1945
Moscow Dynamo beat Cardiff City 11-1 in their unbeaten tour of Britain. Dynamo are the first Soviet club to tour the West since the war and they put on some impressive displays. Complete unknowns, the Soviet players deliver surprising performances: they draw 3:3 at Chelsea, destroy Cardiff City, and beat an Arsenal side reinforced by the presence of Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen and Joe Bacuzzi by a score of 4:3 in a match played in thick fog.
The Russians had insisted on playing the very best, and that meant facing the Gunners. As their coach Yakushin said: “To come to London and not play Arsenal would be like visiting Cairo without seeing the pyramids.”
The game was a controversial one, however, played in thick fog with a Russian referee somewhat biased towards his countrymen. Arsenal captain Cliff Bastin later claimed that ‘so long as the Dynamos got the ball in the net, even if they carried it there, the referee was going to award them a goal’.
The final straw came when several Arsenal players noticed that the Russians seemed to have an extra player on the field and it was established that, due to a mix-up in the fog during a substitution, Dynamo had been playing with 12 men for a good 20 minutes!
1948
Labour MP Ellis Smith asks question in House of Commons concerning the proposed strike by professional footballers over transfers and wages while, in Argentina, players hold two-minute token strikes during matches, play coming to halt at a pre-arranged signal.
1930
Ex-Middlesbrough player Billy Birrell is appointed manager of Bournemouth, chosen from over 100 applicants.
1980
Arsenal manager Terry Neill sells right back Pat Rice to Watford for £8,000. Pat played 528 games for the Gunners.
1961
Arsenal pay £35,000 for Wolverhampton Wanderers wing-half Eddie Clamp.
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