Arsenal annivesaries 23 November: Wright scores for the 12th successive match

 

 

A complete index of Arsenal’s anniversaries for the month can be found here.  Today’s anniversary comes from 1994.

23 November 1889: Royal Arsenal 4 Foxes 1 in London Senior Cup; en route to the final.

23 November 1896: Kettering v Arsenal in the United League.  This was the game in which Joseph Powell was injured and subsequently tragically died of tetanus aged 23.  He was Woolwich Arsenal’s first captain.

23 November 1910: Suffragist Hugh Franklin attempted to whip Winston Churchill (the home secretary, and thus the person directly responsible for the government’s response to the suffragettes) on a train.  Meanwhile Dr Crippen was hanged.

23 November 1918: The British military government of Palestine began.  Meanwhile, Arsenal played and lost again, this time 1-4 to Brentford in front of 5000 fans, making it two defeats, one draw and one win in November.

23 November 1919: Jimmy Logie born.  Jimmy first played for Scottish junior side Lochore Welfare, who are still playing (home crowds are around 200 or so).  He signed for Arsenal just before the outbreak of the Second World War, and then served in the Royal Navy playing occasional wartime matches for Southampton, Grimsby, Dunfermline and even one or two for Arsenal when on leave and at the end of the war.

23 November 1921: Fulham East Conservative Association had written to Sir Henry Norris to ask him to double his annual contribution to the party.   He wrote back on this day and not only said no, but he also resigned from the Fulham branch of the Conservative Party.  The man who had been the longest-ever serving London Mayor of all time (and still a record) without any payment or expenses claim, had finally had enough.

23 November 1929: George Male joined Arsenal.  His first attempt at senior football was a trial with West Ham, who amazingly (in the light of what happened later) turned him down, thus ensuring that his first club was Clapton.

23 November 1935: Steve Burtenshaw born.  He was Arsenal caretaker manager between March and May 1986 following the resignation of Don Howe amidst rumours that he (Don) would be replaced.  Steve was himself replaced by George Graham.  His record as a manager of Arsenal was a win rate of 27.27% winning 3, losing 6 and drawing 2.

23 November 1935: Arsenal played 12th-placed Wolverhampton (who had in seven away games gained just one point).  Rogers scored, Drake got two, making it three games in a row in which he had scored, Hulme got the fourth.  It was the first time since the opening game of the season that Drake had scored more than one goal in a game.

23 November 1937: Jim Furnell born in Lancashire.  He moved to Arsenal for £15,000 or £16,000 (depending on the source you read) on November 22 1963, signed by Billy Wright.

23 November 1938: John Macleod born in Edinburgh.  He joined Hibernian the club he supported as a schoolboy playing first for Edinburgh Thistle, the feeder team of Hibs.    Then he went with Joe Baker to Armadale Thistle for what Scottish clubs liked to call “toughening up.”

23 November 1940: Northampton Town 1 Arsenal 8.  7000 turned up to see one of two of Arsenal’s eight goal routs – the other being a home win against Luton. There were five different goalscorers.

23 November 1959: Arsenal 4 Leicester 2 in Southern Floodlight Challenge Cup..   Arsenal had also won the cup the previous season.

23 November 1963: Jim Furnell’s first game (on his birthday)  – a 5-3 win against Blackpool.   He had moved to Arsenal for about £15,000 the previous day.  Strong (2), Barnwell, Brown and Eastham scored.

23 November 1976: Pat Jennings Testimonial.  Tottenham 3 Arsenal 2.  He played 472 games for Tottenham and 327 games for Arsenal.  28,582 turned up.

23 November 1985: Last game for Chris Whyte, first game for Martin Keown.  WBA 0 Arsenal 0.  Chris Whyte played 90 league games for Arsenal before moving onto the American indoor league.

23 November 1994: Ian Wright scored against Leicester making it 12 appearances in a row in which he has scored.  Unfortunately, only five of those games were league matches which Arsenal won, as Arsenal under Graham went on to end the season in 12th.

23 November 2002:  Arsenal lost 3–2 to Southampton, conceding three for the first time since May 2001.   Bergkamp and Pires scored but Campbell was sent off after which Southampton quickly scored two.

23 November 2006: Matthew Connolly went on his first loan period, to Bournemouth, playing five league games and two FA Cup matches, and scoring against Nottingham Forest.  He returned to Arsenal and played in the League Cup quarter final on 9 January 2007 in the amazing Liverpool 3 Arsenal 6 match.

23 November 2010: Arsenal lost 2-0 away to Braga of Portugal in one of the most notoriously odd referee displays of all time – so odd that even the press mentioned it although they nationalistically put it down to foreign refs not understanding the rules of the game.  A simpler explanation was that the ref had been bought.

23 November 2011: Arsenal qualified for the Champions League knockout stages with a 2-1 win against Borussia Dortmund.  Van Persie got both goals.

23 November 2011: Richard Wright returned to Ipswich and played in the reserves then went to Preston, then on to Colchester for a trial and finally Manchester City signing a one year contract extension on 10 July 2013.

23 November 2011: Sanchez Watt went to Sheffield Wednesday on loan.  It was the fourth of six loan spells before he signed permanently for Colchester.  He never played for Arsenal in the league.

23 November 2012.   Arsenal announced a £150m ground sponsorship deal with Emirates.

23 November 2013: Arsenal 2 Southampton 0, in the League; part of a run of six wins in seven games.

23 November 2016: Arsenal 2 PSG 2 in the Champions League.  It was one of 19 consecutive games in all competitions without a defeat.

23 November 2017.  Arsenal played their 5th Europa League match, away to Germany’s bottom club, Kologne, and lost 1-0.  Although hardly of significance to Arsenal on this day the editor of these files spent an hour wandering the streets of a small Cyprus town trying to find a bar that was showing the match.  Eventually, one was found, full of German supporters, who were awfully decent about events on the screen.

23 November 2019: Arsenal 2 Southampton 2.  It was part of a six games without a win run which ultimately led to the sacking of manager Unai Emery.

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