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On this day: Arsenal's Ted Drake scores seven against Villa

Back on this day in 1935, Arsenal forward Ted Drake scored all seven of his side's goals against Aston Villa.

When asked to name a prolific Arsenal goalscorer, most people would respond with the likes of Thierry Henry, Ian Wright or maybe even Cliff Bastin.

Yet, despite the fact that he found the net on 139 occasions during his time at Highbury, Ted Drake would not necessarily be the first frontman to spring to mind.

His haul of goals makes him the club's sixth leading scorer of all time, while he reached the 100-goal mark quicker than any other Arsenal player, needing just 108 appearances to do so.

His strike rate was helped significantly by events at Villa Park back on this day in 1935, when the Gunners went up against Aston Villa in front of 60,891 spectators.

Former gas inspector Drake had recently spent time in the reserves because of a knee complaint, but as the visitors were already without Alex James and Joe Hulme, he strapped up the injury to feature in the starting lineup.

It would prove to be the right decision as the £6,500 forward ran riot. Hosting Villa dominated the early exchanges, but as soon as Drake had broken the deadlock when he fired in Pat Beasley's long pass, the away side were in control.

By the time that the referee had blown for the break, Drake had completed his hat-trick. Bastin put him through for his second goal, while the third arrived after Villa goalkeeper Harry Morton had failed to keep hold of Beasley's effort from out wide.

Drake refused to let up after the restart, with his sixth goal of the contest being scored in just the 60th minute. Bastin was again the creator of one of those goals, with the other two chances arriving as a result of defensive errors.

He went on to conclude a clincial afternoon in Birmingham by scoring his and Arsenal's seventh goal of the contest, which remains a top-flight and club record to this day. It would have actually been eight goals for Drake, but his effort that hit the underside of the crossbar and appeared to cross the line was not awarded by the officials.

There was one bright moment for Villa, who reduced the arrears through John Palethorpe, but the game ultimately belonged to the deadly Drake.

However, Drake's English record would amazingly last for just 12 days as Tranmere Rovers forward Bunny Bell upstaged him by scoring nine of his side's 13 goals against Oldham Athletic in a Third Division North encounter.

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Ian Wright of Arsenal celebrates scoring a goal against Coventry City on November 7, 1992
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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Manchester CityMan City37277393336088
2Arsenal37275589286186
3Liverpool372310484414379
4Aston Villa37208976562068
5Tottenham HotspurSpurs371961271611063
6Chelsea371791175621360
7Newcastle UnitedNewcastle371761481602157
8Manchester UnitedMan Utd37176145558-357
9West Ham UnitedWest Ham371410135971-1252
10Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton371212135560-548
11Bournemouth37139155365-1248
12Crystal Palace371210155258-646
13Wolverhampton WanderersWolves37137175063-1346
14Fulham37128175159-844
15Everton37139153949-1040
16Brentford37109185461-739
17Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest3789204766-1929
18Luton TownLuton3768235081-3126
RBurnley3759234076-3624
RSheffield UnitedSheff Utd37372735101-6616


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