When was the best time to be an Arsenal supporter?

By Tony Attwood

I’m sure many such times could be put forward as the best time to be an Arsenal fan – the run up to the Unbeaten Season would be a fairly good moment to choose.

But how about also considering the first half of the 1932/3 season?

Interestingly it did not look like it might be one of the all time great seasons at first as Arsenal won the first game 1-0 and lost the second game at home 1-2.

And one might think that losing Male and Roberts from the team after two games might spell even greater disaster.   But that is what happened.  Male finally returned on October 22 as a right back while Roberts missed just four games before resuming.  Also after two games Coleman took over at number nine and ended the season as second top scorer with 24 goals in 27 games.  (Top scorer was Bastin at 11 with 33 goals in 42).

So here’s what happened.

3 September 1932.  Arsenal start an amazing 18 match run in which they won 15, drew 2 and suffered one defeat, scoring 66 goals in the process (3.66 a game)

15 October 1932: George Male’s first appearance as a right back v Blackburn

29 October 1932: Arsenal 8 Leicester 2, continuing a run of 9 wins, drawn 2 and lost 1 in the league.

31 October 1932: A detour away from the race to the first division, to play in the Armistice match:  Racing club de Paris 2 Arsenal 5.  Four goals from Cliff Bastin.

5 November 1932: Following the 8-2 win one week before Arsenal beat Wolverhampton 7-1 away.

12 November 1932: Arsenal make it 11 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat in the opening of the season, with a 1-0 win over Newcastle

19 November 1932: Arsenal let in five in 5-3 away defeat to Villa

3 December 1932: Arsenal score 3+ goals for the fifth match running – not repeated under 2008/9

24 December 1932: Arsenal 9 Sheffield Wednesday 2.  It meant thus far in the season Arsenal had in different games scored 6, 7, 8 and 9 goals.

27 December 1930: George Male first game for the first team.  Arsenal 7 Blackpool 1  The fourth game of the season with five or more goals by Arsenal

Here’s the full run of results.

Date	Opposition	Venue	Result	Pos
27.08.1932	Birmingham City	away	W1-0	1
31.08.1932	West Bromwich Albion	home	L1-2	9
03.09.1932	Sunderland	home	W6-1	7
10.09.1932	Manchester City	away	W3-2	5
14.09.1932	West Bromwich Albion	away	D1-1	5
17.09.1932	Bolton Wanderers	home	W3-2	4
24.09.1932	Everton	home	W2-1	2
01.10.1932	Blackpool	away	W2-1	2
08.10.1932	Derby County	home	D3-3	2
15.10.1932	Blackburn Rovers	away	W3-2	2
22.10.1932	Liverpool	away	W3-2	2
29.10.1932	Leicester City	home	W8-2	1
05.11.1932	Wolverhampton Wanderers	away	W7-1	1
12.11.1932	Newcastle United	home	W1-0	1
19.11.1932	Aston Villa	away	L3-5	2
26.11.1932	Middlesbrough	home	W4-2	1
03.12.1932	Portsmouth	away	W3-1	1
10.12.1932	Chelsea	home	W4-1	1
17.12.1932	Huddersfield Town	away	W1-0	1
24.12.1932	Sheffield United	home	W9-2	1
26.12.1932	Leeds United	home	L1-2	1
27.12.1932	Leeds United	away	D0-0	1
31.12.1932	Birmingham City	home	W3-0	1

 By the end of the year the league table looked like this.

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pt
1	Arsenal	23	17	3	3	72	33	2.18	37
2	Aston Villa	23	13	6	4	58	36	1.61	32
3	Sheffield Wednesday	23	14	4	5	53	35	1.51	32
4	Newcastle United	22	13	3	6	43	27	1.59	29
5	Derby County	23	11	7	5	52	38	1.37	29
6	Leeds United	23	10	9	4	32	28	1.14	29
7	West Bromwich Albion	22	12	2	8	45	36	1.25	26
8	Everton	23	10	4	9	46	37	1.24	24
9	Huddersfield Town	23	10	4	9	33	31	1.06	24
10	Sunderland	22	10	4	8	42	44	0.95	24
11	Sheffield United	22	8	6	8	45	54	0.83	22
12	Liverpool	23	8	5	10	43	45	0.96	21
13	Portsmouth	23	8	5	10	44	49	0.90	21
14	Blackburn Rovers	23	7	7	9	47	55	0.85	21
14	Bolton Wanderers	23	9	3	11	47	55	0.85	21
16	Blackpool	23	9	1	13	40	51	0.78	19
17	Manchester City	23	8	2	13	46	47	0.98	18
18	Chelsea	23	8	2	13	33	47	0.70	18
19	Birmingham City	23	6	5	12	31	37	0.84	17
20	Wolverhampton Wanderers	23	5	3	15	42	65	0.65	13
21	Leicester City	23	2	8	13	31	57	0.54	12
22	Middlesbrough	21	4	3	14	32	50	0.64	11

With just two points for a win Arsenal’s lead was bigger in effect than such a lead today although Villa were still quite a threat.

Arsenal’s team for the November 5 game was

Moss

Male Hapgood

Hill Roberts John

Hulme Jack Coleman James Bastin

The crowd was 56,498, the highest so far in the season.

The books…

• Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
• Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
• The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches

The index: www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk

Untold Arsenal