By Tony Attwood
Recent posts
- 100 seasons in the top division: 1991/92 and back to fourth
- 100 seasons in the top division, part 2. 1990/91: the tale of Smith and Wright
Links to the most recent articles celebrating 100 seasons in the top division can be found on the home page, while the full index is is published here
In 1929/30 Arsenal came 14th in the 1sti division and won the FA Cup. That winning of the FA Cup was much more of a Big Thing at that time because there were only two competitions in football, and each was held in the highest of high esteem.
By 1992/1923 the esteem of winning a cup had shrunk a little since there was now also the League Cup to consider, not to mention European competitions, but what no one had ever done was win the FA Cup and the League Cup in the same season.
So Arsenal finishing the league in a disappointing 10th position, their lowest since 1983 when they were also 10th, was by and large ignored as the club became the first ever team to do the Cup Double. And rather curiously, on each occasion Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1, although the FA Cup final was played twice, the first game ending in a draw.
And indeed, we might note that despite the unique Cup Double, Arsenal’s league season not only finished in a disappointing final league position, it also started and ended in a poor display. The opening league game was a 2-4 home defeat to Norwich City, and ended with a 1-3 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. Perhaps it was the government demands for changes to the ground that did it, with Arsenal playing in a three-sided stadium.
So in this first season of the newly formed Premier League of 22 clubs, Arsenal ended up 10th but with two cups while playing with the North Bank empty – a mural standing in front of it, as the stadium was converted to an all-seater affair at the demands of the government, following the rioting by Liverpool supporters.
And that mural had an influence. Not only did it hide the end at which Arsenal’s noisiest and most passionate supporters were normally gathered, so Arsenal also found it hard to score at that end. Indeed, they didn’t get a North Bank goal in this season until December!
But even though in the league Arsenal were not the force they had been in pre-mural days, Ian Wright still knew where the goal was – he scored 15 goals in the Cup competitions alone – and a further 15 in the Premier League’s inaugural season. Although perhaps the thing many of us remember was Tony Adams picking up League Cup goal scorer Steve Morrow in celebration at the end of the match, and then dropping him and breaking his arm.
But Ian Wright’s unique position in Arsenal’s history should be mentioned and properly celebrated too, since it can easily be forgotten that he did not sign for Arsenal until he was 27, but was the top scorer in his first six seasons. In this campaign, he got 15 league goals, ten FA Cup goals and five League Cup goals He was awarded the MBE in 2000.
The League itself, however, was less satisfying – Arsenal finished 10th, 28 points behind Manchester United – but this was a poor league season all round, as Arsenal lost more than they won – the first time that had happened in 17 years.
But the season ended in sadness for many of us as Ian Wright finally said farewell, moving on to West Ham. He was, of course, a stunningly brilliant player – but there was more to it than that at Arsenal, since he played in a team that also included Dennis Bergkamp, and it was clear to all of us who watched the two on the pitch that together they were more than the sum of their parts. For each was such a different player from the other, while each was an extraordinary goal scorer, meaning that opposition defenders simply did not know what was going to happen next. Or indeed where it was going to happen.
Thus Arsenal finished the season in 10th but with a unique Cup Double, which in effect meant that Arsenal had won the League, the League Cup and the FA Cup in the last three seasons. The question now was, what on earth could they do in 1993/4?
It turned out that the run could keep going, but I suspect few of any of us actually guessed where it would take us next.
