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.

See also…

Arsenal manager by manager.

Arsenal’s anniversaries. 

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The books…

Other sites from the same team…

 

 

 

 

 

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