of Romanian club FC Politehnica Timişoara. Now he moved on again. In all he managed 14 clubs and one country (China) before seeming to retire in 2015.
15 September 2012: After two goalless draws and a 2-0 win at Liverpool Arsenal beat Southampton 6-1. Podolski, Gervinho (2), Walcott and two own goals.