The anniversaries are below…
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.
4 March 1902: Tim Coleman joined from Grimsby for £7500. He had played 196 league and cup games and scored 79 goals. Chapman had been chasing Jimmy Dunne but followed Coleman instead, after a chance meeting with his manager.
4 March 1905: The start of a run of seven without a win. Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1. Arsenal did however rally in April to finish 12th.
4 March 1910: George Grant joined from Invicta FC as an amateur. He had the remarkable record of playing for Woolwich Arsenal, The Arsenal, and Arsenal, (all by playing just 54 league games) and then later against Arsenal.
4 March 1913: Henry Norris finally confirmed Woolwich Arsenal were moving from Plumstead to a ground in Gillespie Road, Islington. Tottenham immediately protested. See also here.
4 March 1914: London County Council granted planning permission for the Gillespie Road stadium, seven months after it opened and one year to the day after Norris announced that Gillespie Road was the site of the new ground.
4 March 1922: Arsenal 1 Preston 1. FA Cup round 4 (equivalent of round 6 today). It was Knighton’s most successful cup run and the best since the 1907 semi-final.
4 March 1925: Arsenal bought Notts County’s Don Cock, the man who had scored against them and then been sent off in the Notts County v Arsenal game earlier in the season. He had previously played for Brentford and Fulham. However Knighton only used the player twice this season, (although to be fair he was injured in his second match) and Chapman gave him but one game in 1925/6 before moving him on to Clapton Orient in October 1925.
4 March 1932: With Lambert and Parkin both injured Chapman acted and on this day Ernie Coleman was signed from Grimsby following a chance meeting with the Grimsby chairman. The following day he played his first Arsenal game.
4 March 1933: Arsenal played their first game with the white sleeved shirts based on an idea by Tom Webster, but lost to Liverpool 0-1. 42,868 were present, bemused perhaps by the fact that in the previous match Arsenal had beaten Blackburn 8-0.
4 March 1936: Arsenal beat Derby County away 4-0 which given Derby’s position in the league was a fair vindication of the team selection by George Allison, especially as new men Dougall, Kirchen and Cox all scored.
4 March 1950: Arsenal 1 Leeds 0. FA Cup round 6, on the way to winning the trophy for only the third time. Lewis scored with 62,573 in the crowd. This was the first season in which Arsenal progressed to the final and yet played every FA Cup match in London. It has since been repeated.
4 March 1961: Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 2. The first of six consecutive draws – Arsenal’s longest drawing run in the league. Haverty and Barnwell scored.
4 March 1972: Manchester City 2 Arsenal 0. After four straight wins and 12 games undefeated in the league, the wheels suddenly came off the bus as Arsenal started a run of losing three successive league matches without scoring a goal.
4 March 1978: Arsenal 3 Manchester City 0. This was the first win in six league games but also a part of a run of nine undefeated. Sunderland, Young and Price got the goals.
4 March 1987: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 2. League Cup semi-final replay. Clive Allen put Tottenham ahead in all three of the “one nil down, two one up” semi-final games. Ian Allinson scored the first for Arsenal and Rocastle scored in injury time.
4 March 2006: Fulham 0 Arsenal 4. After three without a win Arsenal returned with a four match winning run scoring 14 goals letting in 1. Henry (2) Adebayor and Fabregas got the goals on this occasion.
4 March 2008: Arsenal became the first English team to beat Milan (0-2) in the San Siro thanks in part to a Fabregas free kick.
4 March 2015: Arsenal beat QPR 1-2 away in a run of nine straight wins and one defeat in 16, ending with winning the FA Cup.
4 March 2017: Arsenal lost away to Liverpool 3-1 to make it three defeats in four. The media made much of the fact that Alexis was not in the starting line up, an early sign that his influence was not always helpful. Nine months later he was given to Man U, and subsequent reports suggested his influence there was not always positive either. The result took Arsenal to 5th, and they never regained a top four place through the rest of the season.
4 March 2018: Arsenal lost at Brighton, resulting in further calls for the dismissal of Mr Wenger in the media and among some supporters. It was the club’s fourth successive defeat. However Arsenal beat Milan away in the next game which was the start of a six match winning run in which Arsenal scored 18.
4 March 2019: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 1 at Wembley. Tottenham gained a very dubious penalty, Aubameyang was denied a clear penalty, Torreira was sent off late on.
