28 January 1888: Royal Arsenal 6 Champion Hill 0. There’s no record I can find of Champion Hill FC, although Dulwich Hamlet moved to the Champion Hill ground in Southwark in 1912. Dulwich Hamlet was formed in 1893, and it is possible that this match was between Arsenal and the club that preceded Dulwich Hamlet.
28 January 1899: Arsenal 0 Derby 6, FA Cup. A reminder that Arsenal were a long way short of the standard in the first division (despite scoring six themselves on three separate occasions in the League Division 2)..
28 January 1911: Raymond Parkin born in Crook, County Durham. He started his career in 1926 as an amateur, with Esh Winning FC and was considered one of the leading amateur teams and also played as an England schoolboy international during this spell. He signed first for Newcastle in 1926 but moved to Arsenal two years later
28 January 1918: It is often forgotten that in the first world war there was considerable bombing of London by enemy aircraft, and on this day London experienced its heaviest bombing of the war. Highbury escaped undamaged.
28 January 1931: Arsenal’s biggest win at Highbury. Arsenal 9 Grimsby 1. Four from David Jack and three from Jack Lambert. The crowd was 15,751, the lowest home crowd of the season.
28 January 1950: Arsenal 2 Swansea 1, FA Cup 4th round, en route to Wembley. Goals from Logie and Barnes (a penalty) saw Arsenal through. This was the first season Arsenal played all their FA Cup games in London.
28 January 1978: Four days after reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup Arsenal beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1, with 49,373 in attendance to reach the 5th round of the FA cup. Sunderland and Macdonald scored.
28 January 1998: Arsenal 2 Chelsea 1 (Coca Cola cup semi, first leg). Overmars and Hughes got the goals.
28 January 2004: Jose Antonio Reyes transferred from Sevilla for £10.5m. He later played over 100 games for Atletico Madrid and Sevilla having played 69 for Arsenal. On 1 June 2019, Reyes died at the age of 35 following a car accident. Early reports that the car had been travelling at 135mph were disputed.
28 January 2006: Arsenal beat Bolton Wanderers away 1-0 in the FA Cup
28 January 2007: One year to the day Arsenal played Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup. This time it was at home and the result was 1-1
28 January 2011: Carlos Vela loaned to WBA. He had shown moments of brilliance, but never quite made it at Arsenal.
28 January 2015: Arsenal announced the signing of Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista from the La Liga side Villarreal, for an undisclosed fee, reported £11.2m
28 January 2017: Just two months after Southampton had knocked Arsenal out of the League Cup, Arsenal beat Southampton 0-5 away in the 4th round of the FA Cup on their way to their third FA Cup triumph in four years. It was one of two FA Cup matches this season in which Arsenal scored five goals.
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Contact Arsenal History Society at Tony@schools.co.uk
You can read extended details of one of today’s stories on “Today of All Days”
- 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.
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