AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
21 March through the years has been the date on which the first player ever got an international cap while playing for Arsenal, and is the anniversary of the day the club started its final downward slide into the second division. Elsewhere the great Jimmy Brain made his last appearance on this day while the …
By Tony Attwood 21 March 1978 Birmingham City 1 Arsenal 1 Football League Division 1 Attendance: 22,087 The period February 11 to March 27 was unbeaten for Arsenal in the League – involving 9 games, of which this was the sixth. It was also a period that included wins in the 5th and 6th rounds …
5 March 1980: Gothenburg (Sweden) (H) Cup-winners’ Cup 5-1 Attendance: 36,323 Jennings, Devine, Nelson, Talbot, O’Leary, Young, Brady (Hollins), Sunderland (McDermott), Stapleton, Price, Rix. Scorers: Sunderland 2, Young, Brady, Price. It was cold. Very very cold. Which presumably gave Gothenburg the advantage The score was gold but Brady Sunderland and Stapleton all hobbled off, either …
Arsenal in the FA Cup 1979. Tony Attwood In this piece we look back through the FA Cup games of 1979, and also note in passing what happened in the league in between these games, starting with the third round, of course… 6 January: Sheffield Wednesday (A) FA Cup 3rd round 1-1 Attendance: 33,635 Jennings, …
By Tony Attwood Arsenal have appeared in 17 FA Cup finals, a figure only exceeded by Man U with 18. Arsenal have won the cup 10 times, a figure only exceeded by Man U with 11. Only one manager has won the FA Cup more than once – Arsene Wenger, who has won it four …
Read More “Having got to the FAC semi finals, Arsenal’s most common outcome is to win the Cup”
Jens Gerhard Lehmann Jens Lehmann was born 10 November 1969 is the only player in the entire history of League football in England to have played through the complete season without ever being on the losing team. He played in total 200 games for Arsenal. Through his career he was awarded UEFA Goalkeeper of the …
Read More “The only keeper ever to go a whole season unbeaten. Ever.”
By Tony Attwood 1973/4 is hardly a season to recalled with fun and excitement. My previous article on the subject took us up to February and has the headline Was this the worth month of Football ever? That piece ended on 23 February with Birmingham City 3 Arsenal 1. What happened next was that Arsenal …
Read More “1974: The decline of Arsenal – March and early April”
The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman by Patrick Barclay Published by W&N. £20.00 Journalists who write popular histories tend to give the reader facts without the details of how they got these facts. This approach helps the flow of the text, and makes life easier for the writer. It is how things are done. …
By Tony Attwood Today is the anniversary of Arsenal’s largest ever league win – the 12-0 defeat of Loughborough. The story of the event is recorded by Andy Kelly here. On this site we are building what I hope will be (and probably already is) the largest database of Arsenal anniversaries – there are over …
Read More “Today is the anniversary of Arsenal’s biggest ever win”
By Tony Attwood 11 March 1911. The start of an 11 match sequence without defeat which saved Arsenal from relegation. But also the last time Arsenal won a home league game on 11 March! It is of course a coincidence – at least I think it is a coincidence – but as far as I …
Read More “11 March: when Arsenal should not play in the league (but cups are ok)”
By Tony Attwood, AISA Arsenal History Society Brian James McDermott was born on 8 April 1961 and is one of that select group of players who has played for Arsenal and has since gone on to a period of management in the Premier League. Although he has spoken of his sadness that he did not …
Read More “Brian McDermott: Arsenal occasional, manager, Dylan lover.”
By Tony Attwood I’ve already covered the cup run from this season with its endless games against Leicester. Here is the league run for the same period, with the FA Cup matches noted in their chronological position. But beware, it don’t make wonderful reading, at least after the first game. February 1 1975: Arsenal 2 …
By Tony Attwood. AISA Arsenal History Society. 1958/59 was the first season in which ex-Arsenal goalkeeper George Swindin was manager, following the resignation of Jack Crayston at the end of the previous season. When Swindin took over Arsenal had not won anything since taking the league championship on the final day of the 1952/3 season. …
Read More “7 March 1959: when Arsenal made a bid to be top (again)”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had won through to the quarter final of the CWC in 1979 with two wins and two draws in earlier rounds: 19 September 1979: Arsenal 2 Fenerbache 0 3 October 1979: Fenerbache 0 Arsenal 0 24 October 1979: Arsenal 2 Magdeburg 1 7 November 1979: Magedebury 2 Arsenal 2 At this …
Read More “5 March 1980: Cup winners’ cup quarter final: Arsenal 5 Gothenburg 1”
By Tony Attwood Harry Goring (known as Peter, for a reason that I can’t ascertain) was born on 2 January 1927, was signed in January 1948 for £1000. He played his first match for Arsenal on 24 August 1949. His final appearance was on 24 February 1959 in a 1-0 victory over Leeds, by which …
Read More “Peter Goring: one of the XI in Arsenal’s 1953 championship”
By Tony Attwood . 3 March 1993: Norwich 1 Arsenal 1 is the 12th consecutive match in which neither Arsenal nor their opponents scored more than one goal. – 1992/3 is a season well recorded in Arsenal’s history as the season in which the club did the Cup Double – the first ever club to …
Read More “The best defence and the worst attack. The origins of Boring Boring Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood 1967/68 League Cup Campaign. This site has produced a number of articles about The Darkness – the era during which Arsenal slipped away to midtable obscurity. This era ended under the command of Betie Mee – and the 1968 league cup was first major sign that we were coming out of that …
Read More “1967/68 League Cup Campaign: when the rebirth of Arsenal began”
By Tony Attwood By the time Arsenal played Derby in the league on 12 February1972 Arsenal knew that they would be playing Derby again in the 5th round of the FA cup, having seen off Swindon and Reading in the two previous rounds and the draw having been made. What they didn’t know was that …
Read More “Feb 1972 and the Double Double starts to slip away.”
By Tony Attwood Wembley has always been a pig of a place to get to, but the Millenium Stadium was worse, unless you really knew a) how to avoid the motorway approach that the local police thought it amusing the funnel everyone into and b) how to find suitable side streets to park in. (Actually …
Read More “League Cup 2007: Howard Webb, celery and a push on the pitch”
By Tony Attwood; AISA Arsenal History Society We are all familiar with Arsenal winning the league on the last match of the season. George Graham’s team beating Liverpool 0-2 away, Bertie Mee’s Double with that last match win at Tottenham. But there was another equally dramatic win in the last game of the season – …
Read More “Winning the league on the last match of the season”
This is the story of the moment when the gloriousness of the Double and the attempts to repeat the feat came to an end. If you want some background to football in 1973 you might like to try The flavour of football 1973: fights, bookings, and the end of civilisation . Not to mention the …
By Tony Attwood Statues are rather important to the AISA Arsenal History Society, not least because it was at a meeting that three members of AISA had with Ivan Gazidis in 2010 that we suggested the idea of statues around the stadium. (I also gave him a copy of the recently published “Making the Arsenal”). …
Read More “Arsenal’s appreciation of AISA AHS – statues and blogs, blogs and statues”
By Tony Attwood 1973/4 was a season and a half. An oil crisis and a miner’s strike led to the abandonment of floodlighting, early kick offs and declining attendances. There were calls for a mid-winter break, desperation over the failure to qualify for the world cup, and early exits from European competitions. Brian Clough took …
Read More “February 1974: was this the worst month of football ever?”
After winning the Double, Arsenal’s abilities in the FA Cup turned the FA Cup into a labour. Their record from the Double onwards was: 1971: Winners 1972: Finalists 1973: semi-finalists 1974: Round 4 In 1975 Arsenal started with a seemingly easy home game against York City – and managed to draw it, winning the replay. …
Read More “The 1970s: Playing Leicester seven times, and the FA Cup in 1975”
20 February 1937: Burnley 1 Arsenal 7 (FA Cup) 1936/7 was George Allison’s third season as Arsenal manager. His record thus far had been 1934/5: Champions of the league, sixth round of the FA Cup. 1935/6: 6th in the league, winners of the FA Cup After two such terrific opening seasons there was bound to …
