The start of the greatest run of away games of all time

Here are the Anniversaries from 18 August – part of our regular daily look at Arsenal’s history.

Our most recent article on Arsenal’s history is Arsenal February and March 1914; the wall falls down, the team slips up.

18 August 1961: Laurie Brown purchased from Northampton Town.  The following day he played against Tottenham, and then after being sold to Tottenham in 1964 played for Tottenham against Arsenal.

18 August 1962: Joe Baker’s first league game, and also Billy Wright’s first game as manager.  Arsenal beat the Orient 2-1 with goals from Geoff Strong and, of course, Joe Baker.

18 August 1973: Arsenal 1 Wolverhampton 3,  FA Cup 3rd place play off.  The notion of a third place play off was a short lived venture, played at the start of the following season, which picked up only modest public interest.

18 August 1979.  Brighton lost their first ever first division game 4-0 to Arsenal as.  Arsenal won an opening match under Neill for the first time after four attempts.  Sunderland 2, Stapleton and Brady

18 August 1983: Mickey Thomas signed as an apprentice.  Thomas signed for us in 1982, became a pro aged 17 in 1984 and went on loan to Portsmouth.  He made his first team début in February 1987

18 August 1991: Alf Kirchen died. He finished playing before the war and then became a trainer at Norwich, then took a break to become a farmer, returning to Norwich as a director of the club and as Honorary President of the Norfolk Arsenal Supporters Club.  He died just before his 86th birthday. See also Tottenham 0 Arsenal 6

18 August 1992.  Perry Groves last game v Blackburn (a 0-1 defeat).  He had played 155 league games for Arsenal and scored 21 goals.

18 August 2001 Middlesbrough 0 Arsenal 4 – the start of the great away games run. The run continued until 28 September 2002 when Arsenal beat Leeds 4-1 away, to break the record by scoring in 47 consecutive games and making it 22 away games without defeat   Sol Campbell played his first league game for Arsenal and Henry said afterwards, “I saw something today I never saw last season – we played as a team.  It’s the most important thing in football.”

18 August 2002: Following the retirement of Tony Adams, Vieira took over as captain.  Arsenal 2 Birmingham 0.  This made 14 consecutive wins – a new record for the top division in England.  Arsenal then played another 8 league games before finally being beaten.

18 August 2008: Emmanuel Adebayor signed a new “long-term” contract with Arsenal.  However in 2009 he moved to Manchester City.

18 August 2011: Joel Campbell loaned to L’Orient.  It was the first of five loans during his period as an Arsenal player.


And elsewhere on this day

1227: Ghengis Kahn died.  Apart from being the man who unified the whole of central Asia and much of China, he was also the man who invented the postal service, setting up way stations across the Empire through which messages could be carried without the delay of riders needing to rest en route.  Rather amusingly in the late 20th century the Royal Mail in the UK sought to ban the book “Ghengis Kahn meets the Royal Mail” which explored this historical fact.

 


The current series from the Arsenal History Series being developed on this site is  Henry Norris at the Arsenal, covering all aspects off the life and work of the man who rescued Arsenal from extinction, secured the club’s future by moving it to Highbury, and then brought in Herbert Chapman as manager.

The previously untold tale of how it was that Norris came to choose Highbury as the suitable location for Arsenal’s new ground.

The series is being worked on daily, and the articles thus far are here.

Among the many other series we have run are…

There are details of many other series covered by this site on our home page.

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