In the “Whatever happened to” series, which is written to coincide with an anniversary, we are often dealing with players who simply didn’t make it at Arsenal, or simply didn’t make it at all.
And Luke Ayling has the look of one of these players having never played for Arsenal. But for him, his first loan period was the magic that unlocked the treasure chest – for in 2010 he went on loan to Yeovil. They then signed him and he played 162 games for Yeovil. After that it was 80 games for Bristol City and then in 2016 he signed for Leeds United for whom he has played 135 league games since 2016.
17 March 1888: Royal Arsenal 5 Ascham 0. Part of the 11 match unbeaten run at the end of season 2 during which Royal Arsenal scored 43 goals. The Ascham club no longer exists but was probably in Walthamstow.
17 March 1894: Arsenal 2 Millwall Athletic 2. After joining the league Arsenal continued the money spinning local derbies with Millwall. This game attracted 6000, the return match in April got a crowd of 10,000.
17 March 1900: Last appearance of Roger Ord. He stayed with Arsenal until September at which time he was transferred to Luton. As a keeper he kept 29 clean sheets out of his 99 games, a ratio of 3.41 percent which makes him the 16th highest on the Arsenal clean sheets list.
17 March 1909: First game for Matthew Thompson. He had signed from Maryhill FC in Glasgow the previous summer. He continued to play for the club and played at Highbury in the first season, after which he was transferred to Swindon Town.
17 March 1917: Arsenal’s best run of the season came to an end with defeat at Crystal Palace by 1-0 with just 2500 in the crowd.
17 March 1923: Bob John made his international debut and went on to play for Wales 15 times between 1923 and 1937.
17 March 1928: Len Thompson was sold to Arsenal for £4000. He made his Arsenal debut in a 2–0 defeat by Portsmouth on 28 March 1928,
17 March 1949: Pat Rice born. He went on to make 391 league starts across a 13 season career, became temporary manager while waiting for Arsène Wenger to arrive from Japan, and then Arsène Wenger’s long term assistant.
17 March 1958: Arsenal won the London Challenge Cup beating West Ham Utd 3-1. It was one of 16 times Arsenal reached the final, and one off 11 times Arsenal won it.
17 March 1964: Lee Dixon born. He started life in football in 1980 with Burnley, before joining Chester City, then Bury and then Stoke City – none of whom were first division clubs. He became part of one of the most famous defences in the history of English football between 1987 and 2000.
17 March 1973: Chelsea 2 Arsenal 2 (FA Cup 6th round). Ball and George scored, and Arsenal won the replay 2-1.
17 March 1979: Ipswich 2 Arsenal 0 made it three defeats in the last four. Despite winning the FA Cup this season the league form remained disappointing in the latter part of the campaign.
17 March 1998: WHU 1 Arsenal 1, FA Cup 6 Replay. Anelka scored in normal time and Arsenal won on penalties on the way to the second double. The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.
17 March 2002 Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2. Part of a run of 13 consecutive wins. League match 30 of the 3rd Double season. Edu got the first and Pires (easily the man of the match) got the second before Villa’s late consolation goal.
17 March 2009: Arsenal 2 Hull 1 FA Cup 6th round. Hull staff made their wild allegations about assault and of Fabregas being wrongly dressed, after the game. All allegations were thrown out and the Hull manager later lost his job.
17 March 2009: Highbury Square awarded a prize for architectural excellence. The citation noted it preserved the nature and memory of the original arena while developing a new residential typology which contributes to the rich, local grain of streets, avenues and squares.
17 March 2010: Luke Ayling loaned to Yeovil. He was later transferred there and played 162 league games for them before moving on to Bristol City in 2014.
17 March 2010: Following a run of injuries to its keepers, Jens Lehmann re-signed by Arsenal, having been training at the club as he prepared for his coaching qualifications.
17 March 2015: Monaco 0 Arsenal 2. Although Monaco went through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League it was a close thing. Giroud and Ramsey scored and one more goal would have taken Arsenal through.
