7 May 1938: Arsenal make it five League titles & two Cups in nine years

Arsenal now had eight league games to play in 36 days, an astonishing schedule.   And if that were not enough the club also had a series of friendlies – including (amazingly) one against arch-rivals of the season, Wolverhampton!

The opening game of the month was against Charlton who although fifth would, if they won their two games in hand, be equal on points with Arsenal.  Their results had been mixed of late with four wins and four defeats in the last eight league games – but in their last game they had done Arsenal a great turn by beating Wolverhampton 4-1.  However they had a propensity to draw their away games, (seven of their games away from home ending up with that result this season).

Collett was back into the side – this time in for Crayston – and Drury came in at outside right as Carr moved to inside left.  In the game Arsenal were 1-0 down at half time, but came back with goals from Drake and Carr to secure a 2-2 draw in front of 52,858.   The news from Wolverhampton was not so good however, as they had ended their bad run by beating Birmingham 3-2.

In form Middlesbrough had won again – this time at Leicester, but Preston, undoubtedly distracted by FA Cup affairs and talk of them winning a second “double”, had lost at Blackpool.  At the bottom Man City had gained a precious victory over Chelsea to give them some hope of avoiding relegation.  The top now looked like this:

On 6 April Man C did more to enhance their chance of survival while Charlton’s thoughts of using their games in hand to catch up slipped away as City beat Athletic 5-3.

Which then took everyone on to the next Saturday.  Arsenal were playing Leeds away, Wolverhampton were at Portsmouth, Preston at home to Derby and Charlton (in sixth, but still only four points behind the leaders with two games in hand were at home to Sunderland).   Given the volatility of recent form and games in hand all six clubs still harboured thoughts of winning the league.

The day’s key results affecting the top of the table came in as

Preston now re-confirmed themselves as the form team of the moment after last week’s slip, but Brentford looked to have slipped away from the race for good.   However now we had a position in which even the games in hand would not be enough to dislodge Arsenal – and there was still that extra goal average.

Leeds had looked like being a team challenging for the top position in the league earlier in the season and had been as high as second over Christmas but had dropped back, and had a solid home form showing only three defeats.  But prior to this game they had not won in seven and Arsenal were high on confidence.

Leslie Compton replaced Hapgood, Crayston came back instead of Collett, who now changed sides to replace Copping, as Bremner and Dennis Compton were added to the forward line to replace Drake and Bastin; as the rest of the forward line swapped positions.

Bremner got the goal in what was the first  of only two games he played in the league this season, having signed from Cartha Athletic of Glasgow on 3 March.

As a result of this round of games the table now looked like this

It seemed that no club was capable of a prolonged assault on the title.  As for the Wolverhampton win, that certainly helped their goal average along, but they were still somewhat behind Arsenal in that department.

Unlike Christmas, when the League had the habit of making the teams that played each other on Christmas Day, return the game on Boxing Day, here, the Easter Saturday games were different, with the return of the Good Friday games coming on Easter Monday.

So having suffered their setback Arsenal now had another home game – this against Birmingham who were 16th, with just one away win all season.  And yet, after a run of just one win in 19, they had knocked up consecutive wins over Bolton and WBA to take them away from the relegation zone where they had been lingering.   But they knew that a return to that earlier bad run of form could quickly taken them back down, and thus they put out a totally defensive team which duly worked giving them the 0-0 draw they were after.

Elsewhere the results on Easter Saturday included

A mixed bag of games including yet another bizarre comeback by Man City who seemed incapable of making up their minds whether they were still champions or relegation fodder.

But every team in the top six had lost at least one of their last six matches, and indeed only Arsenal and Preston had kept that figure down to just one defeat.  Wolverhampton, despite now being in reaching distance of Arsenal again (if they could win their game in hand) had lost three of the last six and drawn one of the others – not quite the form they needed at this time!

This left the table at the top now looking like this…

Easter Monday, as mentioned, saw the return games from Good Friday, which gave Arsenal an away match against Brentford who had unexpectedly won at Highbury 0-2 just two days before.   Seeing Wolverhampton and Preston hot on their tails, surely Arsenal would now dig in for at least a draw against a side who had been moving up the table!

But no.  In the space of four days Brentford did the double over Arsenal this time thumping the Gunners 3-0 at Griffin Park.  True Cartwright and Griffiths were back in the team, but these players were gaining experience all the time, and the other nine men were solid regulars.  Yet 3-0 it was.  Arsenal fans could do nothing but wait for the evening papers to see what the other results said.  If either Preston or Wolverhampton had won, Arsenal would no longer be top.

And yet, those following this extraordinary season end found this…

Arsenal were still top – although it took a while for it to sink in for they had lost two and drawn one of the last three.  There were a couple more games later in the week but they didn’t affect the top of the table, and in the build up to the next game the table now looked like this

We were back on equal points with Wolverhampton, but they still had that game in hand – and their goal average had made significant strides forwards, while Arsenal’s was going the wrong way.

And then, quite amazingly, Arsenal played a friendly two days later against… of all people, Wolverhampton.   It is designated as being the Mayor of Colchester’s Cup, and noted as an away game – but I think it might have been a “neutral venue” (ie Colchester) not at Wolverhampton.

Why this game was fixed up, and when it was fixed up, I don’t know, but from a 21st century perspective this looks really, really odd, playing one’s leading challengers in a month that was already packed with eight league games.

The team Arsenal put out was mostly made up of players who were not currently automatic first choice players in the team including the Compton brothers, Scott, Fields, Collette, Nelson, Carr and Drury.  But Swindin, Crayston and Jones were there.  Wolverhampton won 1-0.

Then the team recovered ready for the last league match of the month on 30 April against Liverpool who having been as low as 21st earlier in the season had now climbed up to 10th due to a run of six successive wins in March and April.  In the last four games however it had been one win, one defeat and four draws.

Arsenal had three games left including this one, and quite simply needed to win the lot.  But even then Wolverhampton could still come in with that game in hand and take the title for the first time.

Arsenal played what was emerging as a team as close to being first choice as they could get at this moment:

Swindin

Male Joy Hapgood

Crayston Copping

Drake Jones Carr Drury Bastin

You will have noticed the oddity.  Drake on the wing.  But that is what is says in the records.  Carr at centre forward.  Last time he had played in the league he had scored two, so why not try him again?  And amazingly it worked, he scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal won 1-0.

So once again everyone was waiting for the announcement of the results from around the country.  This is what they found

It had all gone Arsenal’s way!   As a result the table now looked like this with just one game to go.

Form was now irrelevant – every club in the top five had lost at least once in the last six games – and indeed Arsenal were the only club to have won three games out of the six.  No one had won more.  In fact that statistic alone reveals just what an extraordinary end to the season it was.

Yes Wolverhampton still had a game in hand, and if they won both their remaining games they would take the title – but the way things had been going, no one could have confidence in that.  Their last four games read

They now had West Brom at home and then Sunderland away on 2 May.  Curiously Arsenal had a game on that day as well – a friendly against Southampton.  I have no details as to the reason for this match, but I imagine it was either for another good cause or because of a positional experiment.  If I had to put money on it, I’d go for the latter.

And the news was grim – Wolverhampton had won.  The table now looked like this

Arsenal’s match against Southampton on the same day was probably forgotten by most people the very moment it was finished, but for the record Arsenal won 3-2.

As I have suggested I suspect that as compared to the previous friendly this was much more a match for keeping the players up to speed – and indeed I wonder if that was the intention – along with the fact that the manager wanted to give Jones more game time playing at right half – which is where he had played twice already and where he was going to play in the final game of the season (and indeed in the final friendly played after the the season was over).

For the final game quite simply if Wolverhampton won they won the league – it was their’s for the taking.  Otherwise if Arsenal did better than Wolverhampton (winning when Wolverhampton drew, drawing when Wolverhampton lost, or of course winning when Wolverhampton lost) the title was Arsenal’s for an incredible fifth time in one decade.

But attention was not just at the top of the league for the bottom of the table was also utterly fascinating

Any two of those seven could go down, although to be fair Huddersfield looked reasonably safe since for them to go down five of the teams below them would all have to do better than Huddersfield.

Thus everyone wanted to know not just the results of their club but the results of the whole league, and then do the calculations.

On 7 May the results came out like this

Amazingly not only did Arsenal win but Wolverhampton blew it at the last against a team with nothing to play for.  Arsenal had indeed won the league for the fifth time.

At the bottom Grimsby won, Portsmouth won, Birmingham won, Stoke won, while Man City and WBA lost.  An amazing run of results for the teams at the bottom, meaning that most unlikely as it had seemed even at the start of play on the final day, last season’s champions, Manchester City had gone down.

Arsenal’s team for this historic final game of the season was

Swindin

Male Joy Hapgood

Jones Copping

Kirchen Bremner Carr Drury Bastin

The goals came from Kirchen, Carr (2) and Bastin (2).   The new forward line worked, and how.

To complete the story Arsenal had one more game, a friendly against Feyenoord when they lost 1-0.  It is amazing that they could rouse themselves to get to the game let alone put out a team.  But they did, and it was almost the same as the team that had won the league.  Crayston replaced Kirchen, and Nelson replaced Bastin (who was about to go off and play with England).

Here is the list of matches throughout April and May that led to this extraordinary triumphy…

I would particularly like to draw attention to the crowds for the home games this month.  With the exception of the two London derbies that were played at the start of April, Arsenal’s home crowds were all below the season’s average, despite the intensity of the competiton and the chance of winning the league.  I find it quite extraordinary that on 7 May only 40,500 turned up at Highbury to see Arsenal win the League.

Perhaps there were reasons – if you can think of any or have any research on the subject do let me know.

(1) Mayor of Colchester’s Cup

(2) Friendly matches – no other details available

The abbreviations, for the table above are…

• Op pos, is the league position of the opposition before the game.  Chesterfield’s position is obviously in relation to Division 2.
• Pos is Arsenal’s position after the game
• AC is the average crowd in league matches for the home team through the season, providing a comparison between the crowd on that day (in the previous column) and the norm expected by the home side.

This article was first produced (with some amendments) in the series Arsenal in the 1930s.  The full details of this series, and our series on Arsenal in the 1970s is given below.

A History of Arsenal

Arsenal in the 1930s: the players, the crowds, the tactics

Arsenal in the 30s: the complete history

Arsenal in the 70s: the complete history