George Armstrong, who died on this day in 2000, was one of the most popular Arsenal players of all time, both for his skill and ability, and his endless willingness to run and chase, no matter how much the game was going against Arsenal.
George spent 15 seasons at Arsenal and played 621 games for the first team, including 500 in the league – a total that has only been overtaken by David O’Leary and Tony Adams.
However he failed to get recognition as an England player because of the utter refusal of the England manager at the time to utilise out and out wingers.
Following his retirement as a player Georgie, as I recall we always seemed to call him, moved into coaching working with Fulham and Aston Villa among others, as well as trying his hand at management in Norway and Kuwait. With the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq he returned to England and became reserve team coach, most notably overseeing the development of Ray Parlour into a first team player who was a major part of the early Arsene Wenger teams.
In 2000, George was taken ill while taking an Arsenal training session, and died the next day. One of the pitches at the training ground bears his name in memory of a great servant of the club.
Here are the anniversaries.
November 1912 (exact day unknown). Henry Norris, having explored various sites in North London, took the decision to move Arsenal from Plumstead to Highbury and negotiated a lease of the playing fields of a religious foundation near Highbury Hill station.
1 November 1890: Royal Arsenal 2 South Shore 2. South Shore FC competed in the FA Cup during the 1880s and 1890s before merging into Blackpool FC in 1899.
1 November 1913: Jock Rutherford’s league debut. However at the start of the season he fell into dispute with Newcastle over wages and was sold to Woolwich Arsenal for £800 – a great coup for Arsenal, and undoubtedly aided by the fact that the club had attracted huge publicity by just moving into its new Gillespie Road ground.
1 November 1913: Arsenal lost Angus McKinnon to injury and he did not come back as a regular player until well into the new year. Immediately Arsenal’s results went into decline, winning just two of the next six.
1 November 1914: The war had reached the eastern Pacific where a Royal Navy squadron was defeated by superior German forces. It was the first British naval defeat of the war, losing two ships.
1 November 1919: Voting for local councils, which had been postponed since 1915 due to the war now took place. Sir Henry Norris stood down in Fulham having become the longest serving London mayor of all time (a record that still holds). But with him gone the Conservative vote collapsed, as Labour went from zero to 24 councillors becoming the main party in the Borough.
1 November 1930: For the Huddersfield v Arsenal game goalkeeper Keyser was dropped after playing the opening 12 games of the season. Suspicions about his regular desire to fly back to the Netherlands and suggestions that he was involved in smuggling were raised and his subsequent life also raises such issues. Bill Harper returned to Arsenal and took over in goal.
1 November 1936: Racing Club de Paris 0 Arsenal 5. One of a series of matches initiated by Herbert Chapman and the president of Racing taking place as close to Armistice Day as possible each year. The idea for the game may have emerged after Chapman and others heard about the Coupe des Nations which was held in 1930 – and played between the champions of ten countries.
1 November 1948: Racing Club de Paris 3 Arsenal 3. This year Bernard Levy added a little extra spice to the fixture by putting up a cup which would be awarded to either team if it won three of the contests in a row.
1 November 1949: Racing Club de Paris 1 Arsenal 2.
1 November 1955: John Matthews born. He joined Arsenal as an apprentice in 1971 turning professional in 1973. He made his league début in the opening match of the 1974/5 season – a 1-0 away win against Leicester.
1 November 1960: Antwerp United 2 Arsenal 2. The Antwerp team also known as Antwerp Entente played exhibition games and was formed by the best players of the 3 big teams in Antwerp, playing in the stadium of Antwerp FC.
1 November 1969: Crystal Palace 1 Arsenal 5. Arsenal only scored more than three goals twice in the league this season (the second being the following saturday 4-0 v Derby) and ended up 12th – the worst since 1966 when the club finished 14th.
1 November 1975: Newcastle United 2 Arsenal 0, with 32,824 at St James Pk. Arsenal had yet to record consecutive wins in the League and only one player stood out on the Arsenal team: Liam Brady, who looked as if he might as well have been playing on his own. Arsenal hardly had a shot on target.
1 November 1982: Barnet 2 Arsenal 4, Richie Powling Testimonial. He had made 50 league starts for Arsenal and appeared five times as a sub between 1973 and 1978.
1 November 1983: Tony Adams first team debut in a testimonial v Chelsea. He had signed as a schoolboy in 1980.
1 November 1996: David Hillier transferred to Portsmouth for £250,000. He started 82 league games for Arsenal and came on 22 times as a sub.
1 November 1997: Derby 3 Arsenal 0, Wright missed a penalty, as Arsenal slipped to their second defeat of the season. 13th league game of the 2nd Double Season The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.
1 November 2000: George Armstrong died after suffering a brain haemorrhage during a training session. He made 621 first team appearances, coached the Kuwait national side, and was then appointed Arsenal reserve coach by George Graham.
1 November 2000: Lee Conoville’s first and last appearance, against Ipswich Town. After a loan spell with Northampton he moved to Torquay where he played 112 league games, later playing for Notts County.
1 November 2003: Leeds 1 Arsenal 4. The 11th league match of the Unbeaten season. Henry got two, Pires one and Gilberto Silva finished it off on 50 minutes.
1 November 2010: Jack Wilshere signed a new “long-term” deal with Arsenal. Jack came up through the youth academy and made his first team debut in 2008, becoming Arsenal’s youngest ever league debutant at the age of 16 years, 256 days
1 November 2016: Arsenal played away to Ludogorets Razgrad in the Champions League, the home team taking a shock 2–0 lead early on, Arsenal eventually came back with goals through Granit Xhaka, Olivier Giroud and a late Mesut Özil goal to win 3–2 and qualify for the knockout stages
