100 seasons in the top division – 1987/8: faith in Arsenal is finally rewarded

The full index of articles so far…  is published here 

Recent posts are

• 100 seasons in the top division:1986/7. A trophy!
• Arsenal’s 100 Seasons in the top division: 1984/5 and 1985/6
• 100 consecutive years in the top division: Arsenal in 1983/4

By Tony Attwood

To get the feeling of what it was like to be an Arsenal supporter in the 1980s, it is worth pausing for a moment to consider what Arsenal won during this era.

To be specific, Arsenal’s last golden era of winning trophies was 1947/8 through to 1953/4 during which six-year period Arsenal won the league twice (never coming lower than sixth), the FA Cup once (and beaten finalists once).  There was no League Cup at the time, but the club did win the Charity Shield twice as well.

The run ended in 1952/3 with the winning of the League, after which Arsenal sank, coming fourth in the league and going out of the FA Cup in the fourth round – the second match they played in.

So there we had a team that had, in earlier times, come from nowhere to rule English football, but now was regarded as a has-been.   Arsenal did of course, win the double in 1971, and the FA Cup in 1979, plus the League Cup in 1987.  All were joyous occasions, especially that unexpected double, but none of them formed the foundations of a new golden age for Arsenal.

Even the subsequent advent of European competitions didn’t help.   Arsenal played in the UEFA Cup in 1982/3 and went out in the first round.   In the following two seasons, they ended sixth and seventh in the League and so didn’t qualify, but then on 2 June 1985 all English clubs were banned from European competitions following the Heysel Stadium riot on May 29 that year in which 39 fans died.

The ban lasted for five seasons, with English clubs returning for the 1990–91 season. Liverpool, whose fans were directly involved in the disaster, remained banned.  Meanwhile, Arsenal meandered their way around the league in these years, finishing 10th in 19823/3, followed by sixth and then seventh in two consecutive seasons, finally winning their first trophy of the era in 1986/7: the League Cup.   But the ban on English clubs continued, and no European football followed for Arsenal.

But finishing 4th in 1986/7 was a step forward, for as well as the victory in the League Cup, there was hope that the League Cup victory and the fourth place finish could be a springboard for greater things.

Sadly, that positivity seemed to vanish incredibly quickly as Arsenal lost to Liverpool and QPR and drew with Manchester United in their first three games of the season. But a 6-0 win over Portsmouth in the fourth match suggested George Graham hadn’t totally lost his edge, and although the next game was a very disappointing 1-1 away draw with Luton Town, Arsenal then went on a seven-match winning run without conceding a single goal!  And although Tottenham scored in the North London derby at WHL, they still lost 2-1, allowing Arsenal to take their winning streak forward

In fact, that winning streak lasted 14 games until  21st November when Southampton beat Arsenal 0-1 at Highbury.

And of course, as so often happens, whereas up to that point no one could beat Arsenal, now suddenly Arsenal players became uncertain and so lost the next match 0-2 away to Watford.  And although recovery looked to have begun in the following game with a 3-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday, that was followed by three draws and three defeats.

The patchy form continued until the end of January when six games without a win were followed by alternating victories and defeats, as a fourth round cup win over Brighton and Hove Albion was followed by six consecutive victories, including the all-important beating of Tottenham by 2-1.

Except that only 37,000 turned up for that game – a real disappointment given that the season had started with over 54,000 at the home game with Liverpool.  Worse, the following weekend lost in the FA Cup to Nottingham Forest, also at home

Of the last 13 games from 12 March to the end of the season, Arsenal won just three. Worse again, that run included a 2-3 loss to Luton Town in the Football League Cup final at Wembley.  Arsenal finished the league in sixth place, two places lower than the previous season.  Even QPR finished above Arsenal in the league.

But there were names appearing in the regular team sheet which, although perhaps we didn’t know it at the time, would come to mean something very important to Arsenal.

Tony Adeams played 39 league games.  Paul Davis was continuing as a regular, as he was the season before, and Perry Groves (on whom opinion was divided then as ever since)  had 28 league starts

John Lukic was set as the regular keeper with 40 league appearances, while David Rocastle, Kenny Samson, Alan Smith and Micky Thomas were all present in 85% of the league games.  And mentioning that figure, one should also point out that 1987/88 was the interim season as the Football League Division One sought to reduce its numbers.    Up to 1986/87, the 1st Division had had 22 clubs playing 42 league games.  But it had been argued that this number of clubs, although symbolic of the strength of the league compared with most European leagues, meant that English teams found it harder to compete in Europe.

In 1987/’8, the clubs played 40 games each, although retaining 22 clubs in the league, but the following season, the number was reduced to 20 clubs and 38 games.

Countering this, however, was the fact that English football clubs were banned from all European competitions by Uefa on 2 June 1985 following the Heysel Stadium disaster on May 29, 1985.  In that appalling event, Liverpool fans launched an attack on Juventus fans while the latter were pressed against a wall and had no escape route.    It was subsequently generally agreed that the stadium was in serious need of repair and updating before the game, and should not have been chosen as the venue for the 1985 final, although it then became clear that the stadium had failed a previous inspection, yet Uefa deliberately decided to go ahead despite this.

In the chaos of the charge by Liverpool supporters, 39 spectators, mostly Juventus supporters, were killed in the crush, and over 600 were injured.  

Although of course, only Liverpool fans from England were involved, Uefa decided to ban all English clubs from Europe for five seasons, with Liverpool merely having one year added to that ban.

Back with English football, Arsenal finished sixth in the league, 24 points behind the champions Liverpool.  My own memories of the time are of a feeling of desperation.  In the strictly footballing sense, Arsenal did not seem to be progressing, with 66 points this season, compared with 70 the season before, while the goals for and against stayed much the same.

And although my Londoner’s prejudice against the teams from the north was part of my thoughts, I did also start to wonder if football was really worth all this.  After all, surely nothing that was supposed to be a sport should be associated with people dying.

For 1987/8 Arsenal had Tony Adams, now absolutely established after consecutive seasons playing almost every league match, and we had a group of players who were there in every game unless injured: Thomas, Smith, Rocastle, Richardson, and Dixon.

They all seemed excellent, reliable players, but still, we had scored 19 goals fewer than Liverpool and conceded 15 more, while ending up 24 points behind them.   How on earth, my pals and I wondered, could we catch Liverpool up?

I must also add that there was a feeling that the Liverpool supporters had got all English clubs banned from Europe (although in effect it was the Football League that pulled the clubs out of the competition).  Really, should we all have been banned from European games?   It didn’t seem right, and it most certainly didn’t help promote the notion that Uefa and the Football League had much idea what they were doing.

But there were positives, such as the signing of John Lukic, the season before, which now seemed a master stroke as Arsenal now emerged as the team with the fourth-best defence in the league, for the second year running.

Yes, we had finished sixth in the league at the end of the 1987/8 season, 24 points behind the leaders, and that was worse than the season before, but there seemed to be a growing cohesion in the team even if this was not reflected in the results in the latter part of the season.  Maybe it was the fact that we had beaten Tottenham home and away in the league that gave us hope, but something did give a sense that things were about to happen.

As it turned out, at the start of the following season they were exactly the wrong things, but I am rather proud to say I retained my faith – and of course it was then finally rewarded.