25 September: Ian Wright scores on his first game, and 27 away games without defeat
Today’s headline comes from 1991 – details below.
The 1919 Affair: How Arsenal were promoted to the first division – the only complete and detailed history of Arsenal’s election.
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
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.
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25 September 1893: John Storrs made his debut in the 4th match of the season – a 3-1 win against Grimsby, taking over from Jeffrey at left back (Jeffrey moving to playing in goal following the injury to Williams) and continued until the return match with Grimsby on Boxing Day.
25 September 1909: Arsenal’s keeper Hugh MacDonald was injured in 3-2 victory over Chelsea. Despite the fact that the injury left him seriously immobile he played in the next game, and conceded 7. Both this and the event on this day in 1893 show that the club at Plumstead did not have a full-time backup keeper, not least because there was no reserve matches for them to play in. See also here.
25 September 1915: British forces took the French town of Loos using poison gas for the first time. Back home Arsenal lost to Fulham away 3-4, in front of 9000 fans.
25 September 1920: Arsenal drew with Middlesbrough 2-2. The programme announced that Arsenal was appealing against its rating assessment accusing the Borough of Islington of trying to “crush us out of existence.” The antagonism went back to 1913 when the council had worked with the notorious Highbury Defence Committee to stop Arsenal moving to the area.
25 September 1929: Joey Williams made his Arsenal debut in the 5–2 defeat by Aston Villa. He left Arsenal in March 1932 having played 26 league games for Arsenal, scoring five goals, and signed for Middlesbrough for whom he played for four seasons, finally putting in one season with Carlisle Utd.
25 September 1935: Bernard Joy’s first game in a friendly against Rangers. He played throughout his career as an amateur, playing his first league game in April 1936. See also here
25 September 1963: Arsenal beat Staevnet 7-1 in the Fairs Cup, with Joe Baker and and Geoff Strong each scoring three. It was Arsenal’s first competitive away game in Europe.
25 September 1971: Arsenal 3 Leicester City 0. The crowd was 40,201 but there was little style in evidence here, and little sign of insightful tactics. Arsenal won simply because Leicester were awful.
25 September 1979: Arsenal had a 2-1 win over Southampton in the league cup due to the genius of Liam Brady who collected a throw in from Rice, by-passed a defender, swivelled, and sent in a low drive from the edge of the penalty area. Not only did the “One Liam Brady” chant go up, it continued and could be heard in the streets as fans queued for the tube.
25 September 1991: Ian Wright’s first game: Leicester 1 Arsenal 1 in the league cup. He scored, naturally. Arsenal won the second leg 2-0, with Wright scoring again.
25 September 1995: Dave Bowen died. After managing Wales he re-joined Northampton between 1969 and 1972 as general manager, and later secretary, while also working in journalism (as a reporter for the People) and bookmaking, before finally retiring. A stand at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium is named after him.
20 years ago today
25 September 2004: The 0-1 away defeat of Man City made it 6 wins and 1 draw in the league. Cole scored the goal. This was also the final match of the longest unbeaten away sequence in league football: 27 games from 5 April 2003.
25 September 2008: Untold Arsenal predicted that Arsenal would sign a midfielder for £40m. On 2 September 2013 Arsenal signed Mesut Ozil. We were just ahead of the times. By five years.
25 September 2013: Arsenal beat WBA in the league cup 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw during a run of ten successive wins. Eisfeld got the goal during the game; all five nominated players scored in the shoot-out while two of WBA’s players missed.
25 September 2017: Four years to the day after beating WBA in the league cup, during a fine winning run, Arsenal beat WBA 2-0 in the Premier League in a sequence of 11 wins and one draw in 12 games. Lacazette got both goals.