by Tony Attwood
There would, I imagine, be uproar of the first order with demands that the manager be sacked, for most of the players in the team never to play for Arsenal again, and for the owners to go if we lost 7-0 in any game this season, or indeed next season.
Fortunately in olden times things were different, and no such demands were made when Arsenal lost 7-0 to West Ham United on this day in 1927.
Fortunately, because the manager was Herbert Chapman, and he was in the process of putting together a team the core of which would win the league three times running, preceded with a further title, and an FA Cup. Had he been chased out of the club then it is doubtful that any other manager of similar prestige would have taken up the cause and doubtful that any title would have been forthcoming.
And of course there would have been much booing of the team. This had started already but had not reached the proportions that we hear it today with the advent of social media. Chapman had a fairly disastrous three seasons around this time but those who were rebelling focussed on getting the man who persuaded him to come to Arsenal, out of the club – a campaign that was successful.
7 March 1891. Arsenal won the London Senior Cup It was at the time the most prestigious trophy in the south of England after the FA Cup, and was Royal Arsenal’s last trophy before they became Woolwich Arsenal.
7 March 1904: Millwall 3 Arsenal 0 in the London League Premier Division. The games between the two continued to have huge local significance until Arsenal moved grounds in 1913 – by which time Millwall had moved in the other direction across the Thames to their new ground at the Den.
7 March 1908. Arsenal 0 Chelsea 0. Attendance: 30,000. The first home game ever against Chelsea in the League. Chelsea ended the season in 13th, Arsenal in 14th.
7 March 1910: Arsenal lost to Everton 0-1 as the vultures circled with the club’s financial problems becoming public knowledge. Only 6000 showed up for what was the fourth of five games without a win. See also here
7 March 1914: Arsenal played an away goalless draw with Nottingham Forest in front of 10,000, but even before this match most Arsenal fans were focussed on the next match on 14 March: the first ever London derby at Highbury.
7 March 1920: Reg Lewis born. In the 1947/8 season he played 28 games and scored 14 while Ronnie Rooke played 42 and scored 33 as Arsenal won the league..
7 March 1921: Fred Pagnam sold to Cardiff. Earlier in his career he was one of the men who blew the whistle on the Liverpool match fixing scandal of 1915, having refused to take part in the scam.
7 March 1927: West Ham 7 Arsenal 0. Chapman’s worst defeat (equal to October 23 1926) and the fourth 0-7 that Arsenal had suffered in the first division. It started a sequence of six defeats letting in 26 goals. It was a good job the anti-Arsenal fans were not on hand to demand his immediate sacking.
7 March 1928: Jimmy Brain got a hat trick to become the first man to score 100 goals for Arsenal as Arsenal beat Liverpool 6-3. Hulme, Buchan and Lambert got the other goals for Arsenal.
7 March 1931: Arsenal 0 Huddersfield 0. Final game for Alf Baker, who later in his career became a scout for the club. He played 310 games for Arsenal – his only senior club.
7 March 1953: Arsenal 0 Cardiff 1. Despite this starting a six match run without a win, Arsenal still went on to win the league on the final day of the season in a style that was repeated in 1989.
7 March 1959: Wolverhampton 6 Arsenal 1. After eight unbeaten, Arsenal started a run of seven without a win as hopes of another league title evaporated.
7 March 1964: 185th and final league match for Vic Groves as Arsenal lost 0-2 to Nottingham Forest. He was transferred to Canterbury City for whom he played nine games.
7 March 1973: Ray Parlour born. Ray joined Arsenal in 1989 as a 16 year old trainee, playing his first game on January 29 1992 He later gained the nickname the Romford Pele and later still Arsène Wenger complained that he could never understand a word he said.
7 March 1981: Last game for David Price. He played 176 games for the club and played in the 3-2 cup final win against Man U. At the start of the 1980/1 season he was replaced by John Hollins and at the end of that season sold to Crystal Palace in part exchange for Peter Nicholas.
7 March 1987: Chelsea 1 Arsenal 0. The 5th game without a win, in a run which lasted 10 games, ending finally on April 11.
7 March 2000: Stephen Hughes sold to Everton. Despite some early promise he eventually only played just 49 league games for Arsenal. But he did get a league winner’s medal.
7 March 2007: Thierry Henry’s last match before his comeback. Arsenal 1 PSV 1 in the Champions League. He played 254 league games in total and scored 174 goals. He then left for Barcelona and later NY Red Bulls before returning to Arsenal for his last four games.
7 March 2019: Rennes 3 Arsenal 1 in the Europa League. Iwobi scored for Arsenal
