Anderlecht vs Arsenal: Arsene Wenger, 65 today, hoping to improve his birthday record

The Arsenal manager has won three of the five matches played on 22 Oct

Tom Sheen
Wednesday 22 October 2014 11:25 EDT
Comments
(Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The records and anniversaries keep coming for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

The French boss is celebrating his 65th birthday today, just three weeks after marking 18 years in charge in north London.

Wenger, who also surpassed 1,000 games in charge of the club earlier this year (though he would like to forget that day), has a decent record in matches played on his birthday and will be keen to add to that tonight.

In five matches Arsenal have played on 22 October, Arsenal have won three times.

Curiously, the Gunners played Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates exactly one year ago, though they lost that match 2-1, Robert Lewandowski scoring the winner with just eight minutes to go.

Arsenal beat Reading 4-0 at the Madjeski Stadium in 2006, Thierry Henry scoring inside a minute, and again from the penalty spot, with Aleksandar Hleb and Robin van Persie also on Target.

A year earlier the Gunners beat Manchester City 1-0 at Highbury, a game memorable for Robert Pires and Henry's botched penalty routine.

In 2002 Auxerre beat Arsenal 2-1 at Highbury, Kanu's goal not enough to bring Arsenal back into the game after they had gone two goals behind.

The only other game Arsenal have played under Wenger was at Wembley in 1999. Arsenal were heading for a 1-1 draw with Swedish team AIK on the Frenchman's 50th birthday before Thierry Henry and then Davor Suker both scored in injury time to give the Gunners a win in the Champions League group stages.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in