Today we launch a new page on the website:

Is It True?

Over the last few years we’ve discovered that Arsenal’s history isn’t quite how many historians have recorded it. We’ve written a number of blogs explaining what is wrong and how it came about; some stories have been misinterpreted whilst some have been complete fiction!

Henry Norris - not all bad

Henry Norris – not all bad

There are also some stories that don’t appear to be true but actually are, so we’ve given more detail about them.

Now we have started to collate them into one place so that they are easily accessible.

You can access the page via the menu at the top of any page on the website.

There are still more myths that we know of and we will be adding them to the page as we write about them.

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The books…

…On this day in 1937

“Butcher” Boulton downed most of the Arsenal defence 

Frank Boulton puts paid to Herbie Roberts’ season and Arsenal’s slim title challenge in just three punches during a League game against West Brom.

F Boulton Arsenal Goalkeeper 1936-1938

Frank Boulton: The Arsenal goalkeeper 1936-1938

In an unprecedented series of events he managed to not only hospitalise Roberts, but knock out Hapgood and hit Crayston.

Read More →

List of Arsenal players as Publicans 

In the summer Chris Jack, the Grandson of 1930’s exceptional player David Bone Nightingale Jack, got in touch with information about how DBN had run a pub after he retired from the game. So in mid October we met up with him at the very same pub, just up from the Angel tube station for a convivial chat.

This has since evolved into an attempt to list as many of the Arsenal players who took this, until recent times, favoured post playing route.

Frank McLintock Pub Sutton Arms

Frank McLintock at the Sutton Arms: Harp Stays Sharp to the Bottom of the Glass!

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288: Harold Adrian Walden 1920-21

Harold Walden 2Recently Andy has published a full and definitive list of every Arsenal player to appear in a first team competitive match during the history of the club, and as a corollary we are currently researching each player who appeared between World War One and World War Two.

The two hundred and eighty-eighth player only played twice for the Gunners but had a life that made for an interesting and rounded story. Walden had a pre-football career in the army and then joined up for WW1, and was a-typical in that post football he was more celebrated and reported upon than his football one.

Read More →

Roles played by supporters, players and officials in the Great War

PoppyArsenal

This is the first of a three part series based around Arsenal and World War One. Part two concentrates on club matters at home, and on 11 November details of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Gunners at War: Those included below are by no means the full story of the Gunners at war, but a representative selection of those players who fought or worked on the home front. Additionally two chaps contacted us with details of their Arsenal supporting relatives’ military roles in the Great War.

Read More →

by Andy Kelly

With a nationwide protest against ticket prices planned for this weekend, we thought we’d update this article that was originally published in March 2014. 18 months ago we were talking about a 3% rise in ticket prices at the Emirates for the 2014-15 season that had just been announced. There was much talk on social media about how expensive it was to watch football but there were all sorts of misrepresented figures being thrown into the pot. This article shows how ticket prices have increased at Arsenal over the last 35 years.

I would also still like to recommend Matthew Bazell’s “Theatre of Silence“, a fantastic book that explains his disillusionment with the game. @RoyalarsenalMRA and myself have felt pretty much the same way as Matthew for a number of years, especially with regards to the enormous sums paid to players. I heartily recommend Matthew’s book, it’s an easy read and only £4.11 on kindle. Read More →