AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood On February 18th 1987 Tony Adams made his international debut for England in a 4-2 win over Spain. He was the first player to be born after England’s one and only world up victory in 1966 who played for England. We already have, as you would anticipate, an article on Tony Adams …
Read More “Tony Adams, and the building of the famous back four”
By Tony Attwood I sometimes think that many of the fans who moan about the current (2013) state of Arsenal, and make their comments about “the worst Arsenal team ever” have no concept of history at all. Perhaps because I have lived there and been through them, any new ones that come along are less …
Read More “Remembering Arsenal disasters – cup shocks are more common than you might think”
Mark Andrews – @royalarsenalmra As part of the ongoing research into our next book in the next few months we will be producing a series of historiographies and reviews of issues and books that have been written about Arsenal in their early years. Among the items covered will be: What kit the club wore in their …
Read More “Royal Arsenal : Foundations – Ta ra ra Boom de ay The Arsenal’s Won Today”
By Tony Attwood Dan Lewis has been mentioned on this site quite a few times, but hasn’t had his own article thus far. The reason for this is that prior to Herbert Chapman’s arrival at the club, Knighton (our previous manager) had been using Jock Robson in goal with Dan Lewis as reserve keeper. Now …
Read More “Daniel Lewis: the goalkeeper who lasted from Knighton to Chapman”
By Tony Attwood Of course I don’t have to say which Liam – even if we had had several first team players called Liam, there would only be one Liam Brady. Liam was born in Dublin on this day, and joined Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1971 aged 15. His first game was on 6 …
Laurie Scott was born on 23rd April 1917 in Sheffield, and was signed by George Allison for Arsenal from his first club, Bradford City, on 12th February 1937. Arsenal quickly changed him from being a winger to being a right back, and played in the reserves for two years, until the outbreak of war. He …
Read More ““Laurie” Scott; signed by Arsenal on 12 Feb 1937″
By Tony Attwood It is an oft-repeated mantra of this blog, that it is more than anything else, a sketch pad. A place where anyone with an interest in Arsenal’s history can put forth theories, find such evidence as they can to back the theory up, and then let everyone else have a bash at …
Read More “Not 125 Years since the first Arsenal match at the Manor Ground”
By Tony Attwood Paul Mariner played 60 times for Arsenal in the league and 10 times in cup games. He was with us for three seasons and scored 17 goals. Arsenal was the third at which he played – his overall total was 561 games and 214 goals. Prior to Arsenal Paul had four seasons …
Mark Andrews (twitter: @royalarsenalmra) & Andy Kelly (twitter: @gooner_ak) Tony published a welcome update for those of us not able to go yesterday to the House of Commons event and made reference to the team photo taken at the first match at Highbury, on 6 September 1913. This photo appears to have been used in the past …
By Tony Attwood On 7 February 2013, for the second year running Jeremy Corbyn, the MP for Islington North, sponsored Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA) to use one of the committee rooms at the Houses of Parliament for its annual social event. As last year, we used the occasion as one in which we could …
Read More “Arsenal History Society celebrates the move north at the House of Commons”
By Tony Attwood This article originally appeared on Untold Arsenal in error. It was meant to be here. Sorry. Hindsight is wonderful, or a painful reminder. The result of Everton 0 Arsenal 1 in the League Cup semi-final first leg on 7 Feb 1988 really felt good, good, good. The season was much like the …
Read More “Everton 0 Arsenal 1. 7 Feb 1988. Book now for Wembley. But…”
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 Andy Kelly On 10 March 1919 the English Football League held a special meeting to decide whether to expand the League from two divisions each with 20 teams to two divisions each with 22 teams. They would also decide which teams would constitute each division. One of those decisions has been a cause of …
Read More “Arsenal’s Election To The First Division In 1919”
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″
