Exclusive: One of the most iconic tales about Chapman at Arsenal may not be quite what it seems

The Strange Case Of The Charlie Buchan Transfer By Graham Lister How much did Arsenal really pay Sunderland for Charlie Buchan? Until now, everyone has given the same answer, but is it possible that his much heralded return to London, and Arsenal,  from Wearside in 1925 been consistently misreported over the intervening nine decades? It …

Sidney Cartwright: a member of the 1930s Arsenal team of whom we know so little

By Tony Attwood There are mystery men who played for Arsenal, and then there is Sydney Cartwright.    He played 16 times for the glorious Arsenal team of the 1930s, and yet very, very little is known of him. There are two stories about his club/s before Arsenal.  Some reports refer to him playing for …

Arthur Gilbert Biggs: only three games for Arsenal but a varied football career

By Tony Attwood Arthur Biggs was a player I was hardly aware of until I wrote up the end of the season story for 1936/37.  Since then I’ve been a digging and managed to come up with his footballing career, but sadly nothing further about his life beyond football.  If you know anything more please …

Arsenal in the summer – the overseas tour of 1937

by Tony Attwood This article was update 23 Jan 2017, with information about Frank Moss In the 1930s it was not commonplace for Arsenal to play end of season tours, and completely unknown for them to play pre-season friendlies, other than matches between the first team and the reserves (matches which I believe took place …

Arsenal players 1936/7, Arsenal crowds in the 30s, and comparisons with earlier years

Previous titles in this series All the men who played in the league for Arsenal 1929/33 1933/34 League players, and how the goals declined but the crowds went up. Arsenal players 1934/5 and 1935/36, and the fundamental problem with the team 1936-37 season statistics, Player Position 1936/7 Games 1936/37 Goals 1935/6 games Cliff Bastin Outside …

April / May 1937: Arsenal slip back and Man City triumph – for the moment

  By Tony Attwood As the football going public started to get used to the new nickel-brass 12 sided coin which came to be known as the threepenny bit, the first division table at the start of March 1937 looked like this P W D L F A GAv Pts 1 Arsenal 37 16 15 …

Arsenal in the 30s – Feb 1937: Seven in the cup, and all to play for in the league

By Tony Attwood Arsenal began February 1937 in second place, one point behind Charlton and with one game in hand – plus three points above Brentford in third. Charlton were the team in form with five wins and a draw in the last six.  Amazingly no other team had won more than half of their …

January 1937: Arsenal unbeaten as the goalkeepers change (again).

This article is part of a series covering Arsenal throughout the 1930s from the first FA Cup and League triumphs to the outbreak of war.  A list of all the articles appears at the end of this episode. By Tony Attwood At the end of 1936 the top of the first division table was indeed …

Arsenal in the 30s. December 1936: once more top of the league as the king steps down

by Tony Attwood Arsenal’s recovery in November from the horror show that was the slide down the table in October  1936, had left the everyone with great hope and restored faith in Allison as manager.  After all, Arsenal had won either the League or the FA Cup in every year from 1930 onward (except 1932, …

November 1936: Arsenal reborn, TV starts, the king demands, the palace burns down.

By Tony Attwood Arsenal had ended October 1936 in a singularly parlous position – one that had not been seen for many a year… P W D L F A GAv Pts 16 Manchester City 13 3 5 5 24 22 1.09 11 17 Arsenal 12 3 5 4 14 15   0.93 11 18 …

The Index of articles about individual players is now complete

The index of all the major articles on the site about Arsenal players is now complete.  It comes in two parts: A to K L to Z We have around 1500 articles on this site, and a fair number are specifically about one man who played for Arsenal.  However this is the first time they …

Too tired to get back to the Arsenal?

by Tony Attwood A wonderful story has appeared on an academic blog, about two young members of the Royal Engineers who went on leave and then were too tired to walk back to their barracks at the Woolwich Arsenal, so simply handed themselves in to a police station to get a free ride back to …

An Index to all the major articles on Arsenal players in history. A to K complete

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 …

The Arsenal History Society index to articles on Arsenal players

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 …