Arsenal’s 100 Seasons on the top divsiion: 1984/5
Recent posts in this series
- 100 consecutive years in the top divison: Arsenal in 1983/4
- 100 seasons in the top division: Arsenal sink down: 1982/3
- 1980/81 and 1981/82. Arsenal’s near misses, but not nearly good enough
- Some seasons seem a little crazy.
The full index of articles so far across the whole 100 seasons is published here
By Tony Attwood
In the 1980s, Arsenal’s final league position of each season had meandered between second and tenth. In the FA Cup, they had gone out in the third round three times and reached the final once – but then lost. In the League Cup they had been to the semi-final once, but again lost.
And although hope springs eternal, I think there was almost a higher level of resignation than for many a year, as Don Howe entered into his first full season as manager, having taken over from Pat Rice partway through the 1983/4 campaign. And the simple fact was that since Arsenal had won the double in 1971, at what many felt could be the start of a new glorious Arsenal regime, Arsenal had won the FA Cup in 1979, and nothing more.
There had been some runners-up places in league and cup, but even those could not hide the sense of Arsenal not quite getting there. Although that negative feeling was overthrown in this campaign and there was hope once more, as for the first time in 11 seasons went to the top of the First Division. And it wasn’t just with luck – the consensus was that Arsenal were playing good football
Now the season didn’t actually start with success, as the opening two games resulted in a home draw with Chelsea and an away defeat to Nottingham Forest, But then came the run of nine matches that took us up to 20 October, whereupon the table read….
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 13 | +12 | 25 |
| 2 | Sheffield Wednesday | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 24 | 14 | +10 | 21 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 20 | 9 | +11 | 20 |
| 4 | Everton | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 18 | +1 | 20 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 21 | 11 | +10 | 19 |
The undoubted highlight of the run was the 3-1 home victory over European Champions Liverpool on 8 September, and although this was followed by an away defeat to Ipswich Town, the club recovered with consecutive 4-0 victories and a run of seven games unbeaten. There was a new sense of optimism.
But all good things… as they say…. and “come to an end” the run did with the club going on a run of just one win in the next five, which took us up to the end of November
From then on it was pretty much downhill most of the way with just the occasional uplift in between. Indeed, after 20 October 1984, Arsenal failed to win two league games in a row during the rest of the season!
Perhaps even worse, Arsenal went out of the FA Cup in the fourth round to York City (having only managed to beat Hereford in a replay in the third round), and the League Cup in the third round, 2-3 to Oxford United. It was indeed just like old times – or at least just like the previous few seasons.
Thus, in 1984/5 Arsenal had reached the top of the league for the first time since February 1973 and ended up 24 points behind runaway leaders Everton, finishing in seventh, one place worse than the hardly overwhelming season before.
Indeed, the whole look of the final table was a torture to Londoners and the media made much of the fact that we might never see a London team win the league again, because the players had too many distractions. Reading downwards the 1984/5 season ended with Everton (runaway leaders), Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester United, Southampton, Chelsea and then in seventh Arsenal. Yes, that was better than the awful tenth of 1983, but it was not a serious challenge (nor really any sort of challenge after the opening weeks) for the title.
Thus negativity ruled, stoked of course by the joyous newspapers who liked nothing better than to see Arsenal struggle with Tottenham rising to third, but behind the clouds there was some sunlight. A youngster called Tony Adams made a handful of appearances in the depths of winter, and Viv Anderson looked very secure at full back, where he played almost every game. John Lukic took over in goal from an aging Pat Jennings in the latter part of the season, and a final place of 7th in the league looked and felt about right for a club that seemed to be shuffling around, not always sure where it was going, but sometimes doing the right thing.
But despite the occasional players who could legitimately be declared ones “for the future” there was no real optimism in the club. Ferom the promise of finishing 3rd in 1980/81 under Neil, the club had then finished 5th,10th, 6th and seventh.
And there wasn’t even some sort of promise from the cups, where the only achievement of note since the defeat to West Ham in the 1980 FA Cuip final had been two semi-finals in 1983 – a defeat to Manchester United in both the FA Cup and the League Cup.
From 1981/2 onwards, Manchester United had come third in the league twice, and fourth in the league three times. Hardly trophy-achieving results, but still better than Arsenal. Everton, Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester United all looked solid and constantly challenging for top positions, and Arsenal were trying to break into that group.
But they were not there yet. The last Arsenal trophy was still that last gasp winner against Manchester United in the 1979 FA Cup final. The league had not been won since 1971, a belief in a new Arsenal surge to the top was thin on the ground.
Did Arsenal supporters have the “right” to expect more? In a sense, the 1970s were a record-breaking era for Arsenal in the FA Cup as they appeared in five of the ten finals between 1971 and 1980, although only winning two of those five. The nearest rivals were Liverpool, who made it to three finals, winning one, losing two during that era – exactly the same as Manchester United. (And of course there was a lot of remembrance of the fact that Manchester United not only lost to Arsenal but also to Southampton in the 1976 final.)
So yes, reasons could be found to suggest that Arsenal were doing ok in the 1980s by looking at the FA Cup, but when it came to the League, no excuses could be found. From 1980/81 to 1984/5 Arsenal had come third in the league once, and nothing higher. Liverpool had won the league three times and come second once. Even Ipswich Town had done better than Arsenal, coming runners-up twice. Manchester United had come third three times, leaving Arsenal having achieved exactly the same as Tottenham between 1980/81 and 1984/5 – the two north London clubs had one third-place finish each.
It did look in 1984 that maybe this could be the year Arsenal found their earlier form once more, but Arsenal never recovered the form that lasted until 20 October 1984 and in fact, never once managed consecutive wins after that date, making their league form as desperate as their form in both cups. Arsenal finished seventh in the league in 1985, having been riding high in the early days of the season. They won just three of their last seven games.
But Don Howe kept his job – at least for the moment, but behind the scenes his place as manager was under threat, not just because of results, but perhaps even more because of the crowds. Other clubs were getting lower crowds too, but this was not expected at Arsenal, and Arsenal were now really starting to suffer financially.
However, although the problem of low crowds was completely apparent, seemingly the club either wouldn’t admit to the problem or didn’t want to take the obvious action, and if we look forward to 1985/6 we can see how matters just got worse and worse.
In fact, Arsenal didn’t see a single home game with a crowd over 30,00 in 1985/6 until December 14 for the visit of Liverpool. 45,000 for the home game against Tottenham on New Year’s Day helped a bit, but even that was down on what the club had expected in the past. But just 31,000 for the game in March 1986 against West Ham, when Arsenal had convincingly won their last two matches, told the truth. Crowds were collapsing, and with just 17,189 watching Arsenal v Coventry (not the most spectacular fixture, but Arsenal had just won three in a row) the evidence was clear. Arsenal’s crowds were in decline, and the only thing that could stop that decline was serious success on the pitch.
Of course, it wasn’t just Arsenal that were suffering – Tottenham only got 33,000 for their home game with Arsenal in March, but the fact that others were suffering too did not reduce the Arsenal problem. Arsenal’s two FA Cup home games had each attracted under 29,000, and the last home game (against Chelsea on April 29) spelt it out. 24,000 turned up to see Arsenal win 2-0, and the club needed more than that in the ground to break even.
Arsenal’s average league crowd for 1985/6 was 23,813 – the lowest since 1925/6 when Chapman joined the club. And perhaps I should add a word about attendance figures.
Accurate figures of people attending games involving Arsenal only appear from 1925/6 onwards, the final season of the Knighton era, when Arsenal missed relegation by just one place. Figures from before this date tend to be rounded estimates.
To give an example, the final home match played under Knighton as manager is reported to have an estimated crowd total of 25,000 on April 18 1925. The first game of the Chapman era on 29 August 1925 is reported to have had a crowd of 53,183.
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