25 August

1925: - The first Football League matches were played which incorporated the revised offside law that was in operation at the time. The offside law was in operation until defences were able to adjust themselves to the change of two instead of three opponents between the players playing the ball and the goal. There were some strange, high scoring matches including Aston Villa beating Burnley 10-0.

1928: - Arsenal and Chelsea used numbered shirts for their matches against Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea Town respectively. This was the first time that numbered shirts were used.

1948: - Bobby Langton, scored within 7 seconds of kick-off for Preston North End against Manchester City in the First Division making it one of the fastest goals ever scored.

1951: - John Hewie made his League debut for Charlton Athletic against Portsmouth in the First Division. He remained at the Valley until his retired in 1966, playing in 468 League matches and scoring 35 goals for the club.

1954: - Bobby Campbell transferred to Reading from Chelsea. The outside-right made his name at Falkirk before moving to Chelsea and after retiring in 1958 at Reading he became a coach at the club.

1992: - Chester City lost 2-1 to Stockport County in the League Cup, as they played for the first time in their new Deva Stadium.

1999: - Alan Shearer was left on the Newcastle United substitute’s bench by Ruud Gullit as Newcastle United lost 2-1 to Sunderland. Kieron Dyer gave Newcastle the lead but second-half goals from Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips have Sunderland the victory. Ruud Gullit resigned the next day.

2001: - Chelsea defeated Southampton 2-0 in their 1st competitive game at their new 32,000 all-seater St Mary’s Stadium.

2004: - With a 3-0 home victory over Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal set a new all-time record for consecutive unbeaten league matches at England’s top level with 43, beating the record of 42 previously held by Nottingham Forest from November 1977 to September 1978.

2006: - Bolton Wanderers shattered their club record fee to bring Nicolas Anelka back to English Football when they paid £8million for the striker who agreed a four-year deal upon his transfer from Fenerbahçe.

2006: - A statement was released to the LSE which announced that Randy Lerner had secured 59.69% of Aston Villa shares which made him the majority shareholder. He also appointed himself Chairman of the club.

2007: - Mohammed Sissoko scored Liverpool’s 7,000th goal in League football when he scored the opening goal of their game against Sunderland in their 2-0 victory.

2007: - The Greek Super League and The Hellenic Football Federation decided to postpone the opening fixtures scheduled for that weekend due to the ongoing fire disaster in the south of Greece. The championship started on 1 September 2007.