How it started: Arsenal win their first major trophy

 

By Tony Attwood

There is a review of Arsenal’s season in 1929/30 here, and a note within that about the poor league form which saw us finish in 14^th position.

But in the FA Cup things were quite different, and finally it came to pass that Arsenal won their first major trophy.  Having been runners’ up in the league in 1926 and the FA Cup in 1927, but not then secured a victory, there would have been some that thought that Arsenal’s time had past – but no, it was only just beginning.

So 1930 was of course a vital moment – not just because it was the moment we got the first major trophy, but because it was the trophy of the Trophy Decade…

• 1930: FA Cup Winners (1^st time)
• 1931: League Winners (1^st time)
• 1933: League Winners (2^nd time)
• 1934: League Winners (3^rd time)
• 1935: League Winners (4^th time)
• 1936: FA Cup Winners (2^nd time)
• 1938: League winners (5^th time)

So, to complete the story of that first trophy, here, to paint the background scene is the final league table – uninspiring as it may appear…

		Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Sheffield Wednesday	42	26	8	8	105	57	60
2	Derby County	42	21	8	13	90	82	50
3	Manchester City	42	19	9	14	91	81	47
4	Aston Villa	42	21	5	16	92	83	47
5	Leeds United	42	20	6	16	79	63	46
6	Blackburn Rovers	42	19	7	16	99	93	45
7	West Ham United	42	19	5	18	86	79	43
8	Leicester City	42	17	9	16	86	90	43
9	Sunderland	42	18	7	17	76	80	43
10	Huddersfield Town	42	17	9	16	63	69	43
11	Birmingham City	42	16	9	17	67	62	41
12	Liverpool	42	16	9	17	63	79	41
13	Portsmouth	42	15	10	17	66	62	40
14	Arsenal	42	14	11	17	78	66	39
15	Bolton Wanderers	42	15	9	18	74	74	39
16	Middlesbrough	42	16	6	20	82	84	38
17	Manchester United	42	15	8	19	67	88	38
18	Grimsby Town	42	15	7	20	73	89	37
19	Newcastle United	42	15	7	20	71	92	37
20	Sheffield United	42	15	6	21	91	96	36
21	Burnley	42	14	8	20	79	97	36
22	Everton	42	12	11	19	80	92	35

What is amazing here is just how close Arsenal got to being relegated under Chapman – just three points.   Matters were not helped at all by an end of season run that looked like this:

• 18 April 1930: Arsenal 1 Leicester 1
• 19 April 1930: Huddersfield 2 Arsenal 2
• 21 April 1930: Leicester 6 Arsenal 6 (four for Halliday)
• 26 April 1930: Arsenal 2 Huddersfield 0 (FA Cup Final)
• 28 April 1930: Arsenal 0 Sunderland 1
• 3 May 1930: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 4

Five games in 10 days over the Easter and post-Easter period, including the cup final, would have managers raging against the League and FA today, and maybe Mr Chapman did just that, but in the midst of it all, Arsenal got their trophy.

And to be fair although Arsenal could technically have gone down as late as early-April, it would have taken the strangest set of results for Grimsby, (who had a late mini-revival), Burnley and Everton to have overtaken  mid-table Arsenal.  It was a league table that was utterly congested at the bottom, and for Arsenal to have sunk, not only would they have had to lose every match, the others would have had to have won against higher placed clubs throughout.

But to turn to happier events.  What of the FA Cup run?  Here it is – the run towards Arsenal’s first major trophy.

Here it is…

Round	Date	Against	Score	Crowd
3	Jan 11	Chelsea (h)	2-0	55579
4	Jan 25	Birmingham (h)	2-2	43274
4replay	Jan 29	Birmingham (a)	1-0	47521
5	Feb 15	Middlesbrough (a)	2-0	42073
6	Mar 1	West Ham (a)	3-0	40797
SF	Mar 22	Hull (Leeds)	2-2	47549
SF replay	Mar 26	Hull (Villa Pk)	1-0	46200
Final	Apr 26	Huddersfield (Wembley)	2-0	92486

The draw against Birmingham didn’t inspire confidence but Cups are generally won by slipping along unnoticed.

So we won the Cup, celebrated undoubtedly, and lost the next two league games, before having a holiday and preparing for the greatest season of the era – the league championship of 1930/1.

That season, which is of course covered in other articles, involved such scores as 7-1, 9-1, 7-2, 6-3, and five games in which we scored five.  But before we leave 1929/30 let us not forget that this season in the league too had some big scores including a 6-1, 8-1 and 6-6.

Thus there were a few signs – but really, I can’t believe anyone was quite ready for what happened next.

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