The first double: from advancement to a Midlands disaster

Recent posts

• 100 seasons in the top division – 1969/70, and building a new team
• 100 seasons in the top division. The rebirth of Arsenal 1967-68
• 100 years in the top division. The end of Swindin; the awful tenure of Wright
• Arsenal’s 100 seasons in the top division. 1959/60. If we thought it couldn’t get worse, we were wrong

The full index of this series is published here 

By Tony Attwood

A goalless draw away to Everton, followed by a 2-2 draw (also away) to West Ham in the first two Arsenal games of the 1970/71 season, didn’t really suggest Bertie Mee had got his team right or that this season was going to be any better than the last (in which Arsenal had finished 12th).  

Indeed, on 31 August 1970, the league table showed Arsenal in 7th after seven games, which seemed to confirm the thought that there were still things amiss with the side.

How little we knew!

The two draws had come first (Everton and West Ham, both away), and then the two home wins (Manchester United 4-0, and Huddersfield Town 1-0), followed by the first defeat of the season, 2-1 away to Chelsea.

So far, 15 players had been used, with one move that now looks quite ludicrous: Sammy Nelson being given the number 9 shirt for the away match against Chelsea.  This was in fact, due to injuries to Radford, picking up in the previous match, and Charlie George, injured in the first game of the season (and not reappearing until the new year).

But although we didn’t know it at the time, the team was starting to pick up a regular selection pattern, and the lineup that we saw for the sixth game of the season on September 1st was tje one that Bertie Mee stayed with, as far as he could, injuries permitting.  Kennedy was the only player in the team who had not played in the prvious season.

Thus the line-up read

Wilson

Rice   McNab

Kelly   McLintock   Roberts

Armstrong   Storey   Radford   Kennedy   Graham

This team’s first outing as a complete unit on 1 September 1970 was not auspicious – a home goalless draw to Leeds United in front of 47,000.

But Bertie Mee knew what he was looking for and seemingly had no hesitation in playing exactly the same lineup for the local derby at home to Tottenham on 5 September

Arseanl prior to the game, were sitting sixth in the league and Tottenham were ninth – the clubs separated only by goal average.  With 48,713 inside Highbury Stadium, Arsenal won 2-0 with both goals coming from Arsemstrong.  This was particularly refreshing since Arsenal had lost both of the north London derbies in 1969/70. each by a single goal, and the 2-0 victory suggested goals could come from this lineup.  It was the first time in the last eight first-team games that either side had managed to beat the other by more than one goal.

In fact, at this time, Arsenal were very much considered second best to Tottenham.  For between September 1959 and January 1968, the clubs had played each other 18 times in the League, with Tottenham winning ten, five being draws, and Arsenal winning just three times!  A win at this moment was worth its weight to every Arsenal supporter both inside and outside the stadium.

But now the tables were turning for between August 1969 and May 1971 Arsenal won five games, Tottenham two and one was drawn.   (I should say that this list includes two League Cup games in 1968 of which Arsenal won one and one was drawn).

So both in terms of local matters and overall, things were certainly looking up.  But even so, after the 5 September 1970 victory over Tottenham, Arsenal were now third in the league, although admittedly four points behind Leeds United at the top, with Leeds also having a much superior goal average.  But Arsenal had just held Leeds to a draw, so hope was rising.

After the victory over Tottenham, Arsenal were away to Burnley, who at this moment were languishing at the very foot of Division One, with no wins, three draws and four defeats.  Even more remarkably, while Arsenal had thus far scored ten and conceded four, Burnley had scored two and conceded 11.  Arsenal won 2-1 with goals from Kennedy and Radford

As ever, Burnley suffered from a very mediocre level of support, and just 12,675 turned up at Turf Moor.  The capacity at the time was 20,000.

That victory took Arsenal up to fourth in the league, equal on points with Crystal Palace in third and two points behind  Leeds United at the top.

Arsenal were now the fourth-highest scoring team in the league and had the fourth-best defence as they went into the game on 19 September at home to West Bromwich Albion.  Approaching this match, the media took a little note of Arsenal’s improved form,, (they were still just two points behind Leeds, who were still top), and the result astounded most of the scribblers who had by now become completely certain that Arsenal were a mid-table first division side who would be unlikely to win anything.   Indeed, the view was that the London clubs in general could not win anything, as the players were always seduced by the soft life of the capital.  Which was rather ludicrous given that it was written by journalists who themselves lived and worked in the capital.  Perhaps the journalists simply thought that the players lived as they did.

But in this game Arsenal won 6-2 with goals from Kwenney and Graham (two each), Armstrong and an own goal.

The crowd for a Saturday afternoon was however, modest for Arsenal: 33,326, but interest was rising, especially since after the day’s games the table now showed Arsenal in third.

Next up was Stoke City away on 26 September 1970, and there were some nerves before the game because of recent results – the last two games against the club being goalless draws.  But Arsenal had won their last three games, scoring ten and conceding three.

Arsenal were also encouraged by the fact that in their games leading up to playing Arsenal, Stoke had had two goalless draws, meaning they had scored  just 10 goals in nine league games.   But if ever there was a moment where reading the tables and results from the recent past was not a viable guide to the future, this was it.   Stoke City, 14th in the league, beat Arsenal, third in the league 5-0 in front of 18,000 people!

Arsenal sank to fourth in the league.  Worse, they were now behind Tottenham on goal average and only just above Chelsea.  Leeds were three points ahead, and Manchester City one point ahead.   

But the media talk was once more that no London team would ever win the league again.   Again the story was that the London-based players were used to the soft life of the capital, and couldn’t take it when a midlands or northern team simply came at them.

That was the end of football for Arsenal in September.  The next game was on October 3rd, at home to Nottingham Forest, who, after ten games, were sitting 15th in the League.  And the problem was that the team that had just lost 5-0 to Stoke City was the same team that had played in the previous five games.   The question now raised was, would Mee stick with the same line-up, or (as the media demanded) change the players he was using.

More next time.