AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
During the autumn of 1912 it was no secret that Woolwich Arsenal were preparing to move out of their Plumstead ground, and a number of journalists took to stalking Henry Norris, the club’s chairman, in the hope of spotting where the new ground would be. On this day in 1912 Athletic News, a journal which …
Read More “When the media reported Arsenal were moving to Harringey Park”
The events of this day in 1990 have always bemused me because for all the world it looked as if the Football League and Football Association were actually frightened of Arsenal and Manchester United. Liverpool were clear favourites at the top of the league on the day when there was a sport of argy-bargy on …
Read More “When Arsenal were deducted two points for a spot of argy bargy.”
If you look at this league table there are some elements that might look familiar, but others which seem hard to believe. But when you have got your head round it, take a guess at the year, without reading on any futher. Yes it was a first division table and it included in it Ipswich, …
Read More “When Arsenal (bottom of the league) played Tottenham (one from bottom)”
The Autumn of 2014 was just one of a number of occasions in which the media and some Arsenal supporters attempted to portray Arsene Wenger as a terrible manager who needed to be replaced – on this occasion by suggesting that the club’s start to the season was the worst in 30 years. In fact …
There has been a tendency for the last years of Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal to be painted as downhill all the way, but in fact there was a lot to get excited about in those final years – including the winning of the record number of FA Cups both for the manager individually, and …
Read More “When Alexis Sanchez was a hero, as Arsenal scored 11 in three league games.”
It seems hard to imagine that just three years after winning their first double, Arsenal could be 22nd in the league and heading for relegation. The only thing that lightened the gloom was that Tottenham were also in trouble and were 21st. But that was the situation on this day in 1974 as all the …
Read More “From double winners to 22nd in the league in just three short years.”
When Theo Walcott scored two goals on this day in 2016 he was a shining light in the club as 10 goals from 23 starts confirmed, but his days were numbered. In the following season he scored three goals in 14 games and was then sold in the winter window to Everton after six games …
Read More “Arsenal go top of the league as Walcott shows his style and ability”
Having won the Fairs Cup in 1970, Arsenal went on to win the double for the first time in 1971 and this was seen by many (and not just those within the club) as the rebirth of the Arsenal of the 1930s when all other clubs fell beneath an inexorable march that led to five …
Read More “The decline and collapse of Arsenal after the first double”
Most Arsenal fans know the name of Chapman, and I suspect most also know that he was the manager who gave Arsenal their first trophies – the FA Cup, followed by two league titles. His death at a tragically early age robbed him of a life that would undoubtedly have brought him ever more honours, …
Read More “When Herbert Chapman was banned from football for life.”
The name Jack Humble is not well known among Arsenal supporters today, and yet he was central to the evolution of the club from being an amateur works team to a professional club recruiting players from around the country, and of course ultimately entering the League in 1893. He was elected as the first chairman …
Read More “The man who turned Arsenal from a local team of amateurs into a full blown league team.”
There were a series of match fixing scandals in the pre-first world war era, and at first the League did everything it could to ignore them, at one stage threatening to ban Henry Norris, the Arsenal chairman, from football, if he ever mentioned match fixing again. But when the evidence was overwhelming the full blame …
Read More “Why match fixing in football only involved the players, not the directors”
On this day in 2013, some Arsenal fans group representatives wrote to Stan Kroenke requesting he honour his pledge made in 2011 to meet Arsenal fans groups. He didn’t. However his son Josh Kroenke did turn up to a meeting (without warning) on 10 March 2019. That was a fans’ forum at which with head …
By Tony Attwood If you ever read my ramblings on Untold Arsenal you might have noticed that I am rather wary of calls for a manager to be removed after a series of poor results. Partly this is because of the lessons learned from history, for on this day in 1926 Arsenal slipped down to …
Read More “The ultimate proof of why sacking the manager is not always the best plan.”
On this day in 1914 Arsenal changed its name. But this wasn’t the only change that has ever happened. We know that Arsenal used the name Dial Square for its first game – but how formally that name was adopted is not sure and it was only used for one match – it at …
by Tony Attwood One of the central factors in Sir Henry Norris’ tenure as chairman of Arsenal was making the club break even. When he took it over, it was massively in debt – a debt which Sir Henry himself cleared. From that point on, making a profit was his key aim, for his belief …
Read More “When Arsenal hired entertainers as part of the team”
by Tony Attwood We are used to contemporary reports appearing about footballers who despite their talent are troubled souls, having disputes with their club, being involved in dubious activities that bring them to the attention of the law, leaving clubs after a row, going absent without permission from the club… But few can equal Henry …
by Tony Attwood For many people history is just the dry recording of facts, and I get a regular stream of correspondence telling me that I should be more concerned about Arsenal in the present day than bothering with all this history stuff. But I find history interesting, and over the years it has given …
Read More “Searching out the location of Arsenal’s first FA Cup match”
by Tony Attwood One of the most fascinating results of studying Arsenal’s history is just how commonly held views about the club’s past turn out to be utterly untrue. For example, it is reported in many histories of the club that after Arsenal turned professional in 1893, one way or another all the local clubs …
Read More “The falsification of Arsenal’s history by repeating what the last guy said”
This is the day in Arsenal’s history in 1925 when supposedly a conversation took place between manager Herbert Chapman and club captain Charlie Buchan as to how the club could counter the approach teams were taking to the new offside law introduced in the summer of 1925. The rule change meant that only two men …
Read More “One of the famous stories about Arsenal turns out not to be true at all.”
It is not just the fact that some clubs play a more industrial style of football than Arsenal it is also the way in which some managers are able to get away with saying anything they like about referees, while if an Arsenal manager speaks in that way, he is immediately hauled up before the …
Read More “There are managers who can question referees, and those who have to stay silent”
As a player at Arsenal Alan Smith was widely admired. A George Graham purchase he delivered as a centre forward in as much as he scored 86 goals in 264 games. Not the very best centre forward rate, but still a very welcome input into the team. After retiring he took up journalism, appearing on …
Read More “The ex-Arsenal player who gained access to the club and then went too far”
On this day in 1892 the man who wrote the column about Woolwich Arsenal FC in the Woolwich Gazette, issued a complaint about how everyone always disagreed with him. How different that is from today, where the newspapers, broadcasters and bloggers all seek to find common ground and argue that Arsenal is in a desperate …
Read More “How the role of the football journalist has inverted itself.”
Richard Wright is remembered as a backup goalkeeper in the Arsenal title winning team of 2001/2, playing 12 games – enough to get him a medal. He made his debut on this day in 2001. Later in his career he was with Manchester City, but despite four years with the club as a player, never …
Read More “Arsenal’s title winning keeper who kept signing, but hardly played”
28 September 2002 is a day that should be commemorated at Arsenal as one of its great anniversaries because this is the day when not only were records broken, but the world of football woke up to what a truly fantastic team Arsenal had built. Of course the journalists, tutored in years of knocking Arsenal, …
Read More “The day Arsenal went beyond the concept of Total Football”
It may be hard to imagine but by the mid 1970s the national media were so transfixed by issues relating to player contracts that they hardly bothered to mention, let alone report, north London derby matches. And indeed the crowd seemed to feel much the same way with under 38,000 attending the game on this …
Read More “When Arsenal played Tottenham in the 70s and no one was really interested”
