28 January: Arsenal’s biggest ever win at Highbury
Arsenal 9 Grimsby Town 1
Arsenal goals: Jack 4, Lambert 3, Bastin 1, Holme 1
Attendance 15, 751
The match was originally intended to be played on December 6, but was abandoned after 63 minutes due to fog. This game was thus played mid-week – hence the low crowd for a 2.15pm kick off.
Having lost their previous home league game 1-3 to Sunderland, and having been knocked out of the FA Cup 2-1 away by Chelsea on the previous saturday January 24th, there must have been some gnashing of teeth.
Arsenal had never won the league, and the previous season had come 14th (although they had won their first ever major trophy, by beating Huddersfield in the FA Cup final).
Despite the Sunderland defeat Arsenal were top of the league, and some of the gloom must have been further removed by the way in which Arsenal achieved this position, including three games in November when they scored five, and a 7-1 defeat of Blackpool on December 27.
So the 9-1 was a return to the good life, and in fact the start of a nine-game unbeaten run. Indeed Arsenal only suffered one more defeat that season (away to Villa) and were champions with a record 66 points, seven above second-placed Villa, and 14 above third-place Sheffield Wednesday.
This was Arsenal’s first championship, as I have said, and this game against Grimsby was not only their best ever league win as Arsenal, but also the start of the run into that famous championship.
1970/71 was of course a special season, and at the end of the season ITV put together a programme of the matches of the campaign – or at least the matches of the campaign for which they had recordings.
Which of course included some, although not as many as we might hope, Arsenal games. Including the match on 16 January 1971.
So here’s the whole programme – the 1970/71 season… according to ITV.
15 January 2022: Tottenham “furious” at derby postponement
15 January 2022: “Tottenham have been left furious after the Premier League accepted Arsenal’s request to call off Sunday’s north London derby, believing rules regarding coronavirus-related postponements have been manipulated to create “unintended consequences”. Arsenal would have been without at least 15 first-teamers for their visit to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and requested the postponement because they felt they would be unable to meet the league’s criteria for fulfilling a fixture… Spurs criticised the rules’ inconsistency.” (The Guardian)
The league table at that moment showed Arsenal 21 points behind Manchester City
P
W
D
L
F
A
GD
Pts
1
Manchester City
22
18
2
2
54
13
41
56
2
Chelsea
22
12
7
3
45
17
28
43
3
Liverpool
20
12
6
2
52
18
34
42
4
West Ham United
21
11
4
6
39
27
12
37
5
Arsenal
20
11
2
7
33
25
8
35
6
Tottenham Hotspur
18
10
3
5
23
20
3
33
One year later, to the day (and before the day’s games) Arsenal were five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the league and with a game in hand ahead of… the north London derby.