Even in the glorious 1930s Arsenal could have terrible starts to the season
Arsenal came to the 1938/9 as reigning Champions – the club that had won five league titles and two FA Cups in the decade.
They began with a friendly against Tottenham which was lost 0-2 at Highbury; an inauspicious start given that Tottenham were a resolutely second division team at the time, and Arsenal put out their first team most of whom had just won the League a couple of months earlier.
Arsenal’s team for the day was…
Swindin
Male Joy Hapgood
Crayston Copping
Griffiths L Jones Drake B Jones Bastin
The following Saturday the season began in earnest with a home game against Portsmouth. There was one change in the lineup, Kirchen replacing Griffiths. 59,940 turned up and despite all I have said above about Bryn Jones replacing non-scoring Alex James, Jones scored. The other goal was an own goal. Arsenal were up and running.
And then, immediately, there was a friendly to play on the following Monday – the regular fixture against Rangers in Glasgow. Allison used this fixture to experiment, and to give some of the regular back up players, first team playing time.
1937/8 was the first season in eleven that Rangers had not come first or second in the Scottish league (they had come third) and neither had they won the Scottish Cup. But they had regrouped and presented a team which not only went on to be Champions of Scotland but also scored 112 goals in 38 league matches in doing so.
Les Compton replaced Hapgood, which was expected, but Les Jones was tried out at right half, Collett came in to replace Copping, Bryn Jones played at outside right (!) and the rest of the forward line was Bremner, Carr, Drury and Cumner. Arsenal lost 1-0. But the changes are significant – Allison had no need to make these positional adjustments and it was clear he was experimenting on how to use Bryn Jones.
Back with the league in match 2 of the campaign, Jones scored again when exactly the same team as in the first league match played Huddersfield away, and gained a 1-1 draw. It was a decent start to the league campaign.
But then on 8 September came the third league game of the campaign an away game with Brentford who had put in a strong showing last season, and looked for a while as if they might challenge to be champions. So far they had won one and drawn one game, and the 0-1 defeat for Arsenal was a disappointment for Arsenal fans, especially as Arsenal had been able to play the same line-up for the third league match running.
Some changes were then felt to be required as on 10 September Arsenal returned to Highbury to play Everton who were now top of the league having won all three of their opening fixtures. Everton had won the league in 1932, but had struggled for the last three seasons in the lower part of the league. Now however they were looking like their old selves, and with Arsenal looking increasingly uncertain Everton beat Arsenal 1-2 at Highbury.
Although there was some pleasure that Bryn Jones had scored again, there had not been too much pleasure at the way Arsenal were playing as a team, and so for this match Carr came in as centre forward instead of Drake who had not yet scored, and Nelson played on the wing instead of Kirchen. Nelson had played eight games the previous season, scoring three, and had looked like a possible long term player for Arsenal, but on this occasion it was not to be. Everton’s perfect start continued.
7 September 1896: Arsenal 3 Rushden Town 2. The first United League match for Woolwich Arsenal.
The United League was a 19th century league set up for clubs to get a few more matches out of the season, in addition to their commitments to the Football League, Southern League or other similar Leagues in which they played.
Clubs played their first team players in the United League games, and Arsenal played their first game in the United League against Rushden on 7 September 1896 at home. Woolwich Arsenal won 3-2. That season Arsenal played 14 games in the league, winning six, drawing three and losing five. They came third out of the eight teams in the league.
There is no record of the attendance at this first game, but the second United League game of the season (a 2-2 home draw with Luton Town on October 3) was recorded as having 8000 in the crowd – which was high compared with most of the games.
Other teams in the league were Wellingborough, Kettering, Tottenham, Loughborough Town, and Millwall Athletic. It is interesting to note that the Tottenham games only drew crowds of 2,000. The derby against Millwall A. however showed 15,000 in attendance for the home game. Tottenham was clearly seen as being of as much interest as the further afield clubs.
Also, of interest is the collection of Northamptonshire clubs. Rushden, Wellingborough and Kettering were all in that county, and although Rushden and Diamonds did rise up to play in the third tier of the Football League they then collapsed along with Kettering, who also lost their ground.
Only Luton, of the non-local teams, gained high attendances for matches against Arsenal. The top crowd was 12,000 against Millwall (for both the home and away games), and 14,500 against Tottenham away.
In the second season of the United League Southampton joined the league and Arsenal once again came third.
By the third season there were 11 clubs in the league, with Reading and Brighton United now in the league. Arsenal this time came 4th.
The final match for Woolwich Arsenal in the United League was a 2-3 defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur on 29 April 1899 in front of 7000 spectators. The following season Arsenal entered the Southern District Combination, a competition that lasted for just one season.
This competition also ended with a game against Tottenham on 24 April 1900 at Plumstead. The match was abandoned after 65 minutes due to abusive language from the crowd. The club was ordered to post notices instructing the crowd to behave properly, but the referee was also criticised for his handling of the game. The game was not replayed.
5 September 1921: After three straight defeats at the start of the season, Arsenal won their first game.
That victory was over Preston 1-0. What made it rather extraordinary was that Preston were unbeaten in their three games up to that point.
1921 was a time of utter turmoil in UK with mass strikes, demonstrations, revolt in Ireland, unemployment on huge scales… And on 1 September one more action was taken which shook the country, as the Borough Council of Poplar in London refused to collect part of its rates in protest against the way rates were calculated: an unprecedented form of rebellion by those representing a poor working class area. 30 councillors were sent to prison over the affair and an Act was rushed through Parliament to try and help resolve matters.
And so it seems was Arsenal – at least it was in the third post-war season: 1921/2, for it was a disastrous start to the season.
By the third match on 3 September Arsenal had five players in the lineup who had not played in the first game just one week before. The match was a return of the opening day’s game, away to Sheffield United. They had won 2-1 at Highbury, and now the Blades won 4-1 on their own ground.
Not surprisingly the fourth game of the season, late on Monday afternoon, 5 September, attracted only half the crowd of the game on the opening day, and those who failed to turn up must have been most frustrated, for after three straight defeats, Arsenal won, beating Preston 1-0. What made it all the more extraordinary was that Preston were unbeaten in their three games up to that point.
White scored, meaning he had scored in all four matches, and thanks to two against Preston in the earlier game, had five goals to his name. McKenzie came in as the third choice inside right of the season. He was another player who had had a few games at the end of last season; once more, not a new signing.
Meanwhile the turmoil in the country at large continued. Ireland was the prime issue of course as the government met to discuss the finer points as to post-separation Ireland’s relationship with the Empire. But there were diversions too. Charlie Chaplain returned to London on 9 September and was greeted by huge cheering crowds.
4 September 1956: Final Arsenal match for Don Roper
Donald George Beaumont Roper was seen as a schoolboy by Southampton, playing for Bitterne Nomads, in the Hampshire League and soon turned professional with Southampton in 1939, (and not 1949 as Brian Glanville wrote in a rather eccentric obituary in the Guardian). He started playing for the club during the second world war – including some games alongside Ted Bates who later became his manager and was the source of a life-long rift between Roper and Southampton.
After one post-war season, and having played a first class cricket match for Hampshire against Cambridge University in the summer of 1947 Arsenal signed Don Roper, with George Curtis, Tom Rudkin plus £10,000 going in the opposite direction.
The transfer was a very difficult one, not least because Arsenal absolutely did not want to lose George Curtis. It is reported that Arsenal manager Tom Whittaker went to Southampton eleven times during the war years and during Roper’s one post-war league season at the Dell to watch the player and to try and ease the negotiations along.
Roper immediately became a first team player, playing 40 league games and scoring ten league goals (plus one in the cup) in the amazing 1947/8 season as Arsenal won the league under Whittaker. This was the season in which Arsenal went the first 17 matches unbeaten, playing most of the home games in front of 60,000.
But on 29 January 1949 he was injured in a cup match against Derby and although the team initially did well without him (winning the next three games scoring 13 goals with only one against) and a run of seven games without a win took its toll, as Arsenal ended up 5th.
1949/50 was a season of shuffling the team and Roper started the first match as centre forward before moving to left wing, and then back to centre forward. But injury struck again and he only played one match in the run to the Cup Final and just a smattering of games in the second half of the season. (Interestingly many reports seem to copy each other by saying that he was moved from right wing to left wing, and that he was “dropped” for the cup final, but the situation is far more complex than that).
By 1951/2 he was back to his wing position – playing sometimes left wing sometimes right, and he played in Arsenal’s cup run to the FA Cup final – in which the team was disrupted by an injury to Walley Barnes.
But finally in 1952/3 he got his second league winner’s medal, and played 41 of the 42 league matches.
He continued playing as a regular for Arsenal until 3 December 1955 and played 321 matches for Arsenal in total, scoring 95 goals and then (mistakenly as it turned out) went back to Southampton (then of Division III South) in January 1957 as club captain, playing in a team with Terry Paine.
But in his third season back at the club a split arose between Roper and Ted Bates after Bates reneged on a pledge that Roper should have a job as a trainer with the club at the end of his playing career. It was a nasty end to a relationship between the club and one of its top players of all time, and with Southampton refusing to back down, it was never healed.
He finished his career by moving from Hampshire into Dorset playing for Weymouth and Dorchester Town, finally retiring from football in 1963 and moving on to work for an engineering company. In his later years he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and died in 2001 aged 78.
3 September 1921: Arsenal lost their third successive match at the start of the season.
The club was not bottom of the league since Cardiff City had also lost three and had a fractionally different goal average. The bottom five of the first division also included Manchester City and Manchester United.
The papers reported that the team was “decimated by illness and injury” although I can’t find what the illness was that spread through the club.
As a result Arsenal included five players in the lineup who had not played in the first game just one week before. The match was a return of the opening day’s game, away to Sheffield United. They had won 2-1 at Highbury, and now the Blades won 4-1 on their own ground.
Not surprisingly the fourth game of the season, late on Monday afternoon, 5 September, attracted only half the crowd of the game on the opening day, and those who failed to turn up must have been most frustrated, for after three straight defeats, Arsenal won, beating Preston 1-0. What made it all the more extraordinary was that Preston were unbeaten in their three games up to that point.
But the disasters for Arsenal were relentless, as with the next game on 10 September which was away to Manchester City. Arsenal was, for the first time in the season able to field the same XI as had appeared in the previous match. It didn’t help matters much however as Arsenal lost 0-2 to the club that Knighton later claimed had offered him the job as manager prior to the start of the season.
At this time the Islington newspapers at the time were not particularly enamoured with the notion of publishing readers’ letters criticising the local football club. Such a situation pertained throughout the country: criticising the club was thought to be the preserve of the “expert” commentator on the newspaper’s payroll. Much as now.
But one did appear under the name “Well Wisher” on 23 September.
The central criticism was the team selection, and the letter asked why the club hadn’t worked harder to replace several players who were (in the writer’s view) obviously reaching the end of their careers.
The letter also mentioned that the club had to pay good fees to bring in good players. Certainly Arsenal were alert to this given the amount of money Cardiff had paid them for Fred Pagnam. But they would also be alert to how Pagnam had failed to live up to his goalscoring record once he had moved. Pagnam was certainly one of the players who was coming to the end of his career when Arsenal sold him for a record fee for the club.
But it wasn’t so much the goalscoring that was Arsenal’s problem because in the lead up to the next round of matches on 24 September Arsenal had scored 10 goals and were in 10th position in terms of goals scored in the league. The problem was in the defence where only one club (Stoke) had let in more than Arsenal.
A subsequent article on 24 September criticised Well Wisher’s commentary but attacked in a different direction, saying that Arsenal did not bring through enough of their own young talent. On that day Arsenal played Everton away, and got a 1-1 draw, and at last someone other than White got a goal: it was Bradshaw.
Interestingly in this latest public criticism the writer was especially scathing of Arsenal’s policy of playing men out of position and the letter ended with a warning that much more of the kind of displays they’d been forced to watch recently and supporters would go elsewhere.
The Islington Daily Gazette called the line up for this last match of the month a “reconstructed forward line” and at least Arsenal got a draw: Everton 1 Arsenal 1.
2 September 1893: Arsenal’s first ever league game.
On 2 September 1893 Woolwich Arsenal FC played their very first game in the league. And just like this season it was against Newcastle United.
Here’s a match report, from the Newcastle Daily Journal found by Newcastle blogger Eddy McKenzie. The local paper couldn’t get Arsenal’s name right (the name was changed from Royal Arsenal to Woolwich Arsenal when the league insisted that the club had to be a limited company – and limited companies were not allowed to use the word “Royal” in their name.
Royal Arsenal-v- Newcastle United.
At Plumstead, London in beautifully fine weather, before 6,000 spectators. It is the first League match that has ever been played in London. The ground was in splendid condition.
Arsenal won toss and had a light wind behind them. They had considerably the best of the play in the first half. Which was not of high order. Both showing want of practice. Shaw scored a very soft goal for Arsenal 8 minutes after the start. And kept the visitors pressed, till just before the change, when Newcastle rallied, and had bad luck in not scoring.
With the wind in their favour, Newcastle played better and 20 minutes later Graham scored from a scrimmage. Sorley equalised and play in the last 10 minutes very exciting. But nothing further was scored. Newcastle had decidedly the best of the second half.
The Second Half: Newcastle United 2 Royal Arsenal 2.
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Now for the team. All were born in England apart from those noted. And there are links to each one on this site if you want to know more.
So four Scots, seven Englishmen.
1 September 1923: Arsenal lose their third match in a row at the start of the season.
I don’t normally commemorate losing matches but in the light of the opening of 2021/2 season it seems relevant. In fact Arsenal lost all four opening games in 1923/4 and were bottom of the league. The manager survived one more season and was then replaced by Herbert Chapman.
After a home defeat to Newcastle by 1-4 and a 0-1 away defeat to West Ham in August 1923, Arsenal played the return game with Newcastle on this day, and in contrast to Arsenal, Newcastle had won both their opening matches and if so anything the 1-0 victory against a clearly struggling Arsenal side was something of a disappointment to the locals.
For the third game in a row Knighton kept the same back six as had served the club so extremely well in the last part of the previous season, and made just one more change bringing in Ernest Wallington who had joined the club from Watford. He replaced Young and it was his one and only game for Arsenal, which suggests it was not a success.
The game against Newcastle was commented on by the press as being a “bad-tempered” game with the referee repeatedly lecturing players on their behaviour. The result meant that Arsenal were now at the foot of the table going into their fourth game of the season, away to West Bromwich who were unbeaten and in fourth.
Meanwhile, Arsenal, the Football Combination champions of the previous season lost to Brighton, a club that had not even had a side in the Combination last season. It was not a good omen.
Worse was to come on Saturday. Arsenal lost 0-4, and thus had played four, lost four, scored one and conceded 10. Eight players (the six defenders, Woods and Turnbull), had played in all four games. Eight other players had been used in the remaining four positions.
Finally a change was made in the defence for match number five, at home to West Ham with Butler dropping out being replaced by Graham who had played 17 games the previous season, mostly at centre half. Voysey who had been playing at inside right dropped out and was replaced by Earle, who had had one game in that position at the end of the previous season.
West Ham had made a decent start to their first season in the top division with one win, two draws and one defeat thus far. But the goal tally (scored one, conceded one) told a story of a club defending like mad, anxious to concede nothing at all. Their one goal had been in the victory over Arsenal, and Arsenal had learned the lesson: attack strongly from the off and get an early goal, as it was unlikely that West Ham would be able to change shape and start attacking.
As a ploy it worked. 1-0 up in ten minutes and 2-0 up at half time Arsenal went on to win 4-1 with two from Stan Earle, and one each from Woods and Graham.
On 15 September, with Arsenal having moved one place up the table after their win over WHU, there was another home game – this time the return against West Brom, and a second victory was clocked up, by 1-0 with Clem Voysey scoring.
It is at this point that Sally Davis reveals a point about the organisation of the directors of which I was not aware before: that each year one of the directors took on the responsibility of being the director for the Reserve team – the team that we may recall won the London Combination for the first time in 1922/3. She suggests that Henry Norris had taken on this task one season while chair of Fulham, and now was doing it again for Arsenal.
I find that a very interesting thought, for it shows a different side of the man. The image of the autocratic wealthy businessman with his chauffeur driven car, with his knighthood and his rank of Colonel in the army, balanced here against the man who would take on the role of going not to the first team games but to the reserve matches. Indeed we have already found him at one of the youth team games this season. Quite an insight I feel; and I wonder how many Arsenal directors of the present day take on such duties.
31 August 1959 Dr James Paterson, war hero and Arsenal player passed away.
Jimmy Paterson was born on 9 May 1891 in London, and although he was English he was considered by many to be Scottish. Indeed he won the Scottish League with Rangers and his parents were Scottish, but he was born in England, and therefore English he was.
He was educated in Glasgow, and started his league career playing for Queen’s Park before moving on to Rangers in 1910 and while still studying he became a regular part of the first team playing at outside right as Rangers won the league.
The next season he changed wings, and continued to play until he graduated in 1916 – Scottish league football, unlike that in England, not being suspended for the first world war.
Having signed up, he was appointed Medical Officer to the 14th Battalion the London Regiment, the London Scottish with the rank of Major, and served on the front line.
There was formal recognition of his heroism in 1917 as he was awarded the Military Cross – the award granted for an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land to members, of the armed forces.
His citation stated, “Under an intense hostile bombardment, he dressed the wounded and cleared them from the road, personally seeing to their removal to the aid post. He then returned and cleared the dead from the road, setting a fine example of coolness and disregard of danger.”
When the war ended he returned to Glasgow and worked in a local hospital. Without any warning to the local media he then turned out again for Rangers, in September 1919 playing against Raith. In fact he played without having gone back into training – an incredibly dangerous thing to do in terms of injuries that could be sustained, and is reported to have been very overweight, but he still won over the crowd, and scored.
Rangers won the title again that year but Dr Paterson moved on. His brother-in-law, John Scott, who worked in London was made Arsenal’s club doctor and Jimmy moved to England to join him in his house in Clapton, and was persuaded by John to sign as an amateur for Arsenal in September 1920.
Although an amateur it seems that like other amateurs of the time he received expenses and “gifts” which are reputed to have included a “baby grand piano from Harrods, a diamond-studded tie-pin and a fine Venetian vase.” A baby grand, I should add, is not a “baby” in the conventional sense, but still a fairly large instrument, just a little smaller than the full size concert grand which is normally only seen in concert halls for the performance of concertos.
Paterson made his debut for Arsenal on the left wing against Derby on 30 October 1920 and played 20 league matches that season.
Now this is where we come to the curious issue which as far as I know has never been resolved before. Paterson’s manager at the time was Leslie Knighton, the man who re-wrote Arsenal’s history to suite himself in his post-second world war autobiography, often claiming that he was forced to take players from where ever he could find them, because of Norris’ parsimony, and the winding up of the scouting network.
Many events show this story to be a total falsehood, written to excuse the poor performance of the team during the era – but one stands out.
Knighton claimed that he was so short of players that he was at one stage even forced to bring in the brother in law of the club’s physio, to make up the numbers. That brother in law was Dr Jimmy Paterson. Knighton totally played down the quality of Paterson as a player, and this image has been heighted by Bernard Joy in Forward Arsenal! in which is reports only that Paterson had played for Queens’ Park in Glasgow, ignoring the fact that Paterson won the league twice as an integral part of the Rangers team.
So rather than the man that Knighton in his autobiography claims to have been reduced to playing – the brother-in-law of the physio, who had once played for Queens Park, this man was one of the great heroes of Scottish football.
What Knighton also omits to say is that in 1920/1 under his management, Arsenal won only two of their first 11 games. Paterson then made his Arsenal début against Derby on 30 October 1920 and with Paterson in the side the club went unbeaten in the next seven, winning five.
Then in March 1921 Paterson was selected for the Football League against the Scottish League, coincidentally played at Highbury.
Before the match, he is reported to have gone into the Scottish dressing room to shake hands with all the players, many of whom he had played with before the war. But it was Paterson’s cross that led to the only goal scored by a man who was himself to become an Arsenal legend, Charlie Buchan.
After his 20 games in 1920/1 Paterson only played two league games the following season, but 26 in 1922/3 and 21 in 1923/4, at which point he retired, although was still technically on the books of Arsenal.
But then on 13 February 1926 he was persuaded by Herbert Chapman to play once again – in Chapman’s first season at the club.
Chapman needed someone to fill in for the regular number 11, Haden. Jimmy kept his place for the 20 February 1926 FA Cup game against Aston Villa away, not least because Joe Hulme who Chapman had signed from Blackburn was cup tied, and he played again on 24 February for the replay at Highbury in front of an amazing 71,446 which Arsenal won 2-0, with Paterson scoring the first goal.
He played his final game on 6 March 1926 away to Swansea, again in the FA Cup which Arsenal lost 2-1.
In all he made 77 appearances for Arsenal, scoring two goals.
Dr Paterson then left London and moved to a country practice at Bramley in Surrey, and finally retired to Ayrshire in the 1950s. He died of a heart attack and died 31 August 1959 aged 68.
He clearly was a great man, and it is quite shocking that he was used as an excuse by Knighton for his own failings. It is rather late in the day, but very good to put the record straight.
30 August 1930: Gerrit Keyser made his debut in a 4-1 away win at Blackpool.
Despite only playing in one defeat in the first 12 games of the season, he was then dropped and never played for the club again. This game was the first of five consecutive wins and a nine-game unbeaten sequence.
But behind that bald statistic is a really odd story – and one that certainly should not be forgotten. For Gerard Keizer was a player who clearly must have been quite extraordinary, because in the summer of 1930 Herbert Chapman signed him from non-league Margate, and immediately thrust him into the first division side.
In fact Keizer’s 12 games were the first 12 games of the title winning 1930/1; Arsenal’s first ever championship winning season. Of those 12 we won 8, drew 3 and lost 1.
Keizer was brought in after Dan Lewis, our regular keeper until that point, had suffered a crisis of confidence. Lewis had made the error that cost Arsenal the 1927 cup final, and when he was dropped by Chapman for the 1930 final it is said that his confidence took such a battering he felt unable to start the new season. Meanwhile Charlie Preedy who played in goal in the 1930 final was not seen as a permanent replacement and so Keizer was brought in.
But to find why Keizer was then dropped after such a successful start, we have to dig a little deeper.
Keizer was Dutch. He had joined Ajax aged 16 and by the time he was 20 he was their reserve keeper. In fact Keizer was registered with two clubs (allowable since he was an amateur and the clubs were in different countries). Apparently he would fly back to the Netherlands on Saturday nights to play for Ajax on Sundays.
Maybe it was this that made Chapman drop him as suddenly as he had picked him. Or maybe it was the fact that Keizer never kept a clean sheet during his 12 game spell – although to be fair, Arsenal only kept three clean sheets all season. They won the league not because of their defence but because they scored 127 goals in 42 games.
Whatever the cause, Keyser left at the end of the season, moving to Queens Park Rangers, before dropping his London connection to become Ajax’s first choice keeper in 1933. He then played 302 games for the club as they became the dominant force in Dutch football, as well as gaining two Netherlands caps.
In 1945 Keizer flew to London once again to ask Arsenal for help in rebuilding Ajax after the war. Arsenal (themselves seriously affected financially by the war) generously donated a set of kit and some footballs.
This was the start of another period of regular trips between Amsterdam and London for Keizer but in 1947 he was caught with a rather fine collection of five pound notes among the football kits he was carrying, and he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for smuggling. Whether this secondary business activity had been going on in 1931 and was the cause of Keizer’s sudden removal from the club we shall never know.
After his release from prison, Keizer went into business and became one of Amsterdam’s leading greengrocers and in 1955 he returned to Ajax as a member of the club’s board. He died in 1980 aged 70.
29 August 1925: Chapman’s first game as manager of Arsenal
29 AUGUST 1925…
Herbert Chapman’s first match as Arsenal manager was against Tottenham. And not only was it Chapman’s first game with Arsenal, it was the first league match under the new offside rule in which only two defenders other than the keeper needed to be behind the ball when it was kicked.
Chapman entered Highbury as the man who had just won the league twice with unfancied Huddersfield, and his prestige could not have been higher. As were the hopes, with Arsenal having finished the previous season 20th out of 22, missing relegation by one place.
Arsenal lost this game 0-1. The outgoing manager Leslie Knighton alleged some 20 years later that he was promised the gate money from the game as a benefit payment, but no evidence of such any agreement was ever produced and almost all of Knighton’s anti-Norris statements were subsequently proven to be untrue. Norris had passed away by the time Knighton made the allegation, and given how many other allegations he made which have proven to be unfounded it would seem very unlikely that Norris, who had absolutely no record of being a man who did not keep his promises, would do such a thing on this occasion.
Knighton had been at Arsenal since 1919, and had never got close to winning either of the main trophies on offer, and only a few of his transfers had been successful. Indeed at the time, benefit matches for managers who went on to work elsewhere were unheard of.
So why would a man who had only just avoided relegation two years running get a benefit? And why wait until a Sunday newspaper asked for a story 20 years later – long after the Norris and Chapman had both passed on – before making such an allegation?
Also on this day we saw Charlie Buchan’s debut after signing for Arsenal for a second time. Part of his transfer arrangement was that Arsenal would pay a fee of £100 for every goal he scored in the season. He scored 20. The money was paid personally by Sir Henry Norris and didn’t come out of club funds.
The club’s early history in photographs
This file updated 30 August 2022
