Tommy Docherty with revolutionary boots
One of the joys of digging around in Arsenal’s past is finding a photograph or an article that looks reasonably interesting and then, on further investigation, reveals a ripping yarn. Read More →
Arsenal scored two goals (one by Olivier Giroud and one by Mesut Ozil) whilst Bayern Munich scored no goals.
Therefore Arsenal gained three Champions League points.
In this world of an endless stream of pointless statistics, they are the only ones that mean anything. Read More →
Between 2001 and 2006 Wembley Stadium was rebuilt. During that period, Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium was used by the English Football Association for the FA Cup final, FA Cup semi-finals (for one season) and the FA Charity / Community Shield. A total of 14 games were played and Arsenal, as well as being Kings of Wembley, came out as Kings of Cardiff.
Thanks to @JamesGooner88 for the inspiration for this article. Read More →
Despite it being only the middle of July, Arsenal’s pre-season preparations are well under way with a tournament in Singapore already completed and the Emirates Cup and Community Shield still to come before the very early start to the Premier League season.
Arsenal’s preparations for the season ahead haven’t always been this hectic. For many years it was a case of some running around the pitch to shake off the excesses of the Summer and a couple of kickabouts.
The earliest records of the team playing prior to the start of the season are in 1888, two years after the club was founded. Two games, advertised as the Probables v Improbables, were played on 1 September and a week later. Unfortunately no records of the outcome of these two games exists, nor of the players involved. However, with the club gaining a reputation as one of the leading clubs in London, it is likely that a fair number of trialists had put their names forward to the committee that ran the team. And don’t be fooled by the dates. In the early days of the game, the season started in September with cricket, still being the more senior sport, taking precedence.
Kentish Mercury 21 September 1888
JACK WILSHERE VINDICATED
Back in September 2014 we wrote a blog about Arsenal’s reserves beating Tottenham’s first team in 1970. Most Arsenal fans already knew about the time this happened in 1980.
However, at the recent Arsenal Supporters’ End of Year Event, whilst we were chatting to Martin Hayes he reminded us of yet another time that Arsenal’s reserves beat Tottenham’s first team. This game took place on 29 March 1983. The teamsheet is shown below, and that is how the teams lined up.
Last year we thought it would be a good idea to put together a compendium of information relating to all of Arsenal’s FA Cup final appearances on one page so you don’t have to trawl all over the internet to find out the answers to all of those nagging questions.
We’ve updated the article and made some additions. We’ve added a brief match report for each game which we wrote for the Arsenal magazine last year, and most of the programmes for the games. We were hoping to have all of them ready in time for this blog but the later years take ages to scan as they are so big. We’ll add them as we scan them in. Be aware that these later programmes are huge, physically and electronically. With this in mind we’ve shown the file size for each one so you know what you are letting yourself in for. This article was originally posted in 2015 and has been updated to include all subsequent FA Cup final appearances.
Weekly Illustrated 25 April 1936.
Arsenal win consecutive Charity Shields
In the 1930s Arsenal appeared in seven Charity Shields, winning five of them outright. Due to the intervention of the War the Charity Shield of 1939 was not played, meaning Arsenal competed in all but two of the games during that decade highlighting the club’s pre WW2 dominance. This game was the second of the seven the Arsenal played overall.
Arsenal FC with their trophies April 1931 (Photo by S. R. Gaiger/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
Arsenal v Chelsea 18 March 1950
A classic Arsenal come back in this game, enabled the club to win the replay and consequently play in the FA Cup final, where Liverpool were beaten 2-0 at Wembley. Unfortunately, we don’t have the whole programme for this game, just the cover.
