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There are details of some of the series on this site on this site below, and you can read of many more on our home page. Today’s headline comes from 2021.
9 October 1897: Arsenal boasted a crowd of 14,000 for the second time in the league, in a 3-0 win over Luton, perhaps reflecting anticipation among the crowd over the fact that Arsenal had beaten Luton 2-0 away the previous week.
9 October 1905: Arsenal beat West Ham 3-2 in the Southern Professional Charity Cup before going on to beat Tottenham and Reading to win the trophy.
9 October 1909: Arsenal 0 Nottingham Forest 1. It made three defeats in a row, but at least the goal avalanche against the club (12 in the last two games) had stopped and there was a slight hope for better times. G Fisher, the replacement keeper, played his second and last game for the club. .
9 October 1910: Jack Crayston born. He played over 200 games for Arsenal from 1934 to the outbreak of war winning the league twice and FA Cup once. He became assistant manager to Tom Whittaker in 1947 and then took over on Tom’s death. He was the first manager since Herbert Chapman (appointed 1925) not to win the league and cup in his spell in charge.
9 October 1914: The Arsenal Football And Athletic Co Ltd became The Arsenal Football Club Ltd – as Henry Norris launched a new share issue continuing to sell the club to local supporters.
9 October 1915: A crowd of just 2500 turned up at Watford to see the home team beat Arsenal 1-0. It was clear that the remorseless anti-football propaganda in the press was having an impact on supporters.
9 October 1919: The FA which had been investigating Leeds City FC (previously managed by Herbert Chapman) stated that the club could not play its game against South Shields the following Saturday because of “irregularities” during the war.
9 October 1920: Having played three games without a win, Arsenal got a goalless draw at home to Bolton in front of 38,000. The local paper now got ever more angry with the Arsenal forward line and didn’t appreciate the lack of goals.
9 October 1926: The extent of Chapman’s failure to maintain the club at the standard of his first season at Highbury was fully revealed as going into this game Arsenal still had not won away this season, and this continued against mid-table Newcastle, with Arsenal losing 0-2. Arsenal slipped down to 14th.
9 October 1943: Arsenal drew 1-1 away to Clapton Orient meaning that Arsenal had only won two of their first seven games in the Football League South, wartime league.
9 October 1971: After four league wins in a row Arsenal beat Newcastle 4-2 regaining the style and zest of last year’s Double team with Kennedy, George, Radford, Graham and Armstrong all shining. Newcastle’s goals, both from Macdonald came in the last few minutes, and in fact he could have had a hat-trick at the very end but for Wilson’s fine save.
9 October 1976: Steve Gatting made his first appearance as substitute in Peter Simpson’s Testimonial. He had joined Arsenal as an apprentice in July 1975 and became a professional footballer two years later.
9 October 1979: Arsenal beat Ipswich Town 2-1 at Portman Road in front of 22,527. Rix and Brady ran the show but the highlight was the Ipswich keeper throwing the ball out only for it to hit the ref on the back. It rolled to Hollins who passed to Sunderland who chipped the keeper. A masterpiece.
9 October 1984: Bristol Rovers 1 Arsenal 1 in the League Cup, with their complete first team of Jennings, O’Leary, Sansom, Rix, Talbot, Nicholas, Mariner etc all playing. Arsenal won the tie overall 5-1.
9 October 1996: Following a dispute about the kick off time Scotland turned up for a kick off for a world cup qualifier at 3pm in Talin. Their opponents, Estonia, turned up at 7pm. Fifa ordered the game to be replayed. It was, and was a 0-0 draw.
9 October 2001: Frank McLintock announced an auction of his medals, shirts and memorabilia. He said that he was not struggling for cash, but since the medals etc were in a bank vault he never saw them.
9 October 2009: Gavin Hoyte was loaned to Brighton for the season. (See also here) And here After leaving Arsenal for whom he only ever played one game, he played for Dagenham, Gillingham, Barnet and Eastleigh before moving to Maidstone United in 2019.
9 October 2022: Arsenal beat Liverpool for only the second time in 15 league games. Arsenal also got their first goals against Liverpool since 2015/16 in any competition. Martinelli scored in 58 seconds. Saka made it 2-1 but after a second equaliser made it 3-2 with a penalty.
- Day by Day the stories – a key moment in Arsenal and footballing history for each day of the year
- Day by Day the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order.
- 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.
- Football Today: Untold Arsenal
