This series takes a look at what was happening to Arsenal and in the world around them on this day at one point in Arsenal’s past.
8 January: Arsenal play their first match (?)
On January 8th Arsenal played their first undisputed match. It is “undisputed” because the details of the game were carried in the press. It is the “first undisputed” because the game normally considered the “first” (against Eastern Wanderers) was played as Dial Square FC
The mentioning of Royal Arsenal v Erith in the press shows that the name of the club was changed BEFORE and not after that match.
There is no information about this Erith club that I can find, and the contemporary club with the same name was formed much more recently. Erith was a small town at the time of the match against Royal Arsenal, with a population of probably around 2,500 or so.
It was described in 1840 as ‘composed chiefly of two streets, one leading down to the water side, the other branching off to the left towards the church’ and was for a while a riverside resort with a pier and hotel catering for day-trippers. It did not become an urban district until 1894.
There is one fly in the ointment of this very neat story that Arsenal definitively started on January 8 1887 and that before that either had the name Dial Square Cricket Club – and played at most one game. This “fly” is Woolwich United.
There is a letter written much later which suggests that this club was the original Arsenal, and we have on January 2nd 1886 a mention in Leeds Mercury, of the match: Selby v Woolwich United. There are no details of the game – just a listing of it.
Of course our first question has to be, is it “our” Woolwich? Rather surprisingly there is only one Woolwich in the UK, so it looks like it must be. But then if that’s right what on earth were they doing in Selby? That may seem unlikely, but what we do know is that clubs did travel around and go for “days out”.
We can’t say for sure what this match was all about, but, if this newspaper report is true, it would require a certain amount of historical re-writing!
7 January 1978: the FA Cup video
Arsenal score five in the FA Cup third round
5 January 1887: the word “Arsenal” used in the club’s name for the first time.
Now I must be open and say that headline could be a little misleading, because although we know that the club’s name was changed around this time from Dial Square to Royal Arsenal FC there is a little uncertainty as to the exact date.
On 2 January 1887 an advert appeared in The Referee (a weekly publication) placed by Elijah Watkins of Dial Square FC requesting opponents in the Football Challenges section. The club’s name at this point was most clearly Dial Square F.C.
But then at some stage between 3-5 January 1887 the name of the club was changed from Dial Square to Royal Arsenal as on 7 January 1887 the Woolwich Gazette reported that sometime between 1 December 1886 and 5 January 1887 a meeting was held to widen the club to everyone in the area, rather than just members of Dial Square.
Thus effectively the club became Royal Arsenal Association Football Club at this point. Since the 2 January advertisement still used the name “Dial Square” this suggests the name change took place between 3 and 5 January.
And most certainly we know that for the match on 8 January 1887 this was between Royal Arsenal and Erith.
Finally to conclude the month’s activities on 28 January theWoolwich Gazette reported that Royal Arsenal v Eastern Wanderers, was played at Plumstead Common. The say, “The Arsenal score another win against the Wanderers by one goal to nil,” confirming once more that the original December match was indeed played. This is also probably the first use of the name “The Arsenal” – which of course became the name of the club for a short while before its final transition to “Arsenal”.
4 January 1975: a moment’s relief
Arsenal entered 1975 sitting 19th in the table having won one of their last five league matches. It was therefore undoubtedly with some relief that on January 4 1975 the club turned its attention to the FA Cup. Unfortunately, the relief didn’t last and the match ended Arsenal 1 York City 1 in front of just 27,029 at Highbury. The team that took the field was Rimmer, Rice, McNab, Kelly, Mancini, Powling, Storey, Ball, Armstrong, Kidd, Cropley.
York had risen from the fourth to the second division in the years since 1971, as Arsenal had sunk from Double winners to relegation candidates over the same time. But even so…
With no Radford or Simpson Arsenal looked unbalanced and were reliant on Ritchie Powling to break up the York raids, which were organised along the lines used by the 7th century Vikings who had occupied their city. As a result of this novel style of play York took the lead after mistakes by Kelly and McNab allowed Holmes to race through as if on his longship from 60 yards out before passing to Seal who could slot home. They never even had to raise their swords.
Kelly redeemed himself seven minutes later with a strong volley which gave Arsenal the equaliser.
After the match it was announced that the York manager, and architect of their rise up the leagues, would be leaving to work at Huddersfield. Arsenal fans clutched at the news hoping it might upset the York players in the replay. In a season like this it was a case of clutching at anything.
The replay was on 7 January and ended York City 1 Arsenal 3, 15,362 packing into the ground.
In fact there was very little attention given to this game as the media turned as one to Walsall, who had beaten Manchester United 3-2 in a replay at Fellows Park. It just shows, disasters didn’t only happen to Arsenal at this time.
3 January 1998: the first cup match of the second double
1997/8 was Arsène Wenger’s first complete season at Arsenal, and as everyone will know, he set himself an impossibly high bar to measure up to thereafter by giving us a Double. It was our first championship in seven years, the first league/cup double since 1970/1 (only our second in fact although George Graham got the country’s first-ever cup double in between). Only the League Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea stopped the dream of the domestic treble. Europe was uninspiring, but no one seemed to mind.
And all this in the season when we let Paul Merson go to Middlesbrough – although their offer of over £4m was huge. But the incomer – Manu Petit caught the eye, and although Gilles Grimandi wasn’t a huge star player, he proved useful on the pitch and enormously helpful thereafter as the head of scouting in France.
Plus there was Marc Overmars, who came in for £7m. A stunning player.
Christopher Wreh also came in, along with Boa More, Mendez and Manninger. Indeed during the summer it was hard to keep up.
But what is worth remembering is that as Arsenal struggled to make it through to the final there were mutterings all over the ground about what Wenger was up to and whether he really was good enough for Arsenal!
3 January 1998: Arsenal 0 Port Vale 0; 3rd round
14 January 1998: Port Vale 1 Arsenal 1; replay Arsenal win 4-3 on pens
24 January 1998: Middlesbrough 1 Arsenal 2; 4th round
15 February 1998: Arsenal 0 Crystal Palace 0; 5th round
25 February 1998: Crystal Palace 1 Arsenal 2; replay
8 March 1998: Arsenal 1 West Ham 1; 6th round
17 March 1998: West Ham 1 Arsenal 1; replay, Arsenal win 4-3 on pens
5 April 1998: Wolverhampton 0 Arsenal 1; semi-final at Aston Villa
16 May 1998: Arsenal 2 Newcastle U 0; Final.
Arsenal’s history 3rd – 9th January
3 January 1998: the start of the cup journey to the second double
26 December 1909: Buchan signs for Arsenal (for the first time)
Charles Murray Buchan was born in Plumstead on 22 September 1891 and was brought up in the homeland of Woolwich Arsenal. Naturally, he started with the club, but an argument with George Morrell relating to his expenses while he was training to be a teacher caused him to decline a professional contract after joining Arsenal on 26 December 1909. This was of course the era of massive cutbacks at Arsenal which ultimately led to the club entering administration and being taken over by Henry Norris, so it is not too surprising that any request for extra payment would be turned down.
Charlie moved on to Northfleet United and then Leyton in the Southern League before being offered a contract by Sunderland,
Sunderland were a successful first division club at that time winning the league and appearing in the cup final, and Charlie was Sunderland’s leading scorer both before and after the first world war and remains Sunderland’s all time record scorer.
During the 1914/18 war he served his country with the Sherwood Foresters and was awarded the Military Medal, (an equivalent to the Military Cross). He ended the war as a second lieutenant.
In 1925 Buchan lost his place in the Sunderland team and was signed by Arsenal for the second time – this time by Chapman who had arrived that summer. The opening demand from Sunderland was very high – £4000 for a player now in the reserves – so Chapman reduced this to £2000 plus £100 a goal. However as he scored 21 goals in his first season the deal went against Arsenal’s interests. Buchan made his debut against Tottenham H in the first match of the season on 29 August 1925.
Chapman and Buchan had a close bond, and (at least so the story goes) they worked together after the defeat to Newcastle to reform the tactical approach of Arsenal, following the change in the offside law – also in the summer of 1925. The change was to move from the standard 2-3-5 formation into 3-2-2-3 in which the centre half was pulled back into the final defensive line, with two defensive midfielders in front. In front of them were the inside right and inside left playing as attacking midfield, and then a forward line of three that we would recognise today.
Charlie Buchan captained Arsenal in the 1927 cup final and retired one year later. He scored 56 goals in 120 matches for Arsenal playing for the most part as an attacking midfield player, following the formation change he helped introduce.
He then moved on to journalism, and commentary for the BBC, as well as being the founder of Charlie Buchan’s Football Monthly which continued until June 1974. He also published his autobiography, “A Lifetime in Football” in 1955, which is the source of much of our knowledge about the tactical change – and therefore as we have seen elsewhere, this needs to be treated with a little caution.
Charlie Buchan died in 1960, at the age of 68, whilst holidaying in France.
