1989/90: After winning the league, and the move to all-seater stadia

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by Tony Attwood

Those of us old enough to remember did remember.   Arsenal won the league and Cup in 1970/71 and we anticipated, and indeed expected, more triumphs straightaway.  But in fact, we didn’t get the next title until 1988/9.

So while others were raving over the fact that Arsenal had beaten Liverpool to the league title in 1989 on goals scored (not points or goal difference but goals scored) some, in quieter moments, reflected on the fact that in 1988/89 we had gone out of the Cup to West Ham at home and actually only won the league on the basis of scoring eight goals more than Liverpool.  It still won us the League, and it was the first time since the famous 1971 Double, but even so, it was close.

So yes, we all celebrated and made a lot of noise, since this was Arsenal, and Arsenal were now the champions for the first time in 18 years, and we were by and large so utterly overwhelmed that I can’t quite remember what I did in the next few days.  But along with my pals I did eventually think, “what on earth happens next?”   For how do you follow up on doing the one thing you’ve wanted more than anything else?

Perhaps it is because of that wondering that what happened at the start of the next season is, curiously, still clear in my memory.  We lost the Charity Shield (as it was still illegally called, given that the FA didn’t keep proper records as required by the Charity Commission), but no one really seemed to mind.  It was after all a one-off, and the team was still getting itself ready for the next season.

But then worse, far, far, far worse, we lost 4-1 away to Manchester United in the first league match of the season.  We did win the next game, which was a relief, but then had a goalless draw at home to Wimbledon, which had their tiny away support laughing at Arsenal, and the rest of us scurrying away from the ground as fast as we could make it.

But then, next there was a 5-0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday, and yes, that was odd, not just for the fact that Arsenal won 5-0 having drawn with Wimbledon, but we actually had three home games in a row, right at the start of the season.  The story circulating was that this had been fixed so that Arsenal would have a run of away games at the end of the campaign, which would scupper the team if they were challenging to win the title.

Yet looking back, and as far as I can remember, I think what really made me feel that there was not going to be a repeat of a title win, were consecutive defeats to Tottenham and Everton in October.  Champions did not suffer consecutive defeats.

What then built up, courtesy of the ever-critical media, was also the feeling that George Graham didn’t have a full grip on how to use his players, as he seemed to be moving the team back and forth between playing a standard back four or having a sweeper.

And it is perhaps a mark of this season in my memory, that what stands out was not a game but a celebration of David O’Learhy having the all-time record for the number of appearances, and for good measure, scoring in the match that celebrated his achievement.  Norwich didn’t seem to like our celebrations and started doing some pushing and shoving, which the media immediately described as a brawl, and then focused their reports on that, meaning the League thought it an opportunity to put Arsenal down, so fines were issued, which the newspapers then wrote up again with much glee.

This was also the season that new regulations were announced, which aimed to turn the bigger stadia into all-seater affairs, and at the end of the season that threat turned out to be real, as work began on taking away our terraces.  It was also the season where the club experimented with the occasional giant screen on the pitch so fans could watch away games – this being before the era of the televising of multiple matches as a normal part of football.

So Arsenal finished fourth, having won the league the season before.  Worse, Tottenham finished third, and the government showed that it was really going to rip up the old ways in which we enjoyed football for decades and give us something completely different.

Dispiriting though that all was, and thoroughly (and quite rightly) distracted though I was by the birth of my first child, there was still a feeling that the title win of the previous season was not a one-off, nor that we would have to wait a decade or two for a re-run.   I think one of the main points we noticed was that nine Arsenal players had played 28 or more league games that season,  and in1989/90 and the club had conceded only one more goal than what the media constantly called “the best defence in the league,” (inevitably Liverpool’s).

Arsenal had also pushed on to the end, losing only two of the last nine games  And we were told by the club that although there would be disruption to the ground as it moved over to being an all-seater affair, we were going to suffer far, far less than many other clubs.   Arsenal it seemed, had a plan.  

Also, rather curiously, I think there was a feeling that we were no longer introducing multiple experimental players.  True, there was no Arsenal goal scorer knocking in 20+ a season, but instead the goals were being spread around the team, and it was not unnoticed that one of the young players, now just turned 21, was knocking in a useful number.

That was, you probably don’t need me to tell you, Paul Merson, who was the second-highest scorer in the title-winning season of 1988/89, and got a useful six goals in 17 games in 1989/90.  There was of course, talk of wanting more goals as Arsenal on 54 league goals for the season, were a long way behind the 73 of the title-winning campaign the year before.  But Paul was still only 21, and the future with him in the team looked very positive.

Plus, there was the thought that some clubs were going to have a much harder job updating their stadia according to the new government diktat of becoming all-seater grounds, and Arsenal had never retreated into the primitive “treat them like animals” approach to its supporters that many clubs seemed to have.  There never were fences at Arsenal, and the board clearly wanted to keep things that way.