8 May: two league titles and the launch of “North London Forever”

By Tony Attwood

Today’s headline comes from 2003

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The Arsenal anniversaries for 8 May (with the full North London Forever at the end)

8 May 1910: George Male was born in West Ham.  He had a trial with WHU who turned him down, and so started playing with Clapton, before joining Arsenal as an amateur in November 1929.  See 1930 below.

8 May 1922: Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 1-0 in the London Challenge Cup final having beaten Barking, QPR and Tottenham in earlier rounds.  See also here

8 May 1923: Jimmy Brain transferred from Ton Pentre to Arsenal.  It was one of the most significant pieces of business by Leslie Knighton.  Brain scored 125 goals in 204 games for Arsenal.

8 May 1930: George Male turned pro on his 20th birthday.  He started out on the left wing as a deputy for Bob John and he played just three times in the first championship winning season, but played in the 1932 cup final due to an injury to Alex James.

8 May 1934 Charlie Jones left Arsenal to become Notts County manager.  This was not a success as the club finished bottom of division 2 in his first season, and he was sacked in December 1935.

8 May 1942: Terry Neil born.   He played for Bangor in N Ireland before moving on to Arsenal.  He moved on to become player manager of Hull at the age of 28 and later manager of Arsenal.

8 May 1954: John Hawley was born in Patrington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire and played 287 league games in the football league, scoring 89 goals including playing 20 games for Arsenal.

8 May 1963: George Eastham made his international debut.  In all he played 19 times for England and scored two goals, and was a member of the 1966 World Cup winning squad.

8 May 1965: Wally Hardinge died.  Wally joined Woolwich Arsenal in the summer of 1913, as Arsenal dropped to the second division and moved to Highbury.  He played in the first-ever game at Highbury, and was also an England international, and additionally played cricket for Kent and again for England, and was Cricketer of the Year in 1915.

8 May 1971  Arsenal won the Double for the first time, beating Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup, in extra time, having secured the League at White Hart Lane five days earlier.  Kelly and George got the goals. It was only the second time Arsenal had played in front of 100,000.

8 May 1993: Ian Wright scored his 15th and last league goal of the season as Arsenal beat Coventry 3-0.  Wright was the top scorer for the season.

8 May 2002  Arsenal not only won the League in Manchester by beating Manchester United but also then became the first team in over 100 years to go unbeaten all season away.  League match 37 of the 3rd Double season.   We win the league and the FA Cup   Arsenal also set a new record for 8 consecutive away wins in Premier League – a record equalled on 28 September 2013… by Arsenal.

8 May 2005: Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 as part of a 14 match unbeaten run in all competitions up to the end of the season which concluded with another FA Cup triumph.  The run also included a 12 match unbeaten run in the league.

8 May 2009: Theo Walcott signed a new long term contract which took him through to 2016.

8 May 2009: Bendtner was fined by Arsenal for unacceptable behaviour in a nightclub.  He played 108 times for Arsenal in a nine year spell at the club which included loans to Birmingham, Sunderland and Juventus.

8 May 2016: Manchester City 2 Arsenal 2 in the penultimate match of the season, making it eight successive matches unbeaten, and making the runners’ up spot possible, which would make this the best season since 2004/5.  All told Arsenal went 9 unbeaten and finished second.

8 May 2022: Arsenal beat Leeds 2-1 to make it four straight wins and make a top four finish look very likely, but subsequent defeats to Tottenham and Newcastle followed by a 5-1 drubbing of Everton on the last day of the season meant Arsenal  finished in 5th.  The match was notable before kick off by the entire Arsenal support singing “North London Forever” immediately before kick off, for the first time.