Arsenal were prmoted to the fist divison of the Football League in 1904/5 so 1908/9 was the club’s fifth season in the top flight, and as the table below shows the 21st season of professional league football in England. Arsenal had been in Football League Divison 2 until 1903/4 in which season they came second in Divison Two and thus had gained prootion to Football League Division One.
In this period, the league wasdominated by northern teams, with Newcastle United winning the league three times, while Liverpool and Manchester United got a title each. Even when we look at the top three, if it hard to find too many teams from the midlands or south of the country – Bristol City and Aston Villa are the only two names in the top three from these five seasons
The number in brackets in each cfase shows how many times the club had achieved the position of first or second. And to be clear the table shows the number of times the club had reached that position – which is to say that in 1904/5 Everton came second for the fourth time. They had also won the league once.
In this period which saw the foundation of the Football League and then after just four seasons, the introduction of Football League Divisonj 2, certain teams did dominate. Taking the period up to 1909 the dominant two teams were Aston Villa and Newcastle United, while only Preston, coming second four times, could challenge Everton’s five second playce finishes. Arsenal had achieved promotion in 1903/4 but 1908/9 was their best performance thus far in the top league, finishing sixth, Here is the historic list of seasons with Arsenal in the top division.
|
Season number
|
Years | Club (number of titles since 1889) | Club (number of runners-up finishes since 1889) |
|
17
|
1904–05 | Newcastle United (1) | Everton (4) |
|
18
|
1905–06 | Liverpool (2) | Preston North End (4) |
|
19
|
1906–07 | Newcastle United (2) | Bristol City (1) |
|
20
|
1907–08 | Manchester United (1) | Aston Villa (3) |
|
21
|
1908–09 | Newcastle United (3) | Everton (5) |
And here is the top of the table at the end of the season derived from data supplied by English Football Stats. They also supply a league record for Woolwich Arsenal throughout their whole existence here. The dominance of the northern teams can be seen, and indeed we can note Everton’s ability to knock in the goals averaging over 2.15 a game.
| Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| 1st | Newcastle United | 38 | 24 | 5 | 9 | 65 | 41 | 53 |
| 2nd | Everton | 38 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 82 | 57 | 46 |
| 3rd | Sunderland | 38 | 21 | 2 | 15 | 78 | 63 | 44 |
| 4th | Blackburn Rovers | 38 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 61 | 50 | 41 |
| 5th | The Wednesday | 38 | 17 | 6 | 15 | 67 | 61 | 40 |
| 6th | Woolwich Arsenal | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 52 | 49 | 38 |
But as I am sure those in the club realised at once, although sixth was a great improvement on 14th the season before, Arsenal had in fact only managed to score one more goal in 1908/9 than they had in 1908/8!
In fact all the club had done was won two extra games and drawn two extra games, scoring, as I noted above, one more goal. The biggest change was that Woolwich Arsenal had conceded 14 goals fewer! That was it.
This significant rise up the table on a very modest improvement in performance was very much aided by two facts: that only two points were given for a win (rather than three as now), and the method of separating clubs on the same points, tended to reward clubs with better defences rather than those they went out to score goals.
Thus I don’t think that Arsenal fooled themselves into thinking they had made great steps forward, for they were 15 points behind the leaders, but it was their best performance thus far in Football League Division One.
But there was far, far worse to come because this was the last season that George Leavey effectively financed the club by paying the players wages decided he could go no further.
Part of the reason for this was the local economy, for it was widely discussed that the torpedo factory, which supplied many of the hard core supporters of Woolwich Arsenal Football Club, was about to close, and that meant that the club was about to lose its hardest of hard-core support. And of course one must remember that this was the day when supporters supported their LOCAL team – which meant at most to journey to the ground that was a single bus ride or a couple of stops on the train.
Quite possibly Arsenal could have withstood one of these upheavals – Leavey ceasing to pay the wages or the torpedo factory moving, but no both. Woolwich Arsenal ended the season on the edge of liquidation with everyone knowing that this most certainly could be the end.
They had been founded as the first professional team in the south. That was in 1886 and entered the league in 1893, and been promoted to the First Division in 1903/4. The fact that Arsenal had chosen to join the Football League was a major part of the League coming to dominate football, while the Southern League gradually slipped in importance but in 1909/1910, Woolwich Arsenal FC faced what looked like being the end of the line, just one season after their best ever performance in the league.
And there was no one waiting at the door, ready to take over the running of the loss-making Woolwich Arsenal FC. That Woolwich Arsenal did survive we all, of course, know, because on the day I am writing this (31 August August 2026) Arsenal FC, descendants of Woolwich Arsenal FC, are playing a league game – having won the Premier League last season.
But I find it sad that most Arsenal supporters don’t know who it was who stepped in and saved the clubg and allowed it to play in 1909/10…
