The day an Arsenal player vanished – and turned up in Scotland!

Today’s anniversary headline comes from 1909

27 March 1909: Sunderland 1 Arsenal 0.  James Maxwell’s final appearance.  After the game, annoyed by his lack of appearances, Maxwell met up with his wife,  absconded from the team, headed north and played in Scotland. Arsenal extracted a £50 transfer fee from him, after a tribunal settled the matter.

27 March 1915: Despite consecutive defeats to Grimsby and Huddersfield Arsenal were 5th in the final campaign before the cessation for the duration, but were now six points off the promotion spot, meaning rising to the 1st division appeared out of the question.

27 March 1959: Jim Fotheringham sold to Hearts, having played 72 league and four cup games for Arsenal.  He also played for the London XI that took part in the first ever Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

27 March 1971: Arsenal 2 Stoke 2 at Hillsborough.  FA Cup semi final.  Having already drawn games in the 4th and 6th round Arsenal were seen to be working their way to the final the hard way – but still went on to win the first Double.

27 March 1971: Tottenham v Arsenal originally scheduled but moved to the end of the season due to FA Cup -games,   a decision that led to the eternally famous final match at White Hart Lane.

27 March 1976: Leeds 3 Arsenal 0.  After six unbeaten this was the start of a run of one win in the last seven of the season to leave Arsenal 17th.

27 March 1978: Chelsea 0 Arsenal 0 .  This was the eighth without defeat, but five of those were draws.  Arsenal did win the next match, but three defeats in the final six games scuppered the chance of coming runners up.

27 March 1982: Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 3. (Sunderland, Meade and two from Rix). It was the second of just two wins in 11 games between February 6 and April 12.

27 March 1997: Steve Morrow transferred to QPR.  He played 62 league matches for Arsenal, and went on to become International Partnerships Performance Supervisor.  He has also worked as a live match analyst for Arsenal.

27 March 2010: Arsenal drew 1-1 with Birmingham away in the league, one of 10 games without defeat, however five subsequent games without a win saw the club knocked out of the Champions League and without the chance that had existed of catching the top two.  Arsenal finally finished third in the table.

27 March 2013: Arsenal announced the club would play a pre-season friendly against the New York Red Bulls for the club’s first trip to the USA for 25 years

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