Search Results for: "Pat Rice"

By Tony Attwood ———– Derby literally took the fight to Arsenal with O’Hare at one stage punching and kicking Graham repeatedly.  As players tried to pull O’Hare off, the referee checked with the linesman and then spoke to Gemmill and Simpson.  It was that sort of display. ———– The story so far… Arsenal in the …

Read More “Arsenal in the 70s, part 7: The remains of 1971/2, revival and defeat.”

Arsenal in the 70s, part 1: the re-birth of the club. 1969/70 Arsenal in the 70s, part 2: preparing for the impossible.  July to December 1970 By Tony Attwood Thus Arsenal had finished 1970 in a solid position in the league, still in the Fairs Cup, and of course ready for the opening of another …

Read More “Arsenal in the 70s, part 3. The Golden Treble”

By Tony Attwood. (Amended 1 June 2017) Although Arsenal entered 1970/71 season on a high having won a European competition for the first time, they were still often reminded by a belligerent press that they had not won any major domestic competition since the league trophy of 1953.  Worse, they were the nearly men, the …

Read More “Arsenal in the 70s part 2: preparing to do the impossible.”

Arsène Wenger OBE is the longest serving and most successful Arsenal manager of all time.  Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that he has singlehandedly created the second Arsenal Golden Age, while at the same time revolutionising English top division football. The first Arsenal Golden Age ran of course from 1930 to 1953, encompassing the careers …

Read More “Happy Birthday Arsène Wenger; 22 October 2015”

By Tony Attwood 1979/80 ended with one of the most overloaded match schedules in the history of the club.  Perhaps the most overloaded.   Arsenal got to the club’s third successive FA cup final (the only time this had ever been achieved by the club) but a combination of drawn games in the semi-final against …

Read More “1980: Arsenal pre-season after trying to win nearly everything”

by Tony Attwood After the chaos of the 2011 pre-season we were all looking for a spot of relief and re-assurance, and we got it with the announcement before the old season was over that Lukas Podolksi was joining.  Olivier Giroud was added to the rosta in June. The release notices came the following month …

Read More “2012 Pre season. Nigeria cancelled, Akpom and Bellerin make their mark”

By Tony Attwood. This article continues the series on past pre-seasons, this time dealing with the summer of 1996. None of us knows, of course, what happened when Bruce Rioch left and Arsene Wenger arrived.  We know that Rioch finished the previous season of 1995/6 in a bit of style, but had a dreadful 1996 …

Read More “The pre-season in which Mr Wenger arrived”

17 March brings us the usual stream of anniversaries, the full list of which is given below.   But among them are two birthdays: Pat Rice and Lee Dixon, plus two significant matches in Double Seasons: 17 March 1998: WHU 1 Arsenal 1,  FA Cup 6 Replay.  Anelka scored in the game, and Arsenal won …

Read More “Doubles, birthdays, and our third semi final (plus Reading’s first)”

It is a varied mix for 22 November at Arsenal including a change of name from our fourth name (The Arsenal) to the fifth (Arsenal) 22 November 1899: Alexander Main signed from Hibs 22 November 1913: Last senior game for Roddy McEachrane 22 November 1913: Last senior game for Joseph Fidler 22 November 1919: Programme for Arsenal versus …

Read More “The end of “The “Arsenal”; Knighton’s fantasies; Tom Whittaker’s glory. 22 November anniversaries”

John Anthony Devine was born in Dublin on 11 November 1958 and played for Arsenal from 1974 to 1983 at a time when the number of Irishmen associated with Arsenal was particularly high and included Liam Brady, David O’Leary and Frank Stapleton. He became a professional at Arsenal in 1976 playing right back, and played …

Read More “John Devine: a lifetime in football”

15th August  1970:  The balancing point. The Darkness has been ended.  The Possible had been achieved.  Now for the Impossible Context is everything.   After the misery of mid-table hopelessness and 3rd round exits from the FA Cup Bertie Mee didn’t give us a Double out of nothing.   He first gave Arsenal league cup finals, our …

Read More “How Arsenal moved from Darkness towards the first Double”

Season 1995/6 was the Bruce Rioch year, the season between the final outing of George Graham (replaced in February by Stewart Houston) and Arsene Wenger (preceded by Pat Rice). On the morning of 30 October the league table looked promising PD W D L F A GD Pts 1 Newcastle United 11 9 1 1 …

Read More “23 December Liverpool 3 Arsenal 1, two wins in nine – but we end up 5th”

By Tony Attwood This article updated 3 December 2013 I can remember, as a child, Arsenal playing Racing Club de Paris, and wondering why it happened.  Childhood memories are of course notoriously unreliable, but I do recall it seeming a bit odd.  Hence a little trawl through the records to find out how and why …

Read More “Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris; a noble endeavour”

By Tony Attwood Each summer an update is done on the Manager by Manager file on this site, taking into account the latest activities of the current manager.  And then we look again to judge who is the most successful and least successful of managers in Arsenal’s history. Taken at its simplest our most successful …

Read More “Arsène Wenger remains Arsenal’s most successful manager ever”

Jovan “John” Lukic was born on 11 December 1960 who played for two spells with Leeds and two spells with Arsenal playing 668 league games in total, across four decades.  He was also an England under 21 and England B international. He played first for Leeds as a schoolboy and then started with the first …

Read More “John Lukic shares a remarkable record with Stanley Matthews, Shilton and Ogrizovic”