This evening (Saturday), Arsenal travel to Bloomfield Road to take on Blackpool in the third round of the FA Cup.
While the teams clashed in the Carabao Cup at the Emirates Stadium last October, it’s their first meeting in Blackpool since the Premier League game at the end of 2010-11.
On that occasion, the Gunners, perhaps oddly, wore their yellow and redcurrant change kit (with alternative socks) against the tangerine of their hosts. While the 2009-10 navy kit was technically classed as Arsenal’s third strip that season, it wasn’t used at all.
It was a different situation in 1970, when Arsenal twice travelled to Blackpool.
The first occasion was in the third round of the cup, a replay after a 1-1 draw at Highbury.
With their yellow and blue kit considered to clash, Arsenal wore a unique combination, mixing elements from three different kits.
Plain white shirts had been used as an alternative from 1966-68 (when Arsenal reverted to red sleeves on the home kit) and these were recalled, worn with the blue shorts from the away kit and the home socks.
The look was similar to how Russia would appear more than two decades later but it was to be a one-off – and a losing one at that, as Blackpool won 3-2.
After the Seasiders gained promotion that summer, Arsenal travelled there for a Division 1 game in November 1970 and this time they wore their navy 1967-68 change kit.
This had been replaced by yellow after the FA outlawed navy kits due to the similarity to the black worn by match officials and special permission had to be granted.
Arsenal won this game 1-0 and would go on to win the domestic double that season.
The next time that neither red nor yellow would suffice would be away to Luton Town in 1974-75. On that occasion, plain white shirts were again called on, worn with the home shorts and socks.
I remember having great difficulty watching that Blackpool v Arsenal game in 2011, particularly as the match was played in sunny conditions. I thought to myself why on earth they didn’t wear the previous season’s navy away kit that was registered as a third choice in the Premier League handbook. They made an effort to change the colour of the socks to avoid a clash, but in football it’s the shirt that is the first priority for a change in the event of a clash.