AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood The first half of the task of indexing all the articles about players on this web site is done – we’ve completed A to K. That doesn’t mean we’ve done articles on all those players, but rather that all the players are listed, with links to such articles as there are. As …
Read More “An Index to all the major articles on Arsenal players in history. A to K complete”
By Tony Attwood We now have around 1500 articles on this site, about half of which are about individual Arsenal players. Many of these articles provide a more comprehensive view of the player’s life than is available elsewhere – most particularly in relation to players from the earlier days of football. In quite a few …
Read More “The Arsenal History Society index to articles on Arsenal players”
By Tony Attwood By the end of September 1936 it was quite clear that Arsenal had problems, with their squad, with Allison endlessly chopping and changing the team in an effort to find a solution, and thus with their results. At the heart of the matter was the old problem of away form as the …
By Richard Bourke Earlier this year the Society published an article in our series of headed “Joseph Cooper: the most mysterious of all the mysterious Arsenal players.” He was a player who joined Woolwich Arsenal in 1893. He made his debut for Woolwich Arsenal in a friendly on 23 October 1893 against Roston Bourke’s XI. Arsenal …
Read More “The founding of the referees’ association, and the ref who had his own team”
By Tony Attwood Editorial note: The series on the 1930s continues, but is now being interspersed with articles on the players. There is an index to the articles on players here. Arsenal entered the 1936/7 season with two problems. First, the club had been so successful in the 1930s (four league titles, two FA …
Read More “August / September 1936: 20 different players used in the first seven league games”
By Tony Attwood Ralph James Evans Birkett was born in Dartmouth, Devon, (or according to other sources Newton Abbot, or Ellacombe Torquay neither of which are far away) on 3 January 1913 (or 9 Jan in other sources). Birth certificate evidence appears to support Ellacombe. He first made his name playing for the 3rd Division …
Read More “Ralph Birkett: part of the South West club that Chapman built within Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood We last looked at the players Arsenal used in the 1930s in the article in 1933/34 season so this piece aims to bring this up to date with the coverage on Arsenal in the 30s thus far. If you want to go back further there is the complete analysis of 1929 to …
Read More “Arsenal players 1934/5 and 1935/36 the fundamental problem with the team”
By Tony Attwood Writing about the summer of 1936 in Forward, Arsenal, Bernard Joy begins his commentary stating, “The honeymoon was over. The day was past when the sight of the red shirted figures trotting proudly on to the field put such disquiet into the opposition that it was worth a goal start…. “There were …
Read More “Arsenal in the summer 1936: from winning the Cup to an assassination attempt on the king”
Here’s the league table at the end of March P W D L F A GA Pt 1 Sunderland 35 21 6 8 90 59 1.52 48 2 Derby County 35 16 10 9 52 38 1.37 42 3 Huddersfield Town 35 16 9 10 52 49 1.06 41 4 Stoke City 35 17 5 …
Read More “April/May 1936; Arsenal win the Cup. A match report and season’s end”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal ended February through to the quarter finals of the FA Cup, but slipping further behind in the league title race. Here’s how the table looked at the start of March 1936: P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Sunderland 31 21 4 6 86 47 1.83 46 2 …
by Tony Attwood This post was updated 14 Dec 2016 with the addition of international matches and 16 Feb 2017 with clarification of Moss’ injury. January 1936 ended with Arsenal recognising that any chance of holding the title for the fourth successive season had slipped away, and so their focus turned to the FA Cup. …
Read More “Arsenal in February 1936: an early example of rotational selection”
By Tony Attwood This article is part of a series on Arsenal in the 1930s. You can see a full index up to the publication of this article at the foot of the page. An index of all the articles in the series appears here. By the start of 1936, Allison’s second season in charge …
Read More “January 1936: the league won’t be won, but what about the FA Cup…”
By Tony Attwood This post was updated on 17 Dec 2016 with the addition of the England match. Arsenal entered December in fourth position – exactly where they had been at the start of November. But the gap behind the league leaders had grown… P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Sunderland 12 …
This article is part of the Arsenal in the 30s series. Details of all the articles in the series thus far can be found below. By Tony Attwood Arsenal entered November with a patchy record but they were still only three points behind the leaders. P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Sunderland 12 …
By Tony Attwood The league table at the end of September read… P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Huddersfield Town 8 5 3 0 14 6 2.33 13 2 Manchester City 7 5 1 1 15 5 3.00 11 3 Middlesbrough 8 5 1 2 28 12 2.33 11 4 Sunderland 8 …
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had opened the season with a solid home win, and with the second match scheduled to be away against Grimsby, there were strong hopes that this would be the start of a solid run. But to everyone’s surprise the match ended as a 0-1 defeat. The general comment was to the …
Read More “September 1935: After three successive championships things get sticky”
By Tony Attwood In the spring of 1935 Arsenal had done what only one team had ever done before them – won the league three times in a row. More than that they had done this under three successive managers: Herbert Chapman, Joe Shaw, and George Allison. The last game of the season on 4 …
Read More “Arsenal in the summer: 1935 – after three championships in a row.”
1934-35 season statistics and a comparison with the previous seasons By Tony Attwood The quote is oft repeated that George Allison was the luckiest football manager that ever lived – for he inherited the Chapman team, and just had to watch them play. To see how reasonable an analysis this is, or to consider whether …
Read More “The nine Arsenal players who played in all three of the consecutive championship seasons”
By Tony Attwood Here’s the top of the table at the end of March 1935 P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Arsenal 35 19 10 6 97 39 2.49 48 2 Sunderland 34 17 11 6 75 40 1.88 45 3 Manchester City 34 18 6 10 66 50 1.32 42 4 …
Read More “April/May 1935 – Arsenal win the league for the third successive year”
By Tony Attwood At the end of February Arsenal were top of the league by two points with a superior goal average to those chasing below. At the foot of the table Arsenal’s were old rivals, and serious challengers for the league title last season, Tottenham Hotspur. P W D L F A GAv Pts …
By Tony Attwood . At the end of January 1935 the league positions had swung around once more with Arsenal winning all three league games, and now taking a two point lead (and superior goal difference) at the top of the table. Pos Team P W D L F A GA Pts 1 Arsenal 26 …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s – February 1935. Despite one slip, Arsenal remain top.”
by Tony Attwood Here is how the table looked at the end of 1934. Arsenal, the champions for the last two seasons were now in third, largely due to a sudden collapse in their away form wherein they had only won one game. P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Sunderland 23 13 …
Read More “January 1935: Suddenly Arsenal’s form turns upside down”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal started December in second place P W D L F A GA Pts 1 Sunderland 16 9 4 3 31 16 1.94 22 2 Arsenal 16 8 5 3 46 22 2.09 21 3 Stoke City 16 10 1 5 35 23 1.52 21 4 Grimsby Town 16 7 5 4 …
Read More “Arsenal in December 1934: two steps forward, two steps back.”
AN AFTERNOON WITH FORMER ARSENAL PLAYER JOHN BARNWELL ABOUT HIS YEARS AT HIGHBURY by John Sowman I travelled to Nottingham on a beautiful last day of September to meet up with our ex-Arsenal player John Barnwell. John lives with his wife Eileen high up in their luxury suite overlooking the River Trent. From their balcony, …
Read More “Former Arsenal player John Barnwell talks about his years at Highbury”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had suffered a defeat to Sunderland at the end of October which had taken some commentators by surprise, and as a result of this, and the latest Stoke City win, Stoke had risen to the highly unlikely position of top of the league – not least because of the remarkable abilities …
Read More “November 1934: vying for the top of the league, and the Battle of Highbury”
