GUNNERS AND ROVERS

This week, with the "World of Cinema" very much on our television screens and others, of course, I turn back to 1940 when the Arsenal Football Club made its debut on the silver screen in what was shown as "The Arsenal Stadium Mystery" on February 17th. 

This might work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYkvXwfyr2Q

Manager George Allison and several players, including "well knowns" such as Cliff Bastin and Eddie Hapgood appeared in the film centred around the "poisoning" of a rival player during a friendly match between The Gunners and a team called the Trojans, a fictional amateur club. 

Match action was provided for the film when Arsenal took on neighbours, Brentford, in the last game of ther 1938/9 season. It was to be "The Gunners last game before the outbreak of World War II. Below are results between the two clubs around that time......

08 Sep 1938	Brentford v Arsenal	L	1-0	League Division One
06 May 1939	Arsenal v Brentford	W	2-0	League Division One
12 Oct 1946	Arsenal v Brentford	D	2-2	League Division One
26 May 1947	Brentford v Arsenal	W	0-1	League Division One
26 Sep 2018	Arsenal v Brentford	W	3-1	League Cup NOTE THE GAP!!

The two clubs did not meet between the end of the 1946-7 season and September 2018!! 

Some aggression at Arsenal on this day in 2007, when Cesc Fabregas launched into a verbal tirade aimed at Blackburn Rovers' manager, Mark Hughes, following his team's usual 90 minutes of "rough and tumble" tactics. Cesc referred to the Welshman's time at Barcelona, by saying "That wasn't Barceloina football", the youngster remarked, much to Hughes' chagrin!! Below is the 2006-07 Season's results between the two clubs.

23 Dec2006	Arsenal v Blackburn R.	W	6-2	Premier League
13 Jan2007	Blackburn R. v Arsenal	W	0-2	Premier League
17 Feb2007	Arsenal v Blackburn R	D	0-0	FA Cup before a crowd of over 56,000
28 Feb2007	Blackburn R. v Arsenal	L	1-0	FA Cup nearly 19,000 there!!

Looks like Rovers might have got their own back.....shame about the crowd that missed it.