13 January: On this day Abou Diaby joined from Auxerre for £2m

Today’s headline comes from 2006

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The anniversaries

13 January 1891: Fred Groves born in Shadwell and played for Barnet Albion (a club now seemingly lost to history) and Glossop North End, before signing as an amateur player in August 1912, turning pro 14 months later.  He played for Arsenal in the relegation season and the first Highbury season and returned after the war.

13 January 1912: Bolton Wanderers 1 Woolwich Arsenal 0 (FA Cup round 1).  Although Arsenal secured a mid-table position in the league they could not progress in the Cup.  It was the last game for Jackie Chalmers

13 January 1919:  With the war over the Football League discussed re-starting the League programme, difficulties in getting players to away games, Players’ Union demands, and the amalgamation of the League and the Southern League.

13 January 1919: Athletic News published the first post-war article on match-fixing by Man U and Liverpool.  The article proposed Chelsea should be reinstated to the first division as the Man U / Liverpool corruption had forced relegation upon them.

13 January 1926: Final match for Harry Woods – the holder of the world record transfer fee for a short while.  He finished as the club’s top goalscorer in 1923-24 with ten, and scored 12 in 1924/5 but was then replaced by Jimmy Brain as the key goal scorer.

13 January 1934: Joe Shaw’s first game as manager following the death of Herbert Chapman.  Luton 0 Arsenal 1 (FA Cup 3).  He went on to win the league for the club before returning to his duties as reserve team coach.  Dunne scored the goal with 18,641 in the crowd.

13 January 1945: Peter Simpson born in Norfolk.  He joined Arsenal’s groundstaff in 1960 – a common way of bringing in young players (clubs were not allowed to sign youngsters as players immediately after they left school at 15, although of course 15 year olds could work). He played 353 league games for Arsenal under Wright, Mee and Neill.

13 January 1960: Arsenal 1 Rotherham 1 (FA Cup 3rd round replay).  After a 2-2 away draw this was expected to be easy at Highbury in front of 57,598 but it certainly wasn’t and Rotherham won the second replay.

13 January 1962: A home defeat to Bolton started a run of four consecutive losses and one win in seven, Arsenal scoring just five goals in those seven games.  The run marked the effective end of Swindin’s career as manager at Arsenal.

13 January 1975: Graham Rix signed as a professional for Arsenal but had to wait until April 1977 to make his first appearance.  He went on to play 388 games for the club.

13 January 1970: In the second leg of the third  round of the Uefa Cup the result was Arsenal 1 Rouen 0 to take Arsenal through,   38018 attended and Sammels scored

13 January 1979: Brian Talbot played his first game for Arsenal.  He took over from Steve Gatting in midfield, and took over David Price’s shirt number.  It made an immediate difference.  Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest, the reigning European champions who had just knocked Liverpool out of the European Cup: Arsenal won 2-1 in front of 52,158.

13 January 1995: John Hartson signed from Luton Town just weeks before George Graham was sacked.  He scored 14 goals in 54 games across three seasons before being moved on by Arsene Wenger.

13 January 1996: Arsenal got the last of four wins in 16 in Rioch’s nightmare run by beating Middlesbrough away 3-2.  Merson, Platt and Helder scored.  It was probably this run that started the board thinking that Rioch was not the man for the job.

13 January 2002: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1.  League match 21 of the third Double season.  Ljungberg scored.  Liverpool’s equaliser from a classic counter attack meant that Manchester United ended the day leaders of the Premiership on goal difference from Newcastle.

13 January 2006: Abou Diaby joined from Auxerre for £2m.  Supremely talented he never recovered from one of the most notorious atrocious assaults in modern football executed by Dan Smith.  After two years and 12 games in Scotland Smith moved into non-league football but was rarely able to get a game such was the paucity of his skills and his reputation for violence as his only footballing attribute.  In all he played 124 games for Arsenal.

13 January 2006: Emmanuel Adebayor joined from AS Monaco.  The fee was reported at the time to be £3m although some reference works quote a fee as high as £17m.  He played 104 times for Arsenal and scored 46 league goals.

13 January 2007: Arsenal beat Blackburn Rovers away 2-0.  It was one of five consecutive victories in which Arsenal scored 17 goals. Sadly the 12 match unbeaten run was followed by three successive defeats.

13 January 2014: Arsenal beat Aston Villa away 2-1.  It was one of seven consecutive victories in a 10 match unbeaten run.

13 January 2015: Yaya Sanogo loaned to Crystal Palace for the remainder of the season having scored only one goal for Arsenal, against Dortmund in the Champions League.  He played 10 games but failed to score, as happened later with Ajax. However in 2017 he joined Toulouse where he settled as a regular player and scorer.

13 January 2020: Konstantinos Mavropanos sent on loan to 1 FC Nurnberg for the rest of the season.  He subsequently had a second loan with VfB Stuttgart.

13 January 2022: Arsenal played a goalless away draw with Liverpool in the League Cup semi-final. One week later they lost at home 0-2 in the second leg.