AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Today is the anniversary of Arsene Wenger’s last home match as manager. His final season – 2017/18 – ended with Arsenal 6th in the league. Team P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Manchester City 38 32 4 2 106 27 79 100 2 Manchester United 38 25 6 7 68 28 …
Read More “Arsenal’s points per game decline, and the anniversaries for 6 May.”
Here are the quiz questions for today. All the answers are to be found in the anniversary files after the questions. 1: Arsenal chose their new name – “Woolwich Arsenal” on this day. What name did they have before this? 2: Arsenal played their first ever European match on this day. Who was it against? …
Read More “The Arsenal history quiz for 5 May. How much Arsenal history do you know?”
By Tony Attwood If you know your Arsenal history – especially if you know your wartime Arsenal history, I would love to hear from you. On this day in 1940 – the first season of the wartime league during the 2nd world war – Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 3-1 in what Ollier describes as 2nd …
Seven questions below, all of which have some relevance to 3 May in Arsenal’s history. All the answers are to be found in the Arsenal Anniversary files for 3 May which follow the seven questions. Good luck. 1: 3 May 1893 – one of the most important days in the history of Arsenal. What happened? …
Read More “How well do you know your Arsenal history? Here’s the 3 May quiz.”
Here are the ten questions for today, in ascending date order across the years, set by Tony Attwood (who cheated by having the answers before he started). 8 or more correct – you can take over running the Arsenal History Society 5 to 7 correct – you probably know some other Arsenal anniversaries we have …
Read More “The Arsenal quiz for 2 May. How much do you know about the club?”
All of the questions below are related to Arsenal anniversaries for 1 May. Answers can be found in the anniversary details below the questions. 1: In the early years of the Football League there was no “transfer window” – but the first-ever window opened on this day. Why was that and when did it …
Read More “Test your Arsenal knowledge with today’s Arsenal Quiz”
The Arsenal History Quiz of the day. Set by Tony Attwood of the AISA Arsenal History Society. All the answers are to be found in relation to Arsenal events that took place on 30 April throughout history. To help you, the anniversaries are listed below the questions, and the questions are in chronological order. But …
Read More “The Arsenal History Quiz: how much do you know about Arsenal on 30 April?”
The Arsenal History Quiz of the day. Set by Tony Attwood of the AISA Arsenal History Society. All the answers are to be found in relation to Arsenal events that took place on 29 April throughout history. To help you, the anniversaries are listed below the questions, and the questions are in chronological order. But …
Read More “The Arsenal Quiz for 29 April. How well do you know your club?”
Our quiz comes from today’s anniversaries, which gives a clue as to the actual date of the month – all you have to get is the year. So before you scroll down, Question 1: On this day Arsenal won their first European trophy. Who did we beat, what was the score, and how many years …
Read More “The Arsenal Quiz. What was the first European trophy we won, and when was it?”
George Lawrence is the man who invented the football special – and with it the whole notion of away support, persuading railway companies to organise special one-off return trips to and from football grounds where Woolwich Arsenal played. 27 April 1851: George Lawrence, the club’s first major benefactor, was born. He became interested in football when …
Read More “Remembering George Lawrence, the man who invented the “football special””
Tony Attwood reports on the day that Herbert Chapman resigned from Arsenal This is only our second video and we are getting used to the whole approach, so please do excuse the rough and ready approach. You may also at this time be interested in Arsenal win the cup for the first time – …
Read More “Arsenal History Society video: 26 April. Chapman resigns!”
Today is the anniversary of Arsenal’s first major trophy: the FA Cup in 1930. While Chapman is rightly remembered as the manager who built the sensationally successful Arsenal of the 1930s, it should also be remembered that after a flying start, taking Arsenal to second in his first season with the club, the club then …
Read More “Arsenal win the cup for the first time – complete with video!”
Welcome to the AISA Arsenal History Society’s first video – this to celebrate the biggest anniversary of 25 April.
In 1893 a major split occurred within Royal Arsenal FC as it prepared to become a professional club and join the Football League. The split was not primarily about professionalism and amateurism, but rather about who should run the club. A group of men from the wealthier families – we might today signify them as …
Read More “When Arsenal’s local rivals played just across the road.”
From 2006 to 2015, Arsenal had 10 years of coming third or fourth every season, with the six fourth-place finishes leading to the oft-repeated phrase “fourth is not a trophy”. The two FA Cups won during this period were of course trophies, and kept Arsenal as the most successful FA Cup team in history, but …
Read More “Fourth might not be a trophy, but it is still harder than it looks.”
There can be a tendency to think that how football is now, is how it always has been. This was certainly so when certain extremist fan groups criticised Arsenal, for allowing the crowd figures at the stadium to drop below 60,000 as for certain games, the number of no-shows increased somewhat. But the fact …
Read More “Arsenal’s crowd numbers across the years – and a video of the 1932 cup final.”
This is the anniversary of Mr Wenger’s last home match with Arsenal, and it was of course heavily featured by the BBC as they focussed on the only Arsenal manager ever to win three League titles, and not only the man who won more FA Cups with Arsenal than any other manager, but who won …
Read More “When our Arsenal banner was selected by the BBC for full-on publicity”
Today, rather than look back to the life of an Arsenal player from the past, I thought maybe we should focus just for a moment on the most extraordinary top flight match in England ever. The only game ever to generate 12 goals with both sides scoring. There have been a couple of games in …
Read More “The most goals ever scored in a top flight game with both sides scoring”
Colin Hill made his debut for Arsenal’s first team on this day, 20 April, in 1983 in the Norwich 3 Arsenal 1 defeat. The following season he played 37 league games, as Arsenal finished sixth in the league. However he was then displaced by the signing of Viva Anderson which put him primarily in the …
Perry Groves turned out for 155 league games for Arsenal scoring 21 goals, starting in 1986, having previously played for four years with Colchester United. Leaving Arsenal in 1992 he was at Southampton for two years but only played 15 games, before brief spells with Dagenham and Redbridge, Canvey Island and Guilden Morden FC …
Football managers are measured generally by their success in winning trophies, and by their percentage win rate in matches. Each is a valid measurement, and on each Arsene Wenger comes top of the table. But who were the worst long term managers of Arsenal? The men who won nothing, and also had a low percentage …
Read More “The best and the worst managers Arsenal have ever had”
It was a director of Aston Villa who first set out the idea of a League for football teams, instead of simply having endless friendly games with a few knock out cup matches. He proposed the idea in a letter sent to his fellow directors and directors of five other northern clubs on 22 March …
Read More “Happy birthday Football League: formed on this day”
It’s Freddie’s birthday and we wish him many happy returns from the Arsenal History Society. It is also the day we commemorate the birth of Ted Drake, one of the all-time greatest Arsenal players, and the man who scored all seven goals in one game against Aston Villa. Here are the anniversaries for today. You …
Read More “Happy Birthday Freddie Ljungberg, and remembering Ted Drake.”
Steve Walford is one of that handful of players who turned out for both Arsenal and Tottenham starting out with Tottenham in 1974 but he only played twice for them before Terry Neill, who of course himself at been at Tottenham, signed him for £25,000 on 1 August 1977. He played primarily as a centre half, and …
Football during the two world wars kept going, despite efforts by the national press and members of the government to have it stopped, efforts which were particularly strong in the first world war. In the first global conflict the Football League continued its full programme for 1914/15, not least because of the widespread belief at …
Read More “When Arsenal used seven different goalkeepers in one season”
