Arsenal head for the first double: January / March 1971
Recent Posts
- 100 seasons in the top division: cracks appear in late 1970
- Arsenal in October 1970, the great march forward begins.
- The first double: from advancement to a Midlands disaster
By Tony Attwood
This is part of the series “100 seasons in the top division” celebrating Arsenal’s unique achievement in English football. An index to the most recent articles in the series and a link to the full set of articles can be found on this site’s home page.
In the series, we have reached the 1970/71 season – the first double season. The articles so far dealing with this season are
- The first double: from advancement to a Midlands disaster
- Arsenal in October 1970, the great march forward begins.
- 100 seasons in the top division: cracks appear in late 1970
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- This article takes up the story from early 1971.
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Arsenal’s start to 1971 (the second half of the first double season) consisted of consecutive defeats in the League to Huddersfield and Liverpool and a home win over West Ham. There were also two FA Cup victories over Yeovil and Portsmouth – although technically we should call the second victory in the cup a February result a 3-2 win in a replay at home after a 1-1 draw away.
In the League, however, Arsenal did manage a home win over Manchester City by 1-0 on 6 February, before playing the same club again, this time away, and this time with Arsenal winning 2-1/ Both goals came from Charlie George. This was followed by a 3-2 home win over Ipswich Town and a 0-2 away defeat to Derby County.
Arsenal, therefore, by the end of February, were safely in the sixth round of the FA Cup and second in the 1st division, although now seven points behind the league leaders. The general thought was that the FA Cup was going to be Arsenal’s best chance of silverware as the league table at this point read….
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leeds United | 31 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 55 | 33 | 49 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 29 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 51 | 26 | 42 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 31 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 41 | 8 | 39 |
| 4 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 30 | 16 | 6 | 8 | 49 | 5 | 38 |
However, what was also noteworthy was the return of Charlie George. He had been injured in the first match of the season and had been out ever since, but on 6 February, he had returned for the 1-0 win over Manchester City, taking over from George Graham. However, Graham was not out for long, as he returned on March 13 playing inside right, a position that he then retained until the end of the season. Charlie George retained the number 11 shirt – also to the end of the season.
But that end-of-the-month league table above did have a hidden bonus for Arsenal. For by this time, they had two games in hand and in February had won four of their five league and cup games. Plus, although they were now missing Kelly and Roberts through injury, in Sinpson and Sammals, they had two more than adequate replacement players.
There were of course, occasional other changes to the team, but in essence, the match day XI read
Wilson
Rice McNab
Storey McLintock Simpson
Armstrong Sammals Radford Kennedy George
February had also contained one more FA Cup round (round 5 on the 17th) in which Arsenal beat Manchester City 2-1, taking them into the sixth round, where they were drawn away to Leicester City on 6th March. The game ended goalless, and the replay on March 15 saw Charlie George get the only goal of the game. Of particular note at that game was the crowd of 57,433. It had taken a while for the north London crowds to rise in response to Arsenal’s improvements, but finally it seemed there was a growing belief.
Meanwhile, in March Arsenal played three league games and won all three, 3-0 away to Wolverhampton, 2-0 away to Crystal Palace and 1-0 at home to Blackpool.
What was particularly interesting, although not particularly noticed by the press, was that Arsenal not only scored six goals in those three league games, but the goals were scored by six different players. Such a fact rather hampered the previously dominant newspaper reporting of “If xx gets injured, Arsenal will be scuppered.”
For Arsenal, the league matches for March ended with the 1-0 win over Blackpool but March was also a very busy time for Arsenal in the FA Cup. The replay against Leicester was mentioned above, but having won that Arsenal now had a semi-final against Stoke City at Hillsborough on March 27.
Now it will be recalled that Stoke had given Arsenal quite a surprise back at the end of September by beating the Gunners 5-0,.and Arsenal were certainly not in the mood to allow any sort of defeat let alone a thrashing They drew 2-2 but then won the replay four days later at Villa Park 2-0 with George and Kenney putting Arsenal in the final ; Arsenal’s first cup final since 1952, On that occasion Arsenal had beaten Chelsea in a replay after a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane, but then lost the final to Newcastle.
But although the Cup Final was not scheduled until May, as usual, Arsenal still had some catching up to do in the League
Arsenal’s next league match was on 3 April, and prior to that game the table read
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GAvg | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leeds United | 35 | 23 | 8 | 4 | 60 | 27 | 2.222 | 54 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 32 | 21 | 6 | 5 | 57 | 25 | 2.280 | 48 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 35 | 16 | 12 | 7 | 47 | 36 | 1.306 | 44 |
Now up to this point, Arsenal had been behind Leeds United on goal average – the method of calculating league positions when clubs were on equal numbers of points. It was calculated by taking the goals scored and dividing them by the goals conceded. Through most of the season, Arsenal had had a lower goal average than Leeds, but now Arsenal had crept ahead with an average of 2.280 against Leeds’ 2.222. Curiously, had the modern method of goal-calculation league position by taking the goals scored and subtracting the goals conceded, Arsenal would have been in second place by just one goal.
However, for the moment, this was all academic as Arsenal, as can be seen, were six points behind Leeds, but having played three games fewer. With two points for a win, victories in those games in hand would put Arsenal on the same number of points as Leeds United, but with a superior goal average. However, such thinking did also indicate that Arsenal had a lot of games to play in April if they were going to get through their ten remaining league fixtures before the cup final scheduled for 8 May.
In fact, Arsenal now had eight games to play in April and then two in May before the cup final. If nothing else was going to give the cup final to Leeds, the newspapers argued; this overload of matches would do it.
As Arsenal approach this attempt at climbing the ultimate mountain in English football, only three teams had previously achieved the league and cup double. Two of these (Preston North End and Aston Villa) had done it in the 19th century, when competition was of course, a lot less fierce. Since then, only Tottenham Hotspur had made it, in 1960/61.
What made this rather galling for Tottenham and its supporters was that it had become clear that the final league match of the season before the FA Cup final was going to be Tottenham v Arsenal at White Hart Lane.
Arsenal entered April having secured their place in the FA Cup by beating their nemesis Stoke City in the semi-final on 31 March after a draw at Hillsborough.. They now had ten league games to play across 30 days before having five days’ rest prior to the Cup Final. The schedule, within the context of the era, the smallness of the squad, and the medical facilities available to aid the recovery of players, looked quite ludicrous. For the media, this wasn’t a case of Arsenal winning the double, but rather whether Arsenal would even have a team to put out by the time it got to the final on 8 May.