Today’s anniversaries are below. Meanwhile you might also like to note the collection of club videos (each article bringing together a series of videos of our famous matches against each individual club) and our videos of the day, celebrating a match from Arsenal’s past.
You will find full details and links on our home page.
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Highlights
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.
Today’s Arsenal anniversaries… and occasional other items of note.
5 August 1914: The general mobilisation of troops was ordered. The final member Henry Norris’ touring party in Holland managed to get the party’s car on a boat and returned safely to England.
5 August 1946: Ian Buchanan McPherson joined from Notts County. He had never played for County, and had only been a youth player, and came in part exchange for Horace Cumner on the same day.
5 August 1961: Johnny MacLeod made his debut in a friendly v Middlesbrough, having played 101 games for Hibs. He had been signed for £40,000 – a record for a winger, and became a regular for the next three seasons.
5 August 1967: Continuing the tradition of playing the club that for many years owned shares in Arsenal (and at this point still did), a pre-season friendly was held between the two sides. Arsenal 3 Rangers 0.
5 August 1968: Oleg Luzhny born in Kiev. He started out playing for Torpedo Lutsk, and after a brief spell with SKA Karpaty Lviv moved to Dynamo Kyiv in 1989, captaining the side that got to the semi-finals of the 1999 Champions League, beating Real Madrid and Barcelona en route.
5 August 1970: First ever penalty shoot out to settle a match occurred in England. It was known as the “Settling rule” and occurred in Hull 1 Man Utd 1 in the Watney Mann Invitation Cup. The clubs involved were the two top scoring teams from each division of the previous season, excluding those who had qualified for Europe. The first player to miss a penalty in a penalty shoot out in England was Dennis Law.
5 August 1977: The ever backwards looking Football League backed the Football Association’s ban on sponsors’ advertising on player’s shirts. However, non-league clubs were permitted to show sponsor’s names on their players’ shirts
5 August 1978: Having just beaten Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal moved on to the Netherlands for a game against PSV on 5 August, which they lost 2-0.
5 August 1981: Last game for Sammy Nelson v AIK Stockholm. He was displaced by Kenny Sansom, and moved on to Brighton, having played 339 league games and scored 12 goals. It was a goalless draw and the start of a 4 match pre-season tour.
5 August 1983: Last game for Peter Nicholas. He had two full seasons as a regular for Arsenal but a series of injuries in the 1982/3 season reduced his potential and he left in October 1983 to re-join Crystal Palace for £150,000.
5 August 1986. David O’Leary Testimonial v Celtic. Arsenal lost 0-2. Quite remarkably he still had seven more seasons left in him at Arsenal.
5 August 1987: Brighton 2 Arsenal 7 Goalscorers included Nicholas (3) and Hayes (2).
5 August 1998: Nelson Vivas arrived from Lugano for £1.6m. However with Dixon and Winterburn (and later Silvinho and Luzhny) in the squad, Vivas’ main function was always to be a backup and 40 of his 69 appearances were as a substitute.
5 August 2003: In the final pre-season game Arsenal beat Rangers 3-0 at Ibrox to give 3 wins, 4 draws and 1 defeat in the series. Edu, Lauren and Campbell scored.
5 August 2011: Kyle Bartley loaned to Rangers playing 24 times for the club. During his time at Rangers the club came second in the Premier League, but were then demoted to the 3rd division as the club was wound up.
5 August 2012: A pre-season match in Abuja, Nigeria was planned then postponed, and eventually seemingly scrapped as a project.
5 August 2016: Kelechi Nwakali transferred to Arsenal from Diamond Football Academy for around £3m. After playing on loan for MVV Maastricht, VVV Venlo and Porto B (in 2018/19) he returned to Arsenal. In 2019 he played two games for Huesca in Spain who he had joined on a 3 year deal.
5 August 2016: Stefan O’Connor loaned to Maastricht for the season. In 2017 he signed for Newcastle but suffered a severe injury soon after. He was still with Newcastle in 2020 but has never played for them.
5 August 2016: Julio Pleguezuelo loaned to Mallorca for the season. In 2019 he signed for FC Twente.
5 August 2016: Arsenal beat Viking 8-0 in Stavanger as a warm up to the match against Manchester City in Norway two days later.
