AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
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”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had finished September in third place in the league, in a frantic month which included seven league matches (following the one at the end of August) as well as two high profile friendlies. Following such a start to the season October represented calmer times with four league games all played on …
Read More “October 1934: Arsenal finally throw off the North London curse”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal opened their season as successive champions, and George Allison opened his managerial career, with an away game against Portsmouth on 25 August. The team was Moss Male Roberts John Hill Copping Hulme Bowden Drake James Bastin Arsenal had only won one of the last three openers, and the trend continued with a …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s: August & September 1934. Allison as manager”
By Tony Attwood After the trauma of Chapman’s passing and the excitement of winning the league Arsenal played no end-of-season friendlies – and in keeping with the common approach at this time, had no pre-season games fixed up. In his autobiography George Allison comments that he had known Herbert Chapman for 25 years at the …
Read More “Arsenal in the summer 1934: Allison takes over and changes the team”
By Tony Attwood Looking at 1933/34 most commentators become understandably fixated by two issues – the sudden and unexpected death of Herbert Chapman, and the fact that Arsenal won the league for the third time – and the second time running. But there were many other issues – not least the sudden decline in the …
Read More “1933/34 League players, and how the goals declined but the crowds went up.”
This is part of a series of articles tracing the history of Arsenal through the 1930s. There is an index of all the articles in the series thus far at the end of this piece. By Tony Attwood The table, at the conclusion of March 1934 read: P W D L F A GA Pt …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s: April 1934. Joe Shaw wins the league for Chapman”
By Tony Attwood As the football world got used to the fact that Herbert Chapman really wasn’t leading Arsenal any more, so a certain level of reflection built up on what was happening to the club following his tragically early passing. Including the last game in December (Chapman’s final match) Arsenal had played five games …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s: March 1934. Chapman’s two teams fight for the title”
By Tony Attwood After one league defeat in 16, following the sudden death of Herbert Chapman Arsenal suffered two defeats and a draw in the league and had slipped to second. The extraordinary rise of Derby with one defeat and one draw in the 12 games up to and including the match on New …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s – February 1934. Chapman is gone, but the club moves on.”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had just won four games and drawn one in December and were sitting pretty at the top of the league at the start of 1934 when disaster struck. The league table at the start of the year looked like this… P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Arsenal …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s. January 1934: The death of Chapman”
By Tony Attwood At the start of December 1933 – tragically the last full month of being active in football for Herbert Chapman – Arsenal came to the games with a record of five wins and a draw in the last six – the best form in the league. They were also one point clear …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s. December 1933: Chapman’s last month; Arsenal triumphant”
By Tony Attwood The month opened with Tottenham top of the league and Arsenal one point behind: P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Tottenham Hotspur 12 7 3 2 22 10 2.20 17 2 Arsenal 12 6 4 2 25 13 1.92 16 3 Huddersfield Town 12 6 3 3 33 22 …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s: November 1933, displacing Tottenham.”
By Tony Attwood 1933 was a very difficult time to live through with the economy in such a desperate state, and warnings growing about German military re-birth. And yet there were signs of progress on other fronts, not least by the bringing into law the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act. In essence this stated that …
Read More “Arsenal in the 30s – October 1933: a return to progress”
