To commemorate the first competitive fixture of the Unai Emery era, this week's #ThrowbackThursday/#FlashbackFriday centres on managerial debuts of former Arsenal bosses. It's been said that the dawn of the Emery era will see a change of role for the new Arsenal boss from that enjoyed by his predecessor. It took a quite a few years however for Arsenal to take on their first full time manager.

It was believed that for the first eight years of the club's life, the team had been selected by a committee of players and club members. There is some degree of argument over who the first Arsenal manager had been. The club's website states it to be Sam Hollis, however Andy Kelly's Arsenal History site states him to be merely the club's trainer and did not pick the side. It was believed the first game during his spell was an away trip to Lincoln City on the opening day of the 1894/95 season (their second as members of the Football League Division Two).

The London Evening Standard's report on the game stated that despite having the sun in their faces, Arsenal held their own for the first half, but went in at half time 1-2 down. In the second half however, the home side run riot, inflicting a 2-5 defeat on the Gunners in front of 2,000 spectators. After finishing eighth in Hollis's first season and seventh in his second, Arsenal felt moved to appoint a full time Secretary Manager after being knocked out of the FA Cup by Millwall Athletic in the Fifth Qualifying Round, having previously reached the First Round proper for the previous six seasons (though having been eliminated at the first hurdle on every occasion).

Woolwich Arsenal appointed Scotsman Thomas Mitchell, who won back to back FA Cups in 1890 and 1891 with Blackburn Rovers. His opening game at the start of April 1897 had been a home league fixture with Newton Heath (the side who later became Man United) at the Manor Ground in Plumstead in front of a crowd of 7,000. At the time, Arsenal stood eleventh in the table, while Newton Heath were second. The attendance had been a reasonable one considering the game took place on the same day as the Oxford v Cambridge boat race and the England v Scotland fixture, just a few miles down the road at Crystal Palace. This had been only the second year in which Scotland decided to field English-based professionals.

Such was the domination of the Scots at the time that the many of the top English sides contained several 'Scotch Professors'. The Arsenal side were also still dominated by the Scots diaspora which settled in the area and were prominent in founding the club, with as many as seven Scots in the starting eleven. A report at the time from Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper had remarked on noticeable rough play from the visitors and that Arsenal had much the better of the game before a mistake from Arsenal goalkeeper William Fairclough gave Newton Heath the lead. In the second half, the visitors bagged a second from a free-kick and left South East London inflicting a 0-2 defeat on the Arsenal.

Mitchell didn't last one full season at Arsenal, though did move the Gunners up to fourth in the Second Division table at the time of his resignation. He was replaced by William Elcoat, whose first game in charge had been a home league fixture with Burton Swifts, which was Arsenal's penultimate game of the 1897/98 season. Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners in front of a 6,000 crowd. Elcoat also lasted just ten months and failed to see out a full season, resigning after disagreement with the club's board of directors and a high turnover of players. With the Gunners standing in eighth place and six points off of the top of the old Second Division, Arthur Kennedy took charge of the Gunners for the remainder of the 1898/99 season, kicking off with a 1-0 home win over Burslem Port Vale in late February.

Kennedy steered Arsenal to a seventh place finish, before being replaced by Harry Bradshaw who had just overseen Burnley finishing third in the top flight. Bradshaw's first game in charge had been Arsenal's opening fixture of the 1899/1900 season at home to Leicester. Bradshaw's reign started with a 0-2 defeat in front of a crowd of 10,000. Bradshaw had been the very first Gunners boss to last a full season, finishing 1899/1900 in eighth place. Bradshaw lasted five seasons, achieving Arsenal's first promotion to the top flight in 1903/04. On achieving promotion however, Bradshaw left Arsenal over the summer of 1904 and headed to Southern League side Fulham. Overseeing Arsenal's first top flight season had been Scotsman Phil Kelso, who had moved from Edinburgh side Hibernian.

Kelso's first game in charge had been Arsenal's first ever top flight fixture, away at Newcastle United in early September 1904. The report on the game from Athletic News had stated that Arsenal received a 'true sportsman like greeting' from the St James's Park crowd with 'round after round of cheering being accorded the team which had struggled so gallantly for eleven years to reach its present position'. The opening decade of the twentieth century had been a halcyon era for the Geordies and the Gunners suffered a 0-3 defeat at St. James's Park, with a goal from future Arsenal star Jackie Rutherford who went on to become the oldest player ever to turn out for Arsenal at the age of forty one. The Athletic News went on to state that Arsenal: 'though defeated were not by any means disgraced', though also that: 'Woolwich people didn't expect a win'.

Kelso remained at Arsenal for three seasons, before resigning from an increasingly indebted Woolwich Arsenal side in February 1908, who languished two points off of the relegation zone in fifteenth place. His replacement was another Scotsman in George Morrell. His first game in charge would be an away trip to Anfield, where Arsenal would face Liverpool. At the time, Arsenal had failed to win a single game at Anfield. The Gunners unsurprisingly suffered a 1-4 defeat. In his first full season, Kelso achieved what was then Arsenal's best finish to a season, coming sixth, as well as back to back FA Cup Semi Finals. Woolwich Arsenal's finances however declined and the Gunners faced what was to date their only relegation in 1913, as well as moving to Highbury that same year.

By the time of the suspension of football in 1915 due to the ongoing Great War with the Germans, Kelso had failed to pull Arsenal back up to the top flight. For Arsenal's last game of the 1914/15 season, the side had been chosen by Caretaker boss James 'Punch' McEwan. The Merseyside born coach oversaw a thumping 7-0 victory for the Gunners against Nottingham Forest, with four goals for Henry King. Arsenal failed to secure promotion, however unbeknown at the time it would be (to date) Arsenal's last ever fixture outside of the top flight. McEwan oversaw the Arsenal side throughout the First World War, before being replaced by Leslie Knighton when football resumed in 1919 ('Punch' however remained on the coaching staff at Highbury).

Leslie Knighton's first game at Arsenal had been the Gunners' very first post-war fixture and Highbury's first ever top flight game with the visit of Newcastle United, as Arsenal were elected back to the top flight when football resumed in 1919. A crowd of 40,000 saw Arsenal suffer a 0-1 defeat, in early September of that year. Knighton retained Arsenal's place in the top flight, however could not achieve the greatness which Chairman Henry Norris had been looking for. At the close of the 1924/25 season, Knighton was axed and replaced by the manager of reigning League Champions, Huddersfield Town. Herbert Chapman's first game in charge of Arsenal would be a North London Derby against his old club – Spurs – at Highbury in late August 1925.

Also making his debut would be Charlie Buchan, returning to the club after a previous spell during Arsenal's days in Woolwich. The Gunners however crashed to a 0-1 defeat in front of a crowd of 53,183. Buchan said of his debut: 'I ran up against Arthur Grimsdell, one of the best all round half backs I ever met, in his finest form. He did not let me have many kicks of the ball. I did my best, but it was not good enough. Arthur was the master'. Buchan also raised a grievance after that game with Herbert Chapman about Arsenal's lack of ability to adapt to a recent change to the offside rule, which continued until a few weeks down the line when the Gunners suffered a 0-7 hammering away to Newcastle. In response to this, Buchan and Chapman devised the famed 'W-M formation' which turned Arsenal's season around.

The story of the remainder of Chapman's first season can be found in this previous article of mine on the Online Gooner back in 2013. Chapman's 'W-M formation' became the foundation stone from which the Gunners went on to win their first major honours, but tragically Herbert Chapman passed away due to Pneumonia in early January 1934. Trainer Tom Whittaker explained how he learned of Chapman's passing in his autobiography, stating: 'I was at Highbury on the Saturday morning preparing the dressing room for the afternoon's game against Sheffield Wednesday. Someone came in, who it was I do not remember now, and I said: 'Heard how the boss is this morning? There was a short silence, then 'He's dead'.

Later that day came the first game in charge for Caretaker boss Joe Shaw. At the time, Arsenal stood with a two point cushion at the top of the table. The match ended a 1-1 draw, with a goal from Jimmy Dunne. Whittaker said of the game, that: 'Highbury was a trifle unreal that afternoon. Over the whole match brooded the shadow of an indefinable something. It was as if everybody present had lost a friend. The players tried to shake off the depression and managed to get a point. But, as I have said, it was unreal. In the dressing room after the game it seemed that everybody wanted to speak in whispers. And this feeling, hard to define, persisted right up until after the funeral'.

Arsenal at the time were reigning League Champions and by the close of the season had retained their title under Shaw's stewardship. As explained by Tom Whittaker: 'the players went on playing for Chapman'. The man who brought the honours to Highbury had gone, but Arsenal's glory days continued. As will be seen tomorrow, further managerial greats would follow in Chapman's footsteps.

Robert Exley is the creator of the YouTube series 'By Jesus Said Paddy: The Story of Arsenal 1976-86' and can be found on Twitter@robert_exley