Anniversaries 03: March

 

Arsenal on this day in history.  The March Files.

Note: The anniversary file pages have over time been split and split again as they have grown.  Please use the index at the foot of the page to find the month you want.  Acknowledgements and sources also appear at the end.

Last major update 1 March 2023

1 March 1555.   On this day, Nostradamus’ Book of Centuries was published. Depending on how you read it, it predicts the fire of London in 1666, the fall of the French monarchy in 1789, two global wars and the coming of the anti-Christ from the deserts of Persia in the 20th century.  Or not, as the case may be. Strangely it has little to say on Arsenal, so sadly is little help to those of a gambling persuasion.

1 March 1913:  The Football League rejected appeals by Tottenham to prohibit Arsenal from moving to Gillespie Road reiterating, as they had pointed out in their 1910 AGM, that League rules gave them no control over the location of each club.  Tottenham’s failure was that they had failed to bring forward a motion earlier, to give the league such power.

1 March 1914: There are conflicting reports on the date of the birth of Ernie Tuckett but this seems the more likely date.  Ernie first came to notice as an Arsenal man with six goals in a London Midweek League match in 1933 and then moved on to the nursery club Margate between 1934 and 1936 becoming a professional for Arsenal in 1936.

1 March 1919: Arsenal beat Millwall Athletic 3-0 away in front of 14,000 showing how crowds were now returning to football, even though the games were still being played under wartime London Combination rules.

1 March 1924: Arsenal 3 Liverpool 1 ended a sequence of six straight defeats.  The result lifted Arsenal to 20th, with just Chelsea and Middlesbrough below them.  It was also the debut of James Ramsay. Having joined Arsenal from Kilmarnock he went on to play 11 games in the remainder of the season.

1 March 1930: West Ham 0 Arsenal 3.  FA Cup round 6 on the way to the cup final and Arsenal’s first ever major trophy.  Lambert scored two, and Baker the other, 40,797 present.

1 March 1935: Alf Kirchen signed from Norwich (where ex-Arsenal man Tom Parker was manager).  Although his career was interrupted by the war he scored 38 goals in 92 league games.

1 March 1944: David Court born.  He joined Arsenal during the reign of Swindin, and became the last member of the team of that era to be at Arsenal.

1 March 1969: Sheffield W 0 Arsenal 5. After one win in four the revival (eight without defeat) began in emphatic style.  Radford scored three, Sammels and Gould got the others.

1 March 1975: Arsenal 0 Everton 2; The third defeat in a row making the triumphs of the early Mee era seeming a long way in the past.  It left Arsenal in 18th, one place above Tottenham and just three points above relegation.

1 March 1977: Everton 2 Arsenal 1; 4th consecutive defeat in the worst Arsenal run of all time.  Macdonald scored his first goal since mid-January. During the eight consecutive league defeats Arsenal scored just seven goals.

1 March 1980: Stoke 2 Arsenal 3, Arsenal’s fourth consecutive win. Sunderland, Price and Brady got the goals, to make it ten goals in four.

1 March 1987: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 2. League cup semi-final, 2nd leg.  This was the one when the announcer at half time told supporters of Tottenham how to get cup final tickets.  Anderson and Quinn got the goals.

1 March 1993: Chelsea 1 Arsenal 0.  Arsenal scored four goals in 14 league matches between 21 November and this game.  During that period Arsenal won just two league games, both away, both 0-1 against Man City and Oldham.

1 March 2005: Following motoring offences, on 23 January Jermaine Pennant was sentenced to 90 days imprisonment, and required to wear a tag upon his release.

1 March 2005: Sheffield U 0 Arsenal 0. FA Cup 5th round replay en route to winning the Cup.   Arsenal won 4-2 on penalties

1 March 2013: Anthony Jeffrey loaned to Stevenage.  Eventually he moved on to Wycombe and then Welling without ever playing for Arsenal.

1 March 2013.   Robert Pires appeared first in Indonesia and then in China as an Arsenal ambassador.  He later played in India as part of Arsenal’s marketing push in that country.

1 March 2018: Having been beaten in the League Cup final on this day Arsenal were beaten 3–0 in the league by the same team – Manchester City.  Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a penalty in the second half.

1 March 2023: Arsenal beat Everton 4-0 in Arsenal’s 100th league victory against Everton.  Arsenal became the first English league team ever to record 100 wins against a single opponent.   Arsenal went five points clear at the top of the League.

2 March 1888: Aston Villa wrote to five other clubs to propose the setting up of a Football League.  The proposal took off and Arsenal (being excluded from the exclusively midlands and northern group) later used the same approach to set up a Southern League.  When that failed, and after a split in the club’s committee, Arsenal joined the Football League in 1893.

2 March 1910.  Nottm Forest 1 Woolwich Arsenal 1.  The result was enough to take Arsenal out of the relegation places.

2 March 1916: The Military Service Act came into force.  Unmarried men aged 18–41 were conscripted and married men added to the list the following month.  Certain professions were excluded but all players were called up either to fight or work in wartime industries.  Henry Norris’ moved to work in the regional organisation of conscription for the War Office.

2 March 1923: Henry White transferred to Blackpool.  He had played 101 games for Arsenal and scored 40 goals.  At the end of his career he spent a while with the short-lived Thames Association.

2 March 1926: Tom Parker joined from Southampton (his local club whom he had joined when they were in the Southern League).  He had played 246 league games for Southampton and went on to play 258 league games for Arsenal.

2 March 1929: Last game for Sidney Hoar (an FA Cup defeat 0-1 away to Aston Villa in front of 73,700).   He had played exactly 100 League games for Arsenal and moved on to Orient for one season before retiring in the summer of 1930 at the age of 35.

2 March 1932: The last game for Leonard Thompson, a 0-1 away defeat to Bolton.  With Alex James now dominating he had had fewer and fewer opportunities.  Thompson was the player that Joy described as Arsenal’s penalty king, although he only ever took two penalties!

2 March 1935: Sheffield W 2 Arsenal 1.  FA Cup round 6.  Arsenal had beaten Brighton, Leicester and Reading in earlier rounds but it was all to no avail. Hiowever as the club recovered from the death of Chapman, so the league form now started to improve.

2 March 1955: Gavin Crawford – Arsenal’s first ever professional – died.  He joined Woolwich Arsenal in 1891 just as the club turned professional, and played 138 league games for the club.

2 March 1957  Stan Charlton scored an equalising goal from 40 yards out in a 6th round FA Cup tie against WBA at the Hawthorns. It was his third and final goal for Arsenal and strangely, they all came in the FA Cup competition.

2 March 1963: West Ham 0 Arsenal 4.  The match proved to be the start of manager Billy Wright’s longest unbeaten run – six games – although three of these were draws.  However Arsenal still managed 14 goals during the run. The game was also the League debut for Terry Anderson.    It was the first win over WHU in 10 league games.

2 March 1968: Leeds 1 Arsenal 0.  This was the League Cup Final which ended with a brawl after Charlton assaulted Furnell. See also:  The move away from The Darkness.

2 March 1971: League match 30 of the first Double season – Wolverhampton 0 Arsenal 3.  After three defeats in the previous five, Arsenal started a run of nine consecutive wins, and five without conceding a goal.  Arsmstrong, Kennedy and Radford scored.

2 March 1974: Arsenal 1 Southampton 0.  The fact that this was the first win in five, and that the crowd was just 19,210 reflected the decline of Arsenal’s fortune since the start of the decade.  Ball scored.

2 March 1977: Peter Storey was transferred to Fulham.  Speaking later of the Double season he said, “We never knew when we were beaten; our powers of recovery during 90 minutes, and sometimes beyond, were immense.”

2 March 1977:Willie Young joined from Tottenham.   He had played 54 times for Tottenham, and went on to play 170 league games for Arsenal although upon joining he was already serving a lifetime ban from playing for Scotland.

2 March 1994: Torino 0 Arsenal 0, Cup Winners Cup quarter final

2 March 1995: Arsenal 1 Auxerre 1, Cup Winners Cup quarter final first leg.  Ian Wright’s goal on 60 minutes was cancelled by a reply from Auxerre three minutes later to make the second leg look tricky.

2 March 1998: WHU 0 Arsenal 0.  27th league game of the 2nd Double season.  The game was part of a run of six in which Arsenal won each game 1-0, except for this goalless draw.    The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

2 March 2000:  Arsenal beat Deportivo 5-1 in the Uefa cup en route to the final

2 March 2001: James Harper transferred to Reading for no fee.  Having never played for Arsenal, he then played 316 league games for Reading.

2 March 2002: Newcastle 0 Arsenal 2.  League match 28 of the 3rd Double season.  Bergkamp received a low pass from Pirès and under pressure from Nikos Dabizas, he controlled the ball with one flick and went around the defender the other way and put the ball l into the net.  It is regularly voted as one of the two greatest Arsenal goals of all time.

2 March 2003: Arsenal beat Charlton 2-0 to open and eight point lead at the top.  The result was enough for Paddy Power to pay out on those who had bet on Arsenal to win the league despite Manchester United having a game in hand.  Jeffers and Pires scored.

2 March 2011: Arsenal 5 Leyton Orient 0.  FA Cup 5th round replay.  Chamakh opened the scoring, Bendtner got a hattrick, and Clichy the fifth.  59,361 tickets were sold.

2 March 2012: Tarum Dawkins signed from Luton.  He was released by Arsenal in May 2014 and moved on to Arlesey Town FC.

3 March 1900.  Loughborough T 2 Arsenal 3.  The start of the three match winning run which ended with Arsenal’s record Football League score.

3 March 1902: Albert Humpish, one of Chapman’s mystery signings, born.  He made his debut in the 1929/30 season.

3 March 1906 and 1956: Two games against Birmingham.   In the 1906 version, Woolwich Arsenal beat Birmingham 5-0 to equal the club’s top score thus far   On 3 March 1956 it was Arsenal 1 Birmingham City 3.  Stan Charlton scored a consolation goal in a 6th round FA Cup tie at Highbury.

3 March 1917: on this date there was a contradiction in the football records.  At Highbury was it Arsenal v Clapton or Tottenham v Portsmouth. I think the former, with the latter played at Clapton’s ground – WHL having been seized by the military.  But they may have been played one game after the other. The Arsenal game is recorded as a 3-1 win for Arsenal. See also 1945.

3 March 1938: Gordon Bremner, a tremendous talent whose career was lost to the war, played his first Arsenal game.

3 March 1939: Wilf Copping returned to Leeds after 166 games for Arsenal.  He was the ultimate exponent of the “vigorous” shoulder charge and the (now illegal) two footed tackle.

3 March 1945: Arsenal only ever played two wartime games on 3 March, one in 1917 and the other on this day, both against Clapton Orient.  And both were won by Arsenal 3-1, in the Football League Cup South. Despite losing 2-4 to Portsmouth in this competition in the sixth game, Arsenal came top of Group 1 and so qualified for the semi-finals, but there Arsenal lost 0-1 to Millwall in a match played in front of 49,513 at Stamford Bridge.

3 March 1956 and 1906.  (see above).

3 March 1961: Ben Marden played his first match for Arsenal – a 1-3 away defeat to Manchester United.  He only played 42 games in all, but two of these were definitive moments for the club, one winning the league and the other the biggest win ever at Anfield.

3 March 1973: Arsenal 3 Sheffield U 2 as part of a run of just one defeat in 13 in the period when it seemed the Double team might yet still go on to greater glories.

3 March 1979: Southampton 2 Arsenal 0, part of a run of just one win in eight showing how far the club had declined since the 1971 Double.

3 March 1993: Norwich 1 Arsenal 1.  This was the 12th consecutive match in which neither Arsenal nor their opponents scored more than one goal.  It was also the end of a run in which Arsenal only won two league games in 15.

3 March 2007: The largest crowd thus far at the Emirates 60,132, saw Arsenal beat Reading 2-1.  The record was beaten again on 3 November 2007 with 60,338 in attendance.

3 March 2009: WBA 1 Arsenal 3.  After five draws (four of them 0-0) Arsenal started a run of seven wins and one draw in the next eight.#

3 March 2013: Tottenham 2 Arsenal 1.  After this match Arsenal remained unbeaten for the remaining 11 matches of the season with nine victories (including a 2-0 win away to Bayern Munich in the following game) and two draws.

 

4 March 1902: Tim Coleman joined from Grimsby for £7500.  He had played 196 league and cup games and scored 79 goals.  Chapman had been chasing Jimmy Dunne but followed Coleman instead, after a chance meeting with his manager.

4 March 1905: The start of a run of seven without a win.  Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1.  Arsenal did however rally in April to finish 12th.

4 March 1910: George Grant joined from Invicta FC as an amateur.   He had the remarkable record of playing for Woolwich Arsenal, The Arsenal, Arsenal, (all by playing just 54 league games) and later against Arsenal.

4 March 1913:  Henry Norris finally confirmed Woolwich Arsenal were moving from Plumstead to a ground in Gillespie Road, Islington.    See also here.

4 March 1914: London County Council granted planning permission for the Gillespie Road stadium, seven months after it opened and one year to the day after Norris announced that Gillespie Road was the site of the new ground.

4 March 1922: Arsenal 1 Preston 1.  FA Cup round 4 (equivalent of round 6 today).  It was Knighton’s most successful cup run and the best since the 1907 semi-final.

4 March 1925: Arsenal bought Notts County’s Don Cock, the man who had scored against them and then been sent off in the Notts County v Arsenal game earlier in the season.  He had previously played for Brentford and Fulham. However Knighton only used the player twice this season, (although to be fair he was injured in his second match) and Chapman gave him but one game in 1925/6 before moving him on to Clapton Orient in October 1925.

4 March 1932: With Lambert and Parkin both injured Chapman acted and on this day  Ernie Coleman was signed from Grimsby following a chance meeting with the Grimsby chairman.  The following day he played his first Arsenal game.

4 March 1933: Arsenal played their first game with the white sleeved shirts based on an idea by Tom Webster, but lost to Liverpool 0-1.   42,868 were present, bemused perhaps by the fact that in the previous match Arsenal had beaten Blackburn 8-0.

4 March 1936: Arsenal beat Derby County away 4-0 which given Derby’s position in the league was a fair vindication of the team selection by George Allison, especially as new men Dougall, Kirchen and Cox all scored.

4 March 1950: Arsenal 1 Leeds 0.  FA Cup round 6, on the way to winning the trophy for only the third time.  Lewis scored with 62,573 in the crowd. This was the first season in which Arsenal progressed to the final and yet played every FA Cup match in London.

4 March 1961: Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 2.  The first of six consecutive draws – Arsenal’s longest drawing run in the league.  Haverty and Barnwell scored.

4 March 1972: Manchester City 2 Arsenal 0.  After four straight wins and 12 games undefeated in the league, the wheels suddenly came off the bus as Arsenal started a run of losing three successive league matches without scoring a goal.

4 March 1978: Arsenal 3 Manchester City 0.  This was the first win in six league games but also a part of a run of nine undefeated.  Sunderland, Young and Price got the goals.

4 March 1987: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 2.  League Cup semi-final replay.  Clive Allen put Tottenham ahead in all three of the “one nil down, two one up” semi-final games. Ian Allinson scored the first for Arsenal and Rocastle scored in injury time.

4 March 1992: Bernd Leno born.

4 March 2006: Fulham 0 Arsenal 4.  After three without a win Arsenal returned with a four match winning run scoring 14 goals letting in 1.  Henry (2) Adebayor and Fabregas got the goals on this occasion.

4 March 2008: Arsenal became the first English team to beat Milan in the San Siro thanks to a Fabregas free kick.

4 March 2017: Arsenal lost away to Liverpool 3-1 to make it three defeats in four.  The media made much of the fact that Alexis was not in the starting line up, an early sign that his influence was not always helpful.  Nine months later he was given to Man U, and subsequent reports suggested his influence there was not always positive either. The result took Arsenal to 5th, and they never regained a top four place through the rest of the season.

4 March 2018: Arsenal lost at Brighton, resulting in further calls for the dismissal of Mr Wenger in the media and among some supporters.

4 March 2019: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 1 at Wembley.  Tottenham gained a very dubious penalty, Aubameyang was denied a clear penalty, Torreira was sent off late on.

5 March 1892: After many clubs dropped out of the attempt to form a Southern League the remainder (but without Arsenal) moved towards forming The Southern Alliance, a league that lasted just one season.  Arsenal meanwhile opened discussions with the Football League about expanding the League into London.

5 March 1897: The Kentish Mercury reported that 54 people had applied for the job of Arsenal manager, showing that the fame of the first League club in the south had clearly grown.

5 March 1910: Last senior game for Charles Satterthwaite – the man who scored Arsenal’s first ever 1st division goal.  Millwall Athletic 3 Woolwich Arsenal 3. He did not join another club and retired from football aged 32.

5 March 1910: Archie Devine won his one and only cap.  In his career he had 14 transfers and played for 11 different clubs.

5 March 1920: Sir Henry Norris was very active in Parliament working to stop bookmakers using football as a way of offering ludicrous odds to the detriment of punters.  On this day he moved the second reading of the Ready Money Football Betting Bill which he had earlier introduced. It received wide support but very noticeably did not getting the backing of Sir Samuel Hill-Wood MP, who later would be a prime mover in getting Sir Henry ejected from Arsenal.

5 March 1927: Arsenal 2 Wolverhampton 1.  FA Cup 6th round on the way to Arsenal’s first ever final.  Blyth and Butler scored in front of 52,821 – Highbury’s largest crowd of the season. Two days later Arsenal lost 0-7 to WHU.

5 March 1932: Arsenal were at home to Leicester.  With Lambert and Parkin both injured Chapman acted and thus Ernie Coleman was signed from Grimsby.  The day after his signing he played his first Arsenal game.

5 March 1938:  A 4-0 home win over Stoke took Arsenal top – as Arsenal moved on towards winning the league.  Carr, Griffiths (2) and Drake got the goals. It was the last of a seven match unbeaten run.

5 March 1938: Arsenal announced the signing of 20 year old Gordon Bremmer from Cartha Athletic – who went on to make his debut (and score his first goal) on 9 April.

5 March 1949: Burnley 1 Arsenal 1 (Lishman).  After 3 consecutive wins, Arsenal started a run of 6 draws and 1 defeat in 7 games.

5 March 1966: Gus Caesar born. He joined Arsenal in August 1982 becoming a pro in February 1984 playing in the heart of the defence or full back.  He was highly praised for his first match (away to Man U on 21 December 1985) and seen as a great prospect. He got three England under 21 caps in 1987 and in 1987/8 graduated to a fairly consistent position in the first team.

5 March 1977: Willie Young debut.  Arsenal 1 Ipswich 4. Terry Neill said of him after this match, “he tried to play like Pele”.  This was the 5th consecutive defeat in the record breaking run.

5 March 1980: Arsenal 5 Gothenburg 1. Cup Winners Cup.  (Sunderland 2, Price, Brady and Young got the goals).

5 March 1986: Luton 3 Arsenal 0  FA Cup 5th round 2nd replay in a month in which Arsenal achieved four league wins and suffered three league defeats.

5 March 1994: Ipswich 1 Arsenal 5 provided the setting for Ian Wright’s fifth hat trick.  It came after six games in which Arsenal scored just four goals in total, and was followed by Southampton 0 Arsenal 4.

5 March 2002: Arsenal beat Derby to go top in win number 4 of 13 consecutive wins.  League match 29 of the 3rd Double season

5 March 2016: Tottenham 2 Arsenal 2.  Ramsey and Sanchez scored. After three defeats in succession this draw was a relief, but only temporarily, as Arsenal then lost two of the next three.  All told Arsenal lost five out of seven games in Feb/March, before ending the season with a run of nine matches unbeaten, including a 4-0 victory in the FA Cup final.

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 another 10 days before the League announced it would cease at the end of the season, but by then everyone had assumed this would happen – both because of the war and the overt match fixing by Liverpool was making the game a farce.

6 March 1920:Arsenal were away to Sheffield United and suffered a further defeat, this time 0-2. in front of 25,000 people, making it six defeats in the last eight.

6 March 1926: Swansea 2 Arsenal 1.  FA Cup 6.  It was the first time Arsenal had progressed this far since 1922.

6 March 1926: Last game for Dr James Paterson.  A war hero and hero of Scottish football, it was the libelous description of him by manager Leslie Knighton in his autobiography, that helped unravel the truth about Sir Henry Norris’ running of the club prior to Chapman – and lead to the unearthing of multiple other untruths contained in Knighton’s memoirs.

6 March 1935.  Tottenham 0 Arsenal 6, as Arsenal continued their run of 13 unbeaten to win the league for the 3rd successive year.  It was the first game for Alf Kirchen, who scored.

6 March 1937: WBA 3 Arsenal 1 (FA Cup 6th round).  Arsenal went out after scoring 17 in three previous rounds – mostly on this occasion because Ted Drake didn’t play.  Worse,  John Milne was injured

6 March 1943: Brighton and Hove 1 Arsenal 5 (Lewis 3, Dennis Compton 2).  Round 1 of the wartime Football League Cup South. The competition was played as a mini-league home and away against three clubs, before the semi-final and final, in which Arsenal beat Charlton 7-1 at Wembley in front of 75,000.  Arsenal also won the Football League (south) this season.

6 March 1948:  Alex Forbes debut: Arsenal 5 Wolverhampton 2.  Alex went on to play 217 league games for Arsenal.

6 March 1965: John Snedden sold to Charlton for a fee of £15.000.  He had played 83 games for Arsenal, and after Charlton moved on to Orient.

6 March 1971: Leicester 0 Arsenal 0.  FA Cup 6th round in the first Double season.  It was one of three rounds in which a replay was needed. 42,000 turned up and not too much happened until in the 88th minute when Dick Glover saw the ball coming towards him, two yards out and with the goal beckoning.  He swung a boot – and missed the ball completely.

6 March 1988: Tony Adams’ played his first game as club captain permanently replacing Kenny Sansom.  He was aged just 21 yrs 148 days.

6 March 1991: Ray Parlour signed his first professional contract with Arsenal.  He went on to play 339 games for Arsenal before leaving in 2004.

6 March 1993: FA Cup round 6 – Ipswich 2 Arsenal 4 in front of 22054 with goals from Adams, Wright and Campbell plus an own goal.  Cup match 12 of Arsenal’s Cup Double season

6 March 1997: Nicolas Anelka signed by Arsenal.  He scored 23 goals in 65 games, and much later Arsène Wenger revealed his plan had been to play Anelka and Henry as a dual striking partnership, but it never came to pass.

6 March 1999: Arsenal 1 Derby 0 (FA Cup round 6) as Arsenal marched on to the FA Cup Semi Final.  Kanu got the only goal in front of 38,046.

6 March 2004: Portsmouth 1 Arsenal 5 (FA Cup round 6).  Henry and Ljunberg got two each and Toure the other all within the first hour.  Sherringham scored for Portsmouth in the final minute.

6 March 2008: Arsenal in the shape of Keith Edelman first announced plans for the redevelopment of Highbury as apartments with the pitch as a centrepiece garden.

6 March 2012.  Arsenal 3 Milan 0.  Arsenal had lost the away leg 4-0, but with the crowd at its noisiest Arsenal rallied and almost forced extra time  Park chu Young made a rare appearance as a sub.

7 March 1891.  Arsenal won the London Senior Cup  It was at the time the most prestigious trophy in the south of England after the FA Cup, and was Royal Arsenal’s last trophy before they became Woolwich Arsenal.

7 March 1904: Millwall 3 Arsenal 0 in the London League Premier Division.  The games between the two continued to have huge local significance until Arsenal moved grounds in 1913 – by which time Millwall had moved in the other direction across the Thames to their new ground at the Den.

7 March 1908. Arsenal 0 Chelsea 0. Attendance: 30,000.  The first home game ever against Chelsea in the League.  Chelsea ended the season in 13th, Arsenal in 14th.

7 March 1910: Arsenal lost to Everton 0-1 as the vultures circled with the club’s financial problems becoming public knowledge.  Only 6000 showed up for what was the fourth of five games without a win. See also here

7 March 1914: Arsenal played an away goalless draw with Nottingham Forest in front of 10,000, but even before this match most Arsenal fans were focussed on the next match on 14 March: the first ever London derby at Highbury.

7 March 1920: Reg Lewis born.  In the 1947/8 season he played 28 games and scored 14 while Ronnie Rooke played 42 and scored 33 as Arsenal won the league..

7 March 1921: Fred Pagnam sold to Cardiff.  Earlier in his career he was one of the men who blew the whistle on the Liverpool match fixing scandal of 1915, having refused to take part in the scam.

7 March 1927: West Ham 7 Arsenal 0.  Chapman’s worst defeat (equal to October 23 1926) and the fourth 0-7 that Arsenal had suffered in the first division. It started a sequence of six defeats letting in 26 goals.  It was a good job the anti-Arsenal fans were not on hand to demand his immediate sacking.

7 March 1928: Jimmy Brain got a hat trick to become the first man to score 100 goals for Arsenal as Arsenal beat Liverpool 6-3.  Hulme, Buchan and Lambert got the other goals for Arsenal.

7 March 1931: Arsenal 0 Huddersfield 0.  Final game for Alf Baker, who later in his career became a scout for the club.  He played 310 games for Arsenal – his only senior club.

7 March 1953: Arsenal 0 Cardiff 1.  Despite this starting a six match run without a win, Arsenal still went on to win the league on the final day of the season in a style that was repeated in 1989.

7 March 1959: Wolverhampton 6 Arsenal 1.  After eight unbeaten, Arsenal started a run of seven without a win as hopes of another league title evaporated.

7 March 1964: 185th and final league match for Vic Groves as Arsenal lost 0-2 to Nottingham Forest.  He was transferred to Canterbury City for whom he played nine games.

7 March 1973: Ray Parlour born. Ray joined Arsenal in 1989 as a 16 year old trainee, playing his first game on January 29 1992 He later gained the nickname the Romford Pele and later still Arsène Wenger complained that he could never understand a word he said.

7 March 1981: Last game for David Price.  He played 176 games for the club and played in the 3-2 cup final win against Man U. At the start of the 1980/1 season he was replaced by John Hollins and at the end of that season sold to Crystal Palace in part exchange for Peter Nicholas.

7 March 1987:  Chelsea 1 Arsenal 0.  The 5th game without a win, in a run which lasted 10 games, ending finally on April 11.

7 March 2000: Stephen Hughes sold to Everton.  Despite some early promise he eventually only played just 49 league games for Arsenal.  But he did get a league winner’s medal.

7 March 2007: Thierry Henry’s last match before his comeback.  Arsenal 1 PSV 1 in the Champions League. He played 254 league games in total and scored 174 goals. He then left for Barcelona and later NY Red Bulls before returning to Arsenal for his last four games.

7 March 2019: Rennes 3 Arsenal 1 in the Europa League.  Iwobi scored for Arsenal

8 March 1890 – Richard Horsington suffered a serious injury in the London Senior Cup final.  He never played for the first team again, but became a respected and wealthy businessman in the Plumstead area.

8 March 1930: The low point in the season and indeed in the 1930s in which Arsenal were 19th just two points and two places above relegation.

8 March 1932: Bill Seddon sold to Grimsby having played 69 league games and over 200 reserve games for Arsenal.

8 March 1933: The Islington Gazette reported that Charlie Jones had been replaced by Alex James as captain – something virtually every Arsenal history book since then has missed.

8 March 1934: George Cox made his Arsenal debut against Leicester and went on to play seven league games in this and the next season.

8 March 1934: Leicester City v Arsenal was brought forward because Leicester were in the Cup semi-final.  Arsenal agreed as 15th place Leicester would probably be distracted. But Leicester City won 4-1.

8 March 1952: Luton 2 Arsenal 3.  FA Cup round 6.  Arsenal had scored 15 goals in four matches thus far on the road to Wembley.  Cox 2, and Milton got the goals.

8 March 1958: Arsenal 5 Chelsea 4.  David Herd scored a hat trick in front of 41,570 fans.  This was the third in a run of four games which generated 28 goals.  DR Clapton and Jimmy Bloomfield got the other Arsenal goals on this occasion.

8 March 1972: Ajax 2 Arsenal 1.  European Cup 3rd round 1st leg.  It came after two battles with Derby in the cup (both drawn) and a defeat in the league to Manchester City.

8 March 1975: Arsenal 0 West Ham 2.  FA Cup 6th round.  This was the fourth consecutive defeat in league and cup.

8 March 1977:  Arsenal 1 WBA 2. The 6th consecutive defeat in the all-time record breaking run of defeats.  The team at the time included Brady, Macdonald and Stapleton. Only 19,517 turned up at Highbury.  Jimmy Rimmer ran out of his area and attempted to clear the ball upfield but miskicked the ball back to WBA’s Cross who tapped it into an open goal.

8 March 1980: Watford 1 Arsenal 2  FA Cup 6th round, on the way to the last cup final for 19 years.  Stapleton got both goals.

8 March 1998: Arsenal 1 WHU 1.  FA Cup 6th round in the Second Double Season.  Bergkamp scored with a penalty.  The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

8 March 2003: Arsenal 2 Chelsea 2. FA Cup 6th round.  Jeffers and Henry scored.

8 March 2006: Daily Mirror ran the headline, “Nil nil to the Arsenal” after the draw with Real Madrid in the Champions League.

8 March 2011: Barcelona 3 Arsenal 1.  Champions League round of 16. Almunia, the third choice keeper, came on as the substitute keeper.  Although Arsenal lost he was voted man of the match.

8 March 2013: 10 years after scoring for Arsenal in the FA Cup 6th round, Francis Jeffers signed for Accrington Stanley, his 12th club and final club.  He played for them seven times and scored two goals. He had a trial with Chester the following year but did not play for them.

8 March 2014: Arsenal 4 Everton 1. FA Cup quarter finals – en route to Wembley.  Ozil, Flamini, Giroud and Arteta scored.

8 March 2018: Having lost to Brighton in the League following two solid defeats to Manchester City in the League and League Cup, Arsenal beat AC Milan 2-0 in Italy in the Europa League leaving much of the media lost for words.  Cech kept a clean sheet for the 200th time. Arsenal won the second leg 2-1.

9 March 1889: Tottenham 0 Arsenal 1. Thus far Arsenal had won two and lost one game against Tottenham with one abandoned (with Tottenham ahead). Full index of early games v Tottenham is here   

9 March 1895: Arsenal played Leicester Fosse at Leyton following the forced closure of Manor Ground after crowd trouble.  The result was 3-3 with 4,000 present.

9 March 1906: The Manchester Evening News referred to Arsenal as the Gunners – one of the earliest (and perhaps even the earliest) references to this nickname in the press.

9 March 1907: Barnsley 1 Arsenal 2 FA Cup 4th round (equivalent to the modern 6th round) meaning the club progressed to the semi-final for the second season running.  The crowd was 13,871.

9 March 1912: Oldham 0 Arsenal 0 – the start of a five match sequence without scoring.  The other four games in the sequence were defeats.

9 March 1916:  Lt Henry Norris was appointed Supervisor of Military Representatives for the Number 10 District of the Eastern Command in the War Office and promoted to Captain to go with the job.

9 March 1918: There were fears about declining attendances at Highbury, only 9,000 having attended the last home game.  But in fact the crowd at Highbury showed more resilience as 15,000 came along to see a 4-1 home win over Tottenham in the wartime league.

9 March 1935 – Arsenal’s biggest crowd at Highbury (73,295) saw what was reported to be a very poor match, probably because of the high tension, as the game was billed by the press as the “title decider”.  It ended Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0.

9 March 1971: Arsenal 2 FC Koln 1: Inter Cities Fairs Cup 4th round 1st leg.

9 March 1991: Arsenal 2 Cambridge Utd 1; FA Cup 6th round.  Campbell and Adams scored. 42,960 came to the game, despite Cambridge’s lowly status.

9 March 2000: After beating Deportivo 5-1 in the Uefa cup Arsenal lost the rematch 1-2, but went through as they headed for the final.

9 March 2002: Newcastle 1 Arsenal 1, FA Cup 5th round – part of the 3rd Double Season.  The game was moved for TV, which led to protests from Arsene Wenger, given that Arsenal were still fighting in three competitions.  Cup overview is here.    

9 March 2005: Arsenal 1 Bayern Munich 0 in the Champions League

9 March 2006: Paul Merson, having played 68 league games for Walsall retired from playing, although he did make a series of comebacks playing for Tamworth, Whitton Athletic and Welshpool.

9 March 2008: The earliest St Totteringham Day (the date when Tottenham can no longer overtake Arsenal in the league) ever.  It occurred with nine games to spare. Tottenham ended the season in 11th position.

9 March 2009: Ben Marden died.  He only played 42 games for Arsenal but these included our record league win at Anfield and the match that won the league in 1953.  Despite the recency of his death we have very little information about him.

9 March 2010: Arsenal 5 Porto 0.  Bendtner scored a hat trick in the Champions League round of 16.

9 March 2015: Manchester United 1 Arsenal 2 in the sixth round of the cup.  It was the second time Arsenal had won in Manchester in the season, and revenge for the defeat by Man U in the league at the Arsenal Stadium.  Man U received a shocking seven yellow cards, with Di Maria getting two and so departing early. Monreal and Welbeck scored in a game that became famous for Arsenal’s change of tactics.

9 March 2015: By winning the FA Cup match (above) Arsenal secured their 28th FA Cup semi-final.  The win also secured a place in history for Arsene Wenger. He had already had more semi-finals to his name than any other manager (10) and with this win took his number to 11.

 

10 March 1892: Royal Arsenal beat Casuals 3-1 in a friendly.  The crowd of 1000 was very much on the low side – as some games at the Invicta Stadium were seen by up towards ten times as many.

10 March 1894: Arsenal 1 Middlesbrough Ironopolis 0 – this was Arsenal’s only home game against the side, as they withdrew from the league at the end of the season.

10 March 1898: Thomas Mitchell, the club’s first professional manager, resigned after seven months of friction with the club Committee. As it turned out he was the fourth most successful manager of all time for the club, in terms of win percentage, although he managed only 26 games.  He later went on to win the FA Cup five times with Blackburn Rovers between 1884 and 1891.  See also here 

10 March 1904: David Neave signed from Arbroath.  He played three league games before going to Leyton but then returned to play 151 more league games.

10 March 1905: Chelsea FC were formed and immediately applied to play in the Southern League.  Tottenham objected, and had their objection upheld so Chelsea applied to join the Football League – which they did the following September, thus in one bound making them a much bigger club than Tottenham.  Tottenham’s tactical ineptitude in terms of trying to make themselves unique in London was repeated when they tried to stop Arsenal’s move to Highbury in 1913 and tried to prevent their own relegation in 1919. Each of these three major campaigns was, in its own way, a flop.

10 March 1906: Manchester United 2 Woolwich Arsenal 3.  Arsenal’s first ever appearance in the quarter final of the FA Cup.

10 March 1917: Arsenal were away to West Ham, and the huge improvement in their results continued further with a 3-2 victory in front of 6,500.  The following day there was news that British forces had captured Baghdad, the southern capital of the Ottoman Empire.

10 March 1919: At a Special General Meeting of the Football League plans were mapped out for post war football including Arsenal and Chelsea being elected to the first division.  The most detailed analysis of all the issues surrounding Arsenal’s election, and the myths that were circulated appear in a series of articles indexed here.

10 March 1922: Samson Haden joined from Castleford.  He went on to play 88 league games and five FA cup games.

10 March 1928: Arthur Milton born in Bristol.  He signed for Arsenal as an amateur in 1945, and played both cricket and football for England.

10 March 1934: Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 2.  Shaw’s team went on their second winning run – this lasting seven games as Arsenal moved towards their second successive championship – and showed they could cope with the tragedy of Chapman’s death.

10 March 1938: Arsenal brought in George Drury signing him from Sheffield Wednesday.  He went on to play 11 games in the remainder of the season, for the most part at inside left, with Jones playing inside right.

10 March 1951: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 1.  First game for Arthur Milton.  He went on to play 75 league games. Milton was the last man ever to play both football and cricket for England as a full international and won a League winners’ medal with Arsenal in 1953.

10 March 1964: John Barnwell sold to Nottingham Forest for £40,000 and played a major part in their becoming league runners’ up in 1967.  He played 138 games across seven seasons with Arsenal and later managed Wolverhampton with whom he won the league cup. He then became Chief Exec of the League Managers Assn.

10 March 1973: Ipswich 1 Arsenal 2.   Radford and Ball scored in a game that was part of a run of one defeat in 14.

10 March 1979: Arsenal 2 Bristol City 0: a return to form after two defeats.  Rix and Stapleton scored but the crowd of just 24,288 was disappointing given that  Arsenal were third in the league after this win. It was the first game for Brian McDermott

10 March 1992: 700th game for David O’Leary.  Arsenal 2 Oldham 1 – but only 22,096 turned up.  Merson and Wright scored.

10 March 1993: Arsenal 2 Crystal Palace 2.  League cup semi final 2nd leg.  Cup match 13 of Arsenal’s cup double season.   Linighan and Wright scored, 28584 in attendance.

10 March 2001: Arsenal 3 Blackburn 0,  FA Cup 6th round.  Wiltord, Adams and Pires scored – all within the first 36 minutes.

10 March 2004: Arsenal 2 Celta Vigo 0 took Arsenal through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League having won the first leg 2-3.  Henry got both goals – as well as one of the goals in the first leg.

11 March 1893: Woolwich Arsenal beat Dumbarton in a friendly in front of 6,000.  This was a significant test for Arsenal before they became a league club as Dumbarton were Scottish League champions at the time.

11 March 1899: Arsenal beat Tottenham 2-1 in their last home “United League” match in front of a crowd of 6,000.

11 March 1911: League debut for John Peart; Arsenal 1 Everton 0.  Also Mr Bateup played his penultimate game.  The game was also the start of an 11 match sequence without defeat which saved Arsenal from relegation.  And it was the last time Arsenal won a home league game on 11 March at least until 2017.

11 March 1911 George Burdett’s first match at home to Everton (a 1-0 win).  He played 10 of the remaining 11 games that season and his arrival coincided with the team’s reversal in fortunes for the club as previously the club had only won three games in 14 league matches.

11 March 1915: Following the sinking of HMS Bayano by a Uboat with almost all the crew lost, rumours started to circulate that the League was going to stop for the duration of the war at the end of the season.  It didn’t however, despite a vigorous campaign to stop football led by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

11 March 1919: Sir Henry Norris made his maiden speech in the House of Commons, quite appropriately on a housing matter, during the Committee stage of the Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Bill.

11 March 1922: Joe Shaw’s last league game as a player – a 1-0 defeat to Man U.  He went on to manage Arsenal’s reserves before taking over the first team on the death of Herbert Chapman and leading the side to another League trophy.

11 March 1967.  Birmingham 1 Arsenal 0.  FA Cup 5th round. After this game however Arsenal went on a 12 match unbeaten run to the end of the season, lifting them into seventh place in the league.

11 March 1972: Brendon Batson was Arsenal’s first black player.  He made six league starts for Arsenal and came on four times as a sub.  He was awarded an MBE in 2000 and an OBE in 2015.

11 March 1972: Newcastle 2 Arsenal 0.  After the brilliant run of 12 games unbeaten, Arsenal suffered three defeats in a row of which this was a second.  This can be seen as the start of Arsenal’s decline from the heights of the Double, the previous season.

11 March 1978: Wrexham 2 Arsenal 3.  FA Cup 6th round.  Macdonald, Sunderland and Young each scored making it 14 goals in the 1978 cup after four rounds.

11 March 1980: Arsenal 0 Bristol City 0.  Although this was the fifth game without defeat the crowd of 21,599 showed that there was a lack of belief in Arsenal.  Bristol City were relegated at the end of the season; the highest crowd of the season at Highbury was 55,546 for the visit of Tottenham.

11 March 1981: Peter Nicholas signed for Arsenal from Crystal Palace for £400,000.  After just 60 league matches he returned to Palace, before moving on to Luton, Aberdeen, Chelsea and Watford.

11 March 1998: Wimbledon 0 Arsenal 1; after blackouts and security alerts for what should have been the 19th league match of the season, the game was finally played and marked the start of the 10 consecutive victories that ended with the title.  Wreh scored.

11 March 2009: Arsenal beat Roma 7-6 on penalties in the Champions League.  After the game Mr Wenger said, ““I am delighted and proud because after we conceded an early goal and missed the first kick of the shoot-out, we needed something special.”

11 March 2011: Daily Mail ran the headline  “Wenger planning summer bid for Le Havre teen Mendy to shore up Arsenal defence”.   There was, of course, never any bid nor any sign of the deal and the player went to Marseilles.

11 March 2013: Ex Arsenal man Brian McDermott was sacked as manager of Reading.  He later managed Leeds before returning to Arsenal as assistant to chief scout Steve Rowley

11 March 2014: Arsenal drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich in round of 16 in the Champions League.  Podolski scored the goal, but having lost the first leg 0-2 it was not enough to take Arsenal through.

11 March 2017: Arsenal beat Lincoln 5-0 in the FA Cup sixth round.to set up Arsenal’s 29th semi-final appearance in the competition – an all time record.  There was also the first talk of Mr Wenger becoming the most prolific FA Winner of all time, rather than just of the modern age.

11 March 2019:  Gedion Zelalem transferred to Sporting KC in the USA on a free transfer.

11 March 2021: Arsenal beat Olympiacos 3-1 away in the first game of the round of 16 in the Europa League.

12 March 1887: Arsenal 3 Millwall 0 – the first home game against the local rivals when Arsenal were south of the river, and Millwall north.  The crowd was recorded as 600, but within five years 12,000 attended this fixture, and a year after that it was 20,000. The rivalry was indeed intense.  See also here

12 March 1892: Arsenal played Great Marlow in front of 3000, just 2000 fewer than the crowd against Wolverhampton Wanderers two weeks earlier.

12 March 1900: Arsenal recorded their biggest ever league win.  Arsenal 12 Loughborough 0. Only 600 turned up to this Monday afternoon game, and such was the state of Loughborough, Arsenal paid their visitors train fare to and from the game so that the match could be played.

12 March 1910: Arsenal 0 Man U 0.   The result left Arsenal and Tottenham equal on points with Arsenal in the relegation zone on goal average.  Worse for Arsenal Tottenham had two games in hand. See also here

12 March 1913: Former Arsenal player Jimmy Blair is recorded as having committed suicide aged 27.  After leaving Arsenal he played for Manchester City, Bradford City and Stockport County.

12 March 1919: Sir Henry Norris’ friend, the nationally famous entertainer George Robey regularly arranged charity matches and on this day there was another such in which his team played an RAF team at Stamford Bridge.  Sir Henry often gave his blessing to Arsenal players being involved.

12 March 1927: Reg Tricker had been spotted by Arsenal while at Charlton and joined Arsenal from Charlton Athletic for £2,250 on this day, before making his full debut just one week later in a 2-1 defeat at home to Everton.

12 March 1930.  From this day on to 21 April Arsenal had five wins, five draws and one defeat.  And in the midst of this Arsenal got to their second FA Cup final.

12 March 1932: Arsenal 1 Man C 0; FA Cup semi final at Villa Park.  It was Arsenal’s 6th semi-final, but more impressively their fourth in six years.   Bastin scored the only goal of the game.

12 March 1935: Five years after having abolished all speed limits on Britain’s roads (urban and rural), they were reintroduced in an attempt to stop the carnage.

12 March 1954: The 42nd and final match for Ben Marden, a 2-0 home win against Aston Villa.  He moved on to play for Watford for two years and then played non-league football.

12 March 1955: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 0.  The start of seven match winning run in which Arsenal let in only one goal.  Tapscott and Roper scored the goals.

12 March 1968: Birmingham 2 Arsenal 1.  FA Cup 5th round replay. It was the second year running Birmingham put Arsenal out, but Arsenal retained hopes of winning the League Cup.

12 March 1975: Alan Ball captained England and Macdonald scored one of England’s goals as England beat West Germany 2-0.

12 March 1977:  QPR 2 Arsenal 1; The 7th and final consecutive defeat in the worst run in Arsenal’s league history.  It even surpassed the dire runs during 1912/13 when Arsenal were relegated to the second division. The manager was Terry Neill.

12 March 1981: David Price sold to Crystal Palace.  In an eight year career at Arsenal he made 116 league starts and 26 in the FA Cup.  He was a significant part of the side in the 1978/9 season, playing in all the Cup games, including the final.

12 March 1983: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 0.  FA Cup round 6.  Woodcock and Petrovic scored to take Arsenal through.

12 March 1988: Arsenal 1 Nottm Forest 2.  FA Cup round 6.  For the second round in succession over 50,000 turned up at Highbury.  David Rocastle scored.

12 March 1992: Andy Cole, after just one game for Arsenal moved on to Bristol City and later Newcastle before getting almost 200 games for Manchester Utd.  He is often thought of as the George Graham player who got away.

12 March 2002: Arsenal 0 Deportivo La Corunia 2 in Champions League 2nd group made progress difficult.

12 March 2005: Bolton 0 Arsenal 1 FA Cup round 6.  A goal by Ljunberg in the second minute took Arsenal through.

12 March 2012: Having not played for Arsenal, Sean McDermott was loaned to Leeds, but couldn’t get a game there either, and eventually was sold to Sandnes Ul in Norway.

12 March 2012: Against all the odds and the protests of those opposed to the continuation of Arsène Wenger as manager, Tomas Rosický signed a new contract, and went on to have some remarkable performances for the team.

12 March 2024: Gabriel Jesus returned to the squad for the first time since November for Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Fulham: the 100th Arsenal victory under Arteta as manager.   He was the ninth manager for Arsenal to reach this record.  Arsenal also became the first team in Football League history to win five consecutive London derbies away from home without conceding a goal.

13 March 1890: The London FA narrowly turned down a proposal to form a Southern League, despite the huge success of the Football League and the development of the Football Alliance.  The Southern League however was formed in 1894.

13 March 1893: Arsenal prepared for entry to the Football League by playing friendlies against league clubs throughout this period.  On this day it was Arsenal 0 Aston Villa 1.

13 March 1915: William Middleton first appeared as a director of Arsenal Football and Athletic Company Limited in the club’s  annual report with 100 shares, part of the plan to diversify the share ownership away from Henry Norris.

13 March 1920: Arsenal beat Sheffield United 3-0 at Highbury.  With only five of the XI who started the season now in the side, Jack Peart was introduced at right back. The Islington paper commented that the paper was pleased to see the club sticking by its own young players, and Peart was in this category,

13 March 1924: Andrew Neil signed from Brighton and Hove Albion.  He had previously played his whole career in Ayrshire, and went on to make his debut for Arsenal in a 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest two days after signing.  He played the remainder of the season and scored twice before appearing 16 times in the 1924/25 campaign.

13 March 1926: Two years to the day after signing for Arsenal, and despite this being his most productive season, Chapman sold Andrew Neil back to Brighton having just signed Alex James.

13 March 1937: Arsenal beat Leeds United 3-4 away.  Leeds were currently in 20th position, although with a strong home record but their recent results included a 0-2 home defeat to Birmingham, a 2-2 home draw with Bolton,  a 7-1 away defeat to Everton and a 1-4 away loss to Brentford.

13 March 1957: George Allison, Arsenal manager from 1934 to 1947, and part of the great dynasty that included Chapman, Joe Shaw and Tom Whittaker, died of a heart attack.  He won the league twice, and the FA Cup – exactly the same as Chapman. Tottenham suffered the backlash, beaten 3-1 at WHL. Dave Bowen claimed two of the goals – the only ones he ever scored for Arsenal.

13 March 1959  Despite his superstitious nature, and this being Friday 13th, manager George Swindin drove on a 400 miles round trip to put in a £40,000 + bid for Swansea’s Wales international centre half Mel Charles.

13 March 1962 George Swindin was told by Arsenal chairman Denis Hill-Wood he would no longer be manager after the last match of the season, 1st May, but that he was required to continue his duties for the remaining 12 matches (of which Arsenal won five.)

13 March 1965: Nottm Forest 3 Arsenal 0.  Part of the run of only two wins in the final 10 games of the season under Billy Wright’s management.

13 March 1970: Jimmy Robertson transferred to Ipswich.  In his two seasons he started 45 first division games and scored seven goals.  In July 1972 Robertson joined Stoke City for £80,000 but his career was badly set back with a leg break in December 1974.  In 1976 he moved on to Seattle and then Walsall and finally Crewe.

13 March 1971: Crystal Palace 0 Arsenal 2 in League match 31 of the first Double season.  Four wins in five restored the faith that the title might just be possible but Leeds remained six points ahead and Arsenal only had two games in hand.  Graham and Sammels got the goals.

13 March 1972: Arsenal 1 Derby 0.  FA Cup 5th round 2nd replay; after extra time.  Kennedy got the goal that took Arsenal through towards their second successive cup final for the first time in the club’s history.

13 March 1976: Coventry 1 Arsenal 1.  The draw made it four games unbeaten, but only 13,938 turned up perhaps reflecting Arsenal’s lack of firepower – which had resulted in four goals in five games.  Powling got the goal.

13 March 1993: Coventry 0 Arsenal 2.  After the 11 “Boring Boring” games with neither team scoring more than 1 goal, Arsenal finally got two, one each from Campbell and Wright.

13 March 2004: Blackburn 0 Arsenal 2  The 28th league game of the 3rd double season.  It was the 8th consecutive win with goals from Henry and Edu.

13 March 2010: Hull 1 Arsenal 2 turned out to be last game for Hull’s manager Phil Brown who had launched bizarre attacks on Arsenal and Cesc Fabregas for various degrees of imagined misbehaviour.

13 March 2013: Bayern Munich 0 Arsenal 2.  This was the first of ten consecutive away wins – an all time record for the club.  Giroud and Koscielny got the goals.

13 March 2016: Arsenal were looking to be the first team since 1886 to win the FA Cup three years running, and Arsene Wenger was looking to be the most successful FA Cup manager of all time when they were beaten by Watford 1-2 at the Emirates in the 6th round.

13 March 2023: Ødegaard was named Premier League Player of the Year, Saka won the Men’s Young Player of the Year award, Ramsdale the Goalkeeper of the Year award, and Arteta, Manager of the Year.

13 March 2020: It was announced that all professional football matches in England would cease because of the outbreak of coronavirus.

14 March 1892: Arsenal 0 Third Lanark Rovers 1.  Arsenal played a remarkable nine friendly games in March 1892 as behind the scenes the battle for control of the club’s committee (and thus the club’s future) between the “gentlemen” and the “workers” heated up.

14 March 1894: Henry (Harry) Woods born. After the first world war he played for South Shields before moving to Newcastle United in January 1922 for £2600  – a fee that for a few months was the world record. However he didn’t settle and moved to Arsenal on August 25, 1923.

14 March 1905: Chelsea FC formed.   The club had a ground, but no players.  Six months later, after their attempt to join the Southern League was blocked by Tottenham, they were playing league football after the Football League welcomed another southern club.

14 March 1908: Flares carried by the torpedo factory branch of Woolwich Arsenal supporters got out of control and set fire to a Nottingham Forest stand.  The story took a week to make the papers and even then was reported in a light hearted way, celebrating the liveliness of the Arsenal away support.

14 March 1912  Cliff Bastin born in Heavitree, near Exeter.  He played just 17 games for Exeter before moving on to Arsenal where he played 395 games gaining the reputation of being one of the club’s greatest ever players.  Exeter named a stand in their ground after him.

14 March 1914.  Arsenal 2 Fulham 0 (division 2).  Attendance 30,000.  The first ever London league derby at Highbury in the final season before league football was abandoned for the duration of hostilities.

14 March 1915: One year on from Highbury’s first league derby and a battle between German and British ships was fought at sea off the coast of Chile, while on the diplomatic front France agreed to “give” Constantinople and the Bosphorus to Russia at the end of the war (although the Russian Revolution of 1917 nullified this agreement).

14 March 1931: Aston Villa 5 Arsenal 1. Arsenal scored five or more goals nine times in the season, but also let in five – although just this once.  It was the only defeat in the last 19 games of the season as Arsenal took the title, having come 14th the previous season.

14 March 1933: Ray Bowden joined from Plymouth.  This was reported to be the final signing by Herbert Chapman before his untimely death.  Ray played as the inside forward behind Ted Drake – who signed one year later to the day.

14 March 1934: Ted Drake signed from Southampton for £6500.  In his six seasons at Arsenal although he only played 167 league games his impact was immeasurable not least because he scored an incredible 124 goals, making him the most prolific of all Arsenal goal scorers with over 100 goals.

14 March 1936: Arsenal played Preston away.  Preston were unbeaten in five and with a very strong home record, but the next game was the FA Cup semi-final so Allison dropped Male, Roberts, Milne, Davidson, Dunne, John and Rogers.  Arsenal lost 0-1, and the League were not amused.

14 March 1963: Tony Burns transferred from Tunbridge Wells.  He played 31 league games for Arsenal before moving on to Brighton in 1966.  Since retiring from playing in 1979 he has been goalkeeping coach at several clubs, most notably Millwall.

14 March 1964: Last game for Dave Bacuzzi.  He moved on to Manchester City with whom he won the second division, and then into management in Ireland, taking amateur side Home Farm to cup glory..

14 March 1964: Arsenal 2 Chelsea 4.  League debut for Peter Simpson.  He made little impact under the management of Billy Wright but flourished under Bertie Mee and made 353 appearances all told.  A one-club man. Joe Baker scored his 26th and final goal of the season in this game,

14 March 1970: Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1.  Two wins in a row after the 10 consecutive games without a win, brought some relief in the league.  Sammels and Radford got the goals.

14 March 1979: Nic Anelka born in Versailles.  He only played for Arsenal for three seasons, but his sale brought enough profit to enable to club to build new training facilities.  He played for 12 different clubs and most recently became manager of Mumbai City FC.

14 March 1987: Arsenal 1 Watford 3.  FA Cup round 6. Allinson got the goal.  It was a disappointing result, but all was forgiven when Arsenal beat Liverpool three weeks later to win the League Cup.

14 March 1998: Man U 0 Arsenal 1 resulted in Ferguson making his “Arsenal will drop points, no doubt about that” speech as Arsenal continued with their 10 consecutive wins to take the league title.  Game 28 of the 2nd Double Season.  In a bizarre move Fred Done, a Manchester bookmaker, paid up people who had backed Man U for the league title!   The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

14 March 2007: The highest ever attendance for a FA Youth Cup match of 38,187, saw Arsenal 1 Man U 0 in the semi-final.  Gibbs scored for Arsenal, and Danny Welbeck played for Man U.

14 March 2007: Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 1 made it six wins and a draw in the last seven.  Diaby got the only goal on 10 minutes. Unfortunately Arsenal then went on to lose the next three league games.

14 March 2009: As four Blackburn players were yellow carded, Arshavin scored his first of 23 goals for Arsenal in a 4-0 win over Blackburn.  Eboue scored two (one a penalty) and the other was an own goal. This came in a run of 21 unbeaten matches.

14 March 2015: Arsenal 3 West Ham 0.  Arsenal closed in on Man City in second, with the completion of five consecutive wins in the league.  It was the 9th consecutive home win in the League, a record since moving to the Emirates. Giroud, Ramsey and Flamini scored.

14 March 2019: Arsenal 3 Rennes 0 in the Europa League to overturn a 3-1 defeat in the first leg.  Aubameyang got two, Maitland Niles the other. Eight players got yellow cards.

14 March 2021: For the match against Tottenham  Mikel Arteta dropped captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from the starting line-up to the bench for disciplinary issues.

14 March 2021: Arsenal beat Tottenham 2-1 – only the third win in eight games.

15 March 1884: Birth of Leslie Knighton – one of Arsenal’s least successful managers, and the man who for sixty years led historians astray with a stream of wholly inaccurate claims and false tales about Sir Henry Norris, in his autobiography.  It was only when the Arsenal History Society started investigating his stories that the falsehoods became clear.

15 March 1913: Woolwich Arsenal 1 WBA 0. It was Arsenal’s last win at Plumstead.  In the remaining eight matches Arsenal gained three draws and suffered five defeats.

15 March 1916:  Henry Norris resigned as the chair of the London Borough of Fulham military tribunal in readiness for the next phase of his work at the War Office co-ordinating recruitment.

15 March 1918: The London Borough of Fulham held a tank day in which a retired tank from the battlefront was driven through the streets of the borough as a fundraising plan.  Sir Henry Norris as with other London mayors co-ordinated the event.

15 March 1920: The first ever international was played at Highbury.  The result was England 1 Wales 2, and it was Wales’ first victory against England in 38 years.  England’s goal came from Charlie Buchan.

15 March 1924: First game for Andrew Neil – Nottingham Forest 2 Arsenal 1.  He played 54 games for Arsenal at inside left and inside right.  Neil returned to Brighton from whence he came in 1926 and later moved on to QPR and then retired from football in 1930 dying at the tragically early age of 48.

15 March 1932: The BBC moved into Broadcasting House and continued to expand its role, including taking more interest in football.

15 March 1935: Ralph Birkett sold to Middlesbrough.  He had played 19 league games and scored a very creditable seven goals.

15 March 1937: Reg Lewis turned professional, just in time to undertake the club’s summer tour.

15 March 1947: First match for Alf Calverly:  Arsenal 4 Preston North End 1. It started something of a revival for Arsenal, with the team winning seven and drawing two of the last 12.

15 March 1955: Arsenal 3 Rangers 3; part of the long running series of games between the clubs which had been initiated by Herbert Chapman.

15 March 1958: Man City 2 Arsenal 4.  The fourth consecutive match in which one or both sides scored four.  These four games generated a total of 28 goals. In this game Bloomfield got three and Herd one.

15 March 1960  On transfer deadline day Arsenal’s number two, coach Ron Greenwood, submitted a failed bid for Huddersfield’s 20 years old starlet Denis Law. Unfortunately Denis felt snubbed by Arsenal for not sending manager Swindin.

15 March 1969: Swindon 3 Arsenal 1.  League Cup Final. Arsenal were firm favourites but the bumpy nature of the pitch (following its use for an equestrian event the day before) didn’t help the Arsenal cause.  Bobby Gould got the Arsenal goal. For context see here

15 March 1971: Arsenal 1 Leicester 0. FA Cup 6th round, replay.  As in the games against Portsmouth and Man City in the cup, Charlie George scored.

15 March 1975: Arsenal 1 Birmingham 1. A draw after three defeats gave Arsenal some relief but erratic form continued to keep Arsenal near the wrong end of the table.  Kidd scored for Arsenal.

15 March 1976: Arsenal keeper Jack McClelland died of cancer aged 35.  He was our main keeper in 1962/3 when he made 36 appearances in league and cup.

15 March 1980: Man City 0 Arsenal 3, making it five wins one draw in the last six.  The run helped Arsenal climb the table but a defeat on the final day stopped them reaching the 3rd place spot they sought.

15 March 1990: Niall Quinn sold to Man City.  He had one season as the main striker (1986/7) when he played 35 league games but only scored eight goals.  He later went into club ownership and punditry.

15 March 1994: Arsenal 1 Torino 0  CWC quarter final 2nd leg.  Brief summary here

15 March 1997: Lee Harper’s one and only game.   He moved on to QPR in the summer and played over 100 games for QPR, Northampton and Kettering, managing the latter club for a while before vanishing from public view.

15 March 2001: Stuart Taylor’s third loan – a brief spell with Peterborough – came to an end.

15 March 2003: Blackburn 2 Arsenal 0.  It was the first defeat since 7 December and the result made it hard for Arsenal to challenge for the title even though Arsenal only lost only one more game in the rest of the season.

15 March 2010: Phil Brown, the man who accused Arsenal of a wide range of fiendish maneuvers and impropriety such as having a non-playing captain improperly dressed, was dismissed by Hull City.  He later managed Southend.

15 March 2018: Arsenal beat Inter Milan 3-1 at home to win the Europa League tie 5-1 on aggregate and thus reach the quarter finals.

15 March 2023: Josh Kroenke became jco-chairman of Arsenal with his father.

16 March 1896: Arsenal Reserves played Thames Ironworks at Canning Town in what is believed to have been Arsenal’s first floodlit game. Arsenal won 5-3.  Gas lamps were strung over the pitch to provide light.

16 March 1896: Arsenal 1 Tottenham 3.  Arsenal had beaten Tottenham 10-1 in September 1889, after which what had been a regular exchange of games between the two clubs ceased at Tottenham’s behest. This was the first game after a seven year gap.

16 March 1907:  Only 6,000 showed for the home game with Manchester U; but the crowds returned at Easter when a total of 65,000 came to the three consecutive home matches.

16 March 1915: As the Football League agreed to close down for the duration of the war, after much criticism for having kept the 1914/15 season running, the Jockey Club announce they see no reason why horse racing should stop, war or no war.  It was after all the sport of kings, and (although they didn’t say it) kings don’t actually fight wars – they just start them.

16 March 1917: The Tsar of all the Russias abdicated effectively taking Russia out of the war.

16 March 1935: Goalkeeper Frank Moss was injured playing in goal, but continued to play on the wing, and scored, however the decision to play on virtually ended his career.  Arsenal won 0-2 and went on to win the league and Moss remains the only Arsenal keeper to score in the first division game.

16 March 1936: George Marks joined as an amateur from Salisbury Corinthians.  He only played two league games and eventually moved onto Blackburn in 1946 – but he was the keeper in the “Arsenal Stadium Mystery” movie.

16 March 1956: Doug Lishman transferred to Nottingham Forest.  In 226 league games for Arsenal he scored an extraordinary 125 goals.  He later scored a hat-trick in the match that got Nottingham Forest promoted in 1956/7 but retired in the summer of 1957 to join his father-in law in a furniture retail business in Stoke on Trent, and later took over the business himself.

16 March 1961: Bill Dodgin sold back to Fulham.  He had played 191 league games and 6 FA Cup games since transferring from Fulham in 1952.  He later managed QPR, Fulham, Northampton and Brentford, winning promotion with the last two clubs.

16 March 1962: Billy Wright named as Arsenal manager.  His signing ended the tradition which started with Joe Shaw of Arsenal appointing managers from within the club or men who had been at the club.  It turned out to be a poor decision.

16 March 1963  Arsenal 1 Liverpool 2 FA Cup fifth round.  On the anniversary of Billy Wright’s appointment Arsenal were knocked out of the Cup. In fact Wright never took the club further in the cup in four years as manager.  John MacLeod grabbed a consolation goal four minutes from time but costly errors by Laurie Brown and John Barnwell contributed to their downfall.

16 March 1968: Arsenal 0 Wolverhampton 2.  The result made it nine league games without a win.  First and last league appearance of Roger Davidson. He moved to Portsmouth in May 1969.

16 March 1974: Ipswich 2 Arsenal 2.    The draw made it just one win in seven, but thereafter Arsenal only lost one more game to secure a mid-table finish.  Kennedy and Simpson got the goals. See also here

16 March 1976: Arsenal 0 Newcastle 0.  Five games unbeaten gave a tiny level of relief in Arsenal’s worst season since 1925, although the club still ended up 17th in the first division (as opposed to 20th in 1925).

16 March 1968.  Roger Davidson made his first and last senior appearance for Arsenal.

16 March 1989: Theo Walcott born.  He played 21 games for Southampton before moving to Arsenal in 2006.  Ten years after his transfer he was still at Arsenal having played over 220 games for Arsenal and 42 for England.

16 March 1995:  Auxerre 0 Arsenal 1.  CWC quarter final 2nd leg.  A goal by Ian Wright on 16 minutes gave Arsenal the away win they needed to overcome the 1-1 draw at Highbury.

16 March 2000: Arsenal 2 Werder Bremen 0.  Uefa Cup. There were media suggestions this was not enough.  Henry and Ljungburg scored. The second match was on the 23 March and Arsenal surprised even themselves.

16 March 2001: Alan Sugar as chairman of Tottenham sacked George Graham for breach of contract as manager, bringing in Glenn Hoddle in his stead.  The papers went wild with “a lot of twaddle about Hoddle”. Ho ho.

16 March 2013: Swansea 0 Arsenal 2: From here to the end of the season Arsenal won 8 drew 2 and lost 0.  Monreal equalised on 74 minutes and Gervinho got the winner in added time.

16 March 2014: Tottenham 0 Arsenal 1 with a Rosicky screamer in 72 seconds being the only goal of the match.

 

17 March 1888: Royal Arsenal 5 Ascham 0.  Part of the 11 match unbeaten run at the end of season 2 during which Royal Arsenal scored 43 goals.  The Ascham club no longer exists but was probably in Walthamstow.

17 March 1894: Arsenal 2 Millwall Athletic 2.  After joining the league Arsenal continued the money spinning local derbies with Millwall.  This game attracted 6000, the return match in April got a crowd of 10,000.

17 March 1900: Last appearance of Roger Ord.  He stayed with Arsenal until September at which time he was transferred to Luton.  As a keeper he kept 29 clean sheets out of his 99 games, a ratio of 3.41 percent which makes him the 16th highest on the Arsenal clean sheets list.

17 March 1909: First game for Matthew Thompson.  He had signed from Maryhill FC in Glasgow the previous summer.   He continued to play for the club and played at Highbury in the first season, after which he was transferred to Swindon Town.

17 March 1917: Arsenal’s best run of the season came to an end with defeat at Crystal Palace by 1-0 with just 2500 in the crowd.

17 March 1923: Bob John made his international debut and went on to play for Wales 15 times between 1923 and 1937.

17 March 1928: Len Thompson was sold to Arsenal for £4000.  He made his Arsenal debut in a 2–0 defeat by Portsmouth on 28 March 1928,

17 March 1949: Pat Rice born.  He went on to make 391 league starts across a 13 season career, became temporary manager while waiting for Arsène Wenger to arrive from Japan, and then Arsène Wenger’s long term assistant.

17 March 1958:  Arsenal won the London Challenge Cup beating West Ham Utd 3-1.  It was one of 16 times Arsenal reached the final, and one off 11 times Arsenal won it.

17 March 1964: Lee Dixon born.  He started life in football in 1980 with Burnley, before joining Chester City, then Bury and then Stoke City – none of whom were first division clubs. He became part of one of the most famous defences in the history of English football between 1987 and 2000.

17 March 1973: Chelsea 2 Arsenal 2 (FA Cup 6th round).  Ball and George scored, and Arsenal won the replay 2-1.

17 March 1979: Ipswich 2 Arsenal 0 made it three defeats in the last four.  Despite winning the FA Cup this season the league form remained disappointing in the latter part of the campaign.

17 March 1998: WHU 1 Arsenal 1,  FA Cup 6 Replay.  Anelka scored in normal time and Arsenal won on penalties on the way to the second double.   The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

17 March 2002 Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2.  Part of a run of 13 consecutive wins.  League match 30 of the 3rd Double season.   Edu got the first and Pires (easily the man of the match) got the second before Villa’s late consolation goal.

17 March 2009: Arsenal 2 Hull 1 FA Cup 6th round.  Hull staff made their wild allegations about assault and of Fabregas being wrongly dressed, after the game.  All allegations were thrown out and the Hull manager later lost his job.

17 March 2009: Highbury Square awarded a prize for architectural excellence.  The citation noted it preserved the nature and memory of the original arena while developing a new residential typology which contributes to the rich, local grain of streets, avenues and squares.

17 March 2010: Luke Ayling loaned to Yeovil.  He was later transferred there and played 162 league games for them before moving on to Bristol City in 2014.

17 March 2010:  Following a run of injuries to its keepers, Jens Lehmann re-signed by Arsenal, having been training at the club as he prepared for his coaching qualifications.

17 March 2015: Monaco 0 Arsenal 2.  Although Monaco went through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League it was a close thing.  Giroud and Ramsey scored and one more goal would have taken Arsenal through.

18 March 1893: Building towards entering the league Arsenal beat Middlesbrough Ironopolis 3-0.  The Irons joined the league at the same time as Arsenal, but left after one season despite coming a decent 11th, due to very poor crowds.

18 March 1898: Sunderland manager Bob Campbell accepted the post of manager of Arsenal but then changed his mind.

18 March 1899: Arsenal 6 Blackpool 0.  Cotterell got three goals in a run in which he scored eight in the last nine games of the season.

18 March 1910: Woolwich Arsenal went into liquidation.  Fortunately Henry Norris was on hand to bail the club out, and he eventually paid all the debts (including non-football debts and debts that were not disclosed at this moment).  Such behaviour is utterly unknown among football clubs today. See also here.

18 March 1922: Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 0.  5th consecutive defeat and 4th consecutive match without scoring.  Arsenal however then won the next four games and eventually finished 17th to help save Knighton from the sack.

18 March 1933: Ray Bowden’s first game within days of his signing: Arsenal 1 Wolverhampton 2.  This was one of a run of three defeats and a draw, but Arsenal then recovered with five consecutive wins, to take the League title again.

18 March 1950: Arsenal 2 Chelsea 2; Arsenal’s 8th cup semi final. Cox and Leslie Compton scored as Arsenal continued their dominance of the Cup ultimately becoming the most successful FA Cup team ever, a title they later shared with Man U.

18 March 1970: Arsenal 7  Dinamo Baclu 1.  Fairs Cup 4th round. 35,342 attended.  Radford (2), George (2), Sammels (2) and Graham scored to give Arsenal a 9-1 aggregate win.

18 March 1972: Orient 0 Arsenal 1.  FA Cup 6th round. Ball got the goal as over 31,000 improbably (and unsafely) crammed into Orient’s ground.  It was not all ticket.

18 March 1975: Arsenal 3 Newcastle 0.  After 32 league games that was our 9th win of the season.  Kidd, Ball and Rostron scored, but the game was followed by another three without a victory.  The win lifted Arsenal to 17th – and above Chelsea and Tottenham.

18 March 1978: Arsenal 4 Bristol City 1.  This game made it five without defeat – but three of those were draws.  Stapleton (2), Sunderland and Price got the goals. Arsenal were 4th – but still seven points behind Nottingham Forest.

18 March 2007: Everton 1 Arsenal 0  After a brilliant unbeaten run Arsenal’s next run was three  defeats and a draw.

18 March 2014: Cazorla, Ramsey and Zelalem all signed new contracts.

18 March 2017: A 3-1 away defeat to WBA meant Arsenal had lost four of their last five league games, conceding 11 and scoring six

19 March 1898: First play-off for the Sheriff of London Charity Shield; set up to be played between a top amateur and a professional side in England once a year.   The income from the game went to hospitals and charities. Arsenal subsequently won it four times before it transmuted into the Charity Shield, until that was forced to stop when it was revealed the FA were guilty of fraud in not properly accounting for its supposed charitable donations.

19 March 1904: Chesterfield 1 Arsenal 0.  Despite only three wins out of the last nine from this match on, Arsenal had done enough to win promotion, and remained second seven points above Bristol City in third.

19 March 1914: A torrential downpour hit north London and flooding disrupted part of Arsenal’s ground, causing the collapse of a wall within the ground.  Highbury was however fit for use once more on 4 April.

19 March 1923: Arsenal became the first English club to host an international against a non-UK team.  The result was England 6 Belgium 1.

19 March 1966: Last league game for Billy McCullough.  He had played 258 league games across eight seasons before moving on to Millwall.  He later played for Bedford Town, Cork Celtic and Derry City.

19 March 1979: Southampton 1 Arsenal 1, FA Cup 6th round.  It was Arsenal’s 8th FA Cup game in the season, but they had still only made it through three rounds.  Price got the Arsenal goal.

19 March 1980: Gothenburg 0 Arsenal 0 in the Cup Winners’ Cup quarter final 2nd leg.

19 March 1981: Kolo Toure born.   He played over 200 games for Arsenal before moving on to Manchester City and Liverpool.

19 March 1988: Arsenal 1 Newcastle 1. After the revival following 3 wins in a row, Arsenal started a run of four successive draws, scoring two letting in (obviously) two.  In this game Groves got the goal.

19 March 1992: Jack Kelsey died in London aged 62.  He not only played 327 league games for Arsenal but also 41 games for Wales and played in goal for GB against Europe in 1955.

19 March 1994: Southampton 0 Arsenal 4.  Final appearance for Anders Limpar; Wright scored a hat trick for the second league match running.

19 March 1995: Hector Bellerin born.

19 March 2000: Arsenal 2 Tottenham 1.  The start of eight successive victories which secured Arsenal second place and a continuation of the European adventure. Armstrong scored for Tottenham and an own goal for Arsenal, and Henry got a penalty.

19 March 2003: Valencia 2 Arsenal 1.  As a result of this match Arsenal failed to progress beyond the second group stage.

19 March 2005: Blackburn 0 Arsenal 1.  The 5th match of the unbeaten run that lasted until 11 May.  Van Persie scored to leave Arsenal in third, 14 points above Everton in fourth place.

19 March 2011: Having re-signed for Arsenal as emergency cover in goal Lehmann was selected as the substitute keeper against WBA.  The result was a 2-2 draw with Arshavin and van Persie scoring.

19 March 2016: Everton 0 Arsenal 2 (Iwobi and Welbeck scored).  The result came after successive defeats to Watford (at home in the cup) and Barcelona away in the Champions League. It was the start of a nine match run unbeaten, to the end of the season, in which Arsenal scored 19 goals including five goals for Sanchez in four consecutive games

19 March 2022.  Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 1.  The result on this day made in 7 wins and 1 draw in the last nine games, which took Arsenal up to fourth in the league, but then seemingly following a tactical switch Arsenal lost the next three games

19 March 2023: Arsenal became the first side in English Football League history to win nine London derbies in a single league season.

20 March 1908: The Kentish Independent finally reported that Arsenal’s hard core support known as the “Torpedo Boys” had let off fireworks in the Nottingham Forest ground which had (probably) started a fire inside the stadium.

20 March 1910 Dr John Clarke, the head of the Arsenal fund raising committee began a tour of the public houses of Plumstead offering shares in the club at £1 each.

20 March 1914: Highbury was reported as being closed following the wall collapse during the floods on the previous day.   As a result the home game against Grimsby scheduled for March 21 was postponed and played on Thursday 23 April.

20 March 1926 Jack Rutherford played his final game for Arsenal v Man City aged 41 years 159 days – the oldest player to play a league match in the history of the club.  Arsenal beat Manchester City 1-0.

20 March 1937: 421st and final league game for Bob John.  Arsenal drew 1-1 with Birmingham. He went on to be a trainer with West Ham, Crystal Palace and Torquay.

20 March 1968: Paul Merson born.  He signed for Arsenal aged 14.  Despite receiving sustained support from Arsenal during his own periods of difficulty, he became increasingly critical of the club and Arsène Wenger in his 40s often saying that Wenger should resign if he lost one or another particular match.  The criticism continued after Mr Wenger left.

20 March 1971: Arsenal 1 Blackpool 0.  Five wins in six gave Arsenal hope of winning the league but with Leeds continuing to win there were also doubters.  League match 32 of the first Double season. Storey scored the only goal.

20 March 1973: Arsenal 2 Chelsea 1.  FA Cup 6, replay.  Goals from Ball and Kennedy took Arsenal into the semi-finals for the third year running.

20 March 1976: Arsenal 6 West Ham 1; the best win in the worst season since 1924/25.  Kidd (3) Ball (2) and Armstrong got the goals, but there was only one more victory in the remaining seven league games.

20 March 1993.  After the Boring Boring Arsenal of five goals in 15 league games, Arsenal made it six goals in two with the result Arsenal 4 Southampton 3!  Linighan, Merson and two for Carter secured the win.

20 March 1998: Vince Bartram signed for Gillingham on a free transfer.  He made 11 league appearances in 1994/5 but none thereafter.

20 March 1999: Arsenal 2 Coventry 0 made it three wins in three during March, as part of an unbeaten run stretching from, 20 December to 5 May.  Parlour and Overmars got the goals.

20 March 2004: Arsenal 2 Bolton 1.  The 29th league game of the unbeaten season.  Almost inevitably Henry and Pires scored.  The result left Arsenal nine points ahead of Chelsea in second place.

20 March 2010: Arsenal beat WHU 2-0 away to go top of the league; it was their 6th straight win.  Denilson and Fabregas got the goals, and Vermaelen was sent off in the 44th minute.

20 March 2019: Josh Martin transferred to Norwich City.

21 March 1891: Bob Buchanan won his one and only Scottish cap in a game against Wales.  He joined Arsenal for the 1894/5 season and went on to play 25 games before moving on to Southampton.

21 March 1896: For the second year running Arsenal beat Crewe 7-0.  It was also the second 7-0 of the season but only 4000 turned up for the game.  The result left Arsenal in sixth, and despite these wins, still having scored 44 goals fewer than top of the table Liverpool.

21 March 1896: Woolwich Arsenal’s first international player – Caesar Jenkyns played for Wales as they beat Scotland 4-0.

21 March 1903: Thomas Shanks became the first Arsenal player to be capped for Ireland.  He played three times for his country while with the club.

21 March 1903: First and only cap for Archie Gray.  He joined Arsenal in 1904 and played for the club 184 times before leaving in 1912 to join Fulham.

21 March 1904: Final game for Frederick Coles.  He moved on to Grimsby Town in June 1904.  Later he became a cricket and football coach in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was also trainer of Hague in Holland between 1910 and 1911.

21 March 1906: Everton 0 Arsenal 1.  Last of five consecutive wins and part of nine wins in 10 to games secured the club’s 1st division survival, taking Arsenal up to 16th out of 20 clubs, six points clear of a relegation spot.

21 March 1909: Peter Dougall born in Falkirk.  After a varied career he was offered a trial at Arsenal on 27 September 1933 signing as a professional on 23 October

21 March 1913: Man U 2 Arsenal 0.  Start of an eight match run without a win which relegated the club for the first and only time.  After 31 games Arsenal still only had 15 points – as did the other relegation candidate, Notts County.

21 March 1918: Germany launched the Spring Offensive (also known as the Kaiser’s Battle), along the Western Front.  And it looked at first like it was a success, because it resulted in the deepest advances by either side since 1914.  But it had a flaw…

21 March 1931: Arsenal 2 Sheffield Wednesday 0.  Jimmy Brain’s final league appearance (although he played on the summer tour of Scandinavia).  He played 204 league games and scored 125 goals. Jack and Bastin got the goals on this day, 47,872 in the crowd.

21 March 1936: Arsenal 1 Grimsby 0.  FA Cup semi final.  Bastin scored the goal in front of 63,210 fans at Huddersfield’s ground.  It was Bastin’s sixth goal in the cup this season, making him the top cup scorer, although with only 11 in the league he was way behind Ted Drake.

21 March 1964: John Radford made his Arsenal debut away at West Ham United.  It ended 1-1. Alan Skirton scored the Arsenal goal.

21 March 1966: Martin Hayes born in Walthamstow.  He joined Arsenal as an amateur in 1981 and made his first team debut in 1985 becoming Arsenal’s top scorer by a long way, in 1987.

21 March 1970: Southampton 0 Arsenal 2.  This was the last of three consecutive wins after 10 without a win.  Sammels and George got the goals which lifted Arsenal to 11th in the league.

21 March 1978: Birmingham 1 Arsenal 1.  Arsenal made it six games without defeat, while challenging in league and cup.  Arsenal were now fourth, but the League challenge however was never enough to topple Nottingham Forest who were six points ahead.

21 March 1979: Arsenal 2 Southampton 0. FA Cup 6 replay, with both goals coming from Alan Sunderland (who also scored in the semi-final and final).  Both Stapleton and Sunderland ended the cup run with six goals.

21 March 1981: Debut of Peter Nicholas in a 1-1 draw with Norwich.  It was the start of a nine match unbeaten run to the end of the season within which Arsenal won seven.  Talbot scored the goal.

21 March 2009: Almunia saved a penalty for the third time in the season.  Newcastle 1 Arsenal 3. The result was part of a 21 match unbeaten run, with Bendtner, Diaby and Nasri scoring.

21 March 2015: Newcastle 1 Arsenal 2 made it six straight league wins for Arsenal, with Giroud having scored seven goals in his last six games.  The result left Arsenal in third, four points behind Chelsea who had drawn three of their last six.

22 March 1888: The first recorded meeting of clubs that were to become the founders of the Football League took place.  Arsenal joined the League five and a half years later.

22 March 1899: Blackpool 1 Arsenal 1.  Cottrell made it five goals in 3 consecutive matches chasing Haywood’s record of six in four earlier in the season.

22 March 1919: Clem Voysey played his first match for Arsenal in a London Combination (the war time league) game against West Ham.  Arsenal won 3-2 in front of 20,000.

22 March 1920: In a public meeting Sir Henry Norris spoke in favour of reduced train fares for commuters and for football fans going to away games, and said that increased salaries for workers were a fact of life that should not be opposed.  He had earlier opposed the maximum wage for players, but his ideas were defeated.

22 March 1930: Hull City 2 Arsenal 2.  FA Cup semi final.  Hull were 2nd division strugglers at the time; Jack and Bastin got Arsenal’s goals.  47549 turned up for the game played at Leeds’ Elland Road ground.

22 March 1941: Arsenal beat Millwall in the London War Cup 6-1 with Leslie Compton getting three.    But this was considered a modest show by Arsenal, who in the same season beat Southend 7-1 and 7-01, Northamoton 8-1, Luton 8-1, Clapton Orient 15-2 (Compton got 10), Millwall 6-1.  Compton played 36 games and scored 42 goals. Yet the largest league crowd all season was a mere 8000, although 60,000 turned up for the cup final.

22 March 1950: Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-final replay with both Compton brothers in the team.  The first game on 18 March had ended 2-2 and Freddie Cox scored in both games.

22 March 1972: Arsenal 0 Ajax 1.  European Cup quarter final.  A headed own goal by George Graham sent Arsenal out of the competition.

22 March 1975: Burnley 3 Arsenal 3.  Two from Hornsby and one from Rostrom.  It was the start of a three match run without a win as the press talked of Arsenal’s possible relegation for the first time since 1913.

22 March 1976: After a 6-1 defeat of West Ham two days before, Bertie Mee announced he would leave Arsenal at the end of the season  Thereafter Arsenal won one, drew one and lost five in the league to finish 17th.

22 March 1980: Arsenal 1 Crystal Palace 1, which meant Arsenal were unbeaten in seven, being fourth, ten points off the leaders.  Liam Brady to got the goal.

22 March 1986: After reports circulated that the board were seeking to appoint Barcelona manager Terry Venables in his place, Don Howe resigned as manager 10 years to the day after Bertie Mee.  Steve Burtenshaw took over.

22 March 1994: Neil Heaney transferred to Southampton.  He made four league starts and three appearances as a sub in his three seasons with Arsenal.

22 March 2005: The start of Jens Lehmann’s record of 853 minutes without conceding a goal in the Champions League.

22 March 2012: Benik Afobe loaned to Reading, Chuks Aneke to Preston, Nico Yennaris to Notts C.  Of the three Afobe seemed to have the greatest potential going on to play for Bournemouth in the Premier League.

22 March 2014: Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0 in which the referee sent off completely the wrong player, by mistake, despite protests by both players.  In fact there should have been no sending off as the handball in the area was of a shot that was destined to miss the goal had it not been touched.

23 March 1875: Adam Haywood born.  He joined Arsenal in 1896 and went on to play 84 league games for the club, Woolwich Arsenal being his first professional club.

23 March 1890: Arsenal won the Kent Senior Cup beating Thanet Wanderers 3-0.  Later Royal Ordnance Factories FC, the club that split from Arsenal in 1893 also won the Cup – their only trophy.

23 March 1894: Woolwich Arsenal 6 Norwich Victoria 0.  It was the club’s biggest win thus far in the league.  Two goals for Henderson made him Arsenal’s top scorer in their first season with 12 league goals and seven in the FA Cup. It was the first game for George Jaques who got two of the goals.

23 March 1903: Final senior game for Alex Main.  He joined Motherwell in October, after playing 63 league games for the club before finally playing for Watford between 1904 and 1907.

23 March 1907 Arsenal lost a semi-final of FA Cup for second year running.  It was the last semi-final for Arsenal until 1927 – a run of 16 seasons (four being missed due to the war.  Arsenal later went 18 seasons (from 1953 onwards) without a semi-final appearance.

23 March 1910: With Arsenal in serious financial trouble, Tottenham considered buying part or all of Woolwich Arsenal but the idea came to nothing.  Rangers however did make a small but symbolic investment which remained until the 21st century. It was this investment which in part encouraged Chapman to launch the annual Arsenal v Rangers match in the 1930s.

23 March 1918: Arsenal lost 1-3 at home to Brentford in front of 6000.  That evening, at the Wood Green Empire, the American magician Chung Ling Soo (real name William E Robinson), performed his act in which he caught bullets fired from a gun. One of the bullets perforated his lung and he died in hospital the following morning.

23 March 1925: The start of a sequence of six games without a win, and part of a run of four wins in 19, which doomed Leslie Knighton to the sack in the summer. The attendance of only 10,000 added to Arsenal’s woes.

23 March 1925: Last game for Tom Whittaker.  He had played just 64 games for the club but his impact behind the scenes, starting as assistant trainer was much, much greater, and he went on to be a major force in the club until his death while club manager in 1953.  Like Chapman and Allison before him he won the league twice and FA Cup once.

23 March 1935: Arsenal’s charge to the championship faltered with a 1-1 draw with Grimsby.   Tottenham (heading for relegation) lost, and then on Thursday 28th they again were defeated, this time 6-0 by fellow strugglers Leicester.

23 March 1946: 30,000 crammed into the Den to see Millwall 1 Arsenal 1.  Most noted was the fact that after scoring five goals across four consecutive matches, winger Dennis Compton failed to score.

23 March 1968: Fulham 1 Arsenal 3.  It was the first league win in 10 and the first time Arsenal had scored more than two in three months.  Graham, Gould and Court got the goals.

23 March 1971: FC Koln 1 Arsenal 0.  Fairs Cup 4th round 2nd leg.  The result left the score overall at 2-2, and Arsenal went out on the away goals rule.

23 March 1974: Arsenal 2 Man C 0.  With two goals from Radford there were hopes  of a revival, as Arsenal were unbeaten in three league games and were 14th.  The improvement did continue with only one more defeat in the season as Arsenal finished 10th.

23 March 1977: Stoke 1 Arsenal 1.  Arsenal’s first point in eight games, and just sixth goal in ten games.  The club was still without a win in 11 league matches – a record of the most unwelcome kind. Price got the goal.  The crowd was 13,951.

23 March 1988: Kenny Sansom’s 86th and final appearance for England making him at the time the club’s most capped player.  He played 314 times for Arsenal.

23 March 2000:  Ray Parlour scored a hat-trick against Werder Bremen as Arsenal won 4-2 away to go through to the Uefa cup semi-final.

23 March 2002: Arsenal 3 Newcastle 0.  FA Cup 6th round replay.  Part of the 3rd Double.  Pires, Bergkamp and Campbell scored, but Pires was stretchered off with a serious knee ligament injury.

23 March 2005: An English Heritage blue plaque was unveiled at Herbert Chapman’s home in Hendon by Peter Hill-Wood, 71 years after the manager’s death.

23 March 2008: Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.  It was the first defeat since 9 December 2007.

23 March 2009: Arsène Wenger spoke of his hope for Abou Diaby emulating Patrick Vieira.  It was in May 2009 that Abou received the serious injury from an utterly unnecessary tackle that ultimately destroyed his career.

24 March 1888 Cup Final Day.  Arsenal went on to play two more games before their own first complete season concluded at the end of the month.  The agreement at the time was that it was “cricket only” from 1 April to 31 August.

24 March 1911: Leslie Calder signed for Arsenal as an amateur.  He played only once, at centre forward away to Middlesbrough on 15 April in a 1-1 draw.  He then signed as a professional on 24 August 1912, but didn’t get another game and does not appear to have moved on to another team and so was perhaps seriously injured.

24 March 1914: John Butler joined Arsenal FC.  His first league game in first team was not until 1919 although it would have been much earlier had it not been for the war.  He continued with the club until April 1930.

24 March 1917: Arsenal played Portsmouth at Highbury in the wartime league, and returned to winning ways with a victory by 2-1 over Portsmouth with 4,500 in the crowd.

24 March 1919: Sir Henry Norris raised a question in the House of Commons concerning far right wing posters appearing on walls in London denouncing members of the government as traitors.  It was his first question as an MP.

24 March 1928: Arsenal’s fourth and Chapman’s second successive FA Cup semi-final – Arsenal lost to Blackburn 0-1 at Leicester.  Chapman went on to take Arsenal to three semi-finals in four years.

24 March 1934: Ted Drake played his first match for Arsenal.  Arsenal beat Wolverhampton 3-2 and Drake scored his first goal.  He went on to play 167 league games and scored 124 goals.

24 March 1945: Arsenal 1 Crystal Palace 0 in the wartime Football League south.  Arsenal had suffered disappointment in the previous game by losing in the League Cup (South) semi-final to Millwall 1-0 in front of 49,513,  and only 9,619 turned up for this league game. There was probably a doubt in people’s minds as to what Arsenal could do as they then lost the next four games to finish the league in 8th.  It was a sign that Arsenal were now in serious decline.

24 March 1951: Dave Bowen made his first team début for Arsenal as Arsenal beat Wolverhampton 2-1 in front of 54,213 at Highbury.  Holton got both goals. This was one of three games in four days – a traditional Easter format at this time.

24 March 1956: Sheffield Utd 0 Arsenal 2.  It was the start of six consecutive wins without conceding a goal, but the poor start to the season (just one win in the first nine) removed any chance of a challenge for the title, and Arsenal ended 5th.

24 March 1973: Man City 1 Arsenal 2.  Arsenal’s 3rd successive win, with one defeat in 15. The result left Arsenal two points behind Liverpool having played the same number of games, but one win in the last six games of the season meant Arsenal never managed to catch Liverpool.

24 March 1979: Arsenal 1 Man City 1.  This game was part of a run of just one win in eight as Arsenal focussed on getting to a second successive cup final.  Sunderland got the goal, 35,014 in attendance.

24 March 1984: Arsenal 4 Wolverhampton 1.  Start of a nine match unbeaten run which ran until the end of the season; a run  which was all the more surprising since it started immediately after a 4-0 defeat to Man U. Robson, Woodcock, Nicholas (pen) and Rix scored.

24 March 1990: Derby 1 Arsenal 3.  Kwame Ampadu League debut as a sub.  He made one more appearance, again as a sub, and moved on to West Brom in the summer of 1991.   Hayes (2) Campbell got the goals.

24 March 1993: Manchester Utd 0 Arsenal 0.  The league’s best defence in terms of Man U against the League’s worst attack in terms of Arsenal.  37,301 turned up – a low crowd for Man U, but then they probably anticipated the result.

24 March 1994: George Graham sold Anders Limpar to Everton for £1.6m.  Limpar was subsequently very critical of Graham’s style of forcing players out by arranging transfers without telling the player that the offer was there until the last minute and then telling the player he had no choice.

24 March 2009: 16 Arsenal players appeared in World cup qualifiers leading to speculation as to how many would make it back uninjured.

24 March 2012: Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 0.  7th consecutive win during which Arsenal scored 21 goals. Gibbs, Walcott and Arteta scored.  Villa won the yellow card race 4-0.

25 March 1893: Millwall Athletic 0 Arsenal 1.  See also here   6000 turned up for the game, as Arsenal prepared to enter the Football League.  Millwall stayed outside that League, but did ultimately join the United League and then the London League.

25 March 1895: Arsenal 1 Millwall A 1.  Another part of the long on-going rivalry between the clubs on the north and south banks of the river.  Millwall moved south of the river in 1910, Arsenal headed north in 1913.

25 March 1899: Arsenal 1 Grimsby 1.   Last game for Frederick Davis  – he was transferred on to Nottingham Forest having played 137 league games and also played in the 12-0 win over Ashford United in the FA Cup.

25 March 1910: Newcastle 1 Arsenal 1.  Arsenal played the first of three games in four days. Of the remaining two Arsenal won one, and lost one. See also here   After the result of the game at Newcastle came through by telegraph, Arsenal held a public meeting and then a shareholders meeting in Plumstead regarding the financial crisis and various fundraising systems were set in place.

25 March 1911: John Milne born. He joined Arsenal from Blackburn in 1932 and played 14, 19 and 16 games across the next three seasons before moving back to Blackburn.

25 March 1911: Arsenal 3 Bristol C 0.  Edwin Bateup’s 28th and last league game of his second spell with the club.  Up to 11 March he had been ever present, but after this game moved on to Burslem Port Vale.

25 March 1916: Arsenal drew 1-1 with Reading in the wartime league with just 1500 in the crowd.  Captain Henry Norris was now taken on full-time by the War Office, and Arsenal matches were left totally in the control of James “Punch” McEwen.

25 March 1932: Arsenal beat Derby who were 16th with one win in the last five.  The classic outfield played and Lambert repaid his manager’s faith with two goals.   This game meant that three consecutive home League games had brought a total of 167,871 through the turnstiles – an average of fractionally under 56,000 per game.

25 March 1933: Newcastle 2 Arsenal 1 made it three defeats and a draw in March – but Arsenal still went on to win the league.  Arsenal scored three goals in these four March games, but 14 goals in the next three.

25 March 1944: Reading 5 Arsenal 1, 19722 in the crowd (Football League Cup South).  Arsenal had a dreadful run in this wartime competition, playing six, winning just one and losing the rest.  Drake scored Arsenal’s goal, as he had done in the previous game, a 1-4 home defeat to QPR the week before.

25 March 1966: Pat Rice turned professional with Arsenal, having been signed as an apprentice in 1964.  He made his first team debut in December 1967 and later managed the club for a short spell.

25 March 1972: Leeds 3 Arsenal 0.  The 3rd successive defeat and confirmation (if it were needed) that the Championship would not be retained.

25 March 1973: Continuing the very occasional appearance of Arsenal men in broadcast fiction Bob McNab appeared as a footballer in an episode of “On the Buses,” a sitcom of the era.

25 March 1975: Luton 2 Arsenal 0.   Relegation loomed as Arsenal dropped to just three points above the drop zone.  However three wins in the final eight games helped Arsenal survive. Just.

25 March 1978: Arsenal 4 WBA 0: part of a nine match unbeaten run.  There was a  hat trick for Macdonald  with the other goal coming from Willie Young.  36,763 were in the crowd.

25 March 1988: Brian Marwood joined Arsenal from Sheffield Wednesday for £600,000.  He went on to play 52 league games for the club. He later played for Swindon and Barnet.

25 March 2003: Chelsea 1 Arsenal 3; FA Cup 6 replay.  Wiltord, Lauren and an own goal from Terry gave Arsenal the passage to the semi-final.

25 March 2010: Sanchez Watt loaned to Leeds.  He played just six games but then went back for a second spell on loan in the following season. He finally signed permanently for Colchester in 2013, and later played in the Indian Super League.

25 March 2012,  Mark Randall, lately of Arsenal, came on as sub for Chesterfield to win the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.  After a spell in Italy and with MK Dons he joined Barnet.

25 March 2013: After making his numerous allegations against Arsenal, Phil Brown who had earlier been sacked by Hull, on this day became manager of Southend.  He was part of the BT Sport team for the Hull v Arsenal cup game in March 2016, where he was highly complimentary of Arsene Wenger and Arsenal in general, which is bizarre concerning the wild stories about Arsenal that he publicised earlier.

26 March 1896: Tottenham 1 Arsenal 3.   The crowd was 3000; the largest so far for a game between the two teams – but within three years a crowd of 14,500 was recorded for this fixture in the United League.

26 March 1900: Harold Peel born in Bradford.  He joined from Bradford PA and left Arsenal after 47 league appearances to play instead for Bradford City.

26th March 1910 – Woolwich Arsenal 0 The Wednesday 1.  It was one of a run of 14 consecutive games in which Arsenal failed to score or scored just one goal. Despite this they did actually win four of those games.   It was also the 2nd of three games in four days

26 March 1921: Last game for Frederick Groves.  Arsenal 2 Sheffield U 6. Curiously Sheffield U were fighting relegation at the time and ended the season 20th out of 22.  Arsenal ended the season in 9th.

26 March 1921: Ted Platt born.  He was signed from Colchester in 1938 but didn’t make his debut until November 1946, because of the suspension of football during the war. He went on to play 53 league games for the club.

26 March 1927: Arsenal 2 Southampton 1; FA Cup semi final number 3 – the first victory in the semi-final. Hulme and Buchan scored the goals that took Arsenal to Wembley for the first time. See also here

26 March 1930: Hull City 0 Arsenal 1.  FA Cup semi final replay.  David Jack scored the goal at Villa Park which took Arsenal to their second final and ultimately their first major trophy.

26 March 1934: Driving tests became compulsory for all new drivers. Drivers who had a driving licence before that date (having obtained one without taking a test) were allowed to continue driving for life, and were not required to take the new test.

26 March 1937: Ted Drake’s last game of the season   He only played 26 games in total this season but he still scored 20 goals in the league.  In the cup he played three and scored seven. But the games he missed through injury were considered to have cost Arsenal the league title.

26 March 1948 Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 7-0 in the league to go eight points clear at the top.  They then only won two more of their final eight games but still won the league by seven points!

26 March 1963  Danny O’Shea born.   He joined from Staines Juniors and played six games in 1982/3, his only season at Arsenal, before moving on to Exeter.  He later played 118 league games for Southend and 203 for Cambridge, and ended his career in 1999.

26 March 1966: Arsenal 1 Newcastle 3.  This made it seven without a win and even then the run was not over as Arsenal won only two of the remaining nine games in the league, to end the league in 14th.  13,939 attended. Arsenal’s goal was an own goal.

26 March 1973: Arsenal 1 Crystal Palace 0.  The result meant it was four wins in a row, and just one defeat in 16. But a poor run thereafter left Arsenal finishing second.  Alan Ball scored the only goal of the game.

26 March 1979: Bolton 4 Arsenal 2.  The result made it four defeats, one win, one draw in the last six league games.  Arsenal gained just two wins in the remaining ten games. Price and Heeley got the goals.

26 March 1987: Alan Smith signed for Arsenal and was then loaned back to Leicester for the remainder of the season.  Questions were asked about the legality of such a move which had not been seen before but the League agreed there was nothing amiss with the manoeuvre.

26 March 1999: Graham Rix was sentenced to one year imprisonment for having sex with an underage girl.   He was last heard of as manager of A.F.C. Portchester of the Wessex League Premier Division.

26 March 2019: Al Nasr 2 Arsenal 3 in a friendly in the UAE.   Jenkinson, Lacazette and John-Rules scored.

27 March 1909: Sunderland 1 Arsenal 0.  James Maxwell’s final appearance.  After the game, annoyed by his lack of appearances, Maxwell met up with his wife,  absconded from the team, headed north and played in Scotland. Arsenal extracted a £50 transfer fee from him, after a tribunal settled the matter.

27 March 1915: Despite consecutive defeats to Grimsby and Huddersfield Arsenal were 5th in the final campaign before the cessation for the duration, but were now six points off the promotion spot, meaning rising to the 1st division appeared out of the question.

27 March 1959: Jim Fotheringham sold to Hearts, having played 72 league and four cup games for Arsenal.  He also played for the London XI that took part in the first ever Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

27 March 1971: Arsenal 2 Stoke 2 at Hillsborough.  FA Cup semi final.  Having already drawn games in the 4th and 6th round Arsenal were seen to be working their way to the final the hard way – but still went on to win the first Double.

27 March 1971: Tottenham v Arsenal originally scheduled but moved to the end of the season due to FA Cup -games,   a decision that led to the eternally famous final match at White Hart Lane.

27 March 1976: Leeds 3 Arsenal 0.  After six unbeaten this was the start of a run of one win in the last seven of the season to leave Arsenal 17th.

27 March 1978: Chelsea 0 Arsenal 0 .  This was the eighth without defeat, but five of those were draws.  Arsenal did win the next match, but three defeats in the final six games scuppered the chance of coming runners up.

27 March 1982: Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 3. (Sunderland, Meade and two from Rix). It was the second of just two wins in 11 games between February 6 and April 12.

27 March 1997: Steve Morrow transferred to QPR.  He played 62 league matches for Arsenal, and went on to become International Partnerships Performance Supervisor.  He has also worked as a live match analyst for Arsenal.

27 March 2010: Arsenal drew 1-1 with Birmingham away in the league, one of 10 games without defeat, however five subsequent games without a win saw the club knocked out of the Champions League and without the chance that had existed of catching the top two.  Arsenal finally finished third in the table.

27 March 2013: Arsenal announced the club would play a pre-season friendly against the New York Red Bulls for the club’s first trip to the USA for 25 years

28 March 1887: Royal Arsenal ended Season 1 with an away defeat to 2nd Rifle Brigade.  During this short season the club won 7, drew 1 and lost 2.  Royal Arsenal scored 36 and conceded 8.

28 March 1896: Millwall 1 Arsenal 3.  This was the 18th game between the two great rivals either side of the Thames since February 1888, and Arsenal had not lost a single game.

28 March 1898: Rushden Town 2 Woolwich Arsenal 3 in the United League.  Primarily a Midland League team Rushden nevertheless were able to compete on an equal footing at this time with Arsenal.

28 March 1903: Last game for Duncan McNichol.  He had played 101 league games for Woolwich Arsenal, and scored one goal before moving on to Aberdeen in October where he became captain.

28 March 1910: Despite the low positions of both clubs Chelsea v Arsenal was watched by 40,000. Arsenal won 0-1 with McGibbon scoring in his first match. McGibbon scores in his first match.    The day the modern Arsenal was born.    The 3rd of 3 matches in 4 days.

28 March 1914: Birmingham 2 Arsenal 0.  Start of a four match run without a win which cost the club promotion in its first year back in the second division.  This match was also almost certainly the source for the picture of the away kit that was falsely used to “prove” that Arsenal wore blackcurrant in the first season at Highbury.

28 March 1928: Leonard Thompson made his Arsenal debut in a 2–0 defeat by Portsmouth.  It was his only game for Arsenal in the 1927/28 season and came as Jack Lambert moved from the inside left position that he had played in for the previous six games to inside right, which in turn was because Charlie Buchan moved from inside right to centre forward for one match.

28 March 1931:  Arsenal won 5-2 at Middlesbrough on their way to first title while Herbie Roberts won his only cap for England.  Lambert got a hattrick and Jack two.

28 March 1942: West Ham 0 Arsenal 4.  The second match in the group stage of the London War Cup,  Arsenal won five of their six group games, losing only to… WHU at home by 1-4.  Arsenal lost to Brentford in the semi-final, but did win the London League this year.

28 March 1964: Arsenal 1 Sheffield U 3.  The 7th game without a win.  Only 21,000 turned up to see Geoff Strong score his 26th and last goal of the season in 38 games.

28 March 1967: In a return to the approach of earlier times Arsenal played Liverpool twice over consecutive days (27/28th).  Both were draws.  George Graham scored the goal in this match – one of 11 goals in the season.

28 March 1970: Arsenal 2 Wolverhampton 2, four without defeat after a dreadful winter, in which the club went 10 without a win.  Graham got both goals.

28 March 1972: Arsenal 1 Southampton 0.  The start of nine unbeaten but the three successive defeats in March made the championship impossible.  Marinello’s winner was his one and only goal of the season.

28 March 1980: Everton 0 Arsenal 1 made it six wins and two draws in the last eight.  Gatting scored the winner and like Marinello eight years earlier to the day it was his only goal of the season.

28 March 1981: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0.  The start of an eight match run to the end of the season in which Arsenal won seven.  Alan Sunderland scored.

28 March 1986: Rhys Wilmot made his first team debut.  He went on to make a total of eight appearances for Arsenal over a nine year period, during which time he made over 70 appearances for clubs that he went to on loan.

28 March 1987: Arsenal 0 Everton 1.  This was the sixth (and thankfully last) consecutive league match in which Arsenal failed to score – the longest run in the club’s league history.

28 March 1998: Arsenal 1 Sheffield W 0.  Manninger was given the Carling Player of the month award and then promptly dropped – as Seaman returned from injury.  Arsenal second after 29th league game of the 2nd Double season.    The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

28 March 2004: Arsenal 1 Man U 1.  Ferguson announced that he was sure Arsenal would win the league but later added that Arsenal would not do it unbeaten, referring back to his experience at Rangers where the unbeaten side lost the last match of the season.   This was the first draw after nine successive wins in the 30th league game of the unbeaten season

28 March 2006: Arsenal 2 Juventus 0.  Champions League quarter final. Pires rather surprisingly tackled Vieira and as a result of the subsequent move Arsenal scored.  Pires later admitted he had never tackled Vieira before, even in training.

28 March 2013: Arsenal announced that Diaby has been injured in training and would be out for nine months.  On 28 July 2015 Diaby moved to Marseille but sadly a further injury on 27 November 2015 put him out of action once more.

29 March 1913: Only once during the entire league season did Arsenal score more than one goal in a game – in a 2-5 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on 29 March.

29 March 1918: Good Friday, the start of the regular run of three football matches in four days.  Arsenal lost at West Ham on this day, 1-4, with 10,500 in the crowd.

29 March 1919: Clem Voysey played his first match listed as “Newman” on the team sheet in a pre-season friendly.  Later in his career there were two investigations into his contractual arrangements at Arsenal and the club was eventually found guilty of paying a “signing on” fee although it continued to deny the claims, and the evidence was flimsy to say the least.

29 March 1930: Arsenal 4 Blackburn 0.  In the nine remaining league games after this Arsenal had only one win – although the fact that Arsenal were in the Cup Final for the second time undoubtedly influenced everyone’s approach to the games.

29 March 1937: Stoke 0 Arsenal 0 made it two 0-0 draws and two 1-1 draws in the last four games and seven draws and three wins in last 10.  Arsenal were still top but eventually came third in the league following an end of season burst by Man City who won the title.  The following season Man City were relegated. It was the first game for Arthur Biggs.

29 March 1941: Arsenal beat West Ham 2-1 in the Football League War Cup in front of 12835 at White Hart Lane (where all Arsenal home games were played during WWII. In this cup matches were played home and away, and Arsenal had already won 1-0 at Upton Park.  Arsenal made it to the final, where they lost to Preston in a replay.

29 March 1954: Arsenal beat Chelsea in the London Challenge Cup to win the trophy for the sixth time.  The competition, which Arsenal had first entered in 1908 continued until 1974.

29 March 1958: Portsmouth 5 Arsenal 4.  It was the second time in two months that Arsenal lost 4-5.  In between these two games Arsenal also beat Chelsea 5-4. Bloomfield, Clapton and Nutt scored, along with an own goal.

29 March 1973: Marc Overmars was born in Emst, Holland.  He started 91 league games and came on nine times as a sub for Arsenal, scoring 25 league goals, before moving on to Barcelona.

29 March 1975: Last game for Bob McNab in a 1-1 draw with Stoke.  It was also the first game for Stapleton who went on to play 225 league games for Arsenal.  Kelly got the goal, with 26,852 in the crowd.

29 March 1986: After one defeat in 11 hopes were high for this game, but it ended Tottenham 1 Arsenal 0.  It was the start of three successive defeats in which Arsenal failed to score a single goal.

29 March 1994: PSG 1 Arsenal 1; Cup Winners Cup semi-final 1st leg.  After beating Standard Liege 7-0 Arsenal had played five CWC games this season and scored just four goals.

29 March 2006: After Arsenal beat Juventus in the Champions League the Daily Mirror ran the headline, “Absolutely Fabregas”

29 March 2011: Having unexpectedly re-signed as emergency cover Jens Lehmann played for the reserves against Wigan.  Arsenal lost 1-2.

29 March 2014: A 1-1 draw with Manchester City meant that Arsenal had only won four of their last 12 games, a run that had included a 5-1 defeat to Liverpool and a 6-0 defeat to Chelsea.  Flamini got the goal.

30 March 1880: Birth of Tommy Shanks – the man who became the first Arsenal player to score 20 goals in a season, but then mysteriously left for non-league Brentford, before playing for Leicester Fosse.

30 March 1888: Royal Arsenal 3 Millwall Rovers 0.  This game against the local rivals was the first ever game the club  played on the Manor Field (then known as Mr Cavey’s field) which in 1893 became the home of Woolwich Arsenal until 1913.   See also here

30 March 1889: Arsenal 9 Royal Artillery 0.  It was Royal Arsenal’s largest win since the formation of the club at the end of 1886.

30 March 1891: Arsenal 1 Heart of Midlothian 5.  Arsenal secured a 10,000 crowd for a second time, and this figure was a significant factor in the discussions about Arsenal becoming a professional club.

30 March 1894: Joseph Toner born.  He joined Arsenal in 1919 and stayed for seven seasons, playing 89 games and scoring six goals before moving onto St Johnstone.

30 March 1895: Woolwich Arsenal met Newton Heath (later Man Utd) for the first time at home after the Manor Ground was re-opened following the closure due to crowd problems.   Arsenal won 3-2 in front of 6000 supporters

30 March 1897: JB Mitchell, Arsenal’s first manager took office.  His appointment had been hastened by the club’s concerns over the 0-8 defeat to Loughboro and the view that was spreading that there was increasing indiscipline in the team.

30 March 1898: WR Elcoat accepted an offer to take over as Arsenal manager one year after Mitchell had resigned citing difficulties in his relationship with the board.  He, like his predecessor only last one year. Most books that mention him call him “George” but this is an error.

30 March 1915: Henry Norris went to a joint meeting of the FA and the Football League, after the colonel in charge of the Footballers’ Battalion complained that some football clubs were actively working to stop their players joining up. Charlie Buchan reported Sunderland told him they would sue for breach of contract if he left his job to sign up.  Norris assured the meeting that Arsenal and Fulham were going out of their way to encourage players to sign up, and were at the same time still paying the wages of the players who had signed up. This event was a key element in the split between Norris and other senior figures in football which led to his ousting in 1927.

30 March 1929: Arsenal 7 Bury 1 made it 11 without defeat. Jack got four, Parkin two (his first goals for the club)  and Thompson the other. Unfortunately, the form suddenly dipped with no wins in the next four.

30 March 1934: Arsenal’s top crowd for the season: 69,070 v Derby County.  Alex James scored the only goal and kept Arsenal on course for the second successive championship.

30 March 1935: Arsenal beat Aston Villa away 3-1 meaning that in the league for the month Arsenal had trebled their number of away wins, but had managed just two 1-1 draws at home.  But they were still top of the league.

30 March 1938: Arsenal were again top of the league but now had eight league games to play in 36 days, plus the club also had a series of friendlies – including (amazingly) one against arch-rivals of the season, Wolverhampton!

30 March 1940.  Tottenham 1 Arsenal 1 in the wartime League South “C” Division.  Arsenal also played in the “A” division which ran from October to April, and had beaten Tottenham twice in that division.

30 March 1946: The war leagues continued for the 1945/6 season with Arsenal in the Football League South, on this day beating Millwall 4-0 in a seven match unbeaten run. 29,444 turned up at WHL (where Arsenal played its home games through the war), but earlier poor performances meant Arsenal eventually finished only 11th in the league.

30 March 1970: Arsenal 2 Crystal Palace 0.  Four league wins in five seemed like a miracle following the earlier ten without a win.  Radford and George got the goals.

30 March 1974: Stoke 0 Arsenal 0 made it four games undefeated as the mini-revival continued to build.  In the end it was six without defeat as Arsenal climbed towards their final position of 10th in the league.

30 March 1983: Jérémie Aliadière born.  A prodigious talent but a player constantly hampered by injury – so many in fact that he only managed 2 league games with Arsenal between 2001 and 2007.

30 March 1985: Last first team appearance for Raphael Meade.  Stoke 2 Arsenal 0 in front of a crowd of just 7,371 – the lowest crowd to see Arsenal since 5 May 1966.  The result made it one win in six.

30 March 1985: George Cox died.  Although he only scored one goal for Arsenal he could be a prolific scorer, as his Football Combination record of 53 goals in 75 matches shows.   Despite playing for Arsenal’s first team during the 1930s, George Cox remains better known for his career in first-class cricket.

30 March 1988: Oxford Utd 0 Arsenal 0 in front of 9,088.  This was the debut of Brian Marwood. He played 52 league games and scored 16 goals for Arsenal and was a crowd favourite.

30 March 2002: Arsenal 3 Sunderland 0.   League match 31 of the 3rd Double season.  Vieira and Bergkamp put Arsenal two up in four minutes.  Wiltord scored the third on the half hour. It was part of a 13 match winning streak.

30 March 2009: Stan Kroenke increased his shareholding in Arsenal to over 20% by buying the Danny Fiszman shares.

30 March 2013: Arsenal 4 Reading 1, which made it 16 goals in three games against Reading.  Santi Cazorla got a goal to add to his hattrick in the away game, with Gervinho, Giroud and Arteta getting the others.  And also here  This was part of an 11 match unbeaten spell which ended the season to keep Arsenal’s run of top four finishes going.

30 March 2022: Arsenal played a surprise and secretive friendly against Brentford, which it was assumed was to test out young players and new tactics.  Arsenal had won six of the last seven games, but after the friendly lost the next three.

31 March 1890: Arsenal 3 Mr WH Loraine’s XI 1.  Who was Mr WH Loraine?  Regrettably at this moment we don’t know – although we have found a picture which suggests WH Loraine had a shop in Stockton on Tees around this time.  But it is also possible that he was a referee with his own team, as was the case with Arthur Bourke

31 March 1891: Arsenal continued to test themselves against FL clubs with a match against Nottingham Forest.  Although they lost this and games against Derby and Sunderland, the club was encouraged in its move towards professionalism.

31 March 1893: Building up to their entry to the League, Arsenal took on three friendlies in four days – this one against Middlesbrough which Arsenal won 4-1 in front of a very respectable crowd of 8000.

31 March 1906: Arsenal played in an FA Cup semi final for first time.  Prior to this they had never gone beyond the second round, and spent most of their time in the qualifying rounds.

31 March 1917: Women in the WAAC were sent to the battlefields in France, for the first time

31 March 1918: Reginald Horace Cumner was born in Cwmaman.  He played in the 1938/9 campaign and the 1945/6 season (when the FA Cup was played but there were no league matches), and three times for Wales before moving on to Notts County.

31 March 1919: Arsenal appealed against Fulham’s victory in the London Victory Cup on the grounds that Fulham had knowingly played not one, but half a team’s worth of ineligible players.  Arsenal won the case, Fulham then appealed and the London Combination failed to invite Sir Henry Norris to the hearing and awarded the game to Fulham. Norris, who was a director of both clubs, resigned as a director of Fulham.

31 March 1921: Regulations prohibiting a post-war reduction in salaries were removed and pay cuts were immediately introduced.  Miners refusing to accept this were locked out but the transport industries refused to strike in support although they refused to handle imported coal.  It was felt the nation was once more on the brink.

31 March 1939: Britain signed an agreement to support Poland in the event of an invasion.

31 March 1955: Jack Kelsey’s international debut.  He went on to play 41 times for his country.

31 March 1958: Mel Charles signed from Swansea.  David Dodson and Paul Davies moved the other way.  Charles later said signing for Arsenal was the biggest mistake of his life, but after leaving Arsenal he never again played in the top division.

31 March 1961: Fulham 2 Arsenal 2 (Herd scoring both for Arsenal).  It was the last Arsenal game for Joe Haverty. In July he moved to Blackburn Rovers after 114 games in seven seasons with Arsenal.

31 March 1962: Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 5.  Two each for Skirton and Strong in front of 20,107.  The only other time in the season that Arsenal scored four was in a 4-4 draw with Leicester.

31 March 1969: Jimmy Robertson took over the number 7 shirt from Radford.  It was not until November of the following season that Radford became the regular centre forward wearing 9 – and about that time Robertson faded from the scene totally.

31 March 1970: Charlie George scored in a 2-1 defeat away to Ipswich.  It was his sixth league goal of the season and the last goal he scored until 1 February 1971.

31 March 1971:  Arsenal reached the F.A. Cup Final by beating Stoke City 2-0 in the semi-final replay with goals from Graham and Kennedy.  It took Arsenal to their first Cup Final in 19 years.

31 March 1973:  The last Arsenal appearance of Frank McLintock.  Arsenal 0 Derby 1. McLintock was substituted and subsequently sold to QPR and the dream of regaining the title faded as Arsenal gained just one win from the six remaining games after this.

31 March 1975: Arsenal 1 Sheffield U 0.  After one win in the last eight it was a desperately needed victory to help Arsenal stay in the top division.  Kidd got the goal with 24,338 in the crowd.

31 March 1979: Arsenal beat Wolverhampton W (managed by John Barnwell) 2-0 in our 14th FA Cup semi final, played at Villa Park.  Stapleton and Sunderland scored (as they did in the final), taking each to five goals in the Cup for the season thus far.

31 March 1984: Coventry 1 Arsenal 4 with Talbot, Whyte, Robson and Mariner scoring.  This was the third game in a sequence of league matches in which Arsenal won three 4-1, and lost the other 0-4.

31 March 1986: Arsenal 0 Watford 2.  The second of three consecutive defeats in a run of one win in eight.  Arsenal were sixth in the table, 12 points behind the leaders.

31 March 1998: Arsenal beat Bolton away 0-1 with 10 men, and Seaman kept a clean sheet for Arsenal for 150th time. It was the 5th game in six in which Arsenal scored only one goal, but five of those games were wins, and the other a draw.   It was also the conclusion of eight in a row clean sheets – a record for the club. (30th league game of the 2nd Double season: part 1, part 2, part 3).

31 March 2001: David Rocastle died.  Arsenal beat Tottenham 2-0, the first goal scored by Pires wearing, as always, number 7.  After leaving Arsenal in 1992 Rocastle played nearly 100 league games for Leeds, Man C, Chelsea, Norwich and Hull.

31 March 2010: Arsenal 2 Barcelona 2 in the Champions League.  Walcott and Fabregas scored in a game in which Puyol was sent off.  Barcelona won the second leg 4-1.

31 March 2015: Diaby, Arteta, Wilshere and Debuchy, all long term injuries, appeared together in the first half of a friendly game against Brentford, as part of their recovery programme.  Arsenal won 4-0 with goals from Wilshere, Crowley, and Iwobi (2)

 

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Index to months…


 

The anniversaries file aims is the biggest database of Arsenal events ever produced.  However in trying to build it I always openly acknowledge that some of the details recorded here will be wrong, and facts will be inaccurate and will need correcting, not least because information may be taken from inaccurate sources, or (in my specialist way) I may have made copying and typing errors.   So far over 350 people have contributed to the articles that make up the anniversary files, and if you can help us improve the data, please do either comment on an article (and I’ll correct the file itself), or write a new article for us. A correction and a citation of sources would be good however, rather than just saying “you’re wrong”.   A special mention as always must go to Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews, who helped with the early development of this site.   But whether you can add original research or corrections with the right data, or articles on people we have not yet covered, that will be very welcome indeed.

The dates in this file are being added to all the time, and come from a whole variety of sources including the internet and a variety of printed volumes.  If you notice an error please write to Tony@schools.co.uk – ideally with a correction and a note of your source.

I would particularly like to mention Richard Lerman and David Brown, and their wonderful (but now tragically out of print) volume The Gunners: Day to Day Life at Highbury”, which is a mine of information.     Also to “Arsenal On This Day” by Paul Donnelley (Pitch Publishing).  Also where would any of us be without “Arsenal a complete record” by Fred Ollier (Breedon Books), and “Arsenal the football facts” by Dean Hayes (John Blake).  If I have missed another sourcebook, please do let me know and I will correct this at once.

If you know of any anniversary dates not yet listed, please do write in and add them.   Not only are new dates being added at the rate of about half a dozen a day, but so are links being added to articles on this site.  It is intended to produce a book based on this site in due course – but the date gets put back as I find more and more info.

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