AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
Arsène Wenger’s story is a truly remarkable one. The fact that His name resembles the name of the club we love so much might be a coincidence, but the story of Arsène and the story of Arsenal FC of the past two decades are so tightly connected that it is very difficult to imagine the …
By Tony Attwood The sponsorship news for the coming season in Spain is that the top two tiers of Spanish soccer have been rebranded for next season after the operating body for both leagues failed to secure a new title sponsor. How different from the Premier League where all clubs including for …
Read More “Sponsorship in football. Where did it come from, where have we got to?”
By Tony Attwood As Arsenal prepared for 1932/3 season there was no doubting that their fortunes were on the up. Season Pos P W D L F A G.Av Pts FAC Manager 1931-1932 2 42 22 10 10 90 48 1.88 54 F Chapman 1930-1931 1 42 28 10 4 127 59 2.15 66 4 …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s. August 1932: preparing for the ultimate greatness.”
By Tony Attwood May 1932 began with the league title won by Everton with two games to spare. P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Everton 40 26 3 11 116 63 1.84 55 2 Arsenal 41 21 10 10 86 48 1.79 52 3 Sheffield Wednesday 41 22 6 13 95 79 …
By Tony Attwood This is episode 21 in our series on Arsenal in the 1930s. An index to the articles so far is at the foot of this piece. Latest Arsenal Odds Arsenal had played 7 games in March and now found themselves playing 8 games in 29 days in April – including during this …
Read More “Film of the 1932 cup final and review of Arsenal in April 1932”
By Tony Attwood Lines for Arsenal In the 1930s the notion of team rotation was not known, and indeed clubs could be fined for not fielding their strongest XI in a league game. Meanwhile there was no time off for FA Cup matches save for the third round when everyone was involved. The Cup games …
By Tony Attwood January 1932 finished with Arsenal still lagging five points behind Everton and with a worse goal average, but now at least Arsenal sat there with the bonus of one game in hand. Something that Sheffield Wednesday in second position did not have. Newcastle however were still looking like challengers after a run …
Read More “February 1932: From a faltering team to nine wins in a row”
By Tony Attwood The year of 1931 ended with the league table looking like this… P W D L F A GAvg Pts 1 Everton 22 15 1 6 78 39 2.00 31 2 West Bromwich Albion 23 11 5 7 43 24 1.79 27 3 Aston Villa 21 11 4 6 59 37 1.59 …
Read More “January 1932: Arsenal’s return to form and a record cup score”
This article is part of our series on Arsenal in the 1930s, in which we trace the club’s history game by game. Links to all the preceding articles are given at the end of this piece. By Tony Attwood November 1931 ended with the League table looking like this P W D L F A …
Read More “Arsenal – December 1931: A scoring sensation but a dreadful Christmas”
By Tony Attwood This is the 16th episode in our series on Arsenal in the 1930s. There is a full index of the previous articles at the end of this piece. Having won the FA Cup in 1930 and the League in 1931 with a record number of points, Arsenal had entered the 1931/2 season …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s. November 1931: Chapman’s exasperation with keepers”
By Tony Attwood There was a positive feeling around Highbury by the end of September 1931 – that opening run without a win was now well and truly behind the club, and although the early league leaders Everton were marching ahead, they had been a second division team last season, and a very poor first …
by Tony Attwood After the disappointing August, Arsenal were now looking to re-establish themselves in September. Parker took over in goal and we were back with the same outfield players who started, and indeed ran the show during the previous season. For anyone who took notice of very early league tables Arsenal were indeed in …
Read More “September 1931; the champions recover from a poor start.”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal played a month of friendlies after the end of the season – eight games in all back in England around 4 June. Whether that made a difference to the way the team opened the 1931/2 season can’t be ascertained, but one thing is certain – they didn’t repeat the escapade at …
By Tony Attwood This is the 12th article in the series Arsenal in the 1930s. The index to all the articles in the series can be seen at the foot of the article. On 2 May 1931 Arsenal ended their first ever League Championship season beating Bolton 5-0 to set up a record 66 point league …
Read More “Arsenal in the summer of 1931. The records are totted up and the Scandinavian tour.”
This is the 11th article in the series Arsenal in the 1930s. The index to all the articles in the series can be seen at the foot of the article. By Tony Attwood April opened with a very curious incident for on 1 April 1931 Arsenal wrote to the BBC banning all future radio broadcasts from Highbury. …
Read More “How Arsenal won the League for the very first time.”
This series is currently being updated ahead of its publication as a book on Kindle. The table at the end of the February had looked like this P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Arsenal 30 20 7 3 101 46 2.20 47 2 Aston Villa 32 18 8 6 102 62 1.65 …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s part 10. March 1931: hope, defeat, hope”
By Tony Attwood This is part of a series of articles covering the whole of Arsenal’s history throughout the 1930s. The series is now complete (there is an index at the foot of this page) and is now being updated and expanded. It will soon appear as a book on Kindle. Arsenal finished January 1931 in …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s, part 9. February 1931; the goals just won’t stop coming”
by Tony Attwood This article updated 4 April 2017. The full series is currently undergoing a revision, as well as having new articles on individual players added. A full list of the articles covering the whole of the 1930s is at the end of the article. Here is how the table looked at the end …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s Part 8: January 1931 – the biggest league win ever at Highbury”
by Tony Attwood The month started with a reminder of just how desperate the economic situation in Britain was as a result of the disastrous economic policies of the government, with 75,000 Scottish coal miners going on strike. The action was brought about by the introduction of the Coal Mining Act which only allowed mining companies a …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s part 7: December 1930. 3 games in 3 days; 14 goals.”
By Tony Attwood This article revised 17 April 2017 This is the sixth part in a series looking at Arsenal in the 1930s. The whole series has been written, and is now being updated step by step, incorporating information found along the way. Arsenal had ended up October top of the league two points ahead …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s part 6: November 1930. Scoring 5 in 3 games in one month.”
By Tony Attwood At the start of the month there was a reminder – as if one were needed – of how Britain’s economy was based on one of the most dangerous jobs there was: coal mining as on 1 October – 14 miners are killed in an explosion in the coal pit at Cannock. …
This article updated 28 March 2017 By Tony Attwood Having won their opening game of the new season 4-1, Arsenal were faced with seven games in September. They began with an away match against Bolton, with Chapman not surprisingly putting out the same team as had won away at Blackpool at the weekend. In the …
Read More “Arsenal in the 1930s part 4: September 1930: an amazing start”
By Tony Attwood This article revised 28 March 2017 In the last episode of this series I suggested that overall we can see that Chapman had got his ideal team more or less ready by the time of the Cup Final, and eight of those finalists played in the opening of the glorious 1930/1 season, …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s part 3. How Chapman put his triumphant 1931 team together”
By Tony Attwood This article updated 17 April 2017 This is part two of the series on Arsenal in the 1930s. Part one is here. With the FA Cup won, and the league fixtures completed, Arsenal played their friendly match against Northampton in support of the local hospital. There had been a devastating fire at …
Read More “Arsenal in the 1930s. The cup winners who dropped out and the players who came in”
This article revised 16 April 2017 to include enhanced details of the FA Cup semi-final and final. By Tony Attwood Arsenal in the 1930s. This is the start of a series of almost 100 articles relating to Arsenal in the 1930s, all of which are published on this site. This series is dedicated with the …
Read More “Arsenal in the 1930s Part 1. The 1929/30 season, and Arsenal’s place in the hierarchy.”
