1980/81 and 1981/82. Arsenal’s near misses, but not nearly good enough
This article is part of the “100 seasons in the top division” series. Recent articles have been,
- 100 seasons in the top division: 1977/78 – the return begins
- 100 seasons at the top: 1978/9 and 1979/80; the most painful lesson learned
- 100 years in the top league, Arsenal with Liam Brady
- Some seasons seem a little crazy. 1979/80 was way beyond that
The full index of articles which traces all 100 seasons of Arsenal’s unique receord is published here
In this article we review the two seasons of 1980/81 and 1981/82
By Tony Attwood
Arsenal joined the English top division (then known as the First Division) in 1919/20 and played in it every season up to and including 1938/9. The following season began, but was quickly abandoned following the outbreak of the Second World War, and matches resumed in 1946/7, with Arsenal of course, still in the top league.
The 1970s started with a bang – indeed, from an Arsenal perspective, an explosion of the biggest size, with Arsenal winning the Double, but then strange things happened. I’ve dealt with these in the earlier chapters of this epic journey, but I think it might be helpful just to summarise the 70s as a table in its own right
| Season | League position | FA Cup round | Manager |
| 1970/71 | 1st | Winners | Mee |
| 1971/72 | 5th | Runners up | Mee |
| 197273 | 2nd | 3rd round | Mee |
| 1973/74 | 10th | 4th round | Mee |
| 1974/75 | 16th | 6th round | Mee |
| 1975/76 | 17th | 3rd round | Mee |
| 1976/77 | 8th | 5th round | Neill |
| 1977/78 | 5th | Runnners-up | Neill |
| 1978/79 | 7th | Winners | Neill |
| 1979/80 | 4th | Runners-up | Neill |
Thus, as we can see, by the end of the decade Arsenal had restored their reputation as an FA Cup team, and had moved away from the depths in terms of the league position, where Mee’s tenure had left them Mee had the misfortune to have his brilliant moments early on and then fade away, and thus his memory is tarnished.
Neill obviously knew this and was clearly attempting to reverse the trend, and deliver good cup runs (which obviously aided the club’s finances) and decent league positions. Fourth in 1978/80 was indeed the best in seven seasons, and much was hoped for in 1980./81
But Arsenal had a problem, for although they had a goal-scorer in Stapleton he was neither exceptional in himself as a goal getter (14 goals in 40 league games) nor was he backed up by another player who could knock in a similar number of goals.
But 1980/81 was Stapleton’s final Arsenal season as he moved to Manchester United in the summer, and Arsenal were left without a number 9 in the traditional sense. At the start of the season, McDermott had played in the position but was dropped after six games and was replaced by several other players whose names hardly figure in the annals of the club’s history, until at the start of November, Paul Davis took over the number 9 shirt. In total, through the season, he played 37 games and scored four goals
In fact, in the league, the top Arsenal goal scorer for 1981/2 was Alan Sunderland who got 11 goals in 38 games, followed by Graham Rix, who got nine in 39. And although managers have tried many things over the years, playing without a goal scorer rarely seems to work.. And indeed, in the table below, I would draw your attention particularly to the goals scored.
In four of these seasons, the club scored under 50 goals and in the first three they came 10th, 16th and 17th. In 1981/82 they actually came fifth in the league, although this was primarily down to the fact that they had the third-best defence in the league.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | POS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970–71 | 42 | 29 | 7 | 6 | 71 | 29 | 1 |
| 1971–72 | 42 | 22 | 8 | 12 | 58 | 40 | 5 |
| 1972–73 | 42 | 23 | 11 | 8 | 57 | 43 | 2 |
| 1973–74 | 42 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 49 | 51 | 10 |
| 1974–75 | 42 | 13 | 11 | 18 | 47 | 49 | 16 |
| 1975–76 | 42 | 13 | 10 | 19 | 47 | 53 | 17 |
| 1976–77 | 42 | 16 | 11 | 15 | 64 | 59 | 8 |
| 1977–78 | 42 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 60 | 37 | 5 |
| 1978–79 | 42 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 61 | 48 | 7 |
| 1979–80 | 42 | 18 | 16 | 8 | 52 | 36 | 4 |
| 1980–81 | 42 | 19 | 15 | 8 | 61 | 45 | 3 |
| 1981–82 | 42 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 48 | 37 | 5 |
In 1981/2, in a league table based on goals scored, Arsenal would have been 14th, and the fact that they actually came fifth was down to the defence. In fact, as the league table extract below, based on defences shows, Arsenal had the third best defence in the league, considerably better than Tottenham’s in fourth. But then Tottenham scored 19 more goals than Arsenal in the season. It was the start of “Boring boring Arsenal”. Here is the table in the order of defences…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Manchester United | 42 | 22 | 12 | 8 | 59 | 29 | 30 | 78 |
| 1 | Liverpool | 42 | 26 | 9 | 7 | 80 | 32 | 48 | 87 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 42 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 48 | 37 | 11 | 71 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur | 42 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 67 | 48 | 19 | 71 |
Unfrotunately in 1981/2 there was no respite for the club in the cups, with Arsenal going out of the FA Cup in the third round 0-1 to Tottenham away, and in the League Cup 0-3 to Liverpool in the fourth round, again away.
But this was a difficult season for many clubs, and much depended on where the clubs played. For example, between November 8 1981 and January 19 1982, Arsenal played just three league games and won them all. That others were not played was due to the weather.
In fact through the winter months Arsenal won six consecutive games and lost just one league gme in 14 up to 20 February 1981, a run which took them up to fourth with the table reading on 20 February 1982…
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southampton | 27 | 15 | 5 | 7 | 49 | 38 | 11 | 50 |
| 2 | Manchester United | 25 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 38 | 19 | 19 | 46 |
| 3 | Swansea City | 26 | 14 | 4 | 8 | 38 | 34 | 4 | 46 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 25 | 13 | 6 | 6 | 22 | 16 | 6 | 45 |
But then one win in the next six took its toll,
The various postponed and abandoned matches were played in May, and Arsenal did win four of the five games played that month, although crowds were often very modest, with Arsenal playing end-of-season away games that had been postponed from the winter months in front of crowds as small as 9,565 at Middlesbrough and 13,133 at Birmingham City. They finished the season in fifth.
In the FA Cup, Arsenal went out to Tottenham in the third round 0-1 away and in the League Cup 0-3 in a replay at Anfield in December.
The results of this season were of course, very weather affected and meant that in the last three campaigns Arsenal had finished fourth, third and fifth – close but not close enough as the saying went. In the FA Cup, they had reached one Cup final, but got out in the third round in the other two seasons, while in the League Cup, they had gone out in the fourth round twice and the fifth round once.
So the results were not desperately bad, but fans certainly did want more. The last trophy was in 1979 (the FA Cup, where Manchester United were beaten 3-2).
Thus, to pull together 1980/81 and 1981/82, what we had was Arsenal finishing third and fifth in Division One – obviously quite good but not enough for most fans. In both campaigns, in the FA Cup, Arsenal had gone out in the third round, once to Everton, once to Tottenham. Arsenal had also gone out to Tottenham in the fourth round of the League Cup in 1980/81 and the same round to Liverpool in 1981/82.
But although there were decent positions in the league (third and fifth), the two cups had offered no joy and being defeated by Tottenham in the League Cup in 1981 and the FA Cup in 1982, really did hurt the pride of the red part of North London.
Indeed, even though Arsenal had finished third in the league in 1981 while Tottenham had ended up tenth, it still did matter that Tottenham had those two cup wins. And there was something else that was niggling away (or even biting away) at Arsenal consciousness, and that was the run of Tottenham victories over Arsenal. For in five games between November 1980 and April 1982, Tottenahm had won four and one had been drawn.
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 4 Nov 1980 | Tottenham Hot v Arsenal | L | 1-0 | League Cup |
| 17 Jan 1981 | Tottenham Hot v Arsenal | L | 2-0 | Division One |
| 2 Jan 1982 | Tottenham Hot v Arsenal | L | 1-0 | FA Cup |
| 29 Mar 1982 | Tottenham Hot Arsenal | D | 2-2 | Division One |
| 12 Apr 1982 | Arsenal v Tottenham Hot | L | 1-3 | Division One |
Although there had been other bad times in relation to Tottenham, there had never been a run quite this awful, and Arsenal fans who knew their club history were conscious of that. An improvement was demanded but sadly, there was worse to come.
But perhaps even more worrying to the directors of the club was the decline in attendance. Only 28,000 had turned up for the first home match of the 1981/2 season, compared with 43,000 in 1980/81. Worse, the opening home game of 1980/81 had been played on a Tuesday, while the home game in August 1981 was on a Saturday afternoon. There was talk in the press that football had had its day. Defensive attitudes, TV and hooliganism were all blamed.
Of course, attendances were affected by the bad winter weather, but even so, 15,000 in February for a home game against Wolverhampton was indeed very poor, and even by March, when conditions were better, under 16,000 came along for a home match with West Brom.
Yes, Arsenal did finish the season with four wins and a draw in the last five games, but the damage had already been done, and the fans were insistent that things had to change.