The nine Arsenal players who played in all three of the consecutive championship seasons

1934-35 season statistics and a comparison with the previous seasons

By Tony Attwood

The quote is oft repeated that George Allison was the luckiest football manager that ever lived – for he inherited the Chapman team, and just had to watch them play.

To see how reasonable an analysis this is, or to consider whether it is an unworthy slur I’ve compared the 1934/5 season with 1933/4 and also added in the players who played in 1932/3 – the three seasons in which Arsenal won the league consecutively.

The first thing to note in relation to Allison’s management is that the 1934/5 season included five players who did not play in the previous season.  Of these Copping and Crayston became mainstays of the squad. Also we might include Ted Drake, was the sensation of the season with 42 goals in 41 games.  He only joined at the end of the previous season – and was a player that Chapman had hall marked and pursued with a vigour prior to his death.  Indeed it seems the essence of the transfer was already in place in January 1933, although Drake did not move until March.

So in many ways this was still the team of the previous year – a season that Chapman had managed until his untimely death halfway through the season.  Ten players who had played 20+ games in 1933/4 were still playing for Arsenal in 1934/5, and of these only Jimmy Dunne really dropped out of the limelight.

But what of the season before – the championship winning season of 1932/3.

The table below lists all the players who played in 1934/5, the third consecutive championship team, and then in the subsequent columns includes the performances of those in the two previous championship winning teams.  (Full details of the squads for 1933/4 and 1932/3 – along with previous seasons – are given in earlier articles.)

Player	Position	Pld 34/5	Goals 34/5	Pld 33/4	Goals 33/4	Pld 32/3	Goals 32/3
Cliff Bastin	Outside Left	36	20	38	13	43	33
Pat Beasley	Wing half	20	6	23	10
Ralph Birkett	Outside rt.	4	2	15	5
Ray Bowden	Inside right	24	14	32	13	7	2
Les Compton	Full back	5	1			4
Wilf Copping	Left half	31
Jack Crayston	Right half	37	3
Robert Davidson	Inside f’wd	11	2
Peter Dougall	Inside left	8	1	5
Ted Drake	Centre f’wd	41	42	10	7
Jimmy Dunne	Centre f’wd	1		21	9
Eddie Hapgood	Left back	34	1	40		38
Frank Hill	Wing half	15	3	25		27	1
Joe Hulme	Outside rt	16	8	8	5
Alex James	Inside left	30	4	22	3	41	3
Bob John	Half Back	9		31	1	37
Alf Kirchen	Winger	7	2
George Male	Full back	39		42
James Marshall	Inside f’wd	4
Frank Moss	Goalkeeper	33	1	37		42
Herbie Roberts	Centre half	36		30	1	37
Tim Rogers	Outside rt	5	2
Norman Sidey	Centre half	6		12		3
Reg Trim	Full back	1
Alex Wilson	Goalkeeper	9	–	5
George Cox	Centre f’wd	*		2
Ray Parkin	Inside f’wd	*		5		5

*Only involved in friendly games.

The nine players shown in red played in all three seasons – and this perhaps is the figure that most of all shows just how much of a legacy Chapman created.  Not just a league winning team (twice) but a team of which nine players would still be playing in a league winning team the following season, and the season after.

However even if we do see Allison as inheriting a wonderful team, he still had to manage the team and get the results.  And most certainly one thing he did do was get the goals flowing again.  In winning the league in 1933/4 the Arsenal goal scoring machine had slipped as this comparison across the Chapman years and beyond shows…

Season	Manager	Pos	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Top scorer/gls
1925–26	Chapman	2	42	22	8	12	87	63	52	Jimmy Brain	43
1926–27	Chapman	11	42	17	9	16	77	86	43	Jimmy Brain	34
1927–28	Chapman	10	42	13	15	14	82	86	41	Jimmy Brain	29
1928–29	Chapman	9	42	16	13	13	77	72	45	David Jack	26
1929–30	Chapman	14	42	14	11	17	78	66	39	Jack Lambert	23
1930–31	Chapman	1	42	28	10	4	127	59	66	Jack Lambert	39
1931–32	Chapman	2	42	22	10	10	90	48	54	Jack Lambert	26
1932–33	Chapman	1	42	25	8	9	118	61	58	Cliff Bastin	33
1933–34	Chp/Shaw	1	42	25	9	8	75	47	59	Cliff Bastin	15
1934–35	Allison	1	42	23	12	7	115	46	58	Ted Drake	43

In 1934/5 Allison gained one fewer point than the league winners’ of the previous season, but the same as the season before – so his achievement was on a part with that of Chapman’s.

The goal scoring of 1934/5 was the third highest in the club’s history – and a very significant improvement on 1933/4.

But (and this is generally ignored, and yet is incredibly important) this was the best defensive record of Arsenal in the first division, except for 1904/5 when the club only played 34 games and let in 40 goals.

Indeed the defence was what Allison changed, bringing in Copping and Crayston as the defensive mid-field pairing.  So yes, Allison did benefit from all the groundwork laid by Chapman but he put his own mark on the club.

Even better than that however, and perhaps reflecting his previous role as an administrator of the club, he kept the gate receipts rising.

The highest divisional average ever achieved for the first division was 1919/20 as the troops returned from war.  Chelsea gained an average gate of 42,615 but since then the top club’s gate had declined to 1924/5 when 29,485 was the top average gate in the first division.

Gates had gone up and down in the following years until Arsenal took over as the club with the highest average league attendances in 1930:

• 1928/29: Manchester City – 31,715
• 1929/30: Arsenal – 35,537
• 1930/31: Arsenal – 37,106
• 1931/32: Arsenal – 40,507
• 1932/33: Arsenal – 41,958
• 1933/34: Arsenal – 40,750
• 1934/35: Arsenal – 46,252

And there is nothing to suggest that somehow the competition was easier one year than the other.   Here is the top of the final table for 1933/4:

Pos		P	W	D	L	F	A	GAv	Pts
1	Arsenal	42	25	9	8	75	47	1.60	59
2	Huddersfield Town	42	23	10	9	90	61	1.48	56
3	Tottenham Hotspur	42	21	7	14	79	56	1.41	49
4	Derby County	42	17	11	14	68	54	1.26	45
5	Manchester City	42	17	11	14	65	72	0.90	45

And for 1934/5

		P	W	D	L	F	A	G.Av
1	Arsenal	42	23	12	7	115	46	2.50	58
2	Sunderland	42	19	16	7	90	51	1.76	54
3	Sheffield Wednesday	42	18	13	11	70	64	1.09	49
4	Manchester City	42	20	8	14	82	67	1.22	48
5	Grimsby Town	42	17	11	14	78	60	1.30	45

There is a remarkable similarity in terms of most of these figures – except Arsenal scored 40 more goals in Allison’s season.  The third and fifth teams each time scored identical points totals.

In terms of players Arsenal used 22 players in the league in 1932/3, 24 in 1933/34,  and 25 in 1934/5.  A tiny increase across the seasons.

But of course it is in goalscoring that the big difference can be seen.

Season	Top scorer	Goals	2nd scorer	Goals	3rd scorer	Goals
1932/3	Bastin	33	Coleman	24	Hulme	20
1933/4	Bastin	13	Bowden	13	Beasley	10
1934/5	Drake	42	Bastin	20	Bowden	14

What Allison had was Ted Drake, a goal scoring machine equal to Jack Lambert in 1930/31 (38 goals in 34 games) and Bastin in 1932/3.

Indeed, we keep coming back to the same two points.  What Allison was given was Ted Drake.  What he added was a much tighter pair of midfield enforcers.

All he had to do now was to keep the trophies coming.