18 August: a major day to celebrate in Arsenal’s 21st century history

A day to celebrate in Arsenal’s history

Just how important the Vieira / Wenger combination was can be seen in the simple statistic from the anniversary of this day in 2002 (see details below) with Vieira taking over as captain..  But also note that one year earlier again on this day Arsenal broke the record by scoring in 47 consecutive games and making it 22 away games without defeat

Here are the anniversaries for this day…

18 August 1917: George Morrell, the manager who walked out on Arsenal before the end of the 1914/15 season to return to Scotland and  took over Third Lanark on this day and continued as their manager until April 30 1921.  After that we have no knowledge of him, and cannot even offer a date of his passing.

18 August 1923: The second of two pre-season practice matches was played at Highbury.  There is no report on the game, but it would be fascinating to know if anyone foresaw in this match the problems that Arsenal were going to face in the next two seasons.

18 August 1961: Laurie Brown purchased from Northampton Town.  The following day he played against Tottenham, and then after being sold to Tottenham in 1964 played for Tottenham against Arsenal.

18 August 1962: Joe Baker’s first league game, and also Billy Wright’s first game as manager.  Arsenal beat the Orient 2-1 with goals from Geoff Strong and, of course, Joe Baker.

18 August 1973: Arsenal 1 Wolverhampton 3,  FA Cup 3rd place play off.  The notion of a third place play off was a short lived venture, played at the start of the following season, which picked up only modest public interest.

18 August 1979.  Brighton lost their first ever first division game 4-0 to Arsenal as.  Arsenal won an opening match under Neill for the first time after four attempts.  Sunderland 2, Stapleton and Brady got the goals.

18 August 1983: Mickey Thomas signed as an apprentice.  Thomas signed for us in 1982, became a pro aged 17 in 1984 and went on loan to Portsmouth.  He made his first team début in February 1987.

18 August 1991: Alf Kirchen died. He finished playing before the war and then became a trainer at Norwich, then taking a break to become a farmer, returning to Norwich as a director of the club and as Honorary President of the Norfolk Arsenal Supporters Club.  He died just before his 86th birthday. See also Tottenham 0 Arsenal 6

18 August 1992.  Perry Groves last game v Blackburn (a 0-1 defeat).  He had played 155 league games for Arsenal and scored 21 goals.

18 August 2001 Middlesbrough 0 Arsenal 4 – the start of the great away games run. The run continued until 28 September 2002 when Arsenal beat Leeds 4-1 away, to break the record by scoring in 47 consecutive games and making it 22 away games without defeat   Sol Campbell played his first league game for Arsenal and Henry said afterwards, “I saw something today I never saw last season – we played as a team.  It’s the most important thing in football.”

18 August 2002: Following the retirement of Tony Adams, Vieira took over as captain for the game,  Arsenal 2 Birmingham 0.  This made 14 consecutive wins – a new record for the top division in England.  Arsenal then played another 8 league games before finally being beaten.

18 August 2008: Emmanuel Adebayor signed a new “long-term” contract with Arsenal.  However in 2009 he moved to Manchester City.

18 August 2009: Celtic 0 Arsenal 2, Champions League qualifier.  This meant that the return match should have been straightforward but Celtic instead tried to get Eduardo a European ban.

18 August 2011: Joel Campbell loaned to L’Orient.  It was the first of five loans during his period as an Arsenal player.  In 2019 he was reported as playing in Mexico.

18 August 2018.  Arsenal lost 3-2 to Chelsea making it two defeats in two games for the new manager Unai Emery.   There was much speculation in the press about when Arsenal had lost the opening three games, and whether Emery would immediately be sacked.  The club didn’t lose the third and he wasn’t sacked – at least not then..

18 August 2020: As part of a clearout of young players who were deemed unlikely to make the grade, George Lewis sold to Fram Larvik of Norway.

18 August 2023:  Icelandic goalkeeper Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson loaned to Cardiff City.

 

Elsewhere

The 1919 Affair:  How Arsenal were promoted to the first division – the only complete and detailed history of Arsenal’s election.

Day by Day the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order. 

Day by Day the stories– a key moment in Arsenal and footballing history for each day of the year

Henry Norris at the Arsenal:  There is a full index to the series here correcting 100 years of rumour and false allegations.

Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever

Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.