AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
by Tony Attwood Arsenal finished the previous season as champions, taking Chapman’s trophies, and indeed Arsenal’s major trophies to three: two league titles and the FA Cup. During this spell Arsenal had also been runners up twice in each of the League and the FA Cup. For Arsenal fans this must have been a great …
By John Sowman Browsing through some old Arsenal programmes recently I came across one from the all-time classic encounter with Manchester United at Highbury on February 1st 1958. This of course was the epic 4-5 defeat to a team destined to be struck by tragedy at Munich airport less than a week later. Further …
Read More “David Herd. The first of a trio of Arsenal star No 9s to be lured to Old Trafford”
By Tony Attwood This is part of an occasional series in which we look at what happened between the end of one season and the start of the next. Around 50 seasons have been covered so far, and more are added from time to time. 1914 and 1938 – both dates on the eve of …
Read More “Arsenal in the summer: 1933 – champions and water shortages”
By Tony Attwood So far in this series I have covered the period leading up to Arsenal’s first trophy – the FA Cup in 1930, and then the three subsequent seasons: 1930/1 (league winners) 1931/2 (runnings up double), 1932/3 (league winners). Listed below you will find all the players who played in the League (the …
Read More “All the men who played in the league for Arsenal 1929/33”
By Tony Attwood I will come to the summary of games played, goals scored and the goal ratio in a moment but first I want to share the key insight into the way Chapman set out his teams that I have gained through writing these articles. To begin, the key change between 1931/2 (coming second) …
By Tony Attwood Coming into April Arsenal had won only one game in their last eight. Here was the record… Game Date Against Venue Result Pos Pts 28 04.02.1933 Everton away D1-1 1 42 29 11.02.1933 Blackpool home D1-1 1 43 30 22.02.1933 Derby County away D2-2 1 44 31 25.02.1933 Blackburn Rovers home W8-0 …
Read More “Arsenal in April/May 1933, Champions for the second time.”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal ended February top of the league by four points, although having played a game more than their rivals. But February had been a month of three draws and two wins and there were still worries about Villa and Wednesday catching up. It was time for Arsenal to show their strengths. P …
Read More “Arsenal in March 1933: top of the league but a month to forget.”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal came into February 1933 top of the league. P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Arsenal 26 18 3 5 78 40 1.95 39 2 Aston Villa 25 15 6 4 64 38 1.68 36 3 Sheffield Wednesday 26 15 6 5 57 38 1.50 36 4 Newcastle United …
Read More “Arsenal in February 1933: new shirt design, awful weather, top of the league”
By Tony Attwood Here’s the first division league table for the end of 1932… P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Arsenal 23 17 3 3 72 33 2.18 37 2 Aston Villa 23 13 6 4 58 36 1.61 32 3 Sheffield Wednesday 23 14 4 5 53 35 1.51 32 4 …
Read More “Arsenal in January 1933: Top of the league and defeated by Walsall.”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had ended November at the top of the Football League… P W D L F A GA Pts 1 Arsenal 16 12 2 2 51 27 1.89 26 2 Aston Villa 16 10 4 2 42 23 1.83 24 3 Derby County 16 10 3 3 38 24 1.58 23 4 …
Read More “Arsenal in December 1932: Greatness and supremacy”
By Tony Attwood The month began with Arsenal top of the league… P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Arsenal 12 9 2 1 36 19 1.90 20 2 Aston Villa 12 8 3 1 26 10 2.60 19 3 Derby County 12 7 3 2 27 15 1.80 17 4 West Bromwich …
Read More “Arsenal in November 1932: records fall, greatness beckons.”
By Tony Attwood By the end of September the League was starting to take shape, Arsenal having had four wins and a draw in the last five. Only unbeaten Villa looked to be a challenge at this stage. P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Aston Villa 7 5 2 0 18 6 …
By Roger Stark Arsenal can be pretty unpredictable. They can win convincingly against some of the most powerful teams in the world, but they can also suffer a terrible defeat at the hands of a club that competes in the lower leagues. We all remember the great victory against Villa in the final of …
By Tony Attwood Arsenal had started the 1932/3 season in August with a win and a defeat – making some fans wonder if the League and Cup wins of 1930 and 1931 were to be one-offs. This view was emphasised by the fact that then as now few teams retained the league title. In fact …
Read More “September 1932: Arsenal’s first steps into immortality”
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 …
