30th September 1912 – Another week, another point

by Andy Kelly This weekly series charts Arsenal’s final season in Plumstead and the move to Islington that, effectively, saved the club’s very existence. During the final week of September, Arsenal’s first team played one league game and a charity match whilst the reserves also played a league game. There was also an interesting appointment …

Chapman and the number 10 – one solution, but otherwise fill-ins.

Herbert Chapman inherited two number 10s of quality, Ramsey and Blyth, and he used both in his early years at Arsenal. After that he turned to Bltyhe who had played in a variety of positions for Knighton but was used as a number six by Chapman in his first year. Here is the table for …

Chapman’s centre forwards – stranger than you might think

  By Tony Attwood So Herbert Chapman was a great manager, which means he had a great centre forward didn’t he? Well if we look at the players we see Jimmy Brain – who was a Knighton signing, and Jack Lambert who was indeed brought in by Chapman.   Lambert played in 143 games, but many …

Arsenal launch new lottery – 110 years after their first one

by Andy Kelly Arsenal have been busy promoting their new lottery which launches on 29th September 2012. It looks like the Arsenal Foundation will be the big beneficiaries of this lottery. However, 110 years ago Woolwich Arsenal organised their first lottery, but in different circumstances. You can read the full story here in one of our …

23rd September 1912 – Crisis over?

By Andy Kelly Our series plotting Woolwich Arsenal’s move from Plumstead to Islington 100 years ago continues. On Saturday 21st September, the first team ventured north to play Sheffield United. Arsenal’s mis-firing front line was once again changed. McLaughlan returned to the team and Randall came in for his first game of the season; Flanagan …

The problem of number 8 – teams under Chapman

By Tony Attwood Chapman began his time at Arsenal by buying a number 8 – Charlie Buchan.  That gave him the figure who could lead the club on the pitch, and who could score: 19 in the first season, 14 in the second and 16 in the third. But as we look beyond this one …

The Chapman pattern becomes clear – the outside right

By Tony Attwood We are seeing a real pattern with Chapman.  In almost every position he had his man who could deliver the goods, and who would play the majority of the matches.   The only thing that kept him out would be injury to himself, or an injury to a key player elsewhere when he …

The man who was Arsenal’s number 6 – and those who filled in

By Tony Attwood When we look at Arsenal under Chapman and the number six position we have one name – Bob John – one of the outstanding players of the era. Arsenal signed him in January 1922 for £750, and as such is recorded as one of Leslie Knighton’s most successful transfers.   He made his …

Chapman at his best: picking the centre half

The club that changed football Making the Arsenal By Tony Attwood After the chaos of the number 4 position it is rather nice to see that we return to what we might expect from Herbert Chapman: picking his player and sticking with him. We have two centre halves here Butler and Roberts.  Butler was left …

Chapman’s problems with the number 4

By Tony Attwood In writing this article about the right halves (ie players wearing number 4) during Chapman’s era I came across this comment on Wikipedia, referring to one of the players who did play at that position for Chapman: “Although Arsenal were spoilt for choice for wing-halves…” “Spoilt for choice” is one way of …

16th September 1912 – Woolwich Arsenal struggle on and off the pitch

By Andy Kelly Woolwich Arsenal had two games in the week following their 0-3 defeat at Liverpool. Both games were at the Manor Ground against opposition that they had beaten (Bolton) and drawn against (Aston Villa) the previous season, so hopes were high. First up were Bolton on Saturday 14th September. The Arsenal team lined-up …

Herbert Chapman and the left back position

By Tony Attwood Moving on to the issue of left backs in the Chapman period, we can see two players who moved across from the previous era under Knighton: Andrew Kennedy and Bob John. Both men joined Arsenal in the 1922/3 season.  Bob John clocked up 78 appearances before Chapman, and went on to a …

Chapman and the issue of the right back

By Tony Attwood In my last piece I looked at the number of goal keepers that Herbert Chapman used and drew the conclusion that he was, for many years, unable to find himself the keeper in whom he could have total trust. We have stories of keepers being blamed for specific goals, dropped from the …

Herbert Chapman’s problem with keepers

By Tony Attwood Herbert Chapman used nine goalkeepers during his nine seasons at Arsenal each playing an average of 42 league games per season.  (Note I am counting the final Chapman season, during which he sadly passed away as a complete season here since Joe Shaw continued running the team very much on the lines …

11 September 1893 – the anniversary of our first ever league win.

By Tony Attwood It is curious that Arsenal’s first ever league win should be against the team that ultimately caused our most celebrated disaster of a defeat: Walsall. In 1893/4 when Arsenal entered the league, Walsall were called Walsall Town Swifts being an amalgamation of  Walsall Town and Walsall Swifts – both clubs pre-dating the …

Henry Boyd, Arsenal’s top goal scorer on a goals per game ratio: an update

Updated 9 October 2018 Please note that we have been kindly provided with more information by Colin MacKenzie of the website Scottishsporthistory.   What I have done here is left Andy’s original article for Arsenal History Society as it was written, and added extracts from Colin’s work at the end. The new material is published from …

The players who won the league for Arsenal for the first time: Keyser

The club that changed football Making the Arsenal ———————————- This is the final player that Chapman brought into the club who helped us win the league for the very first time This table shows all the players who played 10 games or more in the Championship season of 1930/1 Player 1st league season No of …

7th September 1912 – 100 years ago in Plumstead

by Andy Kelly 7th September 1912 Having drawn their opening game, the first team travelled north to Liverpool for their next fixture. Arsenal had never won at Anfield, having drawn two and lost seven, with Liverpool winning the corresponding fixture 4-1 the previous season. Arsenal lined-up as they had on Monday: Crawford Shaw     Peart Thomson …

Charlie Preedy: one of Chapman’s many keepers

By Tony Attwood In working on this series of articles about the players that Chapman brought to Arsenal I am increasingly reaching the opinion that he really had a serious doubt about each and every goalkeeper he ever saw. In fact the next article really has to be a list of the goalkeepers who played …

Thumping Everton 6-1 away. Twice. What an anniversary

Today – September 6 – is a day of anniversaries.  You will know that, I’m sure.  On this date we had the First match at Highbury 1913.  In fact so important is the date in Arsenal’s history there are two more articles here just on that date: The Day it Began and Season Ticket Prices …

5 September 1970. Arsenal 2 Tottenham 0. What happened next?

By Tony Attwood These days, it seems that if the team doesn’t win every single match everyone moans.  The opening of the 2012/13 season with two draws and a win (and no goals against) has brought out a vast variety of moaning (if you can have a variety of moaning), mostly based on the fact …

2nd September 1912 – The beginning of the end in Plumstead

by Andy Kelly This article is appearing one day late, because there was an even bigger anniversary on 2 September, and we felt the need to cover that.   Full list of anniversaries and links to the stories behind them appears on the Anniversary site. ————————— Now, on with the show… To celebrate 100 years of …

2nd September 1893 – Today’s MASSIVE Anniversary

——————————————– There is much more on the background to this extraordinary day in the book “Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed football“ ——————————————- by Andy Kelly 119 years ago today on 2nd September 1893, Woolwich Arsenal played their first ever Football League game. The opponents were Newcastle United and the match was played in front …

How Arsenal fans almost destroyed a wonderful player. The story of Jack Lambert

 The club that changed football By Tony Attwood Jack Lambert was an enigmatic player both in terms of what we know about him, and in terms of his own personality. He played local football for Greasborough and Methley Perseverance, before being rejected by The Wednesday after a trial run, then playing non-league with Rotherham County, …