100 years in the top divison: Arsenal 1951/2; losing the cup final

Series written by Tony Attwood, AISA Arsenal History Society. For more information about AISA please see here.

We have now codified an index to the series so far, and that full index is published here

The most recent articles in the series before today’s piece were…

So now we move on to 1951/2.

Since the resumption of football after the Second World War, Arsenal had had a poor initial season in 1946/7 under the guidance of George Allison, who uit must be said, had valiantly run the club almost single-handedly during the war, and had seemingly begged Arsenal to let him retire at the end of the conflict. But Arsenal knew that they wanted Tom Whittaker as their next manager, and for that they would have to wait one year, until he was released from his military duties, and so Allison valiantly agreed to carry on.

Tom Whittaker did indeed return in 1947/8, and Arsenal immediately won the league. The following season, however, they slipped back, going out of the cup in the third round and finishing fifth in the league. 1949/50 saw no improvement in the league form, but Arsenal did win the FA Cup, beating Liverpool 2-0 inthe final.

1950/51, however, did not see the club build on that success, and they went out of the Cup in the fifth round and finished fifth in the league.

But it must be added that there was no talk of changing the manager. Chapman had won the league twice, and the Cup once, and Allison had repeated that achievement. And indeed, both had had numerous years in between when it was clear neither trophy was going to be gained.

Besides which, while some clubs struggled to bring in the fans, Arsenal did not have that trouble at all, with home games regularly taking in over 40,000 spectators, and sometimes getting as high as 64,000.

Arsenal opened the season well, with just one defeat in the first six matches, although there were memories of an even better opening in the season before, but with all the hard work undone through a dreadful run of results in December

But such thoughts were set aside, and after a 6-3 win against West Bromwich on 10 November, the table read…

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Arsenal	16	11	3	2	30	10	36
2	Manchester City	16	11	1	4	38	16	34
3	Aston Villa	16	10	3	3	25	17	33
4	Chelsea	16	8	4	4	27	15	28
5	Crystal Palace	16	7	5	4	20	15	26

However, then came the dip – the sort of drop in form that seemed to be inevitable, although there was a very obvious cause on this occasion, as Holton at centre forward had been injuredand was replaced by Goring, who could indeed score goals, but not so often that it would keep Arsenal top of the league..

By the end of the year, Arsenal were down to third and with the poverty of their recent form (three wins in nine games) they were being tipped to slide further down the table, especially as the year ended with a 1-4 away defeat to Sunderland, who at that moment were 18th in the league.

But then, against all expectations, Arsenal went on a 10-match unbeaten run which only ended at Easter with a 2-1 away defeat to Bolton.

Such was Arsenal’s progress that after a goalless draw away to Blackpool Arsenal were second in the league, one of three clubs at the top on 48 points.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Manchester United	37	19	10	8	74	48	48
2	Arsenal	36	19	10	7	68	47	48
3	Portsmouth	38	20	8	10	66	51	48
4	Tottenham Hotspur	37	19	7	11	67	48	45

But what set Arsenal aback was undoubtedly exhaustion from the matches they had just played. On April 5 and April 7, Arsenal had played Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-finals at White Hart Lane, drawing the first game 1-1 and winning the second 3-0.

Secure in the knowledge of another Wembley appearance and obviously with no players wanting to risk injury prior to the big day out, Arsenal then drew with Blackpool on April 11 and lost to Bolton on April 12.

The cup final was scheduled for 3 May against Newcastle United, who had had a solid mid-table season, and so Arsenal were ordered to fit in seven league games and the FA Cup semi-final, and the replay of that games before designated date of the final.

All in all, Arsenal won two of their league matches in April, drawing two and losing three. Only one was as big defeat – but that was in the final league game where Arsenal lost 6-1 away to Manchester United. But it was a bad omen as on 3 May, one week after that match, at Wembley, Arsenal lost 0-1 to Newcastle in the Cup final in front of 100,000 people.

It was indeed the set of results that led to the general observation that chasing the cup and league doublele was a futile activity that would inevitably lead to failure all round..

Arsenal, in fact, ended the season 3rd in the First Division and runners-up in the FA Cup. There were no trophies, but it was their best league finish since winning the league in 1948, and there was a feeling in football that if Arsenal could just restrict themselves to the League, they surely should achieve another championship in the near future. .

The word banied around in the press was also that Whittaker knew this and wanted to equal the record of his two illustrious predecessors with two league titles and an FA Cup. And that is exactly what he set out to do. Here’s the final league table…

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Manchester United	42	23	11	8	95	52	57
2	Tottenham Hotspur	42	22	9	11	76	51	53
3	Arsenal	42	21	11	10	80	61	53
4	Portsmouth	42	20	8	14	68	58	48

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The index to the full series on 100 seasons in the top division can be found here

For articles about Arsenal in the present day please do take a look at Untold Arsenal.

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