The final results of the 1909/1910 season were in and it was indeed Chelsea who went down from the first division. They had simply run out of games while in the final week others were finishing off their unplayed matches.
It finished…
18th Woolwich Arsenal 31 points
19th Chelsea 29 points
20th Bolton Wanderers 24 points
with Chelsea and Bolton relegated.
They were replaced by Manchester City and Oldham Athletic, Oldham beating off Hull City and Derby County on goal average
1st Manchester City 54 points
2nd Oldham Athletic 53 points
3rd Hull City 53 points
4th Derby County 53 points.
At the foot of the table were Grimsby Town of 24 points and Birmingham City on 23 points. As usual the clubs in the League then had a vote, deciding between those two and a range of others who applied. As a result Grimsby were thrown out and were replaced by Huddersfield Town.
There’s a few curious coincidences here. Grimsby and Birmingham were both promoted to division 1 in 1901, Birmingham coming down one year later and Grimsby two years later. Grimsby came back in 1911 in the place of Lincoln City.
Curiously 100 years on Grimsby on again on the edge of falling out of the league – being one from bottom with one game to go. If Grimsby win the final game of the 2010/11 season and Barnet lose, Grimsby stay up. Otherwise they are out.
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The full story of the year 1910 in the history of Arsenal is covering in Making the Arsenal, with the year seen through the eyes of a Fleet Street journalist.
There’s details of Arsenal today on Untold Arsenal
