By Tony Attwood By the time Arsenal played Derby in the league on 12 February1972 Arsenal knew that they would be playing Derby again in the 5th round of the FA cup, having seen off Swindon and Reading in the two previous rounds and the draw having been made. What they didn’t know was that …
Read More “Feb 1972 and the Double Double starts to slip away.”
By Tony Attwood Wembley has always been a pig of a place to get to, but the Millenium Stadium was worse, unless you really knew a) how to avoid the motorway approach that the local police thought it amusing the funnel everyone into and b) how to find suitable side streets to park in. (Actually …
Read More “League Cup 2007: Howard Webb, celery and a push on the pitch”
By Tony Attwood; AISA Arsenal History Society We are all familiar with Arsenal winning the league on the last match of the season. George Graham’s team beating Liverpool 0-2 away, Bertie Mee’s Double with that last match win at Tottenham. But there was another equally dramatic win in the last game of the season – …
Read More “Winning the league on the last match of the season”
This is the story of the moment when the gloriousness of the Double and the attempts to repeat the feat came to an end. If you want some background to football in 1973 you might like to try The flavour of football 1973: fights, bookings, and the end of civilisation . Not to mention the …
Read More “Arsenal’s last fling before the fall from grace”
By Tony Attwood Statues are rather important to the AISA Arsenal History Society, not least because it was at a meeting that three members of AISA had with Ivan Gazidis in 2010 that we suggested the idea of statues around the stadium. (I also gave him a copy of the recently published “Making the Arsenal”). …
Read More “Arsenal’s appreciation of AISA AHS – statues and blogs, blogs and statues”
By Tony Attwood 1973/4 was a season and a half. An oil crisis and a miner’s strike led to the abandonment of floodlighting, early kick offs and declining attendances. There were calls for a mid-winter break, desperation over the failure to qualify for the world cup, and early exits from European competitions. Brian Clough took …
Read More “February 1974: was this the worst month of football ever?”
After winning the Double, Arsenal’s abilities in the FA Cup turned the FA Cup into a labour. Their record from the Double onwards was: 1971: Winners 1972: Finalists 1973: semi-finalists 1974: Round 4 In 1975 Arsenal started with a seemingly easy home game against York City – and managed to draw it, winning the replay. …
Read More “The 1970s: Playing Leicester seven times, and the FA Cup in 1975”
20 February 1937: Burnley 1 Arsenal 7 (FA Cup) 1936/7 was George Allison’s third season as Arsenal manager. His record thus far had been 1934/5: Champions of the league, sixth round of the FA Cup. 1935/6: 6th in the league, winners of the FA Cup After two such terrific opening seasons there was bound to …
Read More “20 February 1937: Burnley 1 Arsenal 7 (FA Cup)”
By Tony Attwood The closure of the Manor Ground in 1895 because of crowd trouble has been covered in several articles on this site. This piece attempts to bring together the main information we have. Much of the information here is taken from The Crowd At Woolwich Arsenal by Mark Andrews which is available from …
Read More “When Arsenal’s ground was closed due to unruly behaviour”
18 February 1978 Arsenal 4 Walsall 1; FA Cup 5th round Attendance: 43,789 The tie seemed just about as easy as a fifth found tie could be, but the build up to this cup match did not give Arsenal fans absolutely hope and expectation. The recent scores were… 4 February 1978: Arsenal 0 Aston Villa …
Read More “18 February 1978 Arsenal 4 Walsall 1… heading for the cup final”
1998/9 was an almost season; an up and down season for Arsenal. Having won the double the season before, this time there were no trophies with Arsenal ending up second to Man U (one point and one goal behind) and going out in the FA cup semi final, also to Man U. However we did …
Read More “17 February 1999 Man U 1 Arsenal 1; Arsenal concede first league goal in 2 months”
19 February 1980: Bolton Wanderers (H) FA Cup 5th round replay Arsenal had bowed out of the league cup in this season to Swindon Town (again) at the end of 1979, which reduced the trophies to chase by one. But they had a third round Cup winners cup match coming up soon after the fifth …
Read More “19 February 1980: Arsenal 3 Bolton Wanderers 0 FA Cup”
Arsenal’s greatest local rivals (until 1913) Arsenal’s first game, as we know (although for a long time I doubted it) was on the Isle of Dogs, north of the Thames, at, or very close to, the original ground used by Millwall. By the time Arsenal started playing Millwall they were playing in their second …
Read More “Arsenal’s great rivals (before we moved north of the river)”
Twelve men have played for England at cricket and football: Alfred Lyttelton, Billy Gunn, Leslie Gay, Reginald “Tip” Foster (the only man to captained England at both cricket and football), Charles (CB) Fry, Jack Sharp, Harry Makepeace, Andy Ducat, Wally Hardinge, John Arnold, Willie Watson and Arthur Milton. We might also include Denis Compton who …
Read More “Arthur Milton, Arsenal, England (football), England (cricket)”
The years 2002/3 were to say the least eventful for Arsenal. The club ended 2001/2 as champions, and by 2 March 2003 with an 8 point lead at the top of the first division looked like they might not only win it again, but also win the FA Cup as well. On 8 May 2002 …
Read More “When Ferguson kicked David and Arsenal marched on”
On 12 February 1977 Manchester City beat Arsenal 1-0. It was the fourth game without a win and the start of seven consecutive defeats in the league – the worst ever run of defeats for the club. . The previous worst runs were of six consecutive defeats, one under Herbert Chapman and one under Leslie …
Read More “When Arsenal dreamed of a second 1970s double”
By Tony Attwood Say “The 1930s” to any football fan who knows his/her history and you will undoubtedly get mention of “The Arsenal” – the team that came from just having never won either of the two main trophies to dominate the decade. Arsenal survived the death of Herbert Chapman, and completed a hat trick …
Read More “Post War Arsenal: the 1950 cup”
Which Premiership player has scored the most goals without winning an international cap? Certainly for some time it was Kevin Campbell, who also appeared on a list originally published by the Guardian, of the 10 best players in the Premier League never to get a full cap. I’m not sure if Campbell’s record has been …
Read More “Kevin Campbell: from football to security”
By Tony Attwood By the time the league cup came round in February 2004 Arsenal were really enjoying themselves having won five and drawn one of the last six league games, as well as having won through the third and fourth rounds of the FA Cup (both times by four goals to one). During the …
Read More “Unbeaten in the league, but not in the league cup. 3 Feb 2004”
On 2 February 2002 Arsenal drew 1-1 at home with Southampton. It was considered a poor result since it left Arsenal 3rd in the table, whereas a win would have left them second. For Southampton it meant that they were 13th – and the table showed them as a club that should have been beaten. …
Read More “Arsenal score in 26 consecutive league games and that’s just the start”
Tony Attwood Arsenal were in the midst of some patchy form when this replay in the 4th round of the FA Cup, finally got played. The four league games and two FA Cup games running up to the match were… 26 December 1970: Arsenal 0 Southampton 0 6 January 1971: Yeovil 0 Arsenal 3 (FA …
Read More “Arsenal 3 Porstmouth 2; 1 February 1971 – heading for the double”