Contact Arsenal History Society at Tony@schools.co.uk
- 100 Years in the First Division: the absolute complete story of Arsenal’s promotion in 1919.
- Henry Norris at the Arsenal: There is a full index to the series here.
- Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever
- Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.
You can find the latest video each day on the home page of this site. You can also find videos for previous days by clicking the articles in the left column of this page under “Recent Posts” or by clicking on the mauve headline at the top of the screen on the right, which will take you to yesterday’s selected video – and so on back to the start of the series in August. There is more about who we are and other things we do, at the foot of the page. Below are the anniversaries for today in Arsenal’s history…
The Arsenal History Society is part of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association – a body which gives positive support to the club, and has regular meetings with directors and senior officials of the club to represent the views of its members to the club. You can read more about AISA on its website.
Here are the anniversaries
29 December 1888. Iona 1 Royal Arsenal 5 in the Kent Senior Cup on the way to winning the trophy.
29 December 1894: Arsenal 1 Dresden United 0. Dresden were based in Stoke on Trent, and played in The Combination and the Midland League until being wound up in 1897.
29 December 1917: Just 2000 turned up to see Arsenal beat Clapton Orient 2-1 away in the London wartime league.
29 December 1930: An article by futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was published in the Gazzetta del Popolo, in which he called for the abolition of pasta as it made Italians, “sceptical, slow, pessimistic.” He advocated rice, which he said would create “lithe, agile peoples who will be victorious” in future wars. He also called for the abolition of the knife and fork.
29 December 1934: The start of a run of 19 games ending on 27 April 1935, in which Arsenal lost just one match. In the same period, Tottenham won just two.
29 December 1945: Arsenal 3 Wolverhampton W 2 in the war time Football League South which continued until the summer of 1946. It was one of six straight wins but subsequently Arsenal lost their way and finished the season in 11th.
29 December 1973: Arsenal lost 0-2 to Leicester in front of 25,860. Afterwards Bertie Mee said that having cut one of the club’s academy teams to save costs he was now going to cut the second and reduce Arsenal to two teams, with a maximum of 19 professionals between them. Mee blamed this on new player contracts, an “inevitable” European superleague and a first division of 16 or 18 clubs. As with so much, post-1971, he was utterly and totally wrong on every account and as a direct result Arsenal won just one trophy in the next 12 years.
29 December 1979: Manchester United 3 Arsenal 0, with 54,295 in Old Trafford on a pitch that was totally unplayable and unsafe. O’Leary left on a stretcher and Arsenal ended the year fourth, eight points behind the leaders, and with a massively inferior goal difference. Third had to be the target, and that meant scoring a few more goals.
29 December 1982: Vladimir Petrovic joined from Red Star Belgrade for £45,000. He played 13 league games for Arsenal before moving on to Royal Antwerp. After finishing playing in 1988 he gradually moved into management, and has managed both national and league teams including Red Star Belgrade.
29 December 1990: Andy Cole made his only appearance for Arsenal in a 4-1 win over Sheffield Utd. In 1991 he went on loan to Fulham, before being transferred to Bristol City in 1992.
29 December 2003: Seb Svard loaned to Stoke. He never played for Arsenal in the league but played 13 times for Stoke. Two further loans ensued before he signed for Borussia Mönchengladbach.
29 December 2003: Southampton 0 Arsenal 1. 3 wins and 2 draws in December left Arsenal in 2nd one point behind Man U. The 19th league match of the Unbeaten Season; Pires scored the goal.
29 December 2007: Everton 1 Arsenal 4 – Arsenal moved to the top of the league. Eduardo (2), Adebayor and Rosicky scored.
29 December 2012: Arsenal 7 Newcastle 3. A Walcott hat trick helped Arsenal to four straight wins after the Swansea defeat. The Ox, Podolski and Giroud got the other goals.
29 December 2013: One year on from the 7-3 win over Newcastle the fixture was played again but this time away, and Arsenal won again but this time only by 1-0 with Giroud scoring. It was the second in a run of seven straight victories.
