AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
31 December 1994: John Jensen scores – Arsenal 1 QPR 3 John Jensen was a defensive midfielder, a cult hero, and the man whose transfer ultimately brought down George Graham. When we bought him he had already been Danish Player of the Year, and played in a UEFA cup semi final with Brøndby. He was …
Read More “31 December 1994: John Jensen scores – Arsenal 1 QPR 3”
By Tony Attwood If you have read “Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” (see link below) you will know that Woolwich Arsenal became a professional club in 1891, but did not join the Football League until 1893, and thus became the only southern club in the league. Naturally this meant that all away games …
Read More “December 30: Anniversary of Arsenal’s first away league win”
By Tony Attwood There is already a full article about George Male on this site, so no need to repeat his story – I have just added a link in the Anniversary section to this date and his first appearance. But it is interesting to pause and see how Arsenal ended 1930. We had so …
Read More “Arsenal 7 Blackpool 1, Dec 27 1930. George Male appears; first championship in site”
By Tony Attwood Bill Linward was an outside left who joined Arsenal from West Ham United in December 1902 and made his début against Millwall Athletic on Boxing Day 1902. On the following day he played at number 11 in a division 2 match against Burnley. We won 5-1 – quite a turn around after …
Read More “Bill Linward joined Arsenal and played 2 games in 2 days”
By Tony Attwood Watch the big screens at the Ems prior to any match and just before you see the players come out you will see a stream of old film from the days of past glory. Among these pictures is a grainy black and white sequence of Liam Brady scoring a goal from the …
This article was updated on 8 December 2013 —————————– On 10 December 1898 Woolwich Arsenal played New Brighton Tower, the score being New Brighton Tower 1 Arsenal 3. No crowd figure is recorded. In the return match on April 8 1899 Arsenal won 4-0. In the following season Arsenal won 2-0 away and 5-0 at …
Read More “Arsenal against New Brighton Tower; one of the artificial clubs of football.”
By Tony Attwood Joe Shaw already has several articles about him on this site – and there is an index of these here. But what the earlier articles don’t do is focus on Joe as a lifelong servant of the club. He played for Arsenal, managed the reserves, and for half a season managed the …
Read More “Joe Shaw – the greatest long term servant Arsenal has ever had”
By Tony Attwood This is part of a series of articles on the managerial work of George Graham. Graham did not sign Tony Adams for Graham only took over the club in 1986, and Adams signed for Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980. Tony Adams made his first start for the first XI on 5 …
This article is part of the review of the players who played under George Graham. By Tony Attwood David Seaman began his career at Leeds United but Eddie Gray, their player manager turned him down, so he joined Peterborough then in the 4th division. The transfer fee was £4000. In 1984 he went to Birmingham …
Read More “David Seaman: Arsenal’s most stunning keeper ever?”
By Tony Attwood Whatever happened to Micky Thomas? When I heard that Thomas had signed for Liverpool on this day in 1991 I thought it was a joke – a stupid wind-up. Thomas, the man who had really hurt Liverpool in more ways than can be imagined had moved to the team we beat to …
Read More “16 December 1991: Michael Thomas to Liverpool. Surely the oddest transfer of all time.”
By Tony Attwood Today, December 15, is an Arsenal anniversary that I can’t imagine anyone even thinking about, let alone writing about. Well, anyone except me, I guess. The event is question is one that won’t throw much light on the situation either, for it is the anniversary of the signing of Harold Peel being …
By Tony Attwood Surely every Arsenal supporter knows that Ted Drake once scored seven goals in a league game. What not everyone will know is that it was on December 14 1935, and was actually in the 7-1 away win against Aston Villa. So those are the facts, but what else can we glean from …
By Tony Attwood Arsenal FC has a long history of supposed fans turning against their own players – a history that goes back to the 19th century. Indeed much of this early Anti-Arsenal Arsenal activity is discussed in The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: a volume which considers in detail the crowd’s behaviour at the …
Read More “December 13: when Arsenal fans turned against Arsenal – the start of the modern era”
By Tony Attwood The Walsall Experiment You’ll have heard about the game: Walsall of the Third Division North vs Arsenal; 14th January 1933. In the previous season we had come second in the league and were runners up in the F.A. Cup. At the time of the Walsall game we were top of the 1st …
Read More “Arsenal’s most humbling experience: The Walsall Experiment”
——————————- 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 FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches The sites… For the parent who really wants to know what is really going on in schools …
Read More “Today is the anniversary of Arsenal’s first ever match”
By Tony Attwood A little while ago I wrote up an analysis of how Herbert Chapman, over a period of years, built a great team, working on each position in turn until he had the definitive player for the role. Then as that player’s ability declined, or if he suffered a really bad injury, he …
Read More “Chapman’s real secret: how the club was organised during his reign”
By Tony Attwood This is an article in our series on Herbert Chapman. The full index of the series to date is to be found in the Chapman page of the Managers’ Index We have heard so much about how Herbert Chapman revolutionised Arsenal, introducing the WM formation after being beaten 7-0 by Newcastle, how …
Read More “Chapman’s real innovations as a football manager”
We have written before about the crowd at Woolwich Arsenal’s ground and I won’t repeat everything said before. But it is important to say that the book has now been published. If you want to order the book directly from the publishers click here But here’s another option: if you would like to read a …
Read More “The Crowd At Woolwich Arsenal – the first complete analysis”
The club that changed football Coming this week – “The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal” Making the Arsenal Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season? The only guaranteed way to lose weight programme Untold Arsenal Arsenal History Index ————————————————– The big difference that Chapman made in his first season. By Tony …
Read More “From Failure to Excellence: moving from Knighton to Chapman”
By Mark Andrews As part of the Arsenal History Society programme, Hamilton House is publishing my thesis, which is the source for chapter 6 of the recently published “Woolwich Arsenal FC 1893-1915: the club that changed football”. This book ‘The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC’ is in essence the original research I carried out while studying …
By Tony Attwood This article was updated in the light of evidence and questions raised in the comments made at the end. The comments have been left in place so that the questions raised can still be seen by anyone who would like to do further investigation. The name Fred Pagnam hardly rings …
Read More “Fred Pagnam: One reason why Knighton’s testimony should be ignored”
The club that changed football Making the Arsenal ———————————- Today, 14 October is the 119th anniversary of Arsenal’s all time FA Cup record victory. It came right at the start of the Woolwich Arsenal era, and is recorded in detail in the book, Woolwich Arsenal the club that changed football. Below is an extract from …
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The club that changed football Making the Arsenal Coming very soon: The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal By Tony Attwood We have variant stories as to how Herbert Chapman moved from being a footballer to being a football manager. Not very variant, but slightly different. But it is still possible to get a fair picture of …
The club that changed football Making the Arsenal The main series: Islington 100: celebrating 100 years of Arsenal in Islington Arsenal’s Anniversaries The Managers index with two managers that no one else includes! ——————————— By Tony Attwood For the story so far, see The Chapman Files We’ve looked at Chapman’s choice of player for each …
Read More “The Chapman formation: did he really create something new?”
Did Chapman really introduce a new formation? The way in which teams line up in formations that we today call 4-3-3- etc etc emerged from the original rules of football, and to how matters led up to what we now celebrate as the WM formation of Herbert Chapman can only be understood in the context …
Read More “Did Chapman really introduce a new playing formation in 1925?”
