Herbert Chapman looks up at the stadium and says, “I did that”.

This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day  files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.

Our headline is taken from 2011

Here are the stories from this day in history…

9 December 1893: First league game for James Boyle: Northwich Victoria 2 Arsenal 2 in front of a crowd of just 2,000.  The game gave Arsenal it’s first ever away point in the league.

9 December 1922: First league game for John “Alex” Mackie – the man who (despite endless stories to the contrary) it seems did not get a pet monkey as a signing on fee (although he may later have bought a pet monkey).  Arsenal beat Birmingham 1-0 to end a run of 8 without a win.

9 December 1922: Arsenal 1 Birmingham 0 was also the first game for Andy Kennedy, having transferred from Crystal Palace for whom he had played just one game.

9 December 1961: Paul Davis born in Dulwich.  He signed for Arsenal in 1977, and played for the first team for the first time against Tottenham on April 7 1980 at Tottenham; a game which Arsenal won 2-1.

9 December 1995: Southampton 0 Arsenal 0.  It was the second of four consecutive draws, two of which were 0-0 and two were 1-1.  It left Arsenal third, but nine points behind the leaders Newcastle Utd.

9 December 1975: Arsenal 2 Feyenoord 1; Peter Storey Testimonial.  It is said that the follow-up celebration in Storey’s pub lasted two days and included a range of “interesting” guests.

9 December 1981: Willie Young sold to Nottingham Forest.  However from this point on he began to suffer injuries and eventually retired to run a pub.  Later he moved onto the less common ex-football occupation of running kennels.

9 December 1998: Panathinaikos 1 Arsenal 3; the first Champions League run concluded with an Arsenal victory.

9 December 1999: Nantes 3 Arsenal 3 in the Uefa Cup en route to the final, but only after letting a 3-1 lead slip.  Grimandi, Henry and Overmars scored.

9 December 2000: Arsenal 5 Newcastle 0; A Parlour hattrick helped Arsenal maintain second place but they were still six points behind the leaders, Man U.

9 December 2001: Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 2.  League match 15 of the third Double season.  After going four games without a win Arsenal had now won three in a row, leaving them three points behind the leaders, Liverpool.  Wiltord scored the first and Henry got the other two.

9 December 2007: Middlesbrough 2 Arsenal 1: ending the 22 match unbeaten run.  Despite the defeat Arsenal were still top of the league.

9 December 2011: Arsenal History Society’s suggestion that the club erect statues to famous Arsenal men,made to Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis in a discussion on Arsenalisation, finally came to life: the first three statues were unveiled.  In the meeting it was specifically requested that the statue of Herbert Chapman should be of the great man looking at the new stadium as if saying, “I did that”.

9 December 2015: Arsenal needed to beat Olympiacos in Greece by two clear goals to qualify for the Champions League group stages having lost 2-3 in the home leg.  The media felt the result was impossible but a Giroud hattrick saw Arsenal easy winners.

 


 

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

Autumn 1918: Arsenal winning, the war grinds to an end, crowds return

Yesterday’s anniversaries: Preparing the movie: “How Arsenal’s season was saved by an insignificant win”

Special feature:

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

What’s on the Arsenal History Society site

An index to the various series that contain over 1,700 articles on this site concerning the history of Arsenal appears on our home page.

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