On 23 September 2006, Arsenal secured their first Premier League win at the newly opened Emirates Stadium with a 3-0 victory over Sheffield United, in a match with a curious quirk attached to it: every single goal involved a player sharing the exact same birthday, 17 August.
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William Gallas broke the deadlock in the 65th minute, netting his first goal for the club just weeks after signing on transfer deadline day, converting a Cesc Fàbregas assist.
Four minutes later, Sheffield United’s Phil Jagielka turned a Thierry Henry cross into his own net to make it 2-0. Henry then completed the scoring with 10 minutes to go, heading home from an Emmanuel Eboué cross.
Henry and Gallas were both born on 17 August 1977, while Jagielka, five years their junior, was born on exactly the same date in 1982.
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By this point, Henry was already deep into a legendary Arsenal career that would end with him as the club’s all-time record scorer. Gallas was just getting started at Arsenal after a successful spell at Chelsea, and would go on to become a long-serving centre-back there and later at Tottenham.
Jagielka, then a Sheffield United regular, would leave for Everton the following year and become a mainstay of their defence for over a decade.
Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
