AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Today is Robin van Persie. It comes just at the moment when he is moving into TV work with BT Sport, a task he seems well suited for since his memory of his own career seems a little hazy, as he has of late been speaking of his time with Manchester United as if he …
Read More “It’s RVPs birthday although we he’s not really being completely honest at the moment”
A daily look at Arsenal’s history, by Tony Attwood It seems hard to credit it, but there was a time (this day in 1977) when the League and FA combined to ban the wearing of a sponsor’s name on the players’ shirts. Quite what the point of this step, which could only help bring …
Read More “When the FA and League banned sponsor’s names on players’ shirts.”
Goalkeepers are eccentric – it is one of the fundamental folk lores of football. And if ever there was one who seemed to play up to this vision it was Wojciech Szczęsny, who after a number of incidents finally pushed his manager, Mr Wenger, too far when he was caught smoking after a game. He …
Read More “The eccentricity of goalkeepers: Arsenal anniversaries on this day.”
In 2014 BT Sport had the rights to the Emirates Cup, and spent much of the studio time during the competition making fun of the competition’s organisation and its points awards, with a point awarded for each goal scored. Quite what BT executives were thinking when they encouraged their anti-Arsenal commentators to laugh about their …
Read More “How sometimes a football blog can have some influence on the game”
Today in 2015 Arsenal won the Community Shield. I rather suspect that while many Arsenal supporters will know how many times Arsenal have won the FA Cup and how many times the League, they might be a little less sure of where things stand in terms of the Community Shield. And of course this is …
Read More “How many times have Arsenal won the Charity/Community Shield?”
By Tony Attwood Arsenalisation was the term coined to symbolise the programme of turning Arsenal’s new stadium into a place that reflected Arsenal and its history. It was in relation to this that I had the opportunity to put to Ivan Gazidis the notion that there should be statues of the great symbols of Arsenal’s …
Read More “Remembering the concept of Arsenalisation and the statue of Chapman”
On 31 July 1972 Arsenal played a Champions Challenge match against Benfica, celebrating the two clubs’ positions as champions. What Arsenal did not know of course was that in terms of trophy winning it was all over for a long time to come. The only other trophy in the decade was an FA Cup victory …
Read More “Celebrating the title in 1971 and the wait of 18 years before doing it again.”
By Tony Attwood In considering how Arsenal might do this season it may be tempting to think that there is so much discontent and uncertainty surrounding the club that it would be very hard for Arsenal to make a serious impression on the league and regain their place in the top four. But this would …
Read More “Using Arsenal’s history to predict this season’s results”
The Arsenal History Society site contains a wide number of series of articles – these are detailed on the right side of this page under the heading “Pages”. You can find out more about many of them on our home page as well as details of our books. Here we have today’s anniversaries, including the …
Read More “The anniversary of the passing of the man who saved Arsenal from oblivion”
Knocking Arsenal is of course a major part of the work of the football journalist, and as our companion site has shown through analysing media reports, Arsenal get far more negative coverage than any of the other major teams in the league – irrespective of their position. But on this day in 2011 the BBC …
Read More “When the BBC decided that the two greatest cup shocks of all time happened to Arsenal”
Below are today’s anniversaries including the anniversary of the extraordinary transfer of Overmars to Barcelona, which knocked up the amazing statistic of £4m a game. You might also like to note that the Arsenal in the Summer series has itself now been updated to include seasons up to 2018 – you can find the latest …
Read More “Arsenal sell a player to Barcelona for £4m a game”
The Arsenal in the Summer series looks at what has happened to the club during the summer months, year on year. Over 60 seasons have been covered in this series, and there is a full index here. Just before the end of the 2017/18 season Arsenal’s manager of 22 years resigned, and Unai Emery was …
Pre-season friendlies against foreign clubs are a fairly recent innovation – if you have been reading our Arsenal in the Summer series of articles you will know that for many years, if there was to be a tour it would be at the end of the season, not the start. And in 2012 we also …
Read More “When Arsenal fans became anxious about the pre-season form”
The Arsenal in the Summer series looks at what has happened to the club during the summer months, year on year. Over 60 seasons have been covered in this series, and there is a full index here. It is extraordinary how Arsenal’s summers have changed and evolved over time and I do hope you find …
Read More “Arsenal in the summer 2017: the signing of Lacazette”
By Tony Attwood As you may have seen we are currently also updating our series Arsenal in the Summer – which now covers over 60 seasons, reflecting how football outside the season has changed over the years. There is a full index to all the articles in the series here We are currently …
Read More “When Arsenal were told – we need larger crowds to keep the club going”
The Arsenal in the Summer series looks at what has happened to the club during the summer months year on year. Over 60 seasons have been covered in this series, and there is a full index here. It is extraordinary how Arsenal’s summers have changed and evolved over time and I do hope you find …
Today is the anniversary of the moment in 1910 when Henry Norris took over Woolwich Arsenal FC. There were no other deals on offer at the time, and without Norris’ engagement with the club, it would have ceased trading and been wound up. Norris subsequently cleared Arsenal’s debts, moved the club to Highbury and made …
Read More “The day Arsenal just avoided going out of business”
The Arsenal in the Summer series looks at what has happened to the club during the summer months year on year. Over 60 seasons have been covered in this series, and there is a full index here. It is extraordinary how Arsenal’s summers have changed and evolved over time and I do hope you find …
Happy birthday Martin Keown indeed. Despite his occasional criticisms of Arsenal since his retirement, he is still remembered with great enthusiasm by many of us who watched his two spells at the club which resulted in 310 games for Arsenal across two spells. In all he played 585 first class games. And of course he …
Today we should remember the anniversary of the birth of Henry Norris – the man who ensured that Woolwich Arsenal survived in 1910 and ultimately became the “Bank of England club” in the 1930s. That title, reflecting Arsenal’s supreme ability to operate in the transfer market in the 1930s, came about because of Norris’ …
Read More “Why we should celebrate the life of Sir Henry Norris, founder of the modern Arsenal.”
Two issues leap out from today Arsenal anniversaries. First the transfer of Jon Sammels in 1971 – a player forced to leave because he was endlessly booed by the Arsenal crowd. And second the signing of Rob Holding in 2016. As the note below says, this signing was met with absolute derision by the media …
Read More “Selling Sammels, buying Holding: two affairs that show some Arsenal fans at their worst”
I am not sure how many Arsenal fans truly understood the extent of Arsenal’s rise to the top from 1930 onwards, and how it took in three full time and one temporary manager. Nor indeed how when it came to an end, we came upon The Big Sleep (as John Sowman’s wonderful book on 1953 …
Read More “10 trophies in 16 seasons – the start of Arsenal’s glory.”
On this day in 1998 Arsenal’s application to play Champions League games at Wembley was approved. Arsenal played three group stages matches at Wembley in 1998/9, and again in 1998/2000, and every match saw a crowd of over 70,000 in the ground – although the results were not that positive. But the experiment proved that …
Read More “How Arsenal test their level of support with six games at Wembley”
On 22 September 1996, Arsene Wenger was appointed manager of Arsenal, but although there were many rumours concerning his appointment before that, for a lot of the summer there was uncertainty as to what was going on at the club. Bruce Rioch was sacked on 12 August, and at the time no one knew who …
Read More “Why the first friendly of the season doesn’t really tell us much about what is to come”
How much harm can one man’s carelessness do to a club’s reputation? Quite a lot it seems, if we take a look at the writing of Bernard Joy. Joy had been an Arsenal player, an England international, and a famous journalist, so when he produced the book “Foreword Arsenal!” it became something of a footballing …
Read More “The Arsenal player and journalist for whom fact and fiction merged”
