Or the most bizarre refereeing of all time?
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.
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…
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Here are the anniversaries…
5 February 1887: Millwall Rovers 4 Royal Arsenal 0. This was the first Arsenal game ever with a recorded crowd number – 500 – and was played against the club’s main local rivals at the time.
5 February 1889: Matthew Shortt was born. He played with Dalbeattie Star before moving to Arsenal in November 1910. He played four times for Arsenal, being on the losing side each time. Later he had considerable success in the USA as a footballer
5 February 1910: Woolwich Arsenal went to Everton for a second round FA Cup match played in front of 30,000 people and lost 0-5. However a league match at the same venue between the same clubs on 7 March later attracted just 6000 (and we only lost 0-1).
5 February 1913 The Islington Gazette reported that Woolwich Arsenal planned to move to Islington. Rumours had abounded about the new location for Arsenal throughout the season but this was the first correct reporting.
5 February 1916. Expecting the war which had begun in 1914 to be over by now, the London clubs had only organised a wartime league to last until January 1916. With the war very obviously not over a new league was quickly arranged starting on this day. Arsenal drew 1-1 at home with Watford.
5 February 1921: Last game for Fred Pagnam: Sunderland 5 Arsenal 1. He had testified against his own teammates in the Liverpool/Man U match fixing scandal of 1915 – and comes over in history as a man of great honour at a time when every dirty trick possible was being pulled.
5 February 1926: Joe Hulme signed by Chapman from Blackburn. He went on to play 333 league games across a 13 year spell; a 1930’s version of Thierry Henry, an absolute master of counter-attacking at pace.
5 February 1931: Leicester C 2 Arsenal 7, just a week after beating Grimsby 9-1, as Arsenal moved to their first championship. Lambert (3), Bastin (2), Jack and Hulme did the honours this time.
5 February 1931: Malcolm Campbell set a new land speed record of almost 246mph, and four days later the South Wales miners strike ended with a three year peace settlement. The mood of the country which had been bleak, lifted.
5 February 1936: For once Arsenal were not playing when an England match was taking place. England lost 1-2 to Wales with Male, Hapgood, Crayston, Bastin and Drake in the team.
5 February 1960: Brian Marwood born. He played 52 times for Arsenal supplying the crosses for Alan Smith in the box. After finishing playing he worked for Nike and for Manchester City.
5 February 1966: A 1-1 draw with Burnley started another poor run of 10 without a win, and indeed there were only two wins between this game and the end the season. Arsenal ended the season a poor 14th and Wright was sacked as manager.
5 February 1972: Reading 1 Arsenal 2 (FA Cup 4th round). Pat Rice and an own goal took Arsenal through in front of 25,756.
5 February 1974: Arsenal lost 1-3 to Leeds United away in front of just 26,778. Leeds were undefeated in 28 games and Arsenal took the lead but could not hold out for the rest of the game.
5 February 2005: After two defeats in last three games Aston V 1 Arsenal 3 stopped the rot and started a 13 match unbeaten run to the end of the season. Ljungberg, Henry and Cole got the goals.
5 February 2011: Newcastle 4 Arsenal 4. After Arsenal were 0-4 up this match went down as one of the most outrageous referee performances of all time – but was still the 8th out of 16 consecutive unbeaten matches.
