Chapman’s number 11 – The History of Arsenal

By Tony Attwood

And so we come to the final piece of the jigsaw, Chapman’s outside left. Chapman inherited Toner and Haden in this position. We can see what Chapman thought of Toner – he played the first two games of 1925/6 season at number 11, and that was it for him.

Haden fared a little better, lasting two seasons, but nothing more.

Charlie Jones who appeared in the 11 shirt for two seasons, was a different matter. He came from Nottingham Forest for £4,800 in May 1928, and in total played 195 times – but mostly at left wing. He was involved in three first division titles and appeared in the cup final against Newcastle. He left in May 1934 to become manager of Notts County.

Of course what moved Jones along to his midfield position was the arrival of Boy Bastin – the number 11 Chapman had wanted all this time.

	25/6	26/7	27/8	28/9	29/30	30/31	31/32	32/3	33/4
Haden	25	14
Toner	2
Lawson	5
Hulme	7
Voysey	1
Paterson	1
Rutherford	1
Lee		8
Hoar		15	34	6
Peel		5	8
Jones				36	22
Bastin					14	42	36	42	28
Williams					6
Beasley							3		14
Jack							2
John							1

We should also note Pat Beasley who appears at the end of our table. He signed for Chapman aged 17. When Alex James was injured Bastin moved into James’ slot and Beasley played left wing – in which Arsenal lost all three games.

Not many players survived such a start under Chapman, but in 1933/34 Joe Hulme was out of the side and Beasley came in and helped the club win the league. He played 79 times for Arsenal before moving to Huddersfield.

So that concludes the analysis of Chapman players position by position. In the next article I’ll take a look at the formations that Chapman used.