100 seasons in the top division. Winning the Double (for the first time)

 

This series celebrates Arsenal’s unique achievement of 100 seasons in the top division.  Recently in this series….

• Arsenal march on towards the 1971 double
• Arsenal head for the first double: January / March 1971
• 100 seasons in the top division: cracks appear in late 1970

The full index of articles in this series so far is published here 

By Tony Attwood

In the last episode, we left Arsenal having beaten Nottingham Forest 0-3 away.  It was the club’s seventh win in succession, and during that run, the club had scored 14 and conceded one goal.  They had also qualified for the FA Cup Final.  But now they had to squeeze in six more league games to finish their campaign before the trip to Wembley.  In fact Arsenal played eight league games in April, which I think is a record.

And so on 17 April 1971 Arsenal played Newcastle United at home with the media generally projecting the view that this was all going to be too much for Arsenal, and that they could easily end up winning nothing.   But Charlie George got the winner to beat Newcastle 1-0, making it now eight wins in a row, and still with just one goal scored against them during that run.

But there was no let-up, and on 20 April it was Burnley away.  But now the team had a change as Kelly, who had been forced out of the team through injury back in Deceember finally returned to take on the number 4 shirt to replace Storey, who had himself been injured in the previous game.  MacNab also dropped out from his full-back position and was replaced just for the one match by Roberts.   Charlie George won the game for Arsenal with a penalty. Arsenal had just won nine successive matches in a row.

The league table now read

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Arsenal	38	27	6	5	67	26	60
2	Leeds United	39	24	10	5	66	30	58
3	Chelsea	39	17	14	8	50	40	48
4	Wolverhampton Wanderers	39	20	7	12	61	53	47

 

The game on April 26 was deemed by the media to be the “title decider” – it was away to Leeds, who as can be seen from the table above, were the only team with any chance of catching Arsenal.  Again, tales of Arsenal being distracted by going for the Cup and League at once (the “impossible dream”) were trotted out by journalists with nothing new to say.

Ludicrously, the game was down to be played on April 26, and of course the stories about Arsenal falling short in both league and cup because they were chasing both trophies were still trotted out.  And indeed, the 1-0 home victory to Leeds was taken as evidence that Arsenal would fail.  Leeds were now one point above Arsenal, but Arsenal had a game in hand and a better goal average – the ludicrously complex division process that was used at the time to separate clubs on the same number of points.

The table now read on 27 April

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Leeds United	41	26	10	5	70	30	62
2	Arsenal	40	27	7	6	69	29	61
3	Chelsea	41	18	14	9	52	42	50
4	Liverpool	41	16	17	8	41	24	49

 

Arsenal’s goal average was 2.379 while Leeds were on 2.333.   It meant that if Arsenal won their game in hand, they would go back to the top.

However, it wasn’t just Arsenal that were playing a lot of games – still being in two competitions.  Leeds United had a problem also because although they were not in the FA Cup as Arsenal were, they were palying in the Fairs Cup, and on 28 April they had played out a goalless draw with Liverpool in the sem-final of that competition, which, following their 1-0 away win in April in the first leg, took them into the final.

Thus, while Arsenal were to play Liverpool on 8 May in the FA Cup final, Leeds still had two extra matches themselves in late May and early June against Juventus in the two legged Fairs Cup final.

On 1 May, Arsenal played their fourth game in 11 days and beat Stoke City 1-0 at home, with Kelly scoring.  Over 55,000 were in Highbury for the match.  The top of the table now read

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Leeds United	42	27	10	5	72	30	64
2	Arsenal	41	28	7	6	70	29	63

 

Arsenal’s goal average was still above that of Leeds but only just.  Leeds had finished their season, but Arsenal had one game left to go and of all clubs to play it had to be away to Tottenham Hotspur.  The Football League made it very clear that Arsenal were not going to be helped in any way, and ordered the game to be played on Monday 3 May. 

Tottenham were currently sixth in the league, 13 points behind Arsenal.   A goalless draw for Arsenal would win them the league, but only just through the complexities of the “goal average” system.   Arsenal’s goal average was 2.414 while Leeds United was on 2.400.   Suggestions started to be made that a high-scoring draw would mean Leeds would win the league.  No one seemed able to agree, and the Football League which had created the crazy “goal average” system, said nothing.

As it was, the game was played at White Hart Lane on 3 May.   Kennedy scored the only goal, and Arsenal won 1-0, giving them the title.  Thus, the possibility of the Double was still on with Arsenal playing Liverpool in the FA Cup final on 8 May.  Arsenal had four days to prepare themselves, although they could do so knowing they were champions.

We now know of course, that Arsenal have won the Double three times, but back in the early 1970s winning the Double was extremely rare, and in fact only three teams had ever done it since the earliest days of both competitions.   They were Preston in 1889, Aston Villa in 1897 and Tottenham Hotspur in 1961.

Before Tottenham’s double, it was widely believed that there would be no more doubles, since the league programme had expanded so much since the 19th century that the demands on players were just too great.   And so, after Tottenham did win the double, it was generally said that this was an exceptional Tottenham team, and it wouldn’t happen again.

So it was that, approaching their final league match and a cup final, Arsenal were universally told that they would NOT win the double.  And indeed, the mainstream media view was that Arsenal would almost certainly fail to win either trophy because the pressure would be too much.  As we have noted above, Arsenal did indeed win the league on the last day of the season, beating Tottenham 1-0

That game was on May 3, and then five days later on May 8, Arsenal faced Liverpool at Wembley.

Arsenal had ended the season with a goal average of 2.448 compared to Leeds’ 2.400.   Liverpool, as we can see below, finished in fifth, 14 points behind Arsenal and with a massively inferior goal average (1.75).  Indeed, by modern methods of goal difference, they were 24 goals behind Arsenal as well as 14 points.

 

 

And yet still Arsenal were not favourites!  But as you will of course know, Arsenal won 2-0 with goals from Kelly and George, and thus became just the fourth club in the entire history of English football to do the Double.   And indeed, only the second club in the 20th century.

Arsenal had not only won the league for the first time since 1953, and the FA Cup for the first time since 1950, for good measure they had won both at once.