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.
Liam Apicella
