1989 gave Arsenal its most famous end of season triumph of the modern era – replicating the achievements of 1 May 1953 by winning the league in the last match of the season. It was the club’s first league trophy in 18 years.
But then what? What happened that summer and into the new pre-season?
Actually it is quite hard to gather together the records – or at least it was until this little article was published. Although I am certain this will change (Wikipedia does seem to be shuffling along behind us on this series), but as things stand there isn’t a proper pre-season 1989 article – until I press “publish” on this one.
As you will know of course Arsenal won the league on 26 May 1989 at Anfield, beating Liverpool by the required score of 0-2.
There were only two transfers in the ensuing weeks…
20 June 1989: Goalkeeper Andrew Marriott sold to Nottingham Forest. He never played a league match for Arsenal, but between 1989 and 2011 he played for 17 clubs, with Wrexham (255 games) being his one long term playing engagement. He has since become part of the McLaren Formula 1 team and worked with WBA.
14 July 1989: Rhy Wilmot transferred to Plymouth after eight league games for Arsenal and three loan spells. He played 133 times for Plymouth and retired from playing in 1997, after which he became a goalkeeper coach.
Then the pre-season games
The Sweden Tour
22 July 1989: Skelleftea 2 Arsenal 3 (Smith, Merson, Campbell) [Alan Miller’s first appearance for Arsenal]
24 July 1989: FK Mjolner (Norway) 0 Arsenal 4 (Merson, Adams, Quinn, Campbell)
26 July 1989: Lulea 2 Arsenal 2 (Adams, Campbell)
On 28 July 1989 Sigurður Jónsson (known as Siggi) was signed from Sheffield Wednesday for £475,000 but his time with Arsenal was plagued with injury and he only made 8 appearance. He was however voted one of the 10 top Icelandic players of all time.
The Makita Tournament
29 July 1989: Arsenal 1 Porto 0 (own goal)
30 July 1989: Arsenal 1 Liverpool 0 (Bould)
What was interesting here was the lowness of the crowd at Wembley – 20,000 for the first game and 23,000 for the second. Although I should add Arsenal’s largest home crowd in the 1988/9 season was just 41,008. Indeed on 1 May only 28,449 turned up for Arsenal 5 Norwich 0 at a time when the league triumph seemed much easier to grasp than it turned out to be.
Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy in Miami
6 August 1989: Arsenal beat Independiente 2-1 but had Gus Caesar and Gary Lewin sent off. Rocastle got both goals.
The Charity Shield
Not only had Arsenal booked up Liverpool for the Makita and then flown to the USA, they also had to play Liverpool in the Charity Shield. the following week, Liverpool having won the FA Cup. 63,149 turned up for this match – by no means a full house, but at least a little better than the Makita. How strange it is to look back to these crowds when one could simply decide to go to see the Arsenal and turn up!
The news that Gus Caesar was replacing Steve Bould for Arsenal was not exactly what was hoped for. But it was the first time Arsenal had been in the Charity Shield for ten years, and the previous record was won seven (the same as Liverpool) and lost three so there was hope for a victory.
The press had been practicing the art of football cynicism for a number of years, and showed no signs of changing their tune. The Times as always, having a profound downer on anything Arsenal were involved in, calling it “little more than another public training exercise for sides who are increasingly being invited to practise for the season in more lucrative and prestigious events on foreign fields,” which was undoubtedly a knock at the USA trip, rather than Sweden and Norway.
On the half hour Liverpool scored through Beardsley. Richardson missed a chance to equalise and Arsenal looked quite unlike the club that had so emphatically seen off Liverpool at Anfield. Even the taking off of Caesar and bringing on Marwood didn’t really help that much, and it was not a great advert for adventurous football. Or indeed football.
The teams…
Lukic, Dixon, Thomas, O’Leary, Winterburn, Adams, Rocastle, Richardson, Smith, Caesar, Merson, (subs Marwood, Quinn)
What happened next…
19 August 1989: In the first league match after winning the title in the last seconds at Anfield, Arsenal lost 4-1 away to Man U. However the club were then undefeated in the next seven and so went into the Tottenham match having won five, drawn two, lost one.
However on 18 October 1990 Tottenham beat Arsenal 2-1 at WHL in front of 33,944 (yes even here you could just go in on the day and pay at the entrance). Tottenham finished in the league third, one point above Arsenal. It wasn’t the last time Tottenham finished above Arsenal in the league, but there were not many more to come.
The pre-season series thus far
- 1990: The gateway to Arsenal Heaven
- 1991: After the record breaking, the sad reality
- 1992: A record breaking season but little entertainment
- 1993: Osama Bin Laden spotted at the clock end, Highbury
- 1994: The last Arsenal pre-season for George Graham
- 1995: Bruce Rioch’s one pre-season. Bergkamp arrives!
- 1996: The pre-season games as Rioch was sacked
- 1997: Before the second double – (updated)
- 1998: Back to sausages after the caviar.
- 1999: Games against Monaco and Saint-Étienne
- 2000: The big transfers but a poor pre-season
- 2001: Campbell arrives, and the prelims to the third double
- 2002: Gilberto’s first game in the tri-team tournament
- 2003: Before being unbeaten (revised & expanded)
- 2004: The Preseason in the midst of the 49
- 2005: The end of Highbury and the Arsenal-Chelsea bust up
- 2006: Pre-season and the opening of the Emirates
- 2007: A hectic round of transfers and a full schedule
- 2008: Beating Real Madrid
- 2009: The media and Uefa against Eduardo
- 2010: Koscielny joins the crazy gang in Warsaw
- 2011: Chaos and disaster, but amazingly Arsenal pull through
- 2012: Nigeria abandoned, Akpom & Bellerin make their mark
- 2013: The clearout, beating Man C and preparing for a trophy
- 2014: Alexis, Bellerin, and thrashing Man C at Wembley
