18 July 2020. Arsenal reach cup final for record 21st time

Arsenal’s incredible improvement in form under new management was confirmed with Arsenal’s defeat of Manchester City 2-0 in the FA Cup semi-final in 2020.  Aubameyang scored in each half and the result meant that Arsenal, having been joint top in the list of finalists with 20 previous appearances would now be out on their own as the club that has appeared in more finals than any other. 21 finals, and as it turned out, 14 wins.

During the era of Wenger v Ferguson, their two clubs made the FA Cup their own, Mr Wenger winning the Cup for a record seven times – more than anyone else in the history of the competition.

It remains somewhat amusing therefore that if one types into Google something along the lines of “Which manager has won the FA Cup more than any other” the answer still comes up

Scotland’s George Ramsay holds the record for the most amount of FA Cup wins with six, claiming all of them while in charge of Aston Villa. Sir Alex Ferguson has a total of five with Manchester United, a number he shares with Thomas Mitchell, who won the competition five times with Blackburn Rovers in the 19th Century.

It is of course completely wrong – taking its information from the website “Betting Odds” which rather suggests that if one is inclined to have a little flutter, that might not be the best place to work with.  Or of course it could just be the usual media anti-Arsenal bias.

By way of comparison, and to correct the vagaries of Google and their chums, Arsenal have won the Cup 14 times, Manchester United 12 times and Chelsea 8.   Arsenal have lost in the final seven times and Manchester United eight.   And as of the start of the 2021/2 season Arsenal have appeared in 21 finals while Manchester United have been in 20.   Chelsea lag somewhat with just 15.

17 July 2004: Barnet 1 Arsenal 10.

It is, I think appropriate to look back to this pre-season friendly from 17 July 2004, since it was (I believe) one of the biggest pre-season friendly scores in modern times.  

 Arsenal were at the time regular visitors to the Barnet ground in the pre-season, the game being part of the deal which allowed Arsenal to play reserve fixtures on the League’s smallest ground.  It was also typically a time for a bit of a laugh, a conga up and down the terraces, and the taking of a few bets on what health and safety hazard the old place would come up with this time around.

The scorers list from that day takes us back to old times.  Reyes got three on 19 minutes, 21 minutes and 42 minutes.  Van Persie scored on 29 minutes while  Bergkamp knocked in two on 44 and 67 minutes.  Jeffers got a second half hat-trick on 53 minutes, 55 minutes and 64 minutes.   Quincy Owusu-Abeyie got the other one on 70 minutes.

Arsenal were at the time Champions and had gone the whole of the previous season unbeaten.  As maybe you know.

Arsenal were unbeaten throughout the rest of the pre-season, but those other seven games only gave Arsenal eight goals.  Most disappointing was the Amsterdam Tournament.  The seats we were given made me wish we had binoculars, and quite honestly the visit to the art galleries was a lot more memorable than the two games against River Plate and Ajax – they were both 0-0 draws.  But we were sustained by the 10-1.  

 But back in the league Arsenal resumed their stunning form of the previous season, winning eight and drawing one of the first nine games.  They scored 26 (a fraction under 3 a game!) and let in eight.

We started out away to Everton on 15 August with a certain Cesc Fàbregas in the lineup – the youngest ever Premier League player.  Bergkamp made his 500th league appearance and scored the first.  Reyes got the second from a Ljunberg cross.   Ljungberg himself got the third and Robert Pirès the fourth in a 4-1 away victory.

All great stuff, but then the fall – or so it seemed.  Match 2 was Middlesbrough at home away and Henry opened the scoring.  Just before half time Job got the equaliser  and four minutes into the second half  Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, got the second.  Worse Queudrue scored and it looked like the unbeaten run was over with the score 1-3.  Until Bergkamp, Reyes and Pirès each scored and we won 5-3, and so equalled Forest’s 42 unbeaten run over two seasons.

Three days later we beat Blackburn 3-0 at home, the record was ours, and you could really feel the belief that this team simply would not be beaten.   Norwich, Fulham, Man City, Charlton and Villa all fell before the Unbeaten team, and only Bolton held us to a 2-2 draw by parking the bus.  We reached 49 unbeaten.

16 July 1962: Joe Baker signed for Arsenal.

16 July 1962: Joe Baker signed for Arsenal.

Joe Baker was Billy Wright’s first marquee signing and Arsenal’s record signing at the time.  He had been Hibernian’s  top scorer for four years getting 102 goals in just 117 league games before moving to Torino.  

Joe was a centre forward, despite being only 5 feet 7 inches tall.  He was born in 1940 and went through some junior Scottish clubs before playing for Hibernian

The Hib’s board apparently refused to up his weekly wage from £12 to £17 and so sold him to Torino for £75k.   However Joe was involved in a serious car crash, while there, and Joe, like other Britain’s who tried playing outside the UK did not fare well.

He was Arsenal’s record signing in July 1962 and made his début on 18 August 1962 in the opening league game of the season away to the newly promoted Leyton Orient

He was also remembered for a match where he had a fist fight with Ron Yates of Liverpool, and winning.  Both were sent off – Joe said in the press after that he had never been sent off before in his life – although there was another report of him throwing a journalist into a canal while in Italy.

He was the top scorer for three of his four years with us, and got 100 goals in 156 games, playing alongside Geoff Strong who had come up through the youth and reserves teams.  Near the end of his career Wright sold Baker to Nottingham Forest for £65k – after which he moved on to Sunderland before going to Hibs again, and then Raith.

Baker retired in 1974, having scored 301 league goals in 507 games.  He also won eight caps for England (he was born in Liverpool – and was that rarity – a man who plays for England without having played for an English club).

After playing, Joe Baker was manager of Albion Rovers – which I think was probably a part time position.  He ran a pub and worked for Hibs but died tragically young at 63 while playing in a golf tournament.

15 July 2019, Arsenal beat Colorado Rapids 3-0

You’re probably long since bored with me writing my commentaries on each day, so today there is a break. A video instead. And a way to see how they do these videos differently in other lands.

14 July 1894: The day of the first “Woolwich Arsenal Football Company Day Excursion” to Hastings

This event was patronised by 400 people and was organised by the club’s first great benefactor George Lawrence.  It was quite possibly the first ever excursion for any football club.

The 1893 split in Woolwich Arsenal FC led to Woolwich Arsenal playing professionally in the 2^nd division of the Football League and the amateur Royal Ordnance Factories FC (ROFFC) playing on the ground opposite previously used by Royal Arsenal,

This split was obviously costly to Woolwich Arsenal, but thankfully they had a benefactor in the shape of George Lawrance,

George Lawrence ran a thriving newsagent and tobacconist and discount bookseller store and was a Tory Councillor on the Woolwich Borough Council and a Patron of the Cottage Hospital Committee and Woolwich Soup Society Committee. In July 1893 he is recorded as having 10 shares in Woolwich Arsenal and his wife Annie 5.

Lawrance became interested in football when he started to watch Royal Arsenal in January 1889 and began attending away games with his wife.  The couple then started to organise away excursions.

Lawrance became a committee member  of the club in June 1891 and remained permanently in office until his untimely death in June 1901. He was the first benefactor of the club.

He was at the meeting in May 1891 discussing and approving the adoption of professionalism, advertised in the Royal Arsenal programme in 1892, was involved in meetings to discuss the rejection of the proposed Invicta Ground rent rise and was present at the subsequent ground and limited liability meetings in 1893.

Then, later in the month, when Royal Ordnance Factories FC were rumoured to be preparing to bid for the Manor Field, Lawrance pushed through the legal agreement and paid the deposit for the purchase of the ground in early June 1893 and secured the mortgage..

Lawrence published the first Woolwich Arsenal Handbook. A copy from 1894-95 called the “Woolwich District Football Handbook” is still in existence. It sold for 2d and consists mainly of fixtures for the club and surrounding area. It also contains an 1886 founding account by Fred Beardsley. The following year George Lawrance’s Football handbook also contained photos and sketches of Arsenal players.

Lawrance died on 22nd June 1901 of heart failure caused by appendicitis.  His funeral was a huge event with members of Woolwich Arsenal FC, Masons, Councillors, members of the Chamber of Commerce and local businessmen attending in addition to family and friends.

13 July 1904: Phil Kelso becomes Arsenal’s 6th manager

On this day (or at least very close to this day, the records are somewhat unclear) Phil Kelso officially started his duties as manager.   He introduced the notion of professionalism to Arsenal, insisting that players live locally, and didn’t drink or smoke. He also got the players together for matches a day or two before, to start preparations – a revolutionary stance in those days.

Harry Bradshaw had handed in his resignation in January 1904 – although agreeing to see out the season and we know that Phil Kelso was at the match against Burslem Port Vale on 25 April 1904 along with 30,000 others to see the 0-0 draw which secured Arsenal’s promotion.  Thus for once the club had a change of manager in which the new man had time to sort out what he would do.

Kelso was Arsenal’s fifth manager, and during his spell with the club had a win rate of 41.45% achieved over 152 games.  This makes him more successful than George Swindin but just a little less than Bertie Mee.  A summary of his time at Arsenal is given here

But perhaps as we look at the stats his time should be measured by other factors.  Although he didn’t win the league for the club he managed to keep the club satisfactorily in the first division – which (given it was our first appearance in the top division) was something special.  Also he delivered two FA Cup semi finals (something Arsenal had never got anywhere near before), and in 1906/7 he actually had Woolwich Arsenal at the top of the first division (on October 6) for the first time ever.

His results in terms of position in the league (10^th, 12^th, 7^th, 14^th do not look impressive, but we must recall this was the first time Arsenal had been in division 1, and the club did not have a wealth of financial reserves to enable to buy in experienced first division players.

He left midway through the 1907/08 season, seemingly to manage a hostel in Scotland, but then returned to London to take over Fulham in 1909, and became their longest serving manager of all time, staying 15 years. Even more curiously, during the first world war, he worked at the Woolwich Arsenal.

12 July 1995 & 1998. Two events which show how far a club can go in three years

On 12 July 1995 George Graham was found guilty of receiving £425,000 payment from agent Rune Hauge following the purchase of John Jensen and Pål Lydersen.  He was dismissed by Arsenal and banned for one year by the FA.  He went on to manage Tottenham.

Three years later to the day, and just two years after he had joined Arsenal, the phenomenal strength of the Arsenal team built by Arsene Wenger was revealed for the world to see as  Emmanuel Petit andPatrick Vieira (along with Thierry Henry and Robert Pires who did not play in the final but were in the squad) became the first Arsenal players to win the World Cup.

Petit also became the first Arsenal player to score in a WC final.  Dennis Bergkamp (who was not signed by Wenger but whose career was reborn under Wenger) won World Cup Goal of the Tournament.

11 July 2003: Peterborough 1 Arsenal 0 – the prelude to greatness

The 2003/4 season has a certain ring to it.  Something about the number of defeats in a season as I recall.  

But it didn’t start that way with the pre-season friendlies.  They started with a 0-1 defeat to Peterborough followed by a 0-0 with Barnet – neither of which really foretold the future.

In the game on this day Peterborough United scored on 29 minutes, and Arsenal only once or twice looked like equalising.

This was one of those games where Arsenal put out two teams, one in each half.  Peterborough even had Matteo Guardalben, a 29-year-old keeper who was on trial at Arsenal – obviously not one of those who made it.   He played for Arsenal in the first half.

The reason for this was that both David Seaman and Guillaume Warmuz left the club at the end of the previous season, meaning Arsenal had, Stewart Taylor, Graham Stack and Rami Shaaban on the books.

Arsenal did have the likes of Martin Keown, Francis Jeffers and Jeremie Aliadiere on the pitch, but still they couldn’t stop Peterborough scoring.

In the second half Jeffers was the only Arsenal player who stayed on.  So we got a good look at Philippe Senderos, making his Arsenal debut and playing alongside Cygan, and Gael Clichy, who at 17 was on trial from AS Cannes.

First-half team

Arsenal: Matteo Guardalben; Moritz Volz, Martin Keown, Sol Campbell, Ashley Probets; John Spicer, Sebastian Svard, Ray Parlour, Paulinho; Jeremie Aliadiere, Francis Jeffers.

Second-half team

Arsenal: Stuart Taylor (Matteo Guardalben 84) ; Lauren, Philippe Senderos, Pascal Cygan, Gael Clichy, Sebastian Larrson, John Halls, Edu, Stephen Bradley, Dean Shiels, Francis Jeffers (Frankie Simek 65).

It wasn’t memorable at all – indeed I struggle to recall anything of the game although I know I was there, and I didn’t even bother to go to the follow-up Barnet match.  It all looked a bit ordinary.

But when six weeks later, on 31 August, The Times reported the league match against Man City as containing “the worst 45 minutes [by Arsenal] that any of their fans could remember” I felt they were missing a point.   That game   It ended Man City 1 Arsenal 2 and was the 4^th league match of the unbeaten season. And really… “ANY of their fans”???

10 July 2014: Alexis signs for Arsenal

Arsenal signed Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for around £30m on this day in 2014.  He became an immediate success being the club’s top scorer in his first season and showing an unending drive and passion while on the pitch.

However in 2018 he left for Man U but only scored 5 goals in 45 appearances in his first 18 months after which he went on loan to Inter Milan.  He later signed for them on a free transfer.

In 2020/21 he played 30 league games for Inter and scored seven goals.  His career total thus far is 664 games and 189 goals.

9 July 1999: Barnet 1 Arsenal 6.

The season 1999/2000 started with some high hopes after 1998/9.  Arsenal had finished second, just one point behind Man U, who had won the Double, beating Arsenal 2-1 after extra time in the FA Cup semi-final.  

But a return to the 1997/8 style and pomp could be hoped for especially as Arsenal had signed four players and were being talked of in terms of two more, much bigger signings.  Indeed one of them turned out to be the biggest of all: Thierry Henry for £11m from Juventus, although he didn’t arrive until August.

The game on 9 July 1999 which ended Barnet 1 Arsenal 6 was itself of notice as Arsenal started a three year sponsorship with SEGA worth £10m, with this match.   Then we moved on to games with Saint-Étienne and Monaco on 24 and 26 July.

The team for the first game was

Seaman

Luzhny Grimandi Keown Winterburn

Parlour Vieira Petit Ljungberg

Kanu Silvinho

So two new men in the team: Silvinho from Brazil and Luzhny from Kiev.  And it would have been great to talk about their immediate impact but we were two down after ten minutes.  However exactly the right tactics were employed – Arsenal steadying themselves for quarter of an hour, before Kanu decided it was time he showed us all that he could do twisting and turning so often it was impossible to count how often.  The keeper certainly had no idea where he was going as he scored.

Three minutes later he was off again and it was only by throwing himself in front of Kanu that the keeper stopped the ball.  It went to Freddie Ljungberg who popped it into the net.

For the second half Nigel Winterburn and Martin Keown went off and Matthew Upson and Christopher Wreh came in.   St Etienne however made ten changes.   Arsenal responded by giving Pennant, Malz and Vernazza a run out but there were no more goals and it ended 2-2.

Playing Monaco – Mr Wenger’s old club – two days later provided another stern test – but this game is mostly remembered for the injury to Seaman, who collecting a back pass, pulled a muscle and was taken off right at the end.   With Alex Manninger also out injured Stuart Taylor went in goal and the match was fairly tame until Vieira passed perfectly to Petit whose shot was saved by Barthez, bounced out to a defender, hit his leg and bounced into the goal.

Two minutes later the old back four hands aloft trick for offside failed to get the linesman to raise his flag and Farnerud ran through to score.

Emmanuel Petit  went off seemingly injured, and Stefan Malz came on.  

The team for the Monaco game was

Seaman

Dixon Upson Keown Winterburn

Parlour Vieira Petit Silvinho

Kanu   Boa Morte

The feeling was we could do with another centre forward.  Little did we know.