AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood and Gerry McLeod 17 March 2009 is not a day that Hull City FC are likely to want to remember. It was the day on which their increasingly erratic and downright odd Hull manager Phil Brown claimed that he had seen Cesc Fàbregas spit at the Hull assistant manager Brian Horton at the end of …
Read More “The wild men of Hull and their extraordinary antics v Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood and Gerry McLeod November / December 1968 was the first time ever that Tottenham and Arsenal met in the semi-finals of not just the League Cup but also the FA Cup. It was an event which following a match in this round of the League Cup many years later, gave the …
Read More “Arsenal v Tottenham end their first ever cup semi-final encounter on an anniversary day”
3 December 2011: Wigan 0 Arsenal 4, making it six wins and a draw in the last 7 Arsenal had started 2011/12 disastrously with a 0-0 draw at N ewcastle, a 0-2 home defeat to Liverpool, the 8-2 away defeat to Man U, and only finally in the fourth match, a victory 1-0 against Swansea. …
Read More “How Arsenal went from 15th to 5th in the table in just two months. The tale of 2011.”
2 December 1933: Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1 making it 8 wins and two draws in last 10. As a result Arsenal sat proud at the top of the league after this game. Crowd; 38,362. Goals by Hulme and Dunne. The club was already champions having won the league in 1932/3, and although the free scoring …
Read More “2 December 1933: Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1. Success and the prelude to tragedy”
By Tony Attwood After years of work my colleagues Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews of the AISA Arsenal History Society finally resolved the details of the first game of the club that was to become Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Arsenal, The Arsenal and finally Arsenal. As Andy reported in an article on this site on April …
Read More “The date on which Dial Square FC and ultimately Arsenal FC was founded”
30 November is one of those curious days in which two linked events across different years happen. Most curiously those events happened just one year apart. . November 2002: . Arsenal entered this season as league and cup holders, but without Tony Adams who had retired. On 28 September 2002 Arsenal beat Leeds 4-1 away, …
By Tony Attwood The season 1930/1 was the first season in which Arsenal won the first division. A totally amazing result considering that in the previous four seasons the club had come 11th, 10th, 9th and 14th. The opening nine games of seven wins and two draws gave an indication of what was to come …
Read More “November 1930: Arsenal announce to the world – we mean business”
By Tony Attwood You have to hand it to the FA. If there is a way of cocking it up, they cock it up. Take the Youth Cup. If, for example, you were writing a little article about the Cup, its history, its organization and so forth, you might turn to the FA’s site on …
Read More “28 November: Arsenal’s biggest ever win in the FA Youth Cup”
A couple of typos in this script were corrected on 11 August 2014. So all encompassing has the “49” unbeaten run and the unbeaten season itself become, and so overwhelming the baying of the journalists who insist that nothing is right because Arsenal have not won a trophy for a number of years, that we …
Read More “27 November 2007: Arsenal lose 3-1 to Seville and thus end 28 games unbeaten.”
One look at the chart that lists all of Lee Chapman’s clubs tells the story – nearly 600 games, 200 goals, but for Arsenal only four goals in 23 games. What he could do at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds Utd, and indeed Nottingham Forest he could not do for us. 1978–1982 Stoke City 99 34 …
Read More “Lee Chapman – won the league but not with Arsenal.”
By Tony Attwood It was called “One of Arsenal’s most mature performances” producing what was said to be “one of the greatest results in their history.” As a result of it Arsenal knew that they would qualify for the group stages of the Champions League if they beat Lokomotiv Moscow at Highbury in the …
Read More “10 years ago today; one of our greatest results and performances of all time.”
By Tony Attwood The 2004/5 Champions League group stage campaign was one of the strangest Arsenal have played in. The game on 24 November 2004 was, as noted above, the fourth draw – but more than that, it was the four draw Arsenal had in a row in the group. Now one might expect that …
Read More “24 November 2004: PSV 1 Arsenal 1. Arsenal fourth draw in a row; but still we qualify”
By Tony Attwood Billy Milne DCM (apparently known as “Stig” – for reasons that I have not been able to ascertain) was born on 24 November 1895 and had an unusual career at Arsenal. He played before and after the first world war for Buckie Thistle, and during the war served his country with great …
Read More “Billy Milne DCM: a lifetime with Arsenal, including saving the stadium”
Arsenal and the London Senior Cup We are used, in the 21st century, to Arsenal first team playing in three competitions and a combination of the first team and reserves playing in the fourth (the league cup). In the early days of football life was more complicated and a whole range of competitions came and …
Read More “Royal Arsenal in the London Senior Cup; retiring as cup winners.”
Jim Furnell was born 23 November 1937 in Lancashire, and started out playing for Burnley aged 17 before moving on to second division Liverp0ol in February 1962 where he became the first team keeper. He moved to Arsenal £15,000 or £16,000 (depending on the source you read) on November 22 1963, signed by Billy Wright. …
Read More “Jim Furnell; the bridge between Kelsey and Wilson”
It was Herbert Chapman and the president of Racing who took up the issue of a Racing v Arsenal match in the 1930s, and turned it into a regular event, taking place as close to Armistice Day as possible each year. It was in fact one of two regular friendlies that the club instituted …
Read More “Arsenal vs Rangers – the friendlies alongside those with Racing Club de Paris”
1887/8 was Arsenal’s second year in football. It was a year in which they were an amateur team, playing friendlies under the name Royal Arsenal. And it was a season in which, for the very first time Arsenal played Tottenham. Unfortunately we know very little about this momentous occasion other than the date, the score …
Arsenal edge towards relegation and bankruptcy – by Tony Attwood In 1908/9 Arsenal under George Morrell had achieved their highest ever position in the league – 6th. Yet the following season, under the same manager they slipped to 18th – a near disaster since clubs ending up 19th and 20th were relegated. The danger signs …
When Arsenal lost on 28 August 2011 to Manchester United 8-2, a moment of modern history was written. Not a wanted moment from an Arsenal point of view, but still a moment of history. It was a most terrible defeat and one that the Anti-Arsenal movement claimed that they had “seen coming” for a long …
I have often made the point that if only those people who have complained about football under Wenger could remember our previous manager, Bruce Rioch, they would probably shut up. Now others have argued that it wasn’t that bad as the club ended up fifth during Rioch’s year, qualified for Europe and brought in two …
First we had Reading 5 Arsenal 7 in the League Cup. but then it was back to earth with Manchester Utd 2 Arsenal 1 in the League. The gods, we knew, were playing with us. Then Schalke 2 Arsenal 2 in Champions League Match 4, after being two up. Gf60 ended his commentary with hopes …
By Tony Attwood The London Challenge Cup was a competition that Woolwich Arsenal FC entered from 1908/9 season (when the competition was first formed) onwards. In its early years the competition ran through four rounds with the semi-final and final being played on neutral grounds. This changed in 1933 when all rounds were played on …
Arsenal History Society is going to take a little break for a while. We will be back sometime around the 17th November in order to continue digging up a few facts – and the occasional bit of fiction. Meanwhile, here’s some links to keep you going… The Anniversary Files: January to June The Anniversary …
Leonard Edward “Len” Wills was born on 8 November 1927 and first played for Eton Manor FC, and amateur club formed by several well-to-do families to support young men and boys in the East End of London – the notoriously deprived section of the city, in the early part of the 20th century. The club …
Read More “Len Wills: 195 league appearances for Arsenal 1949-62; his only league club”
By Tony Attwood Yesterday our topic was Stuart Robson, midfielder and commentator on Arsenal, today it is John Robson, the goalkeeper who joined Arsenal from Innerleithen (or Vale of Leithen depending on which source you read) for £5 in November 1921. Now when I was a kid I wanted to be a goalkeeper, which was …
Read More “John “Jock” Robson; our smallest ever goal keeper”
