On 7 May 1938 Arsenal won the league for 5th time in 8 years

On 7 May1938 Arsenal won the league for the second time under George Allison in four years.  But as the date suggests and the league table shows is was a close run thing – going up to the final match – Arsenal 5 Bolton 0 on May 7 1938. Attendance: 40,500

It was close because Arsenal had a failing this season.  They only lost two games at home,  but only won six games away – and champions normally do better than that.

Here is the final table.

Final Table
		P		W	D	L	F	A			GA	Pt
1	Arsenal	42		21	10	11	77	44			1.75	52
2	Wolverhampton Wndrs	42		20	11	11	72	49			1.47	51
3	Preston North End	42		16	17	9	64	44			1.46	49
4	Charlton Athletic	42		16	14	12	65	51			1.27	46
5	Middlesbrough	42		19	8	15	72	65			1.11	46
6	Brentford	42		18	9	15	69	59			1.17	45
7	Bolton Wanderers	42		15	15	12	64	60			1.07	45
8	Sunderland	42		14	16	12	55	57			0.96	44
9	Leeds United	42		14	15	13	64	69			0.93	43
10	Chelsea	42		14	13	15	65	65			1.00	41
11	Liverpool	42		15	11	16	65	71			0.92	41
12	Blackpool	42		16	8	18	61	66			0.92	40
13	Derby County	42		15	10	17	66	87			0.76	40
14	Everton	42		16	7	19	79	75			1.05	39
15	Huddersfield Town	42		17	5	20	55	68			0.81	39
16	Leicester City	42		14	11	17	54	75			0.72	39
17	Stoke City	42		13	12	17	58	59			0.98	38
18	Birmingham City	42		10	18	14	58	62			0.94	38
19	Portsmouth	42		13	12	17	62	68			0.91	38
20	Grimsby Town	42		13	12	17	51	68			0.75	38
21	Manchester City	42		14	8	20	80	77			1.04	36
22	West Bromwich Albion	42		14	8	20	74	91			0.81	36

The season started well, with three wins, with Arsenal scoring 12 goals.  But the form did not continue and after only two wins in the next 12 games Arsenal were 11th in the league in mid November.

Matters did pick up, but this was not the sort of high scoring season Arsenal fans had seen in earlier league wins.  We scored five three times, but that was it.  Drake and Bastin scored the goals (17 and 15 respectively).

Top crowds of the season at Highbury were 67311 to see the London derby against Brentford and 68353 to see the 4-1 defeat of Manchester City

We finally hit the top spot on March 5 with a 4-0 home win over Stoke and stayed there, suffering just two defeats in the last 18 games.

Here is the history of Arsenal in the 30s.

				Home					Away
Season		Pos	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A		Pt
1938-1939		5	42	14	3	4	34	14	5	6	10	21	27		47
1937-1938		1	42	15	4	2	52	16	6	6	9	25	28		52
1936-1937		3	42	10	10	1	43	20	8	6	7	37	29		52
1935-1936		6	42	9	9	3	44	22	6	6	9	34	26		45
1934-1935		1	42	15	4	2	74	17	8	8	5	41	29		58
1933-1934		1	42	15	4	2	45	19	10	5	6	30	28		59
1932-1933		1	42	14	3	4	70	27	11	5	5	48	34		58
1931-1932		2	42	14	5	2	52	16	8	5	8	38	32		54
1930-1931		1	42	14	5	2	67	27	14	5	2	60	32		66
1929-1930		14	42	10	2	9	49	26	4	9	8	29	40		39

We can see the enormous leap that was made between 1929/30 and the rest of the decade.  But it must be remembered that in 1929/30 Arsenal won the FA Cup for the first time.  It truly was a decade of trophies:

• 2 cup final victories 1930, 1936
• 1 cup final defeat 1932
• 5 League championships
• 1 League runners-up

• 6 May 1991: the game, the championship, the song
• 5th May: Arsenal announces its new name
• One of the iconic moments in the history of Arsenal
• David Rocastle
• 1 May, a special day in Arsenal’s history
• George Leavey: the salvation of Arsenal FC
• Cliff Holton, born 29 April 1929.

• Arsenal manager by manager.
• Arsenal’s anniversaries. 
• Royal Arsenal

——————

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
• Coming soon: Royal Arsenal

Other sites from the same team…

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