AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
A lot of football history consists of one writer taking as gospel what a previous writer has said, rather than anyone either going back and checking facts, or asking “is that actually likely?” These two approaches were used by the little group of us who formed the Arsenal History Society and the work has resulted …
Read More “How we discovered that Arsenal’s early history had been wrongly recorded”
Arsenal’s move from Plumstead to Highbury was not universally liked, and many local residents and shop keepers in Islington objected strongly, even forming a “Defence Committee” and demanding that the local council stop the move. It was a rather futile approach since the power of the local authority to stop the development of the unwanted …
Read More “Islington council accused of trying to crush Arsenal out of existence”
by Tony Attwood Having studied a bit of football history over the years I would always say, “don’t predict tomorrow in football, because of what happened today.” For example, the footballing world was fairly shocked when Leicester won the League in 2016 and journalists jostled with each other for hyperbole. “The greatest footballing story of …
Read More “Football history is full of strange rises and falls”
by Tony Attwood Tottenham’s objections to Arsenal moving to north London were incredibly strong and quite possibly ill-judged, given that Arsenal had been the club which had saved Tottenham when they had opted out of the Southern League, but then failed to be given a place in the Football League. In the re-run of the …
Read More “When Tottenham were found guilty of bad language and the stadium curse”
By Tony Attwood I have not been able to find in reference books a definitive statement concerning the Arsenal player who has scored in the largest consecutive number of goals in league games for the club, but I suspect it was Reg Lewis who scored for six games in a row at the start of …
Read More “Scoring in the longest run of consecutive games. Who holds the record?”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal’s motto “Victoria Concordia Crescit” was used in the club programme on this day for the first time in 1913, as part of generating a new spirit of togetherness in the club’s first months at Highbury. It translates as Victory through Harmony, and it is impossible to believe that many of the …
Read More “How many bloggers and fans actually know what Arsenal’s motto is”
The notion that Arsenal might take on the media and complain about the way they report the club probably seems very fanciful these days. After all, even when all the media had taken up the notion that Arsenal only had a budget of £40m this summer, the club did not respond – except when asked …
Read More “When Arsenal were so outraged by the media that they denounced the reporting”
I think many people who were not there at the time now assume that Thierry Henry was a success for Arsenal from the moment he came on the pitch for the first time, but this was far from being the case. Henry had to get used to his fellow Arsenal players, the tactics of defences …
Read More “Even Thierry Henry struggled to adjust to the Premier League at the start.”
Adebayor, who on this day in 2006 scored for Arsenal, is not exactly remembered fondly by Arsenal fans because of his exploits in leaving the club and what he did later, but the extraordinary thing about his was that when he was playing, in 104 games he got 46 goals. A ratio of 0.44 goals …
Read More “The strange behaviour and goalscoring decline of Adebayor”
On this day in 2014 Hector Bellerín made his Champions League debut for Arsenal having made the briefest of league cup appearances for Arsenal the season before. Following this game, and after a 2-0 defeat by Chelsea on 5 October Arsenal were in 8th position and again there was the usual ill-informed talk of the …
Read More “When the critics turned on Bellerin and said he should never play for Arsenal again.”
Did Osama bin Laden support, the head of Al Qaeda, actually support Arsenal? Bin Laden is most well known for his role in masterminding the September 11 attacks, which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 and prompted the United States to initiate the War on Terror. But did he actually attend some games at the Clock …
Looking at that question you might think the answer is either going to be a game against Tottenham, or a game against Leyton Orient. Or maybe Clapton Orient. Or there again against Tottenham in the first world war when they played on our ground. But no, let’s get rid of the war time games and …
The media of course love to highlight controversy – it gives them something to write about and fill the space without having to do any research at all. It also gets the audience excited, anxious to read the latest instalment. But when a supposedly serious newspaper launches into an attack on a player, finding him …
Read More “When the media attempt to influence football’s decisions we are all in trouble”
In 1952/3 Arsenal won the first division title under Tom Whittaker’s management. It meant he had won the league title twice as Arsenal’s manager, and won the FA Cup – exactly the same as achieved by Herbert Chapman and George Allison before him. What’s more in his six years as manager the club had never …
Read More “When one of the great Arsenal sides inexplicably fell apart”
On this day in 1998 Freddie Ljungberg joined Arsenal as a player. He is now, of course, first team assistant to the manager and since joining from Halmstad in 1998 he has always been a crowd favourite. He has also retained his long term willingness to relate to the fans – as when two of …
In terms of his historic legacy, Leslie Knighton might best be described as a menace, for he was the manager who some 20 years after he left Arsenal, wrote an autobiography which accused Sir Henry Norris, his boss, of the most awful nefarious deeds, many of which have passed into the mythology of Arsenal, not …
Read More “When the Arsenal team all took drugs, according to their manager”
Following the introduction of the new offside law in the summer of 1925, Arsenal lost 7-0 to Newcastle. It was Herbert Chapman’s first year at the club and the story told by the somewhat unbiased Charlie Buchan, who played inside right in the game, and later went on to become a famous journalist, promoted his …
Read More “Was it Charlie Buchan who solved the issue of the new offside law? Probably not.”
On this day in 1888 the first ever games were played in the Football League. What makes it particularly interesting is that although the clubs involved had agreed to play each other once at home and once away through the season, there was no agreement as to how the winner should be decided. Various ideas …
Read More “When the League started without any agreement as to how they could decide who had won”
By Tony Attwood Details of the many series and articles on Arsenal, and the books we have published, can be found on our home page. It is undoubtedly difficult for many supporters today who complain about Arsenal not being in the Champions League, to realise the depths to which Arsenal has sunk after previous …
Read More “The proof that a brilliant team without a decent manager will soon fall apart”
The final year at Highbury was a good thing for the club to celebrate of course, and the idea of playing in a kit that was the same as worn for the first league match at Highbury, played on this day in 1913, was a good idea too. Except that the picture that the club …
Read More “The first match at Highbury; but those maroon shirts were a myth”
On this day in 1992 Wimbledon beat Arsenal – and it wasn’t too much of a shock. This was the first year of the Premier League and Wimbledon had already been in the top tier for six seasons. Arsenal did finish above them in 1992/3, but only by two points. Other clubs in the first …
Read More “The unlikeliest of opponents who beat Arsenal no less than seven times.”
This day in 1937 marked the start of the final triumph of the glorious 1930s. Between April 1930 and April 1938 Arsenal won the league five times and the FA Cup twice, also coming runners’ up in the league once and beaten finalists in the league once. But this was not just the work of …
Read More “The men who got 33 (from the wing) 39 and 44 goals for Arsenal in a season”
Failing as Arsenal manager didn’t seem to matter much in the days of Billy Wright who passed away on this day in 1994. His reputation as a wonderful player stayed with him, and only Arsenal fans remembered the humiliations of his time at the club. In the league we finished 7th, 8th,13th and 14th, in …
Read More “The lowest ever crowds in the last 80 years and worst league position since 1925”
126 years ago today, Arsenal played their first ever league match, but it is a mark of the way the club was evolving at a very fast speed that none of the players in this game played in the first match of the following season. The estimated attendance at the match was 10,000. However it …
Read More “On this day: Arsenal’s first ever league match – against Newcastle.”
That headline does indeed reflect what happened to George Allison between 1910 (when he was editing the Arsenal programme) to this day in 1934 when he managed Arsenal for the first time at home. In fact Arsenal owe a huge amount to Allison, not just in terms of winning the league twice and FA Cup …
Read More “From programme editor to Arsenal manager in 24 years”
