On This Day – 6th January
Herbert Chapman died on this day in 1934 after suffering from pneumonia. The Arsenal manager had gone to watch the Arsenal third team play Guildford City in very poor weather, caught pneumonia and never recovered.
Chapman was a revolutionist and came up with many different ideas at Arsenal that were years ahead of his time.
Some of his ideas were numbers on the back of shirts, floodlit football, a clock at one end of the Highbury ground and also white footballs.
All of these ideas are taken for granted these days but were considered ground breaking and revolutionary.
Before Herbert Chapman joined Arsenal, he was manager of Huddersfield Town where he guided them to two league titles and an FA Cup.
Chapman moved to Arsenal in 1925 and also won two league titles and an FA Cup before passing away at the age of 55.
He has never been forgotten at Arsenal and a statue of him stands outside the new Emirates Stadium. A bust of him was made in his honour and displayed in the main entrance of the East Stand at Highbury where it remains to this day.
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