Arsenal win the league 80 years ago to the day

By Tony Attwood

This was Chapman’s last triumph, but also the start of his legacy.  The following season he passed away, as Arsenal continued and won the league again in 1934 and 1935.

Here’s the league table with the results after the 40th round of matches had been played

First division: 22 April 1933				2 points for a win
		P		W	D	L	F	A				GA	Pt
1	Arsenal	40		25	7	8	115	56				2.05	57
2	Aston Villa	39		21	8	10	85	66				1.29	50
3	Sheffield Wednesday	40		20	9	11	77	64				1.20	49
4	Newcastle United	40		22	5	13	68	58				1.17	49
5	West Bromwich Albion	39		19	8	12	78	62				1.26	46
6	Huddersfield Town	40		17	10	13	63	51				1.24	44
7	Leeds United	40		15	14	11	59	56				1.05	44
8	Derby County	40		14	14	12	73	65				1.12	42
9	Portsmouth	40		17	6	17	70	75				0.93	40
10	Everton	40		15	9	16	78	70				1.11	39
11	Sheffield United	39		15	9	15	70	78				0.90	39
12	Sunderland	40		15	9	16	62	76				0.82	39
13	Blackburn Rovers	40		14	10	16	76	93				0.82	38
14	Birmingham City	39		14	9	16	55	51				1.08	37
15	Manchester City	40		16	5	19	67	66				1.01	37
16	Liverpool	40		13	11	16	74	81				0.91	37
17	Middlesbrough	40		12	9	19	58	73				0.80	33
18	Chelsea	40		13	6	21	58	71				0.82	32
19	Wolverhampton Wndrs	40		12	8	20	74	92				0.80	32
20	Bolton Wanderers	40		11	9	20	73	90				0.81	31
21	Leicester City	40		9	13	18	65	87				0.75	31
22	Blackpool	40		13	4	23	65	82				0.79	30

 

This was Chapman’s last triumph, but also the start of his legacy.  The following season he passed away, as Arsenal continued and won the league again in 1934 and 1935.

One interesting point in passing is just how many clubs from that era are not currently in the top division.  Those still with us are

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Newcastle, WBA, Everton, Sunderland, Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea.  Unless I have missed someone I make that nine out of 22.  Interesting to note a lack of Tottenham H and Manchester U.

On the other hand we can say that all the clubs who were in the first division 80 years ago, are still playing in one of the top four Leagues – although one or two are looking decidedly dodgy for various reasons.

Arsenal’s season had not started perfectly  – we lost the first home match of the campaign 2-1 to West Bromwich.  But then we went on a 12 match run in which we won 10 and drew 2.

Goals were in plentiful supply, the big scores including

• Arsenal 6 Sunderland 1
• Arsenal 8 Leicester 2
• Wolverhampton 1 Arsenal 7
• Aston Villa 5 Arsenal 3
• Arsenal 9 Sheffield United 2
• Arsenal 8 Blackburn Rovers 0
• Arsenal 5 Aston Villa 0

But despite all this, Arsenal found it hard to fill Highbury.    From the records I have only one game got over 60,000 spectators: Arsenal 4 Sheffield W 2 on April 14.

On April 22 1933 Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge in front of 72,260 to win the league.  The following weekend the game against Huddersfield at Highbury drew only 36,779.

With such a season, and so many goals it is not surprising to find some good stats among the players involved.  Here are the top scorers:

• Boy Bastin played 42 scored 33
• Ernie Coleman played 27 scored 24
• Joe Hulme played 40 scored 20

You might also be expecting something good in the Cup, but no, we lost to third division Walsall 0-2 in the third round.

Arsenal manager by manager.

Arsenal’s anniversaries. 

——————

The books…

• Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
• Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
• The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal – crowd behaviour at the early matches

Other sites from the same team…

• Untold Arsenal
• Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?