The passing of the man who wrecked Arsenal’s reputation

By Tony Attwood

Today’s highlighted anniversaries come from 1919 and 1959

• Day by Day the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order. 
• Day by Day the stories– a key moment in Arsenal and footballing history for each day of the year
• Details of some more series can be found at the foot of his article and others are on the home page

The Arsenal anniversaries for 10 May 

10 May 1890: Millwall Athletic 3 Arsenal 3.  A crowd of 800 turned up to see the local derby – the first since Millwall added “athletic” to their name.

10 May 1899: James Jackson signed.  He made his debut at full back alongside Duncan McNichol and the pair became a renowned full back partnership.  Jackson played until 1905, making 204 appearances and scoring 1 goal.

10 May 1908 David Greenaway signed.  He was an outside right who between 1908 and 1920 played 161 league games and scored 13 goals.

10 May 1910: The sale period of shares in Arsenal FC finally came to an end and it was clear that not nearly enough had been sold to make the offer valid.  The club remained in the financial mire as local people refused to support the club.

10 May 1915: The board of directors at Arsenal formally approved the change of the name of the club (which had already happened the month before) to “The Arsenal” at a meeting on this day.

10 May 1919.  Leslie Knighton took charge of his first Arsenal match at Highbury as Arsenal beat West Ham 3-2 with 8000 in the ground.

10 May 1922: Andrew Kennedy, signed one day before, played in his first match – a friendly against Southend.

10 May 1923: Boldklubben Frem (Copenhagen) 2 Arsenal 4.  First appearance of  Samson Haden.

10 May 1932: Northampton 2 Arsenal 3.  The last of the Northampton/Arsenal friendlies which supported a local hospital and which may have also helped Chapman’s old club repair their ground after it had been destroyed by fire.

10 May 1941: Preston 1 Arsenal 1 in the Football League War Cup Final, at Wembley (60,000 in the crowd).  The match was replayed three weeks later at Ewood Park, Blackburn, when Arsenal lost 2-1.

10 May 1959: Death of Leslie Knighton, the first manager of Arsenal in north London.  He and George Allison published their autobiographies within weeks of each other in 1948, and Knighton’s book has regularly been used as a source of information concerning Arsenal and Henry Norris.  But subsequent investigation has shown virtually all of his allegations (although still oft repeated today) are utterly without foundation.  Allison’s volume, written immediately after his retirement, and drawing on a lifetime at Arsenal,  paints a totally different picture of Norris and the club, but is mostly ignored as it doesn’t fit the anti-Arsenal agenda of today’s media.

10 May1962: Danny Clapton’s last senior game.  He moved to Luton Town in September 1962 before playing for Corinthians of Sydney.   By 1970 he was running a pub in Hackney.

10 May 1966: Charlie George, who had been discovered by George Male, signed apprentice forms.  He played 133 league games before moving to Derby.

10 May 1969: Dennis Bergkamp born in Amsterdam, the son of an electrician.  He joined Ajax aged 12, and stayed there for 12 years before moving to Inter.  After two miserable years there where he was insulted by the media on a weekly basis, he moved to Arsenal.

10 May 1980: Arsenal lost the FA Cup final to West Ham.  It was Arsenal’s 3rd successive FA Cup final, and the last until the Cup Double season of 1993.

10 May 1995: Arsenal lost 1-2 to Real Zaragoza in injury time in the Cup Winners Cup final as Nayim spotted Seaman off his line and lobbed him from 50 yards out.

10 May 1997: Matthew Upson transferred to Arsenal from Luton for £1.2m.  (Also reported as 16 May in some quarters.)  He had played just once for Luton and went on to play 35 times for Arsenal before moving on to Birmingham City.

10 May 1998: With the league won on 3 May, Arsenal took life easy in the 38th and final match of the second Double season losing 1-0 to Aston Villa, knowing that the Cup Final was still to come. The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

10 May 2009: Arsenal 1 Chelsea 4; Bendtner scored in what was the worst defeat thus far at the Emirates.  In the following home game two weeks later Arsenal defeated Stoke 4-1.

10 May 2012: Steve Bould, having been youth team coach, and head of the under 18s, stepped up to become Arsene Wenger’s assistant upon the retirement of Pat Rice.

10 May 2017: Southampton 0 Arsenal 2.  This game came in a run in which Arsenal won nine of their last ten games of the season, concluding with a 2-1 FA Cup final win over Chelsea.  This run contrasted with a run of six defeats in nine between the end of January and mid-March.

Earlier series

• Arsenal Managers – from Royal Arsenal to Mr Wenger
• Arsenal’s name and how it changed
• Arsenal and Tottenham
• Anti-Arsenal – those who try to put us down throughout history
• Arsenal’s Chronology
• Arsenal History Society news and discoveries
• Chairmen of Arsenal
• Corruption: The Review
• The First Double: 1971
• First Timers: The first time I saw Arsenal
• Iconic moments in the history of Arsenal
• Into the Darkness. Arsenal under Swindin
• Islington 100: celebrating 100 years of Arsenal in Islington
• London – how Arsenal fared in the early days against other London teams
• Meet the ancestors- stories from the relatives of Arsenal players
• The origins of Arsenal
• Players, including updates on what players are doing now
• The Norris Files
• Statistics through the club’s history
• Woolwich Arsenal, the ground
• Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup – the full series
• Woolwich 100 – the players who played 100 or more times for WA
• Year by year: tracing the club’s history in detail
• The complete story of Ted Drake scoring seven in one match in December 1935
• Why was the first Arsenal side called Dial Square, and why did it only last one game?
• Herbert Chapman’s first year at Arsenal, analysed as never before.
• A Memorial to the founders of Arsenal’s Highbury dynasty.

Other series include

Henry Norris at the Arsenal:  There is a full index to the series here correcting 100 years of rumour and false allegations.

Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever

Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.