Until 1955 there were occasional games for Arsenal on 24 December. The very last of these was in 1955 when we lost 2-0 to Chelsea. From there on it was decided that there really was no market for the match – although the crowd of 43,022 was still very respectable.
Games on Christmas Day continued for one more year for Arsenal with the last game again being against Chelsea – a 1-1 draw away from home.
Thereafter, there have been no more.
However Boxing Day matches for Arsenal have continued until 2008 – and indeed Arsenal are in Boxing Day action once again this year – away to Norwich.
Obviously, there are no videos of Arsenal playing on 24 or 25 December, so these days will have to remain blank in our history of Arsenal through “on this day” videos. And I am sorry to say that it seems more than likely that the video for 26 December will be going up rather late in the day, as family matters have first call!
But hopefully, it will go up, sometime in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, you can read more about Arsenal’s history and see our complete collection of a video for almost every day of the year on the Arsenal History Society website. Just go to your search engine and type in “Arsenal History Society”.