AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood And so we come to the final piece of the jigsaw, Chapman’s outside left. Chapman inherited Toner and Haden in this position. We can see what Chapman thought of Toner – he played the first two games of 1925/6 season at number 11, and that was it for him. Haden fared a …
Herbert Chapman inherited two number 10s of quality, Ramsey and Blyth, and he used both in his early years at Arsenal. After that he turned to Bltyhe who had played in a variety of positions for Knighton but was used as a number six by Chapman in his first year. Here is the table for …
Read More “Chapman and the number 10 – one solution, but otherwise fill-ins.”
By Tony Attwood So Herbert Chapman was a great manager, which means he had a great centre forward didn’t he? Well if we look at the players we see Jimmy Brain – who was a Knighton signing, and Jack Lambert who was indeed brought in by Chapman. Lambert played in 143 games, but many …
Read More “Chapman’s centre forwards – stranger than you might think”
By Tony Attwood Chapman began his time at Arsenal by buying a number 8 – Charlie Buchan. That gave him the figure who could lead the club on the pitch, and who could score: 19 in the first season, 14 in the second and 16 in the third. But as we look beyond this one …
By Tony Attwood We are seeing a real pattern with Chapman. In almost every position he had his man who could deliver the goods, and who would play the majority of the matches. The only thing that kept him out would be injury to himself, or an injury to a key player elsewhere when he …
Read More “The Chapman pattern becomes clear – the outside right”
By Tony Attwood When we look at Arsenal under Chapman and the number six position we have one name – Bob John – one of the outstanding players of the era. Arsenal signed him in January 1922 for £750, and as such is recorded as one of Leslie Knighton’s most successful transfers. He made his …
Read More “The man who was Arsenal’s number 6 – and those who filled in”
The club that changed football Making the Arsenal By Tony Attwood After the chaos of the number 4 position it is rather nice to see that we return to what we might expect from Herbert Chapman: picking his player and sticking with him. We have two centre halves here Butler and Roberts. Butler was left …
By Tony Attwood In writing this article about the right halves (ie players wearing number 4) during Chapman’s era I came across this comment on Wikipedia, referring to one of the players who did play at that position for Chapman: “Although Arsenal were spoilt for choice for wing-halves…” “Spoilt for choice” is one way of …
By Tony Attwood Moving on to the issue of left backs in the Chapman period, we can see two players who moved across from the previous era under Knighton: Andrew Kennedy and Bob John. Both men joined Arsenal in the 1922/3 season. Bob John clocked up 78 appearances before Chapman, and went on to a …
By Tony Attwood In my last piece I looked at the number of goal keepers that Herbert Chapman used and drew the conclusion that he was, for many years, unable to find himself the keeper in whom he could have total trust. We have stories of keepers being blamed for specific goals, dropped from the …
By Tony Attwood Herbert Chapman used nine goalkeepers during his nine seasons at Arsenal each playing an average of 42 league games per season. (Note I am counting the final Chapman season, during which he sadly passed away as a complete season here since Joe Shaw continued running the team very much on the lines …
By Tony Attwood It is curious that Arsenal’s first ever league win should be against the team that ultimately caused our most celebrated disaster of a defeat: Walsall. In 1893/4 when Arsenal entered the league, Walsall were called Walsall Town Swifts being an amalgamation of Walsall Town and Walsall Swifts – both clubs pre-dating the …
Read More “11 September 1893 – the anniversary of our first ever league win.”
The club that changed football Making the Arsenal ———————————- This is the final player that Chapman brought into the club who helped us win the league for the very first time This table shows all the players who played 10 games or more in the Championship season of 1930/1 Player 1st league season No of …
Read More “The players who won the league for Arsenal for the first time: Keyser”
By Tony Attwood In working on this series of articles about the players that Chapman brought to Arsenal I am increasingly reaching the opinion that he really had a serious doubt about each and every goalkeeper he ever saw. In fact the next article really has to be a list of the goalkeepers who played …
Today – September 6 – is a day of anniversaries. You will know that, I’m sure. On this date we had the First match at Highbury 1913. In fact so important is the date in Arsenal’s history there are two more articles here just on that date: The Day it Began and Season Ticket Prices …
Read More “Thumping Everton 6-1 away. Twice. What an anniversary”
By Tony Attwood These days, it seems that if the team doesn’t win every single match everyone moans. The opening of the 2012/13 season with two draws and a win (and no goals against) has brought out a vast variety of moaning (if you can have a variety of moaning), mostly based on the fact …
Read More “5 September 1970. Arsenal 2 Tottenham 0. What happened next?”
By Tony Attwood This article is part of a series on the players that Herbert Chapman introduced to the club in the 1930s. David Jack or David Bone Nightingale Jack to give him his wonderful full name was born 3 April 1899, and came from a footballing family. His father Robert was manager of …
The club that changed football By Tony Attwood Jack Lambert was an enigmatic player both in terms of what we know about him, and in terms of his own personality. He played local football for Greasborough and Methley Perseverance, before being rejected by The Wednesday after a trial run, then playing non-league with Rotherham County, …
Read More “How Arsenal fans almost destroyed a wonderful player. The story of Jack Lambert”
by Miles Rackham Deadline day 2011. Arsenal fans eyes still wet from the departure of our beloved captain Fabregas, while being furious about the controversial departure of Nasri, whom was dubbed ‘$amir N€$ri’ (rightly as well). Then a moment of madness, well a day of madness, from Mr Wenger, 5 signings. Per Mertesacker, Andre Santos and …
Read More “Remember 31 August 2011: five transfers in one day”
By Tony Attwood This article on Bill Seddon is one of a series looking at the players that Herbert Chapman bought year by year as he took Arsenal from relegation material to FA Cup winners and League Champions. William Charles Seddon was born on 28 July 1901 was born in Clapton, and after playing junior …
by Tony Attwood Joe Hulme was born in Stafford and started his football career with York City, before joining Blackburn in 1924 for £250. Herbert Chapman bought him to Arsenal in 1926. and he spent 12 years at Highbury, thus sharing in all the great moments of the Chapman and post-Chapman era. When Joe made …
By Tony Attwood This article is part of a growing series about the men that Herbert Chapman brought to Arsenal, or in a couple of cases, inherited from his predecessor, and who went on to take Arsenal to greatness in the 1930s. This piece is about Bill Harper, but to give an overall context here …
By Tony Attwood Tom Parker was born in a suburb of Southampton, and he joined his local club playing his first season in the war leagues that carried on until 1919, then one season with the Saints in the Southern League. In this third season (1920/21) Southampton moved into the Football League for the newly …
————- Our Woolwich Arsenal book nominated for an award —————- In his early years Herbert Chapman was a far better manager than his predecessor at Arsenal, taking Arsenal to their first major trophy in 1930 and their first league championship in 1931. But, although as the chart below shows he was much more successful than …
By Tony Attwood On 25 August 1928 or put it another way, 84 years ago to the day, Arsenal lost 2-3 to Sheffield Wednesday in a match that is still regularly quoted in football history – for Arsenal came out wearing numbered shirts for the first time. In the mythology of Arsenal, it is often …
Read More “Numbered shirts were introduced by Chapman; or were they?”
