Chelsea and Arsenal met in the First Division of the Soccer League at Stamford Bridge for the initially time on the 9th November, 1907 – 30 several years following the stadium experienced initially been opened for use by the London Athletic Club. Chelsea gained 2.1 with each objectives scored by George Hilsdon. Arsenal’s reply came from Charlie Satterthwaite.
George Hilsdon was the very first participant to rating 100 objectives for Chelsea and a temperature vane modelled on him can nonetheless be witnessed at Stamford Bridge. Legend has it that Chelsea will go through ‘great misfortune’ if it is at any time taken off, as it was all through floor works in the late 1970’s when Chelsea had been in economical and football decline. Hilsdon was the target of a gasoline assault on the Western Front in WWI and by no means performed qualified football once more, dying in 1941. His grave is unmarked.
This initial match was viewed by a then document crowd for England’s top division: 65,000. Arsenal have been still recognised as and based at Woolwich Arsenal at the time but they had a huge absent pursuing for this match due to it also becoming the 66th birthday of King Edward VII. The munitions manufacturing facility – where by quite a few of the workers who followed the club ended up based – was closed for the working day, hence they were being free to travel to West London.
In reality, Arsenal could have been much more neighborhood rivals of Chelsea than Tottenham Hotspur. A nearby businessman – Henry Norris – experienced a major job in the advancement of equally golf equipment. Amassing a fortune from assets Norris turned a Director and then Chairman of Fulham. A different Edwardian businessman called Henry – Henry Augustus Mears – had obtained Stamford Bridge with a look at to it getting to be a single of the finest venues for affiliation soccer in the cash if not the complete nation. He presented Norris the probability to transfer Fulham FC to the floor but Norris refused to spend the yearly lease of some £1500 and so Mears established his possess staff – Chelsea FC – in 1905. Had Norris not been so cautious with his dollars, there could possibly not have been a Chelsea football club at all.
Five decades later Norris, continue to Chairman of Fulham turned a majority shareholder of Woolwich Arsenal which experienced gone into voluntary liquidation. Turning into Chairman of that London club much too, Norris proposed merging them with Fulham to variety a super-club. The move was blocked by the Soccer League and so Chelsea and Fulham remained community rivals somewhat than Chelsea and Arsenal.
This match concerning the two teams in 1907 was the to start with ever to be played by two London golf equipment in the First Division and so the 1st big ‘London derby.’ All subsequent league meetings involving the two sides to day have been in the best tier of English soccer (the aged To start with Division and now the Premier League).
Woolwich Arsenal obtained their revenge the next time with a 2.1 gain on 28th November, 1908 – Chelsea’s purpose coming from George Hilsdon again. The Gunners won on Chelsea turf in the time immediately after that as nicely, before the very first attract – 1.1 – in this league fixture on 15th February, 1913. This was the very last time the two sides achieved just before Woolwich Arsenal moved to Highbury and modified their name to Arsenal.
In truth, right after that earn in their initially assembly, Chelsea did not earn the fixture once more until 13th December, 1919 when they won 3.1 with plans from Robert McNeil, John Cock and Henry Ford in front of a large post-war group of 60,000.
The fixture on 12th Oct, 1935 was played in entrance of yet another massive group: 82,905, which was the next highest recorded attendance for an English league match. It completed in a 1.1 draw. Joseph Bambrick scored for Chelsea and Jack Crayston for Arsenal.
Arsenal’s document league get at Stamford Bridge arrived in front of 74,667 soccer lovers on 29th November, 1930 – a 5.1 victory, with David Jack scoring a hat-trick as Arsenal moved closer to their very first League Championship earn and domination of English football in the 1930s. They scored 5 moments all over again on 24th November, 1934 – in a 5.2 victory this time – with legendary Arsenal centre-ahead Ted Drake scoring 4 of Arsenal’s objectives. Drake would go on to manage Chelsea in 1952 and was mostly dependable for transforming their nickname from The Pensioners to The Blues.
The Gunners also scored five plans in a 5.3 earn on 29th Oct, 2011 with Robin Van Persie scoring a hat-trick for the victors.
Chelsea’s greatest gain in the fixture came in a 6. earn in the Leading League on 22nd March, 2014 which was also Arsenal supervisor, Arsène Wenger’s 1000th game in cost. This is the highest number of ambitions Chelsea have scored against Arsenal in a league fixture at Stamford Bridge and also represented the biggest margin of victory by The Blues. Oscar scored two aims that working day along with a person each individual from Samuel Eto’o, Andre Schurrle, Eden Hazard and Mohamed Salah in front of an attendance of 41,614.
The sides are neck and neck in phrases of wins in this fixture. In the many years when Chelsea have gone on to gain the League Title they have hardly ever shed at dwelling to their rivals from North London, drawing the matches in the 1954/55 and 2004/05 seasons and successful every single of them in 2005/06, 2009/10 and 2014/15.
For Arsenal, in the 13 seasons where by they have concluded as League Champions, they have only misplaced at Chelsea on two occasions (Chelsea were being in the Second Division in the 1988/89 period so there was no fixture) – on 29th August, 1970 when Paddy Mulligan and John Hollins scored for Chelsea and Eddie Kelly received just one again for Arsenal – and on 2nd February, 1991. Kerry Dixon and Graham Stuart scored for Chelsea that working day with Alan Smith replying for Arsenal in entrance of a crowd of 29,094. This was the only league defeat of the time for George Graham’s Arsenal staff and their initial in 27 Very first Division matches, stretching again to a 2. loss at Luton City on 21st April, 1990.