20 May: Arsenal complete the unique cup double and Wright gets the record
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Data compiled by Tony Attwood. Details of some of our special reports and investigations into Arsenal’s history are given on the home page.
Today’s headline relates to 1993
20 May 1910: The funeral of King Edward VII. Arsenal’s attempts to sell shares in the re-born club had been forced to stop during the period of mourning, but were allowed to re-start on the following day. On this day the Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet
20 May 1926: Amateure FK Austria 3 Arsenal 5 (Parker. Butler, Buchan, Brain, Ramsey). Herbert Chapman revived the Woolwich Arsenal tradition of post-season European tours to boost the standing of the club in Europe. This was the fourth of six games.
20 May 1928: Debut for Charlie Jones. Danish XI 0 Arsenal 1. Although he had only played with lower league clubs Chapman deemed him to be the man the club needed and he was pitched straight into the first team.
20 May 1936: George Marks, having transferred from Salisbury Corinthians, signed professional forms on this day. He moved into Arsenal reserves for 1938/9 as an understudy for George Swindin and Alex Wilson, and played his first major game on 17 April 1939 – a friendly against Tottenham.
20 May 1963: Arsenal 2 Rangers 2. Jack Kelsey testimonial match. He had been injured playing for Wales in Brazil and forced to retire.
20 May 1969: Hibernians (Malta) 0 Arsenal 0 (14,000). The second of two post-season games in Malta.
20 May 1975: Thailand National XI 0 Arsenal 3 (Kidd 2, Cropley). The fourth and final game of Arsenal’s Far East end of season tour.
20 May 1977: The third and final game of Arsenal’s post season tour ended Roros 0 Arsenal 6 (Rix, Macdonald 3, Price, Stapleton).
20 May 1982: Danny O’Shea made his first appearance in the friendly: Arsenal 3 Trinidad Representative XI 0. He went on to play six league games for Arsenal.
20 May 1993: Arsenal 2 Sheffield W 1 (FA Cup final replay). This was the third and final game against Sheff W at Wembley, and the 17th and last cup match of the Cup Double Season as Arsenal became the first ever team to win the League Cup and FA Cup in the same season. When Linighan scored Jonathan Pearce commentating, pronounced, “The boy from Hartlepool is in the big pool of London football, and he’s become the biggest fish of them all.” Ian Wright scored to make it 10 FA Cup goals, and five League Cup goals, in total an all-time cup scoring record.
20 May 1995: Hong Kong Rangers 0 Arsenal 4. Paul Davis’ final game for Arsenal. He played for Brentford before returning to Arsenal as a member of the junior coaching team.
20 May 1997: Matthew Rose joined QPR. He had played five league games for Arsenal, but played 243 for QPR. He later became Head coach of Arsenal’s European Elite Academy.
20 May 2013: Craig Eastmond left Arsenal for Colchester Utd. He played 49 times for them before moving once again to Yeovil.
20 May 2015: Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0 was not a game to remember except that it was part of a run of 27 games starting on 4 January in which Arsenal only lost three and drew three. As a result we won the FA Cup and retained our position as a top four club.
20 May 2023: Arsenal lost 1-0 away to Nottingham Forest. The result meant that having led the league table for much of the year Arsenal had now won just two of their last eight Premier League matches.