1st April 1901 – The friendlies against then-local rivals Millwall continued with a 1-1 draw but the crowd of just 2,000 showed that some of the old local rivalry had long gone.
1st April 1918 – West Ham 3-1 Arsenal. Easter Monday’s return wartime league fixture in front of a crowd of 7,000 ended in defeat.
1st April 1933 – Arsenal 5-0 Aston Villa. Lambert (2) Jack, Bowden and James on the scoresheet in front of 54,265 fans.
1st April 1949 – Sammy Nelson was born. A left-back who played in three FA Cup finals, 1978, 1979 and 1980 and also in the Cup Winners’ Cup final against Valencia. He scored 10 goals in 255 appearances for the club. Fun fact: his daughter Emily is married to English cricketer Matt Prior.
1st April 1966 – Sammy Nelson joined Arsenal on his birthday, he would go on to make 245 league starts for Arsenal before moving to Brighton. He would be suspended for two weeks and fined two weeks’ wages for pulling down his shorts in front of the North Bank crowd at Highbury in 1979.
1st April 1972 – Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest. Kennedy, George and Graham scored the goals.
1st April 1995 – Arsenal 5-1 Norwich . John Hartson with two, Lee Dixon and the Merson with one each and an own goal.
1st April 1998 – Arsène Wenger was the first Arsenal manager to win the Premier Manager of the Month award.
1st April 2000 – Arsenal 3-1 Wimbledon. Kanu scored twice and Thierry Henry scored a penalty to push Wimbledon closer to the relegation spots.
1st April 2002 – Charlton 0-3 Arsenal. Two goals from Henry and one from Ljungberg on our way to another double.
1st April 2006 – Arsenal 5-0 Aston Villa. Goals this time from a pretty formidable strikeforce; Adebayor, Henry (2), van Persie and Diaby. Match report here.
1st April 2019 – Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle. Match report here. Goals from Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette saw off Newcastle at The Emirates to move us up into third, a string of poor results would see us drop out of the Champions League places under the hapless charge of Unai Emery.
1st April 2020 – With the world still gripped by the Covid-19 virus, there was no football news to speak of and no games being played around the world. Everyone was bored stiff and started downloading Tik Tok and House Party (not of the Noel Edmonds (looking slightly different) kind).
All Arsenal games on this day:
01/04/1889 2nd Rifle Brigade Friendly 6-1
01/04/1893 Accrington H Friendly 3-1
01/04/1895 Blackburn Rovers H Friendly 2-2
01/04/1898 Loughborough H United League 4-1
01/04/1899 Newton Heath A Division 2 2-2
01/04/1901 Millwall Athletic H Friendly 1-1
01/04/1902 Blackburn Rovers H Friendly 2-0
01/04/1904 Preston North End A Division 2 0-0
01/04/1905 Small Heath H Division 1 1-1
01/04/1907 Aston Villa H Division 1 3-1
01/04/1909 Sheffield United H Division 1 1-0
01/04/1911 Newcastle United A Division 1 1-0
01/04/1916 Clapton Orient H London Combination 2-1
01/04/1918 West Ham United H London Combination 1-3
01/04/1922 Middlesbrough H Division 1 2-2
01/04/1925 Aston Villa A Division 1 0-4
01/04/1933 Aston Villa H Division 1 5-0
01/04/1936 Bolton Wanderers H Division 1 1-1
01/04/1939 Middlesbrough H Division 1 1-2
01/04/1944 Aldershot A Football League (South) 3-0
01/04/1950 Manchester City H Division 1 4-1
01/04/1961 Bolton Wanderers A Division 1 1-1
01/04/1967 Stoke City A Division 1 2-2
01/04/1972 Nottingham Forest H Division 1 3-0
01/04/1978 Manchester United H Division 1 3-1
01/04/1986 Watford A Division 1 0-3
01/04/1995 Norwich City H Premier League 5-1
01/04/2000 Wimbledon A Premier League 3-1
01/04/2002 Charlton Athletic A Premier League 3-0
01/04/2006 Aston Villa H Premier League 5-0
01/04/2018 Stoke H Premier League 3-0
01/04/2019 Newcastle H Premier League 2-0
Put together using some data from the Arsenal History Society Anniversary Files
Anything we may have missed from this day, please get in touch!
