AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
It is often forgotten just how short the success of the 1970s double team was – and with a FA Cup semi-final defeat to Sunderland on this day in 1973, the dream of a long term dominant team was just about over. The Double and the Uefa Cup were the trophies, but there were to …
Read More “Arsenal 7 April anniversaries: the end of the road for the great 70s team”
Publications I’ve just discovered another box of copies of the book “Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” our store room, having previously said it was out of print. So both this book and “Making the Arsenal” are now available as printed books, and on Kindle. Please see here for more details. On …
We regularly receive requests for information about Arsenal’s lost players. Here’s the latest – please write in if you have any further information. ————– I am trying to find any photos or MORE ABOUT John William Anderson was born in 1875 in Crook, Durham, Anderson started out at non-league Crook Town before turning professional …
Apologies for the non-appearance of the Anniversary files for a few weeks – I was in Australia and had horrific communication problems with total failure of my phone and difficulties with the laptop. But now we are back with the daily anniversary headline, and all the stories for today. All the anniversary files are contained …
Read More “Arsenal’s lowest crowd, and Chapman resigns. Arsenal anniversaires on 5 April”
What are the chances of Arsenal losing 4-5 twice in the space of two months, while also, between these games winning another league match 5-4? It is pretty rare and if you are a betting supporter you might want to try and find something a little more likely to bet on. In which case of …
Read More “Three Arsenal matches end 5-4 in two months. What are the chances?”
If Arsenal win their next league game (1st April vs Newcastle), last season’s points tally will be matched with seven games to spare. You would imagine that the meetings between Unai Emery and the board last summer touched on some pragmatic goals – improve on last season’s finish, secure Champions League football. When …
Read More “4th Place Finishes and the Context of Achievement”
On this day in 2017 Arsenal achieved yet another record in their long history of records – more FA Cup semi-finals than any other club. Of course the semi-final is not a trophy, but it was at this moment that the media finally realised that Mr Wenger was on the edge of becoming the …
If you are a regular reader of this site you will probably have read how Arsenal helped Tottenham get elected to the Football League in 1908, after the League had turned them down. We know why many clubs would not vote for Tottenham to join the League in 1908 – they had resigned from the …
Read More “How Tottenham’s actions inadvertently helped Arsenal into the first division”
And indeed come to that how many times have Tottenham finished above Arsenal in the League? There is a bit of an argument about this because quite often the clubs have not been in the same league, and so automatically Arsenal (being in Division 1) have been above Tottenham (Division 2 or the Southern League). …
Read More “How many times have Arsenal finished above Tottenham in the League?”
Today on 8 March 2019, the websites and blogs are full of criticisms of Arsenal, some of them running at a level which seems to suggest that the manager and the whole team should be dismissed and rebuilt. And all for one defeat. One can only presume that those making these criticisms were not around …
Read More “Maybe those who criticise Arsenal’s performance last night should remember the 1970s.”
6 March 1905: Thomas Fitchie and Robert Templeton represent Scotland – the first Arsenal players ever to do so. 6 March 1915:Arsenal played Lincoln away, and lost 1-0 – a sure sign that there was unlikely to be any late push to regain a promotion position in the latter part of the season. It was …
Read More “Arsenal anniversaries through the ages for 6 March”
If you were around in the days of Arsenal losing a league cup final at Wembley in 1988, you might remember the name of Gus Caesar and shudder. And you may be surprised to learn that he was a player who gained a lot of praise early on making 44 league appearances. But his star …
Read More “Remembering the time when Gus Caesar was a bright prospect”
By Tony Attwood I am not sure anyone particularly noticed at the time but 4 March was both the day that Henry Norris confirmed Arsenal were moving to Gillespie Road from Plumstead, and the day one year later that London County Council gave permission for the ground to be built. That doesn’t sound too odd, …
Read More “Arsenal stadium move announced, and allowed, plus the new shirt”
1979 was indeed a time of boring boring Arsenal, with defeat to Southampton on this day that year being just one of a run of three wins in 16 league games. Yet despite this the club ended up 7th, thanks to an excellent run from September 16 to December 23 1978, ending with the 5-0 …
Read More “When “Boring Boring Arsenal” was written with no sense of irony”
by Tony Attwood In compiling these anniversary files I find time and again myself looking at the details of a player who has signed for Arsenal, sometimes with a little bit of a fanfare, but who never make it, moving on to play in non-league football if at all. Why don’t they make it? …
Read More “The thousands of players signed and who never play, and move on, forgotten”
Not counting chickens before they are hatched has always been a good adage, and it is one that Tottenham Hotspur’s PA announcer of the late 1980s might always remember as he spent half time in a match in 1987 on this day telling Tottenham supporters how they could apply for tickets for the League Cup …
Read More “When Tottenham learned not to bank on getting into a cup final, before the SF was done”
Clubs can turn themselves around very quickly, and indeed I am not sure that many achieved such a turn round in one season as Arsenal did after Knighton’s last campaign in 1924/5. On this day in 1925 we see Arsenal’s eighth consecutive defeat. The following season we came second. And then five years on we …
Read More “From near relegation to 32 league goals in 7 games in just five seasons”
“One of the most appalling” the headline says, and it was only “one of”, of course, because beside the assault on Ramsey which happened on this day in 2010, we also recall the assault on Diaby that ultimately cost him his career. Ramsey was ultimately lucky – he recovered from the assault, although not only …
One of the interesting effects in gathering together all the Arsenal anniversaries for a single day is the contrasts it can offer up. In 1977 under Terry Neill’s management Arsenal had seven consecutive league defeats – the all time club record. But also during this run Arsenal lost (on this day in the FA …
Read More “7 league defeats in a row plus exit from the cup. And beating Tottenham 5-2”
After their match at Newcastle on 24 February 1934 at Newcastle rumours started to spread that the Arsenal train returning to London had crashed killing two players. This story was completely untrue although a “special” carrying Arsenal supporters had had a very minor accident. The reporting of the incident shows the complete lack of checking …
Read More “Rumour of two Arsenal players killed in rail crash dismissed as untrue”
Arsene Wenger is remembered for turning Arsenal around in his first season, despite one of the most appalling campaigns of all time by the media which tried to accuse him of child moelstation while in Japan, without any evidence to back up their disgraceful claims. And indeed he did give Arsenal new impetus, with the …
Read More “When Wenger’s Arsenal was beaten by Wimbledon, and couldn’t score a goal”
The man in question was Laurie Brown and it happened on this day in 1964, by which time it was clear to everyone except the Arsenal board that Billy Wright was a terrible manager and needed to go. Sadly they kept him for one more season, and the Highbury crowds plummeted to their lowest ever …
Read More “Arsenal man signs for Tottenham, plays for them next day, and scores”
In February 1970 there was considerable disgruntlement in the air at Arsenal as the club did indeed make it 10 in a row without a win. Just one year on and the first notions that Arsenal might not only win the league but also do the double were perhaps only whispered by those drunk …
Read More “From 10 league games without a win, to the Double. How quickly things change”
Leslie Knighton surely is the most notorious, devious and underhand of all the Arsenal managers in history. All managers write and say things to bolster their own position and excuse their own failures, but surely there has never been one who issued so many absolute downright lies in his own defence as Knighton, who managed …
Read More “When a bitter ex-Arsenal manager twists the truth for his own purposes”
For many Arsenal fans the 1970s are remembered as a time of great triumph – the first European trophy, the first double… and indeed into this day in 1972 there was hope of an unbelievable double double – winning the double two years running. But as today’s anniversaries show the reality was not like this. …
