100 seasons in the top division: cracks appear in late 1970

By Tony Attwood

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Following a disastrous 5-0 defeat to Stoke City at the end of September, Arsenal had won four and drawn one game in October, leaving them second in the league with Tottenham now one point behind and Leeds two points ahead

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Leeds United	15	10	4	1	24	9	24
2	Arsenal	15	9	4	2	32	14	22
3	Tottenham Hotspur	15	8	5	2	23	10	21
4	Manchester City	14	7	5	2	19	11	19

Howver the perceived challenge to the northern domination of the first division was not taken particularly seriously at this point since in the past 15 years only one London team had won the league and that was Tottenham. Arsenal had not won the league since 1953, and indeed had only once (in 1959) managed to get into the top three. So suggestions that Arsenal would inevitably fade away were commonplace.

But as the year went on, Arsenal kept on winning, and over time it became clear that the defeat to Leeds really had taught Arsenal a lesson or three. And indeed through the remainder of 1970, Arsenal’s record was extraordinary. In the 13 games after the 5-0 Leeds hammering Arslena won 10 and drew three.

What was disappointing, however, was that despite over 50,000 coming to the Everton home game on October 17 (a 4-0 win) and 43,000 a fortnight later to see the 2-0 win over Derby, attendances started to fall at Highjbury. True, 45,000 turned up for the Liverpool home game on 28 November, but otherwise crowds at Highbury were stuck in the 30,000s

For Arsenal, the year concluded on Boxing Day with a goalless draw against Southampton, leaving the table reading…

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Leeds United	24	16	7	1	41	15	39
2	Arsenal	23	15	6	2	44	17	36
3	Chelsea	22	10	9	3	31	25	29

..and perhaps that table explains just why the crowds didn’t come back to celebrate Arsenal’s position, for whatever Arsenal were doing, Leeds were matching them. Goal difference was of course, not measured at this time, but had it been, Arsenal would have been noted at one goal above Leeds. But in terms of goal average, Leeds were ahead, and besides, Arsenal were still three points behind.

And there was indeed some justification for the media being cynical about Arsenal’s chances of overtaking Leeds United, for in the previous season, Leeds United had come second and Arsenal 12th. Furthermore, in that season, Arsenal had gained an average of one point a game. In short, they were expected to slip backwards down the table any time soon. That run of 10 wins and two draws in 12 league games would not only come to an end, it was also said that Arsenal would suffer a reaction as other clubs realised how to beat them.

However, Arsenal had now started to use two new regular players: Simpson at number and Sammels at 11. Simpson replaced Roberts in every game, and Sammels got a run of 12 games until shifted from being a winger in the forward line to number 8 in midfield.

The unbeaten run did continue into January as Arsenal avoided any hiccups in the third round of the FA Cup with an easy 3-0 home win over Yeovil Townin front of 4,374. Looking back to Arsenal’s recent problems in that competition (an exit to Blackpool in the third round the year before, West Bromwich in the fifth round in 1969, and Birmingham City in both the seasons before that, the media had been looking forward to a hiccup, but it never came. Yeovil had created a stir in the round before as the non-league side had beaten Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, but Arsenal saw them off 3-0, despite playing on a pitch famed for its eight-foot side-to-side slope.

Three days later, Arsenal were back in London for a league game, and secured another win – this time 2-0 over West Ham. 49,000 turned up for that game as Graham and Kennedy scored. Everything was indeed looking good as Arsenal prepared for Huddersfield Town away on 16 January 1971.

The league table ahead of this game read

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
2	Arsenal	24	16	6	2	46	17	38
16	Huddersfield Town	24	5	10	9	21	30	20

Even a study of the home and away performacnes ot the two clubs did not suggest Arsenal should have any problem.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
15	Huddersfield Town home	12	4	6	2	12	8	14
3	Arsenal away	11	6	3	2	16	13	15

And as for the team, Arsenal stuck to the side that were unbeaten in the last 14 games. With Arsenal’s form, even allowing for the fact that this was away from home, a draw was felt to be the worst Arsenal would suffer against the team placed 16th in the league. And yet Huddersfield won 2-1.

The media began to get excited – even more so when on 23 January Arsenal drew 1-1 with Portsmouth, Arsenal’s goal coming from a penalty. Then on 30 January Arsenal lost 2-0 away to Liverpool, who were currently 13th in the league. There was a fraction of relief two days later as Arsenal won the FA Cup replay against Portsmouth 3-2, but even here the media noted that the Gunners’ third goal came from a penalty, which some then felt was “debatable.” Of course. And most certainly no one was mentioning a possible “double”.

Indeed, with two defeats in the league and a marginal victory in the FA Cup, Arsenal’s position as the all-conquering club of the moment was seen to be a mirage.

Yes, Arsenal were now second in the league, but the word among the journalists was that Arsenal had been flattering to deceive, and now in the cold of winter, the London dilettantes, who were known not to like the cold, were struggling. The gap at the top of the table was now a whopping great five points (remembering it was only two) points for a win, and Arsenal’s goal average was 0.24 worse than Leeds

Leeds had finished the year with two defeats in the league and one defeat in the Fairs Cup, which seemed to show that the idea that London teams couldn’t compete with the north because of the distractions of London life was a load of twaddle. But it didn’t stop people repeating the idea. Even though two of the top three were north London sides.

The table now read…..

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Leeds United	27	18	7	2	47	19	43
2	Arsenal	26	16	6	4	47	21	38
3	Tottenham Hotspur	25	12	8	5	38	22	32

The full index of articles so far… is published here

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