In my last article…
… I suggested that one of the greatest achievements of Arsenal was simply to get going in south London, and to join the professional Football League. And indeed to that one might add the point – “and to survive”. For as my last article showed, at the end of the first season in which Arsenal played in the Football League, clubs didn’t simply be promoted or apply for re-election.
In fact Middlesbrough Ironopolis were dissoved, Ardwick and Rotherham were re-elected while Northwich resigned from the league. And as I pointed out in that article, that was quite a bit of upheavel for a league of just 15 clubs.
In geographic terms there were simply no other clubs anywhere near Plumstead in the league, and yet Arsenal kept going, tucked away in Plustead, on the south bank of the Thames. And as I understand it in this regard, they had support from the rest of the Football League because Arsenal was the one and only club that was taking the notion of professional football into the south of the country. And the general feeling in football was that for it to become established as the defintiive professional sport in the country, it needed to be in on view in London in the south as much as the industrial north.
So Arsenal battled on, and having come ninth in their first season in the Football League, Arsenal came eighth in their second season, but if you look down the table below you can see there were still no other clubs from London or the surrounding areas. Only Arsenal.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bury | 30 | 23 | 2 | 5 | 78 | 33 | 48 |
| 2 | Notts County | 30 | 17 | 5 | 8 | 75 | 45 | 39 |
| 3 | Newton Heath | 30 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 78 | 44 | 38 |
| 4 | Leicester Fosse | 30 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 72 | 53 | 38 |
| 5 | Grimsby Town | 30 | 18 | 1 | 11 | 79 | 52 | 37 |
| 6 | Darwen | 30 | 16 | 4 | 10 | 74 | 43 | 36 |
| 7 | Burton Wanderers | 30 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 67 | 39 | 35 |
| 8 | Woolwich Arsenal | 30 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 75 | 58 | 34 |
| 9 | Manchester City | 30 | 14 | 3 | 13 | 82 | 72 | 31 |
| 10 | Newcastle United | 30 | 12 | 3 | 15 | 72 | 84 | 27 |
| 11 | Burton Swifts | 30 | 11 | 3 | 16 | 52 | 74 | 25 |
| 12 | Rotherham Town | 30 | 11 | 2 | 17 | 55 | 62 | 24 |
| 13 | Lincoln City | 30 | 10 | 0 | 20 | 52 | 92 | 20 |
| 14 | Walsall Town Swifts | 30 | 10 | 0 | 20 | 47 | 92 | 20 |
| 15 | Burslem Port Vale | 30 | 7 | 4 | 19 | 39 | 77 | 18 |
| 16 | Crewe Alexandra | 30 | 3 | 4 | 23 | 26 | 103 | 10 |
It was clear that the clubs in the second division felt a certain amount of friendship between each other since although the bottom four clubs all had to apply for re-election to the league, three of them got that vote of confidence from their fellow clubs. Only Walsall Town Swifts did not – but not because they didn’t get enough votes to keep them in the league, but because they resigned from the football league. They were, it seems, losing too much money.
We might also note in passing that only nine of the clubs in the league that year are still with us, still playing professional football under the same name, the rest having either left football all together, or at least left the Football League.
So when we ask, “What has been Arsenal’s greatest achievements?” one of those achievements has to be noted again as surviving in south London in the 19th century.
