This article updated 28 March 2017

By Tony Attwood

Having won their opening game of the new season 4-1, Arsenal were faced with seven games in September.

They began with an away match against Bolton, with Chapman not surprisingly putting out the same team as had won away at Blackpool at the weekend.  In the first game Bastin had scored two, and Jack got two.  This time Lambert scored three, and Hulme the other.  Two 4-1 wins away from home, four different scorers.  It was only the third time since the first world war that Arsenal had actually won both opening games and the best goal scoring feat ever for the club in their first two games.

What’s more Bolton had in goal the three time FA Cup winner Dick Pym – who had actually never let a single goal in, in any of those cup finals.   Shock waves were reverberating around the football world.

This immediately made historians remember the best league start Arsenal had ever had: 1903/4 when they came second in the second division and gained promotion winning the first eight matches along the way.  Even in the 1925/6 season when Arsenal had come second, the club had not started like this!

For the third game – the first of the season at home – Chapman once again kept the same team and this time played Leeds, and won again 3-1.  Lambert got two and Jack one. 40,828 turned up – by no means a record, but bigger than normal.

But of course there were the nay-sayers – there are always nay-sayers, and they pointed out that Blackpool had just been promoted and Leeds were strugglers.  And Arsenal had been lucky to be able to play the same team for the first three games.  This in itself was unusual, and had only happened once before in Chapman’s reign.

Now he had to make a change as Alex James was forced to miss the midweek game, and Bill Johnstone came in for this and the next game – rare appearances for him since his transfer from Reading.

Johnstone managed to get on the score sheet, and Bastin got another two, but the game was closer ending 3-2, although having taken the lead 2-1 at half time, Arsenal did not look to be in trouble at any time.

That was four wins in a row and on 13 September Arsenal were away to Sunderland.  Johnstone kept his place, and Seddon came in for Jones at number 4.   Sunderland it must be said, were not strong opposition, since they had drawn the first three games and then lost the fourth and Arsenal had no problem going back to their opening form, winning 4-1.  Lambert got three and Hulme the other.   It meant that in five games Lambert had scored eight.

Arsenal, in the promotion season, had won their first eight games in a row.  This time the club didn’t go quite so far because game six, away to Backburn was a 2-2 draw.  Hulme and (of course) Lambert got the goals.

Although it was only a draw Blackburn’s result gave other teams hope, and their methods were carefully studied.  For with Arsenal sweeping all before them, Blackburn had first only narrowly lost at Highbury (3-2) and now had become the first club to stop Arsenal winning.  What made it even more interesting was that thus far they had lost four and won one (against Blackpool).  In fact although they were 20th at this time their defensive tenacity paid off eventually and they ended the season in 10th.

There were now two games left in the month; first off a home match with Leicester.  Leicester were unbeaten so far and had risen to 3rd in the table, although midweek matches meant they had slipped to 5th by the time the game with Arsenal kicked off.  Arsenal kept the same team, and inflicted Leicester’s first defeat on them, by Arsenal’s favourite score: 4-1.  Lambert got two and Hulme and Bastin one each.

Arsenal ended the month with an away trip to Birmingham with the same team for the third match running, and Arsenal once again got four, although the defence let in two.   Lambert got three and Bastin the other.

In the table that follows, column three “Op pos” shows the position of the opponents BEFORE the game as a measure of their strength.  “AC” is listed to show the average crowd.  For Arsenal home matches it is the average crowd for the season, and thus always the same number.  For away matches it is the average crowd of the opposition for the season.

The aim in each case is to be able to judge the attractiveness of Arsenal as opposition away from home, and the attractiveness of the opposition at Highbury.

Crowds in red were above the average for the home club.

* indicates a midweek game, remembering that there were no floodlights and games were thus played on a working afternoon.  However many such games were arranged around the local “half day closing” day which was common in shops at the time.

Thus leaving aside the first match in September (for which Bolton’s position of first is of course measured on only the opening day’s games – and that because they had conceded no goals and thus on the goal average system had an average of infinity), Arsenal had four matches against clubs that were struggling, before meeting 5th placed Leicester and 8th place Birmingham at the end of the month.

As for the crowds – all were above the average for the season except the Blackburn home game, against modest opposition, on a midweek afternoon.  This meant Arsenal fans were excited, and so were the fans at the grounds they visited.

By the end of the month the team was as below.  The goals scored by each player by this point, after eight games is shown in brackets after the players name

On 15 September the government announced that 90 railway stations would be closed to passengers because of the decline in the use of the railways.

On 18 September in a sad misunderstanding of political events which both scientists and politicians can make, Albert Einstein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that there was “no reason for despair” over the Nazi Party’s strong showing in Sunday’s elections, because it was “only a symptom, not necessarily of anti-Jewish hatred but of momentary resentment caused by economic misery and unemployment within the ranks of misguided German youth. I hope that the momentary fever and wave will rapidly fall.”

On a much lighter note on 24 September there was the first performance of Noël Coward’s comedy Private Lives at the Phoenix Theatre (London) featuring Coward, Gertrude Lawrence and Laurence Olivier in the cast.  The play (which caused the censor much concern but was ultimately allowed) has been constantly revived for both the West End and Broadway and has played around the world.

One final point.  In 1903 a speed limit of 20mph was introduced in Britain. It was abolished in 1930 leaving those who owned cars free to drive at any speed that they wished, anywhere, including in city centres.