26 April 1975

The end of the 1974/5 season was not exactly exciting for Arsenal fans, but it had its moments.  Arsenal were safe from relegation (just) but neither Tottenham nor Chelsea were in that luxurious state.  

Chelsea sorted themselves out on April 23 by drawing 1-1 at home to Sheffield Utd while Arsenal were busy losing 3-1 away to Newcastle in front of a 21,895.  It was a demoralising affair for Arsenal as Macdonald outstripped the whole Arsenal defence time and again, endlessly prompting and persuading his colleagues to keep going for the jugular.

If there was any hope for the Arsenal fan it was that having avoided relegation with a couple of games to go they could be said to be saving all their efforts to help send Tottenham down.

With teams having one or two games to play Carlisle were down, but the three teams above them (Tottenham, Luton and Chelsea) were all on 32 points.  One of them would fall. Arsenal on 35 could not be caught.

 Tottenham looked safest with two to play, but their next game was on April 26 1975 against… Arsenal.  It ended Arsenal 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0, with 43,752 at Highbury.

The Daily Express voiced the opinion that “Tottenham are simply not equipped in terms of either personnel or tactical development to face another season in the top flight”.  It was music to Arsenal fans’ ears after such an awful Gunners season.

This home victory for Arsenal – only their third since the start of February – gave Tottenham the need to get something out of their last match (against Leeds) in order to guarantee safety.  Their team boasting such notables as Perryman, Knowles, Jones, and Jennings looked lost.  Arsenal were not stunning, but were good enough.

The press’ verdict in general was that Brady, Rostron and Hornsby represented the future for Arsenal. (One out of three was not bad for the media).

For Tottenham no future could be seen.  Chelsea had drawn their last match and were down to division two.  Tottenham just needed a draw to avoid the drop on goal difference. On April 28 1975 the 15th and 16th clubs played out their meaningless game and it ended West Ham United 1 Arsenal 0, 30,195 at the Boleyn Ground.  The team was:

Barnett, Storey, Nelson, Kelly, Mancini, Matthews, Ball, Brady, Hornsby, Kidd, Rostron.

Tottenham beat Leeds Utd 4-2, and so saved themselves.  But as for Arsenal and the question of what next, these last few games gave no clue.  All that one could say was that they looked relieved that the season was over.

Arsenal had finished 16^th, their lowest position since 1924/5 – which itself was the season which caused Leslie Knighton to be sacked as manager, and Herbert Chapman brought in.  There was interest as to whether the once feted Bertie Mee would actually be in his job at the start of the next campaign.

In the Double season Arsenal had used 14 players who made more than two starts in the league season.   In 1974/5 there were 20 such players – a 42% increase caused by injuries, lack of form, and transfers in and out.  Arsenal were unlucky with injuries – particularly with Cropley, but it was up to the club to cover for such situations.

Particularly worrying was that the top scorer was Kidd with 19 goals, followed by…

• Ball 9
• Radford 7
• Brady 3
• Hornsby 3

Kidd played 40 league games in the season – if he got an injury in the year to come, then what?

Arsenal followed up the season with four games in the Far East

• 10 May 1975: Malaysian Select XI  2 Arsenal 0
• 14 May 1975: Malaysian Select XI 1 Arsenal 1 (Kidd)
• 17 May 1975: Singapore National XI  2 Arsenal 3 (40,000) (Kidd, Cropley, Radford)
• 20 May 1975: Thailand National XI 0 Arsenal 3  (Kidd 2, Cropley).

And then, finally, thankfully, we could stop watching football for a while.

25 April 2004

Arsenal won the League, at White Hart Lane, for the second time since Tottenham last won the league which the record books show as being in 1961.  The score was Tottenham 2 Arsenal 2 and this was the 34th league game of the unbeaten season. 

Jens Lehmann (having conceded a penalty in the 94th minute) failed to return to the pitch to celebrate afterwards.  Vieira and Pires got the goals.

The only issue left after winning the title was whether the season would indeed be unbeaten.  Sir Alex Ferguson still kept saying it would not be, recalling the day that as a player with Rangers they had tried for the unbeaten season but had lost on the last match of the season.  As if there was any comparison.

Arsenal had no such troubles for having drawn with Tottenham to win the league they played out a goalless draw at home with Birmingham, a 1-1 draw away to Portsmouth, gained a 0-1 away victory over Fulham, and then the final victory 2-1 over Leicester at Highbury.

Of course the media had to celebrate the unique achievement but several papers did make a point that Arsenal were not the first to do this (Preston achieving this in the very short campaign of the first ever League season) while Arsenal had lost in the various cups in which they played.

It was an extremely churlish response by and large, for a team that was 11 points clear of Chelsea by the end of the campaign and were already on a goal difference of +45.

Liverpool who ended the season in the fourth Champions League place were 30 points behind.

24 April 1989: the third of three high scoring wins

In 1998/9 Arsenal played in three high scoring games.  On 20 February 1999 there was a home win against Leicester City 5-0 with three from Anelka and two from Parlour.

On 19 April that year we beat Wimbledon 5-1, with goals from Parlour, Vieira, Bergkamp and Kanu, plus an own goal from Thatcher.

But then just five days later on 24 April 1999 both of these were exceeded by a 6-1 away win over Middlesbrough.  And this was not a case of all the goals coming in a rush at the end as Middlesbrough realised that they were beaten – far from it.   Arsenal kept us entertained through the game.

Overmars got a penalty on 4 minutes, Anelka made It two on 38 and Kanu put the match beyond doubt on the stroke of half time.

We could have eased up of course but Vieira was having none of that.  He scored on 58 before two minutes later Kanu got his second, and Anelka reminded us he was still awake on 78 minutes with his second and the sixth.

The travelling fans then sang “Boring boring Arsenal” from that point to the final whistle.

11 goals in two games across six days.  Not bad entertainment.

23 April 1997

Dennis Compton CBE died on this day, the first day of the new cricket season.  Flags at cricket clubs were flown at half mast and later the MCC named the stand at the Nursery End at Lords after him.

And the connection is, of course, that Dennis Compton was also an Arsenal player.  As was his brother.

If we look back we can see that on 22 March 1950 Arsenal played Chelsea at White Hart Lane, in an FA Cup semi-final replay.  Arsenal won 1-0 with a goal scored in extra time.  It was, according to reports, not a perfect game of skilful football – indeed it seems that Arsenal were indulging in a long ball game for much of the time.

Arsenal’s team was of particular note:

Swindin

Scott    Barnes

Macauley, Lesley Compton, Mercer

Cox, Logie, Goring, Lewis, Dennis Compton

And of course from this you will see we had two Comptons playing in this cup semi-final.

Leslie Compton played for Arsenal between 1930 and 1952 mainly as a centre-half, making 253 appearances and scoring 5 goals.  He won a First Division title medal in 1948 and an FA Cup winners medal (following this game) in 1950..

Denis Compton played for Arsenal between 1936 and 1950, mainly as an outside left,  making 54 appearances and scoring 15 goals.  He also won a first Division title medal in 1948 and the FA Cup winners medal in 1950.

Denis  Compton CBE was born in Hendon on 23 May 1918 and died in Hendon as we commemorate today, on this day in 1997.  If we are to separate the Comptons somehow we’d call Denis a cricketer who played football, in contrast to his brother who was a footballer who played cricket.  Denis played in 78 Test Matches and played for Middlesex – his home county.  He was a slow left arm bowler, and cricket reports call him one of England’s most remarkable batsmen.    He scored 123 centuries in first-class cricket.  

Denis started his football career at Nunhead in 1934/5 before moving to Arsenal, where he made his début in 1936.  He also played for England in wartime matches.

His brother Leslie played cricket for Middlesex, but it was at football that he excelled.   He came to Arsenal straight from Middlesex Schools, and played as an amateur in 1930 playing his first first-team game on 24 April 1932 against Aston Villa, just after turning pro.

He started as a right back, but then when George Male took that place, and Denis went back into the reserves.

His first medal came with the Charity Shield in 1938.  During the war he continued to play for Arsenal and, being converted to centre forward he apparently scored ten goals in one game against Leyton Orient.

After the war however he moved into the centre of defence.  He missed a few games in 1947/8 because of his commitments to Middlesex (which must meant that Arsenal and Middlesex had a deal as to when he was available) he played for the rest of the season as Arsenal won the First Division title and both Comptons got their league winner’s medals. It was Leslie who scored the equaliser in the first match against Chelsea, that led to the replay discussed above,  heading in a corner taken by his brother Denis.In the final Arsenal beat Liverpool 1-0 to win the cup.

Denis was then selected to play for England on 15 November 1950, at the age of 38 years and 64 days; the oldest post-war England débutante and the oldest ever outfield player to début.

Leslie retired in the summer of 1952 but stayed on for three more years as a coach and scout.  His cricketing record was 272 appearances for Middlesex where he played as wicket keeper, and both brothers won the 1947 County Championship.

The Comptons are thus the only brothers ever to have won the League and County titles in  football and cricket.

22 April 2018

With Arsene Wenger having announced that he was leaving Arsenal, “Match of the Day” on BBC TV featured the “Football should be an art” banner, at the Arsenal Stadium, in its opening sequences for the Arsenal match against West Ham United, which Arsenal won 4-1.

The banner was organised by AISA members and publicised with the support of the “Untold Arsenal” blog and was primarily funded by AISA members.

Here is the video of that moment when the BBC chose our banner as the focal point of its recognition of Mr Wenger’s importance in the club. https://youtu.be/ntPWXPm6Gvg

During his time at Arsenal Mr Wenger oversaw 1235 competitive games and 57.25% of them were won – a higher percentage win rate than any other permanent manager in the entire history of Arsenal. He won the League three times and the FA Cup seven times, making him the most successful manager in the history of the FA Cup since its foundation in the 19th century.

21 April 1930

Leicester 6 Arsenal 6

This game took place five days before Arsenal’s FA Cup final against Huddersfield Town and the club rested a number of players.

Arsenal’s David Halliday scored four goals; Arsenal had been 3-1 down at half time and also had a goal disallowed.

Now lest you think this was the Arsenal of the 1930s at the top of their game, it was far from it.  Arsenal were more in danger of relegation than of winning the league, and in fact had not won anything yet.   And it was the fact that they were about to play in the FA Cup final (which they won) which caused them to put out a number of reserve players – including Halliday.

The FA Cup final was in fact later the same week, and not only did Halliday not play in that, he never played for Arsenal again.

The 6-6 score represents the top league’s most goals in a game.  In professional football in England it has only been equalled by Charlton 6 Middlesbrough 6 in the second division on 22 October 1960.

And indeed Arsenal’s other results around this time don’t reflect any particular ability to score goals…

• 18 April 1930: Arsenal 1 Leicester 1
• 19 April 1930: Huddersfield 2 Arsenal 2
• 21 April 1930: Leicester 6 Arsenal 6 (four for Halliday)
• 26 April 1930: Arsenal 2 Huddersfield 0 (FA Cup Final)
• 28 April 1930: Arsenal 0 Sunderland 1
• 3 May 1930: Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 4

Arsenal could technically have gone down as late as early-April, but it would have taken the strangest set of results for Grimsby, (who had a late mini-revival), Burnley and Everton to have overtaken Arsenal.  It was indeed a league table that was utterly congested at the bottom, and for Arsenal to have sunk, not only would they have had to lose every match, the others would have had to have won against higher placed clubs throughout.

But to turn to happier events.  What of the FA Cup run?  Here it is – the run towards Arsenal’s first major trophy.

Here it is…

The draw against Birmingham didn’t inspire confidence but Cups are generally won by slipping along unnoticed.

But what of David Halliday, Arsenal’s great hero on this day.

He had come from Sunderland where between 1925 and 1930 he played 166 games and scored an amazing 156 goals.  In his one season with Arsenal he played 15 goals and scored eight, before moving to Manchester City (76 games, 47 goals) and finally Clapton Orient (53 games 33 goals).

After that he had one season in non-league football between retiring in 1937 having played 449 games and scored 336 goals.

In his final year of playing he was also manager of Yeovil, before getting a job managing Aberdeen where he stayed until 1955.  He then had three years managing Leicester.  He then scouted for Leicester in Scotland and died on 5 January 1970, aged just 68.

Just one season for Arsenal, but we should remember that game, and indeed celebrate his remarkable career.

20 April 2018: Arsene Wenger announces he is leaving

The simplest way to measure a manager’s success or failure is by the number of trophies won – Arsène Wenger won 10.   More than anyone else at Arsenal.  But then of course he had many more years to do that in than other managers.  So maybe we should measure his win percentage – what percentage of the 1228 league games did he win?   The answer is 57.38%.

Only those who managed for less than a season (Pat Rice and Joe Shaw) did better.  Pat Rice because he only managed for four matches and Joe Shaw because he took over from Herbert Chapman when Chapman died, and managed 23 games to win Arsenal the title.

For the record Unai Emery who succeeded him gained 55.13% and at the time of writing Mikel Arteta is recorded at 54.55%.  These figures come from league and cup matches so include Champions League and Europa League games as well as Premier League and FA Cup.

As for the greatly revered Chapman, how did Arsène Wenger compare?   Chapman’s win rate was 49.88%.  Thus for Mr Wenger to maintain a win rate higher than that across 21 years is something very special, and probably won’t ever be seen again at Arsenal.

But what did he give us?

Certainly a continuously full stadium virtually all the way through – something we never had under any other manager, where much of the time the average attendance was in the 30,000’s, not knocking around the 60,000 mark which was Highbury’s capacity before seating was installed.

He gave us players the clubs could never have afforded to buy once they were established.  Vieira and Henry are the greatest examples but there were many others whose value shot up after Mr Wenger discovered them.

People like Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas… the players who would then leave having made their name, in order to get higher salaries than Arsenal could afford either with the smaller stadium, or the repayment of the loans on the Ems.

And he gave us trophies – on average just about one every other year.  But such was the hatred engineered against him by the media and certain supporters groups, that this staggering achievement was denigrated by deciding to say the FA Cup was not a trophy.  Of course, it was always a lesser trophy, than the League but it was still a trophy.  It still needed to be fought for and won – otherwise Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea would hardly have bothered so much to try and win it.

And that left Mr Wenger as the man who (I suspect forever) has won the FA Cup more than anyone else in history.

And looking back, what I suppose some people do forget is just where Arsenal were before Mr Wenger.  Maybe this table might remind those people a little.  We won the double in 1970/1.  Then in the next 25 years we won the League twice and the FA Cup twice

25 years to win four trophies.  OK if you want to include the League Cup let’s add two of them and the Cup Winners Cup.  That is seven trophies in 25 years.  Mr Wenger outdid that with 3 League titles (as opposed to the two in the previous 25 years), and seven FA Cups (as opposed to two FA Cups, two League Cups and one CWC – which makes five).  And he took fewer years to do it too.

And at the same time he provided entertainment enough to fill the stadium while maintaining a place in the top four – something that Arsenal had never done under any other manager in its entire history.  So there again, just like the FA Cup not being a trophy, coming in the top four was suddenly of no significance even though it was a greater achievement than the club had ever seen before – or since.

It’s a different game now.  As David Dein so memorably said, “The Russians have parked their tanks on their lawn and are firing £50 notes at us.”  They are still there, joined by the Abu Dhabians, or whatever the collective noun is for people from that Emirate.  But the memory of Mr Wenger lives on.  Here is this day in recent

20 April 2018: Arsene Wenger announced his retirement as Arsenal’s manager after 22 years at the club.  It took all of two hours before the first attacks and conspiracy theories about his departure started to appear on the websites of the national press.

20 April 2019: One year on from Mr Wenger announcing his retirement as Arsenal’s manager it looked like the change of manager had worked with the club being 4th in the league with a game in hand over the teams around.  But three defeats in the last five games saw Arsenal drop to 5th, missing the Champions League by two points.

20 April 2020: Two years on from Mr Wenger’s announcement of his departure, and with football being shut down because of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, Arsenal were 9th in the league with ten games left to play.

20 April 2021: Three years on from Mr Wenger’s announcement, Arsenal sat 9th in the league, nine points behind the derided fourth position, and closer to relegation than to the top of the league and a member of the newly formed Super League.

20 April 2022: Out of both domestic cups and not competing in Europe Arsenal have just suffered three consecutive defeats before facing Chelsea away on this day.  They are fifth in the league and the consensus of media opinion is that they are unlikely to make it back to the “not a trophy” fourth spot.

Day by Day: the videos – An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order. 

Day by Day: the stories– a key moment in Arsenal and footballing history for each day of the yearArsenal in April – all the anniversaries day by day 

19 April 1975

By Tony Attwood

At a time when many fans are complaining about Arsenal being mid-table, it might be worth remembering this date in history.   Arsenal were in 17th and Tottenham 20th in the league with four and three games to play respectively.  Relegation for both clubs was a possibility.

Most Arsenal fans, who made up a part of the 24,362 were also listening to transistor radios (mobile phones with constant connections to everything still being some 35 years in the future) to catch the Tottenham score.

Indeed they probably got more entertainment that way for while it ended QPR 0 Arsenal 0 the score at WHL was Tottenham 2 Chelsea 0.

In the final game of the previous season, Arsenal had played away to QPR.  Liam Brady scored his first goal for Arsenal, Alan Ball was seriously injured and Bob Wilson played his final game.  This season it was as if the players remembered that match and felt that having offered so much excitement one year before there was no need to offer any more.

Clearly, most of the crowd got the message, for they had gone long before the end.   Arsenal had enough chances to win, but without Brady operating in midfield, the invention was simply not there.  Ball had an off day, Kidd can’t be expected to score in every match, and sad to say Armstrong was looking a little older every time he appeared.

This was Arsenal’s sixth goalless draw of the season and if the lesson of 1974/5 was needed to be made plain, this game did it.  The current Arsenal was not good enough.  Arsenal were 17^th (out of 22, with two going down), Tottenham 19^th and Chelsea 21^st.

On April 23 Chelsea drew 1-1 at home to Sheffield Utd while Arsenal were busy losing 3-1 away to Newcastle in front of a 21,895.

Carlisle were long since buried.  Now it was still a case of any two of the four above Carlisle to make the drop.  Tottenham looked safest with two to play, and the next game was on April 26 1975 against… Arsenal.  It ended Arsenal 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0, with 43,752 at Highbury, mostly hoping to send Tottenham down.

The Daily Express voiced the opinion that “Tottenham are simply not equipped in terms of either personnel or tactical development to face another season in the top flight”.  It was music to Arsenal fans’ ears after such an awful Gunners season.

This home victory for Arsenal – only their third since the start of February – gave Tottenham the need to get something out of their last match (against Leeds) in order to guarantee safety.  Their team boasting such notables as Perryman, Knowles, Jones, and Jennings looked lost.  Arsenal were not stunning, but were just about good enough.

The press’ verdict in general was that Brady, Rostron and Hornsby represented the future for Arsenal.  For Tottenham no future in the top division could be seen.

On April 28 1975 the 15th and 16th clubs played out their meaningless game and it ended West Ham United 1 Arsenal 0, 30,195 at the Boleyn Ground.

Tottenham beat Leeds Utd 4-2, and so saved themselves.  But as for Arsenal and the question of what next, these last few games gave no clue.  All that one could say was that they looked relieved that the season was over.

Storey, Radford, Simpson and Armstrong had looked through much of the season to be fading.  Were Rostron, Hornsby, Mathews and Stapleton really up to the standard set by Brady?  History has since told us, but really at the time, all four were grouped together as the possible bright lights.

Arsenal had finished 16^th, their lowest position since 1924/5 – which itself was the season that caused Leslie Knighton to be sacked as manager, and Herbert Chapman brought in.  There was interest as to whether the once feted Bertie Mee would actually be in his job at the start of the next campaign.

In the Double season, Arsenal had used 14 players who made more than two starts in the league season.   In 1974/5 there were 20 such players – a 42% increase caused by injuries, lack of form, and transfers in and out.  Arsenal were unlucky with injuries – particularly with Cropley, but it was up to the club to cover for such situations.

Particularly worrying was that the top scorer was Kidd with 19 goals, followed by…

• Ball 9
• Radford 7
• Brady 3
• Hornsby 3

Kidd played 40 league games in the season – if he got an injury in the year to come, then what?

There was one other item of news: at the end of the season George Male left the club he had joined in 1929 as an amateur, and gone on to play 285 league games for Arsenal, winning a league winners’ medal five times, and one FA Cup winners’ medal.

George became a coach at Arsenal after retiring from playing, and worked with the youth and reserve teams, as well as being a scout, and he in turn discovered Charlie George.  He was also present to watch the double victories in 1971.

Having retired he moved to Canada where he had family, and died in February 1998, aged 87.   He was not however the last of the Chapman players to pass away, because Ray Bowden lived a few months beyond George Male and died aged 89 – that was truly the end of the era.

For anyone who noticed outside the club, the retirement of George was a strong reminder of what Arsenal had been, and where the club was now.

18 April 1998

Arsenal 5 Wimbledon 0

So, a 5-0 win over Wimbledon on this day – a win over a club now in League One.  And now over 20 years later one might think, so what? 

In fact this was Arsenal’s first win against the Dons at Highbury in six attempts!  The goals came from Adams, Overmars, Bergkamp, Petit and Wreh in the 33^rd league game of the 2^nd Double season.  The game was part of a winning run of 12 successive matches.  

And it was a great relief because Wimbledon really had been causing us problems.  In fact in 28 league games against Wimbledon between 1987 and 2000 we only won 13.

But if ever there was a time to beat Wimbledon It was on 18 April 1998 – a time at which we could say that under Mr Wenger, Arsenal scored five goals once every 20 league games.  Not a bad record, and certainly better than any other manager in the club’s history.

For before the arrival of Arsène Wenger we scored five goals once every 86 games in the Premier League.  

Our favourite opponents for the high scoring games became Middlesbrough – for in this era we have a 6-1 away win followed by a 5-1 and 5-3, and then a 7-0 at Highbury

But this particular 5-0 win was particularly special for we went on to win the league with two games to spare, and finished five points ahead of Manchester U who ended up in second place.  And then won the FA Cup – our second double.

The winning match of the season, by which I mean the game when we won the league, was a 4-0 home thrashing of Everton.   You will know this game, even if you were not there – because Tony Adams scored a wonder goal in front of the north bank, and just stood there, arms aloft.  It is one of the iconic pictures of Arsenal and Highbury.

But it was the FA Cup, which of course we won, that gave us particular problems that season.   We had another 0-0 at home in the fifth round with Crystal Palace, then of the Premier League, and against West Ham in the sixth we once again had to go to penalties.

In the League Cup we were at it again.  Against Birmingham in the third round we won 4-1 but not until extra time.  Against Coventry in the 4th round, there was extra time again.  We finally went out to Chelsea over two legs in the semis.

As for Europe, we lost to PAOK Salonika in the first round we played in, with a draw at home and a 1-0 defeat away.

My point therefore is that we won the double, but there were some very difficult times, and a lot of gnashing of teeth about the team’s performance on occasions.   The record book doesn’t lie – a double and five points ahead, but during the season itself it was not all plain sailing.  Although those high scoring games were something to behold.

17 April 1926: Chapman’s new team beats Chapman’s old team

By Tony Attwood

1925/6 was Herbert Chapman’s first season at Arsenal, having left Huddersfield Town as champions the previous season.  Thus as 1925/6 drew to a close there was a lot of interest in just how far Chapman had taken Arsenal (who in recent seasons had been strugglers at the foot of the 1^st Division – although always avoiding relegation).

In fact he did rather well – although the first trophies for Arsenal were still a few years away.  But this interest grew as 17 April approached – the day of Arsenal v Huddersfield Town.

The month leading up to the game was not without its interest.  On 20 March 1926 Jack Rutherford played his final game for Arsenal (against Manchester City) aged 41 years 159 days – the oldest player to play a league match in the history of Arsenal.  Arsenal won 1-0.

Then on 2 April 1926, as part of the Easter programme of three games in four days, Clem Voysey also played his last game for the club, although this was in the reserves.  He was one of the most controversial figures in Arsenal’s history but quite what happened is forever shrouded in mystery.   However that was not Chapman’s problem – he simply didn’t see a future for the player, and so moved him on.

2 April saw a 3-0 away defeat to Aston Villa which resulted in Bill Harper being dropped.  He was the third keeper Chapman had tried out in the season, and clearly the boss was still not satisfied, although Harper did come back for another 23 league games in the following season.

And the historic moments kept on coming, as on 3 April Tom Parker played his first game.  It was the start of a record breaking continuous 172 game unbroken sequence for Parker, the score being Arsenal 4 Blackburn 2.  Baker, Blyth, Lawson and Buchan got the goals, and if there is any one moment in which we might say the birth of the new Arsenal occurred it was this.  Parker was the rock at right back on which the new team was secured.

Thus the mark of Arsenal’s rise in terms of power and tactical ability was noted by all commentators on 17 April 1926 with the score Arsenal 3 Huddersfield 1.  Huddersfield still went on to win the league but Chapman was edging Arsenal towards the unthinkable: second in the league.

A friendly match on 26 April 1926 saw Arsenal beat Hibernian 5-0. It was the last game for John Alex Mackie.  He played 108 league games for the club, 119 overall, before moving to Portsmouth, and later Northampton, concluding his career at the outbreak of war.

And so, on 1 May 1926 Herbert Chapman ended his first season with Arsenal 3 Birmingham 0 and Arsenal and the achievement of that unprecedented 2nd place in the league, after just missing relegation one year earlier.  Jimmy Brain scored two to make it 34 goals in 41 games, beating the previous record of Harry King (26 in 37 games in 1914/5).