As we start to look forwards to travelling to Old Trafford for our opening fixture of the upcoming season, I thought it was time to look back on opening days in seasons gone but not forgotten.
Whilst our record on the first day is generally pretty good, there have been more than our fair share of disappointments and a few abject nightmares. But let’s start on a high, with The Good!
I like to do things in threes, so here are three of my favourites:
Arsenal 5 Wimbledon 1 – 1988
Yes, before the Premier League – some of you may remember that football did exist before 1992! Every Gooner worth his or her salt remembers how this season ended, but not so many recall how it began.
There was no Soccer Saturday back then, so as I sat in a Manchester pub enjoying the newly introduced all day drinking laws, the radio and Ceefax provided the only source of updates. Smudger scored a hatrick and, although we didn’t know it yet, we had taken our first step on the road to Anfield, May 26th 1989.
Middlesbrough 0 Arsenal 4 – 2001
There’s only one Dennis Bergkamp! I’ve adored many Arsenal players in my 54 years of following us, starting with Charlie George and currently loving our Starboy – Brady, Nicholas, Big Tone, Merse, Rocky, Wrighty, Vieira, Pires, Cesc, RVP and Titi, to name a few – but Dennis will always be my favourite. I was lucky enough to see his underwhelming debut again Boro in 1995, but this match was the opposite. He was imperious throughout including two typical goals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27VBJ_69r2Q
Everton 1 Arsenal 6 – 2009
As someone who endured the near relegation seasons of the mid 1970s, the dross of the mid 1980s and finally the disgraceful treatment of George Graham for doing what every manager at the time was doing, I loved Arsene from the start. I was there at Blackburn in October 1996 when WWW scored at the start and end of the match and was extremely fortunate to get a season ticket when I moved to London at the start of the famous 1997/98 season. the players he bought, the teams that he built and the joy that they bought to us will forever trump his final few years. But he was not perfect, he let Wrighty go too early and his treatment of Merse was, in my view, reprehensible. but his worse mistake was with Cesc, Yes we know he wanted to play for Barca, but what the **** was going through Le Boss’s mind when he let him go t Chelsea. He wanted to come home, we wanted him home, but it was blocked. Apparently. allegedly by Wenger. If you don’t know what the fuss is about, take a look