17 May: the day of 4 Arsenal cup finals and 4 last ever games.

The full anniversary index is here and we’ve just updated the June file.

Meanwhile here is the list of anniversaries for today 17 May.

If you think we’ve missed any, please do write in.

17 May 1959: Eddie Magill signed from Portadown and started playing for Arsenal in December.  In 1961 he also started playing for N Ireland for whom he got 26 caps.

17 May 1983: Final appearance of John Devine. He moved to Norwich City and then Stoke but a broken leg finished his career at the higher levels.  He played later in Norway and India before working as a coach with Shelbourne and Sporting Fingal in Ireland.

17 May 1983: Final appearance of John Hollins.  He played 123 league games for Arsenal, across four seasons.  After playing 939 matches all told he moved into coaching Chelsea, QPR, Swansea, Rochdale, Raith, Crawley and Weymouth.

17 May 1993: David O’Leary’s farewell game v Manchester United.  He played 622 games for Arsenal before going into management, where he was involved with Leeds.  For an example of his management style see this review of a Leeds game.

17 May 2000: Arsenal v Galatasaray Uefa cup final.  Arsenal lost on penalties (Suker and Vieira missing) exactly as the club did in the FA Cup and League cup that season.

17 May 2003: David Seaman’s last game for Arsenal, in the FA Cup Final victory.  Arsenal 1 Southampton 0.  The roof of the stadium was shut, thus making this the first “indoors” final.  He went on to play 19 games for Manchester City.

17 May 2006: Arsenal lost in the European Cup final to Barcelona 1-2.  Lehmann was sent off, but Arsenal still took the lead and were leading until near the end but ultimately the pressure of playing a lot of the match with 10 men showed.

17 May 2014: FA Cup Final – Arsenal v Hull.  Arsenal equaled the all time record for most final appearances, and Arsène Wenger made it five cup wins with Arsenal.  Hull took a 2-0 lead but Arsenal fought back to 3-2 with Ramsey scoring the winner.  See also the hour by hour blog of the day.

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