AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
February 6, 1909: Millwall Athletic 1 Arsenal 1, FA Cup 2nd round Crowd: 32,000 By Tony Attwood On February 6th, 1909 Arsenal played Millwall Athletic in the FA Cup in front of a crowd which is recorded as an astonishing 32,000. Arsenal had only played in front of bigger crowds when playing a couple of …
Read More “How Arsenal used Millwall’s tactics to rise from the ashes”
———— This article is adapted from a more comprehensive review of the move in the book Woolwich Arsenal the club that changed football. ———— By Tony Attwood Henry Norris, on taking over Arsenal, had given the assurance that he would keep Woolwich Arsenal in Plumstead for a year. Later he extended that promise to two …
Read More “100 years ago to the day the press reveal: Arsenal are going to Islington”
The books… Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910 The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal – crowd behaviour at the early matches The sites… Untold Arsenal Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season? The weight loss …
Read More “Derby 5 Arsenal 4 “Arsenal’s days as a power are numbered””
By Tony Attwood George Hardy has very little written about him; there’s not even a Wiki piece on the internet (as of 2 February 2013). He doesn’t even seem to get a mention on Arsenal’s own web site. So, time to put that right – not just for completeness but because the George Hardy story …
Read More “George Hardy: the man Norris cited when he resigned”
1 February 1956 – Tommy Lawton left Arsenal Tommy Lawton was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, on 6 October 1919 and signed for his first club, Burnley of Division II, in 1935. In 1937 at the age of 17 he moved on to Everton of Division I for £6500 playing next to Dixie Dean. He quickly …
Read More “1 February: Tommy Lawton leaves Arsenal for Kettering”
By Tony Attwood On 31 January 2007 Arsenal beat Tottenham 3-1 in the League Cup semi final second leg, to win the tie 5-3. Jeremie Aliadiere scored the winner in extra time to help Arsenal to a Carling Cup final against Chelsea. For the first goal Emmanuel Adebayor slipped in Tomas Rosicky’s pass just 13 …
By Tony Attwood As Arsenal prepare to take on Liverpool on January 30 2013, we might do well to remember January 30th 1971. Arsenal had just lost 2-1 to Huddersfield and went on to lost 2-0 to Liverpool. This after a 14 match unbeaten run following the 0-5 drubbing by Stoke. Even better that 14 …
Read More “Liverpool 2 Arsenal 0. Jan 30 1971. Consecutive defeats mean nothing”
On January 29. 1988 George Graham bought right-back Lee Dixon from Stoke City for £350,000. At the time he was just another player, but over time he became part of the legendary back five. Dixon was born 17 March 1964 and started life in football in 1980 with Burnley, before joining Chester City, then Bury …
January 28th 1931 Arsenal 9 Grimsby Town 1 Arsenal goals: Jack 4, Lambert 3, Bastin 1, Holme 1 Attendance 15, 751 The match was originally intended to be played on December 6, but was abandoned after 63 minutes due to fog. This game was thus played mid-week – hence the low crowd for a 2.15pm …
Read More “Arsenal 9 Grimsby Town 1: Arsenal’s biggest League win at Highbury”
By Tony Attwood Alex Wilson was an Arsenal goalkeeper who played his first Arsenal match on 27 January 1934 – a 7-0 win over Crystal Palace. Frank Moss was the keeper at the time, but he was injured for this match, and Wilson took over – one of six games he played in that season …
Read More “Alex Wilson – the keeper who started under Joe Shaw.”
Dr Kevin O’Flanagan played for Arsenal between 1945 and 1948 making a grand total of 16 Football League starts and scoring three goals. Hardly the most illustrious of our men to be remembered on the Highbury Wall at the Ems, but he was such an extraordinary man that he really needs to be be remembered …
By Tony Attwood Colin George Pates was one of George Graham’s purchases at Arsenal when he joined us on 19 January 1990. He was born 10 August 1961 in London and started out at Chelsea in 1979, and eventually became their captain as they gained promotion from the second division in 1984. He continued to …
Read More “Colin Pates; an unsuccessful Graham recruit, now working at a top private school”
By Tony Attwood The 1960s were not Arsenal’s finest era, and the start of the decade certainly suggested things were amiss. In 1959/60 we came 13th in the First Division and were knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle by Rotherham United. Our manager was George Swindin and he lasted two more …
Read More “When fans says “we want our Arsenal back” hopefully they don’t mean 18 January 1960″
By Tony Attwood Wally Hardinge has already had one reference on this site – for he played in a match on 23 September 1912 for Sheffield United. Harold Thomas William Hardinge, to give him his full name, was born 25 February 1886, and died in Cambridge on 8 May 1965. He was not only an …
Read More “Wally Hardinge, played in Arsenal’s first Highbury game, and a top cricketer too.”
FA Cup 1st round replay. Jan 15th 1913. Croydon Common Home. Won 2-1 Crowd 9000. The crowd for this match and the original drawn match which caused this replay were in total 17,000 compared with 35,000 in 1909. So what had gone wrong? Why were Arsenal crowds so down in 1913? First, for the earlier …
Read More “15 January 1913: Croydon Common v Arsenal; our first home victory of the season”
By Tony Attwood John Hartson started games 54 times for Arsenal, and scored 14 goals over three seasons from 1994 to 1997. He was born on 5 April 1975 in Swansea. He joined Luton Town aged 16 but following the theft of a credit card (which was used to provide funds for gambling) he was …
Read More “13 February 1995 John Hartson signed for Arsenal”
Andy Kennedy was born in 1897 and died December 1963 who was signed by Leslie Knighton for Arsenal in 1922 having played original for Glentoran. He played 24 league games and two FA Cup games in his first season for the Arsenal, starting on December 9. We have no record of the transfer fee paid, …
By Tony Attwood January 1979. Arsenal were heading for another mediocre season. Results over recent years had been poor: Season Manager League pos FA Cup League Cup 1973/4 Mee 10 4th (A Villa) 2nd (Tranmere) 1974/5 Mee 16 Final (WHU) 2nd (Leicester) 1975/6 Mee 17 3rd (Wolves) 2nd (Everton) 1976/7 Neill 8 5th (M’boro) 5th …
By Tony Attwood On January 8th Arsenal played their first undisputed match. It is “undisputed” because the details of the game were carried in the press. It is the “first undisputed” because the game normally considered the “first” (against Eastern Wanderers) is covered in mystery and uncertainty. The mentioning of Royal Arsenal v Erith in …
Read More “January 8: Anniversary of the first undisputed Arsenal match”
By Tony Attwood There are two reasons for choosing Arsenal v Bedford as the topic for January 7, apart from the fact that the result was remarkable. First, we are obviously talking cup football at the moment, following our draw on January 6 2013 with Swansea. And second January 7 is not exactly Arsenal’s favourite …
Read More “January 7: Arsenal 2 Bedford 2, on our least favourite day of the year.”
By Tony Attwood Herbert Chapman made Arsenal – of that there can be no doubt. And therefore you won’t be surprised to find more articles about Chapman on this site than any other manager. The index to the Herbert Chapman articles shows just how much work we have put into this project, analysing his style …
Ted Platt Ted Platt was born in Romford on 26 March 1921 and at the time of writing is still with us, having reached the age of 91. He started out with Colchester United of the Southern League and was transferred directly from them to Arsenal. Ted Platt then signed for Arsenal on January 5 1939 …
Read More “Ted Platt: wartime keeper who could not replace Swindin or Kelsey”
By Tony Attwood 3 January 1951: Arsenal sign Dennis Evans from Ellesmere Port Town for £1500 Dennis Evans was born on 18 May 1930 in Ellesmere Port and played for his local side. He was signed from them directly to Arsenal, by Tom Whittaker who was building his next league winning side with Dennis …
By Tony Attwood This coming weekend, as we all know, Arsenal play in the FA Cup third round – which as always is their first match in the competition. The FA Cup, as you’ll know if you follow Untold Arsenal, starts way back in August with the Extra Preliminary Round, and this season we saw …
Read More “Jan 2: Arsenal play in the fifth qualifying round of the FA Cup”
By Tony Attwood January 1st 2005 and… Emmanuel Eboué joins Arsenal from Beveren. Eboué started playing football for ASEC Mimosas based in Abidjan which in fact is a story in itself. The club is the most successful side in Ivorian football, and it has within it Académie MimoSifcom which has produced players such as Bonaventure Kalou, Didier …
Read More “ASEC Mimosas, Beveren, Emmanuel Eboué, Arsenal, Charlton”
