April 1920 Arsenal gain mid-table security in their first season back.

By Tony Attwood

Please note a list of all the articles in this series so far, appear at the foot of the page.

April 1920 was a most curious month for Arsenal, for as quite often happened at this time, fixtures were packed in around the movable feast that is Easter, and as well as the regular Saturday games there were always one or two extra matches which made use of the lighter evenings to fit in a mid-week match later in the month, plus games on the public holidays of Good Friday and Easter Monday.

In fact Arsenal had no fewer than seven league games scheduled for the month of April 1920, and yet in addition to that, two friendlies were also arranged. Indeed rather oddly the first away friendly with Bolton was on Good Friday, 2 April, when Arsenal did not have a game scheduled. But Arsenal did have games on the next day (3rd), Easter Monday (5th) and on the Tuesday (6th). Yet they still wanted one more!

However there was a reason. Although the friendly game on 2 April resulted in a defeat to Bolton, in front of a surprisingly good crowd of 14,700. Arsenal used the match to give a game to Williamson (who had been first choice keeper but had now lost his place to Dunn). Also Cownley got a game at right back; he was the player who had initially been the replacement for Joe Shaw when he was injured.

Shaw himself on this occasion played left back – an experiment undoubtedly, while in midfield the club used Tom Whittaker for the first time, who had joined straight from the army in October. This is, of course, the same man who went on to become the trainer and physio under Herbert Chapman, and our post Second World War manager who won the league twice and the FA Cup once. (There is more about Tom Whittaker’s work at Arsenal in this article).

At centre half we had Butler who had been playing right half, and would go on to play centre half in future games. At left half there was Baker who had started the season at outside left and was being tried out in his new position of left half.

Outside right was Greenaway who had yet to play this season but was going to get a few games before the month ended, and we had White at inside right – another new name to the squad. Plus there was Pagnam who was coming back from injury, Hardinge who had lost his place at inside left but scored our two goals on this occasion and Toner who had also lost his place after a solid run at outside left.

So there was purpose, in addition to an attempt to draw in the crowds one more time for some extra money that was presumably shared between the clubs. Bolton were 8th in the league at the time of the match and with Arsenal’s mix-and-match line up a 2-4 defeat away from home was not considered too disastrous.

But why Bolton? Well, Bolton might have been chosen as a venue for this match as the game the following day was at Burnley, and the two grounds were only about 25 miles apart – an easy train journey from one ground to the next. At least one presumes the team did not travel all the way back to London only to set off the next morning all over again!

The league table ahead of Arsenal’s match with Bolton on 3 April showed Burnley up to 2nd and Arsenal languishing in 14th. The title favourites were very clearly WBA, four points clear of Burnley with three games in hand. Arsenal likewise had a game or two in hand over clubs above them, but obviously needed to win to make something of this. However Burnley had only lost three at home all season and it seemed unlikely.

Here’s the table before the game.

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GAvg	Pts
1	West Bromwich Albion	34	24	2	8	91	42	2.167	50
2	Burnley	37	19	8	10	55	52	1.058	46
3	Chelsea	35	19	4	12	51	41	1.244	42
4	Liverpool	36	17	7	12	52	38	1.368	41
5	Sunderland	36	19	3	14	63	51	1.235	41
6	Manchester City	35	16	7	12	67	55	1.218	39
7	Newcastle United	37	16	7	14	40	33	1.212	39
8	Bradford Park Avenue	34	14	10	10	55	45	1.222	38
9	Bolton Wanderers	35	15	8	12	55	52	1.058	38
10	Sheffield United	37	14	7	16	54	61	0.885	35
11	Bradford City	36	12	10	14	50	55	0.909	34
12	Everton	35	11	11	13	59	54	1.093	33
13	Aston Villa	33	14	5	14	57	55	1.036	33
14	Arsenal	34	12	9	13	48	54	0.889	33

It certainly looked tough for Arsenal, and so it turned out to be as on 3 April Burnley won 2-1 with Pagnam playing centre forward getting the goal. Shaw turned out again for the second day running, this time playing at right back.

The players now at least had Easter Sunday off before playing again on 5 April at Highbury, this time against the runaway leaders WBA who were 17 points ahead of Arsenal – with Arsenal having slipped down to 15th. And here we need to take a look at the bottom of the table.

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GAvg	Pts
15	Arsenal	35	12	9	14	49	56	0.875	33
16	Preston North End	37	13	7	17	54	70	0.771	33
17	Manchester United	36	10	12	14	42	40	1.050	32
18	Oldham Athletic	36	13	6	17	44	47	0.936	32
19	Notts County	36	10	10	16	50	65	0.769	30
20	Blackburn Rovers	36	10	10	16	49	72	0.681	30
21	Derby County	37	9	11	17	36	56	0.643	29
22	Sheffield Wednesday	35	6	9	20	26	54	0.481	21

Arsenal were now just four points away from Derby County who occupied the upper of the two relegation positions. What helped Arsenal was that they had two games in hand and there were of course five other teams between them and Derby. But Easter was a time of collapses and sudden positive runs and Arsenal most certainly could not rely on another team to slip up.

Arsenal had won three out of the last nine and were now playing the runaway leaders and… surprising all commentators of the day, Arsenal won 1-0.

Very unusually Arsenal kept the same team as had played the day before. Blyth got the goal in front of 40,000. According to the press report, at one stage a fire in a neighbouring chimney resulted in the whole ground being enveloped in thick smoke but the players battled on. This was after all the post-war period and people were used to battling on. Arsenal were back up to 14th.

But still there was no rest as on 6 April Arsenal now travelled to the West Midlands for the return game and this time lost 1-0, again in front of 40,000 as Tom Whittaker came in for his first league match. But once again Shaw had to drop out. Clearly his injury was continuing to trouble him. However other results went in Arsenal’s favour and they stayed in 14th.

Now there was four days rest before the next game on 10 April: the return match with Burnley – the return of the game that was lost in Lancashire 1-2 on 3 April. And this time, just one week later on 10 April, Arsenal used their home dominance to get a much welcomed win 2-0.

Only 20,000 turned up to Highbury to see Bradshaw and Pagnam get the goals, but Arsenal were up to 12th and had seven points and nine teams separating them from Blackburn in 21st.

However this match had an extra significance, for because of Arsenal’s defeat of Burnley, West Bromwich Albion were now eight points ahead with Burnley having only three games left to play. As a result WBA won the Football League title for the first (and up to 2018, the only) time.

Next up was the second friendly of the month, a game away to Clapton Orient on 12 April. Sadly, only one detail remains for this game – other than the disappointing score of a 5-1 defeat. Tom Whittaker now scored his first goal for Arsenal. One presumes that it was very much a second XI team playing against the O’s first XI.

There were now four games left in the season, two against Preston and two against Bradford (often referred to these days as Bradford Park Avenue or Bradford PA, to distinguish them from Bradford City, who as we have seen were also in the first division at this time).

Before the game Preston were 18th in the league, just one point above Blackburn, and so they now had far greater anxieties about relegation than Arsenal. Yet despite the importance for them of this game a below average crowd of 13,000 saw a 1-1 draw which left Arsenal in 13th and Preston in 18th.

White, the original number 9 at the start of the season returned at insight right and got the goal.

Meanwhile we have little information on the activities of Sir Henry Norris at this time, which almost certainly means that he was able to be at all the Arsenal games.

One thing we do know however, thanks to the research of Sally Davis, was that on 22 April he was present when Prince Albert visited the International Building Trades Exhibition at Olympia. It seems Sir Henry attended the lunch given in the prince’s honour and took part in a discussion about whether raising money for housing schemes through the issuing of housing bonds (a favoured way of raising money at the time) was likely to be a success. Sir Henry, whose knowledge of football was second only to his knowledge of house building, thought not.

One week on from the first Preston match, on 24 April the return match at Highbury drew 35,000, and the result (a goalless draw) was helpful in terms of ensuring there were no last minute concerns about the drop.

But Preston must have been a lot more anxious for these two draws had meant they had slipped into the relegation position of 21st. Three teams were now all on 35 points, separated only by a goal average of marginally over one hundredth of a goal.

It is also interesting to note that at the same time as this game was played, so was the cup final played at Stamford Bridge. The game Aston Villa 1 Huddersfield Town 0. The reporter for the Times was not particularly impressed by the quality of the game and stated in his report that the ball had gone out of play “just over 100 times.”

It was the sixth time Aston Villa won the Cup since their first win in 1887, and yet after this date they won the trophy just once more, in 1957. Since that date they have appeared in two more finals, the most recent of which at the time of writing was 2015 when they lost by the largest margin of defeat since 1903, losing 4-0 to Arsenal.

On 28 April 1920 Arsenal played out a goalless draw away to Bradford in the first of the two games against the club. The result was another goalless draw in front of just 7,000 (just over one third of Bradford’s average home gate for the season) this being Arsenal’s third draw, and second goalless draw in a row. Arsenal moved up to 11th, while at the foot of the table, with just one game to go, any one of five clubs could go down.

Date	Opposition	H/A	Comp	Res	Score	Crowd	Pos
02/04/1920	Bolton Wanderers	A	Fr	L	2-4	14,700
03/04/1920	Burnley	A	FL	L	1-2	20,000	15
05/04/1920	West Bromwich Albion	H	FL	W	1-0	40,000	14
06/04/1920	West Bromwich Albion	A	FL	L	0-1	40,000	14
10/04/1920	Burnley	H	FL	W	2-0	20,000	12
12/04/1920	Clapton Orient	A	Fr	L	1-5
17/04/1920	Preston North End	A	FL	D	1-1	13,000	13
24/04/1920	Preston North End	H	FL	D	0-0	35,000	13
28/04/1920	Bradford Park Avenue	A	FL	D	0-0	7,000	11

Here is the table with one match to play

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAvg	Pts
1	West Bromwich Albion	41	27	4	10	100	47	2.128	58
2	Burnley	41	21	9	11	64	57	1.123	51
3	Chelsea	41	22	5	14	56	47	1.191	49
4	Sunderland	41	22	4	15	72	58	1.241	48
5	Liverpool	41	18	10	13	58	44	1.318	46
6	Bolton Wanderers	41	18	9	14	70	64	1.094	45
7	Manchester City	41	18	8	15	69	60	1.150	44
8	Newcastle United	41	17	9	15	44	38	1.158	43
9	Bradford Park Avenue	41	15	12	14	60	60	1.000	42
10	Middlesbrough	41	15	10	16	60	63	0.952	40
11	Arsenal	41	14	12	15	53	58	0.914	40
12	Sheffield United	41	16	8	17	59	65	0.908	40
13	Aston Villa	40	17	5	18	72	71	1.014	39
14	Manchester United	41	12	14	15	52	50	1.040	38
15	Everton	41	12	14	15	69	67	1.030	38
16	Oldham Athletic	41	15	8	18	49	51	0.961	38
17	Bradford City	41	13	11	17	52	62	0.839	37
18	Derby County	41	12	12	17	46	57	0.807	36
19	Notts County	41	12	12	17	56	72	0.778	36
20	Preston North End	41	13	10	18	56	73	0.767	36
21	Blackburn Rovers	41	12	11	18	60	77	0.779	35
22	Sheffield Wednesday	40	6	9	25	27	63	0.429	21

As we have noted, the champions had already been crowned, and Sheffield Wednesday had been relegated a long time before. But any one of four teams could go down, depending on results on the final day. (Technically Bradford City could also be relegated but since that would have required Blackburn to win by 4-0, while Derby, Notts County, Preston and Blackburn all lost, that seemed unlikely).

The Henry Norris Files Section 1 – 1910.

Section 2 – 1911

Section 3 – 1912

Section 4 – 1913

Section 5 – 1914

Section 6 – 1915

Section 7: – 1916

Section 8: 1917

Section 9: 1918 and the end of the war

Section 10: 1919, the reform of football, the promotion of The Arsenal.

Section 11: 1920 – the second half of the first post-war season

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