Arsenal v Brighton United – and an unexpected glimpse of the class struggle within football

By Tony Attwood On 31 October 1898 Woolwich Arsenal played Brighton United in the third and final season of the United League.  Arsenal won 5-2 and the crowd was 2000. Arsenal’s team was Ord, McPhee, Fyfe, Haywood, Anderson, Dick, Cottrell, White, Hunt, Hannah and Daily.  The team, as was common with United League games, was …

Reading 5 Arsenal 7 League Cup. What a night.

On 30 October 2012 Arsenal went four down in a league cup match against Reading.   This is how commentator Gf60 saw it. Reading 5 Arsenal 7  League Cup by Gf60 I wonder how many Gooners decided to have an early night and gave it up after about 45 minutes? I was one for the first …

Tony Woodcock; Entrepreneur who (maybe) links with Hoddle…

By Tony Attwood How many ex-Arsenal men seem to have felt that knocking Arsenal in general and Arsène Wenger in particular is the best way to get attention, and perhaps a bit of cash on the way?  10? 20? 50?  Probably many more for the list seems endless. And yet there is one who has …

Arsenal let in 15 in three consecutive games

Much of the following article is taken from the volume, Woolwich Arsenal FC 1893-1915: the club that changed football, by Attwood, Kelly and Andrews.  There’s a link to the book at the foot of the article. Woolwich Arsenal’s league campaign – 1893-94.  28 games, final position 9th in Division II. Unusually, there were an odd …

Arsenal 1 QPR 0 – being silly, wasting time, and awful shooting. 27 Oct 2012

Arsenal 1 QPR 0 – a moment of relief.  27 October 2012 This was not the best of times for Arsenal.  September ended with a 1-1 draw away to Man City and a 1-2 home defeat by Chelsea.  Then came a handy 3-1 away win at West Ham before the international break, followed by a …

Willie Young, how to tackle at Wembley, how not to comment on Arsenal

By Tony Attwood This article was updated 26 October 2013 1980, Willie Young.  It is the image of the player that many of us retain.  The trip on Paul Allen in the 1980 Cup Final.  In truth is was a foul like many others, but it was on a West Ham player, and WHU were …

Andrey Sergeyevich Arshavin: the artist of Leningrad

Andrey Sergeyevich Arshavin is the person who makes me nervous about Ozil.   Andrey was our record signing. He seemed a good fun guy (after all he was not just a football, he had a degree in fashion design was in the fashion business).  And he scored four against Liverpool.  Ozil seems a nice guy, …

24 October 2010. Man City 0 Arsenal 3. Two reviews with hope for the future.

This victory left Arsenal second in the league, having won five, drawn 2 and lost 2 so far in the 2010/11 season and suggested that the two consecutive defeats against WBA at home and Chelsea away at the end of September and start of October, were a blip from which the club had recovered. From …

Mark Randall. From Arsenal to Ascoli, from Bergkamp to Johnstone’s Paint

By Tony Attwood Mark Randall was born 28 September 1989 in Milton Keynes, and at one time seemed to be destined to make his breakthrough into the Arsenal first team on a permanent basis. But somehow it never happened.  Looking on from the distance of an Arsenal fan it seemed that his temperament was not …

Arsenal play at Wembley in the Champions League

By Tony Attwood Arsenal had a number of occasions where they moved out if Highbury to play elsewhere.  During the second world war Highbury was used as an ARP station and was bombed.  Arsenal’s war time league matches were play at White Hart Lane – the reverse of the situation in the first world war …

How Arsenal were docked two points but still won the league

By Tony Attwood Arsenal started the 1990/1 season well, and indeed this turned out to be the trial run for the unbeaten season – we only lost one league match all through the season. Here is the opening… Against Res Scorers Crowd 25 August 1990 Wimbledon A W 3–0 Merson, Smith, Groves 13,733 29 August …

19 October 2010. The most sporting occasion and best refereeing we can remember

Arsenal 5 Shakhtar Donetsk 1 This match drew some rather interesting reviews from Gf60 and from Untold Arsenal.  Below is the G460 review, below that the Untold review, and below that a link to the referee review. The Untold review, which I wrote the next day, had the headline “The Most Sporting Occasion I have …

17 October 1970: Arsenal hammer Everton 4-0 as things look interesting.

By Tony Attwood League Match 17 in the 1970/71 season on 17 October.  Arsenal beat Everton 4-0.  Kennedy got two, Kelly got one and Storey the penalty. This was a match of considerable importance. First, it was a match of swagger and style and a thumping win over the reigning champions.  Second it was the …

The final win of the Great 49; the most famous run ever in English football

By Tony Attwood It started against Southampton on 7 May 2003.  Arsenal had just thrown away their last chance of winning the league by being defeated by Leeds United at home on the 4 May.   Tickets for that Leeds match were changing hands at 10 to 15 times face value. Three days later the touts …

Andy Cole; the one who got away

By Tony Attwood Andrew Alexander “Andy” Cole was George Graham’s greatest mistake. He was born on 15 October 1971 in Nottingham and signed for Arsenal in October 1989.  Just a look at his chart of appearances shows where Arsenal in general, and Graham in particular, went wrong. Years Team Lge Apps Leg Goals 1989–1992 Arsenal …

Arsenal win the Sheriff of London Shield

By Tony Attwood Arsenal in the Sheriff of London Shield I guess most of us studying Arsenal’s history know that when Royal Arsenal became a professional club there was a bit of a to-do with the London FA and Kent FA, and both organisations heard motions that Royal Arsenal, as a professional outfit, should not …

John Snedden, one of Arsenal’s forgotten players of the 1960s

by Tony Attwood John Snedden was born in Bonnybridge on 3 February 1942 and played for Arsenal over six seasons in a short career that was blighted by injury. In October 1958 he joined as an amateur from a junior Scottish club, but where there is mention of it there is disagreement as to the …

On the anniversary of Arsène Wenger’s first match

By Tony Attwood Wenger’s first match in charge of Arsenal was against Blackburn Rovers in their days before they became a subsidiary of a chicken, and it took place on 12 October 1996.  Arsenal won with two goals from Ian Wright, making it four wins in a row during the Rice/Wenger handover period.  Here’s the …

Joe Toner – one of the Knighton occasionals

Joseph Samuel Toner was born on 30 March 1894 in County Down in what is now Northern Ireland, and played for Belfast United before joining Arsenal in August 1919.  He also played for the Ireland national team. His first Arsenal match was on 11 October 1919 against Everton which Arsenal won 3-2 where he appeared …

Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris; a noble endeavour

By Tony Attwood This article updated 3 December 2013 I can remember, as a child, Arsenal playing Racing Club de Paris, and wondering why it happened.  Childhood memories are of course notoriously unreliable, but I do recall it seeming a bit odd.  Hence a little trawl through the records to find out how and why …

The Brothers Hoyte: such promise, but then…

Consider the Brothers Hoyte Both have played for England at under 17 to under 20 level.  Indeed Justin played at under 16 and under 21 level.  Both were signed by Arsenal, and yet neither could quite make it. Obviously I don’t know these guys, but I do recall watching them as youngsters playing for Arsenal …

Arsenal in the Charity Shield for first time; 8 October 1930

8 October 1930: Arsenal won the Charity Shield beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in front of a crowd of 25,000 at Stamford Bridge.  It was Arsenal’s first appearance in the annual match, and started a run of five wins in the 1930s. The team for the first match was Keyser Parker Hapgood Seddon Roberts John Hulme …

Starting to journey to the unique cup double

7 October 1992 Despite having an awful season compared to recent standards (we finished 10th in the first ever Premier League, behind some luminaries as Norwich and Blackburn,) 1992/3 was the season we were the first ever club to do the cup double of the FA and League Cups. The side had lost David Rocastle …

Arsenal’s first six games over the last 10 years; it’s not the goals that matter

By Tony Attwood Stats can of course show you anything you want them to show.  The opening games of the season can be misleading because of who was played, who was injured, what the other teams were doing etc etc. But still a table of comparison like this can still give an insight or two. …