Talk:Arsenal F.C. records

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Contents 1 First British Club to beat Real Madrid in Bernabeu? 2 Page move? 3 Inconsistencies with official website 4 Longest unbeaten home sequence in the Premiership 5 Most players selected for one World Cup finals?? 6 Highest Attendance

[edit] First British Club to beat Real Madrid in Bernabeu?

The Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood today said Arsenal is the first British team to beat Real Madrid in Bernabeu [1]. Can anyone verify this? --Pkchan 13:58, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Everyone seems to be saying it, so there must be some truth in it.
Slumgum 14:01, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

It appears that Hill-Wood's claim is valid. That Arsenal is the first English club to do so is not in dispute (see Arsenal's own account here: [2]). From this page [3] it appears that Real Madrid have lost to a Scottish team only twice: once in the 1982/83 CWC final, played in Göteborg; the other a 0:2 loss to Celtic in the Champions' Cup Quarterfinal 1979/80, which was played at Celtic's home [4]. I haven't bothered to check Real Madrid's head-to-head with Wales, Irish or Northern Irish teams for the obvious reason. --Pkchan 14:43, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Page move?

I'm thinking of renaming this page to Arsenal F.C. records, as on reflection it's a more suitable name. Any objections? Qwghlm 08:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Do it. Statistics sounds like it refers only to the club currently, rather than all-time.
Slumgum 19:28, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Done! Qwghlm 22:50, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Inconsistencies with official website

I found a couple of inconsistencies when I verify the page against the official website's record page:

1. Fastest recorded goal scored by AFC player: official website lists this rather than the Alan Sunderland goal:

   20.07 secs Gilberto (PSV (a) 25 Sept 2002 won 4-0 UCL (1))

   This is the fastest ever recorded goal in Champions League history.

2. Biggest AFC away defeat in FA Cup: official website doesn't list the West Ham defeat in 1946 but instead lists this:

   1-6 (Burnley (a) 1 Feb 1896 FA Cup 1)

Anyone has a better source than the official website's record page to clarify the above? --Pkchan 12:52, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

OK...

1. I can't find anywhere online that says Sunderland's goal is the fastest ever for Arsenal, though I do definitely recall reading it in a trivia list in a book somewhere. What I am sure of is that Sunderland did score after just 13 seconds in the semi-final second replay against Liverpool; it's recounted both here and here. While it may not actually be the fastest ever goal in Arsenal's history, it is definitely faster than Gilberto's.
2. The 6-0 defeat to West Ham is recorded as an official result in The Official Illustrated History of Arsenal (2005 edition, ISBN 0600613445), on p.126. It is also listed in Arsenal's cup record at the Football Club History Database and in the results for that season at RSSSF. It is possible the result is not included because the aggregate score was 6-1; uniquely, FA Cup matches were contested over two legs in 1945-46 (to compensate for the Football League not resuming play until the following season). Arsenal lost the first leg away 6-0, and won the second leg at home 1-0. Although wartime football cup results are not counted as official, the 1945-46 FA Cup definitely is - the FA list it on their list of winners. Qwghlm 19:31, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

It's great that you've verified these two facts. Let's keep both, then. --Pkchan 15:01, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Longest unbeaten home sequence in the Premiership

...is not a national record. Chelsea have been unbeaten at home in the Premiership since 21st February 2004, when they lost to Arsenal, which is 45 matches. This can easily be verified at Soccerbase SteveO 18:11, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Agreed - have removed it. Qwghlm 08:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Most players selected for one World Cup finals??

The official FIFA site credits Arsenal as being the most strongly represented club at the 2006 Finals (with 15 - see fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/stats/top10.html.) A look down the list of representation at previous finals failed to identify any club who had sent more than this to any previous Finals... but would need verification from elsewhere. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.156.12.13 (talk • contribs) 03:30, January 9, 2007.

I had a quick look on the likes of RSSSF and PlanetWorldCup and couldn't find any stats for other World Cups, so for the moment I'll leave it be. I might research the topic further in due course, though. Qwghlm 14:02, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Squads for other World Cups (with club affiliations) are listed by Wikipedia, on pages which can be accessed through the relevant tournament main pages... it does take some work to go through it all though.

After further checking, the Seoul Army Club had 16 players at the 1954 World Cup Finals... but only 14 of them played in either of South Korea's two matches, so it seems likely that Arsenal (with Walcott being the only player not to make an appearance) and Seoul Army Club — ahead of Chelsea (whose 2006 fourteen included the non-playing Wayne Bridge) — share the record for the most players actually playing in a Finals tournament. (Unless I've overlooked some other club with representation in multiple national squads: Real Madrid? Barcelona? Milan? Juve? Inter?)

The total minutes and number of matches played by Arsenal's 14 (which did not count Tomas Rosicky, who had been announced as an Arsenal player before the tournament started) far exceed the Army Club's totals... but almost certainly fall short of Chelsea's (which did not include Ballack or Shevchenko who were announced as Chelsea signings during the tournament - or Maniche, who had been on loan from Dynamo Moscow until the end of the English season.)

[edit] Highest Attendance

There seems to be a discrepancy between the Wembley attendance record Arsenal F.C. records#Attendances of 73,707 and the Football League Cup Final 1969 attendance of 98,189 as reported on RSSSF, Soccerbase and football-england.com. Might be worth looking at, there may have even been a higher attendance in the older days of Wembley finals. Foxhill 03:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

The former was designated a home match, while the other was at a neutral venue - I have made this a little clearer in the article text now. I am not sure what the highest attendance for a Cup Final match involving Arsenal is, to be honest (it could well be one of the ones in the 1930s) - that would take a bit of research. Qwghlm 08:45, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Right, according to [5] the attendances for the 1950, 1952, 1971, 1978, 1979 and 1980 Cup Finals were all 100,000, which tops the '69 League Cup Final figure, but as they're not precise I don't think they're very reliable. Qwghlm 09:58, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I see it is the same figure on [6] so why should the link that you have mentioned be classed as unreliable? Do you think it may of had something to do with 100,000 being a maximum crowd for Wembley at that time? RBEVAN 20:06, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably. With the lack of a precise figure I don't feel like putting such a record in, for fear of not meeting WP:V. Qwghlm 10:44, 16 January 2007 (UTC)