On 27 January 1934 Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 7-0 in the FA Cup. The crowd was recorded as 56,177.
Alex Wilson played his first game for Arsenal on this day, and the result was not especially remarkable for on that day five of the FA Cup games had six goals or more in them.
Frank Moss was the regular keeper at the time, but he was injured for this match, and Wilson took over – one of six games he played in that season – too few to get a winners’ medal as Arsenal won the league.
It was indeed a traumatic season – the season in which Herbert Chapman died and Joe Shaw took over. He is therefore counted as one of Joe Shaw’s players.
Alex Wilson was born in Lancashire, and played for Overton Athletic and Greenock Morton winning promotion to the first division with then in 1929.
He was signed by Chapman in May 1933. Wikipedia wrongly states that “he made his début against Aston Villa on March 10, 1934 after Moss picked up an injury; Arsenal won 3-2.” In fact this was his league début.
Over the first two seasons he played intermittently but did get a run for the last nine games of 1934/5 – losing only the final game (by which time Arsenal were champions).
But with Moss injuries problems continuing new manager George Allison kept Alex in goal and he played 43 games that season, including in the cup final where we beat Sheffield United 1-0.
However in the close season Allison signed George Swindin and Frank Boulton and after playing in the first game of the season Alex Wilson played only one more game as first Swindin then Boulton became the first team keeper.
But he came back in 1938/9 after Boulton was sold and played 19 league and one cup game. After the second world war broke out he joined St Mirren, having played 90 games for Arsenal.
He did turn out as an emergency keeper for Brighton and Hove Albion in the 3rd division south in 1947/8 and was also trainer and physiotherapist for the club before moving on to Birmingham City, Sunderland and Blackpool, as well as Kent County Cricket Club.
In 1967 he emigrated to the USA and worked as a physio for the Boston Beacons of the NASL. He died in Boston at 1971, aged 62.
Here are all the annivesaries for 27 January.
27 January 1945: Arsenal 8 Fulham 3. Stan Mortensen (a guest player for Arsenal, having signed for Blackpool in 1941) got four, having got a hattrick in the 9-3 win over Luton on 2 December. He played over 300 times for Blackpool, and later managed the club – a job from which he was sacked.
27 January 1948: On this day Don Roper was injured.against Aston Villa and although the team initially did well without him (winning the next three games) a run of seven games without a win took its toll, as Arsenal ended up 5th.
27 January 1951: Arsenal 3 Northampton Town 2 (FA Cup) in front of 72,408 – the all time FA Cup record crowd at Highbury. (Lewis 2, and Roper got the goals). See also here.
27 January 1977: Bristol City 2 Arsenal 0, in front of 26,282. An Arsenal team including Brady, Hudson, Rice, Nelson, Storey, O’Leary, Macdonald and Stapleton hardly had a shot. It was City’s fifth win of the season.
27 January 1979: Arsenal had played five matches and progressed one round in the FA cup before this fourth round tie which ended Arsenal 2 Notts County 0, with a respectable 39,195 in the crowd. See also here,
27 January 1989: Bermuda 2 Arsenal 4 (friendly). (Richardson 2, Smith, Winterburn), during a two game winter break, arranged quickly after Arsenal were knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round.
27 January 1997: Andy Linighan sold to Crystal Palace. Two versions of this transfer are told, one citing 21 January for £500,000 and one citing 27 January with a much lower fee.
27 January 2001. QPR 0 Arsenal 6 (FA Cup round 4). Wiltord scored two goals, and there were two own goals. Pires and Bergkamp got one each en route to the final.
27 January 2002: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0 (FA Cup 4) en route to the 3rd Double. Having beaten Watford in the third round Arsenal won with a goal from Bergkamp in 27 minutes.
27 January 2015: Joel Campbell loaned to Villareal for the remainder of the season. He had made his debut for Arsenal in the Community Shield game, and that and his world cup exploits in 2014 had suggested he might now play regularly for the first team but it was not to be – until the following season.
27 January 2020: Arsenal beat Bournemouth away 1-2 in the 4th round of the FA Cup on their way to winning the trophy for a record number of times and clocking up a record number of final appearances.
27 January 2021: Martin Ødegaard joined on loan from Real Madrid.
27 January 2022: Calum Chambers joined Aston Villa.
The 1919 Affair: How Arsenal were promoted to the first division – the only complete and detailed history of Arsenal’s election.
Day by Day the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order.
Day by Day the stories– a key moment in Arsenal and footballing history for each day of the year
Join AISA for Free. If you enjoy our daily review of Arsenal’s history please do show your appreciation by becoming an associate member of AISA – Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association. It’s completely free, but being a member does make a statement that you value our work not just in recording Arsenal’s history but also in engaging with the club over issues relevant to supporters today. You can join for free at https://aisa.org/associate-membership/
