Match of the Day 3 - Week 36

The last Match of the Day of this weekend's matches is the once-were-giants clash at the Emirates between Arsenal and Manchester United.

While so much has changed in the 20 years Arsene Wenger has been Arsenal manager that he may no longer be Arsenal manager come the summer, we can look back at two games, 20 years apart and seeing how little changed in that time.

Check out the two clips below - between 1973 and 1994, all that changed in the old Highbury rigging was someone painted the hardware red.

1973 (check out Ray Kennedy's opener rebounding off the stanchions!)


1994

The Big Match - Week 12

While Arsenal and Manchester United played out a 1-1 draw between the box nets at Old Trafford on Saturday, the sides also met on the same weekend 41 years ago.

This week's Big Match is that game from 22 November, 1975, a 3-1 win for the Gunners featuring a great dig by Stuart Perason, a crazy OG and an early Alan Ball goal that rebounded off the classic green stanchions at Highbury.

Match of the Day - Week 11

This week's Match of the Day previews the north London derby - Arsenal v Tottenham.

As Arsenal are at home this Sunday, Match of the Day would usually highlight a game from an Arsenal home game - Highbury - and the wonderful history of goal nets there.

However a game from White Hart Lane - though painful for Spurs fans - offers different angles of focus, so this week's Match of the Day is the 0-5 from December 1978.


First, though TV coverage offers only a narrow, camera-eye view of the pitch, how do you know the game is at White Hart Lane? Easy - the sloping, square stanchions, totally distinctive for Tottenham.

Second, given his spectacular goals for 0-4 (and the Motson commentary) you probably always remembered this game as the Liam Brady game. Then poor Alan Sunderland, who scored a hat trick!

Lastly, in this era of Guardiola pressing and Klopp heavy metal football, check out Brady pressing the defender and stealing the ball for his goal. Plus ca change...

The Big Match - Week 6

The Big Match series reviews the History of Goal Nets at a fixture played on the corresponding weekend in years past.

This week's Big Match comes from Highbury in September 1974 and features one of Luton Town's most famous goals (at 10:30 in the clip below).

It's a 4-goal thriller Arsenal v Luton but the real star of the show is the old Highbury stanchions.


Still wonderful after all these years.

UEFA Champions League - Arsenal FC

A club with great traditions, it's heartening to see Arsenal's embrace of the sturdy English A-frame dates back to at least the end of the Great War, as the Highbury clip below demonstrates.

Highbury - Dame Judi Dench

Framed by stanchions as English as Dame Judi Dench and as sturdy and reliable as Dixon-Bould-Adams-Winterburn.

So Arsenal.


Though the nets were changed to a free-hanging hybrid after the 1990 World Cup -


the stolid stanchions remained till the 1996-97 season when, in the aftermath of the Euro '96 tournament, they were lost forever.

Whats your favourite scored in the old Highbury goals?