Today’s headline story comes from 2018. Details as ever are below with all the anniversaries for this day also listed.
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7 January 1887: The Woolwich Gazette reported a meeting was held to make the Dial Square football club that had broken away from Dial Square Cricket club open to everyone in the area, rather than just the employees of the Dial Square factory. As a result the club became, by this date, Royal Arsenal FC.
7 January 1895: Arsenal’s first ever game against Leicester ended Leicester Fosse 3 Woolwich Arsenal 1 in front of a crowd of 3000. It was Arsenal’s third successive defeat following an amazing 7-0 victory over Port Vale on December 25.
7 January 1905: Fred Dwight was signed on 5 June 1903 and played his first and last game for Arsenal on this day, away to Preston. We lost 0-3. It was one of three consecutive defeats in which Arsenal scored no goals but let in nine.
7 January 1922: In the 1st round of the FA Cup, and for the second year running Arsenal played QPR – last year they had lost away 0-2. 31,000 turned up for the match at Highbury, but the result was a goalless draw.
7 January 1933: Arsenal, top of the league, lost 3-2 to Sunderland who before the game were 8th. There was talk that teams had finally worked out how to play against Arsenal’s high-speed counter-attacking style with its now famous very quick pass out of the defence through the half backs onto the forward line. Up next was Walsall in the Cup, but everyone thought that would be a doddle.
7 January 1939: in what was becoming the most disappointing league campaign of the 1930s, Arsenal played Chelsea in the FA Cup but lost 1-2. It was clearly a sign that Arsenal were in decline and needed a complete rebuild, but that rebuilding had to be postponed.
7 January 1950: Arsenal 1 Sheffield W 0 – another cup run began – Lewis scored with 54,193 at Highbury. It was the first time since before the war the club got past the fourth round.
7 January 1950: Malcolm Macdonald born. He played for Tonbridge, Fulham, Luton, Newcastle Utd and finally Arsenal. In all he played 84 league games for us and scored 42 goals – a remarkable record although curiously, for a man remembered as a centre forward he started as a full back.
7 January 1956: Arsenal 2 Bedford 2, FA Cup 3rd round. Although Arsenal were slipping in form since winning the league in 1953, this was considered one of the most unimaginable shocks, although Arsenal did win the replay 2-1 after extra time.
7 January 1967: Arsenal 0 Tottenham 2, giving Tottenham the double over Arsenal in Mee’s first season. Little did they know what was ahead in the years to come!
7 January 1974: Matthew Shortt died. He signed for Arsenal from Dalbeattie Star and played for a short while for the club before emigrating to the USA where he helped pioneer football playing for five different clubs and (reportedly) for the USA team.
7 January 1975: In the FA Cup it ended York 1 Arsenal 3 after extra time following a 1-1 draw at Highbury. Kidd got a hattrick. Arsenal needed replays in the next two rounds before going out to West Ham in the sixth round.
7 January 1978. Sheffield U 0 Arsenal 5 in the FA Cup on the way to Wembley, but the journey ended in defeat in the final, to Ipswich. Macdonald (2), Stapleton (2) and O’Leary got the goals.
7 January 1987: Stewart Robson – who later took on the mantle as prime critic of Arsène Wenger on TV and beat the path that many a little blogger and petty journalist then followed – was sold to West Ham for £700,000, having played 150 league games for Arsenal. Having lost all credibility in England he was last heard of co-commentating for BT Sport on Italian football.
7 January 1988: Charlie Nicholas sold to Aberdeen for £400,000. Brought in as the great hope of revitalising Arsenal by Terry Neill, he never quite lived up to expectations.
7 January 2004: Everton 1 Arsenal 1. The 20th league match of the unbeaten season. Cygan was recalled in central defence, Touré moved onto the right, Lauren was dropped, Parlour started in place of Gilberto in midfield. Kanu gave Arsenal the lead; Everton equalised 15 minutes from time. Man U however won on this day to give them a 3 point lead.
7 January 2006: Arsenal beat Cardiff City 2-1 in the FA Cup 3rd round
7 January 2018: Arsenal as defending FA Cup holders who had won the cup three times in four years and a record number of times overall, were beaten in the 3rd round by managerless Nottingham Forest. It was the only defeat in the 3rd round of the Wenger era, in what turned out to be his last FA Cup match. He remains the manager with more FA Cup wins than any other manager in the entire history of the FA Cup.
7 January 2021: Omar Rekik sold to Hertha BSC for £500,000.
