Arsenal prepare to play their very first game and prepare to change their name (twice)

This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day  files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.  I am sorry the service is intermittent at the moment, as I am in Cyprus rather than England, but I will try and get some days’ anniversaries up while I am absent.

Our headline is taken from this week in 1886 and in 1919

1 – 5 December 1886:   Extrapolating from the dates of other events we can take it that between these two dates a meeting was held to form Dial Square FC ahead of their first game on 11 December against Eastern Wanderers.

1 December 1906.  First game for Archie Low.  He had joined from Ashfield in Glasgow the previous June as cover for Roddy McEachrane. The game ended Arsenal 0 Sunderland 1.

1 – 5 December 1919: The moment The Arsenal FC became Arsenal FC.  As with other events exactly 33 years before (see 1886) the precise date remains unclear.

1 December 1934: Arsenal 7 Wolverhampton 0.  For the second match running Drake scored four as  Arsenal scored five or more for fifth time in 17 league games.

1 December 1983: Tommy Caton joined Arsenal from Man City.  In his wild, short life he played 95 times for Arsenal.

1 December 1983: Lee Chapman sold to Sunderland for £100,000.  He had been brought in as the club’s new goalscorer but played just 23 league games and scored just four goals.

1 December 1985: Paul Merson signed a professional contract.  Before becoming an integral part of the team he had one loan spell with Brentford who were managed by the Double winning captain of 1971, Frank McLintock.

1 December 1992: Cup Match 4 of Arsenal’s Cup Double season.  Arsenal beat Derby 2-1 in a replay of the 3rd round match in the League Cup.  Wright and Campbell got the goals.

1 December 2001: Ipswich 0 Arsenal 2 with goals from Ljungberg and Henry.  League match 14 of the third Double season.  Although part of three consecutive wins it was in fact just part of a run of three wins in nine.

1 December 2007: Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2.  Arsenal went five points clear and the media began to talk of another unbeaten season.  Flamini and Adebayor scored.  However the run lasted just one more game.

1 December 2012: Arsenal 0 Swansea 2.  Arsenal had 21 points, their worst total after 15 games for 18 years.  They were 10th in the league behind Stoke, Swansea and WBA, but ahead of Liverpool.


Elsewhere on this day in 1990 the two drilling teams working on the Channel Tunnel met each other under the English Channel.  The story that the missed each other by 10 yards and continued drilling past each other is one of the great urban myths, but like all urban myths, it is untrue.


 

The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal

Arsenal in the summer of 1918. The new league planned as the end of the war approaches.

Special feature:

Highbury: from start to end with previously unseen pictures of the end of the stadium.

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