**Background**
This article traces Arsenal’s 1926/27 season – the second season with Chapman as manager. In the [previous season,](https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/27681) Arsenal had defied all logic and risen from being relegation candidates under the previous manager Knighton, to contenders for the title.
By Tony Attwood
What was it like to return to Highbury on 28 August 1926, having spent getting on for four months trying to come to terms with the fact that the club that had just missed relegation in 1924/5, had come second in the league in 1925/6?
Certainly, there was a total awareness of what had happened, for instead of 23,000 turning up for the first home game of the season as happened in 1925, the crowd was 32,000. A 39% increase. Not bad for starters during a major recession..
Arsenal in fact, won their first two games (both at home) in 1926/7 but then came crashing down to earth with a 0-4 away defeat to Sheffield United. Arsenal were then seventh in the league, but the consolation was that none of the teams in the first division had won all three games, so Arsenal were just one point off the top.
After six games, Arsenal were seventh and were showing in their results all the signs of being a team that was secure in its position in the top league (a major change from the days of Knighton), but not a team that was challenging at the top (which is what Arsenal had been the season before).
However, by mid-October, Arsenal were very much showing the signs of being more of a lower mid-table team. That was still a real improvement on two years before, under Knighton, but this was a great disappointment in relation to last season. Worse, as the table shows, Tottenham were in the top four.
1
Burnley
12
7
3
2
33
25
17
2
Leicester City
11
6
4
1
35
25
16
3
Sunderland
13
6
3
4
26
18
15
4
Tottenham Hotspur
11
5
4
2
30
17
14
**13**
**Arsenal**
**11**
**3**
**5**
**3**
**17**
**22**
**11**
21
West Bromwich Albion
11
2
3
6
15
25
7
22
Everton
13
1
4
8
15
30
6
Another poor run in late October and early November saw Arsenal defeated twice while also picking up just two points from two draws. And even the upturn of consecutive victories as the year moved into the final month was followed by another run of just one point from three games.
Following a 2-4 home defeat to Tottenham on 19 December and a 0-2 defeat to Cardiff on 27 December Arsenal were 16th in the table, just four points off the relegation positions.
It was a symbolic moment. On Boxing Day 1925, Arsenal had been top of the league. On Boxing Day 1924 – in Knighton’s final season, Arsenal had been 12th. Now they were worse off, and this with the ex-manager of Huddersfield, who even without their fabled manager were now just one point off the top of the table. There was considerable criticism in the media and suggestions that the Arsenal team were simply “not up to it” (along with the regular talk about it being impossible for a London team ever to win the league).
However, three consecutive victories over Christmas and New Year took Arsenal back to a more respectable position exactly halfway down the league, and attention turned to the FA Cup, which at this time was for many an even more prestigious competition than the league.
The third round had been played on January 8, partway through Arsenal’s run of three successive league wins, and resulted in a 3-2 victory over Sheffield United. Next, the fourth round tie was against Port Vale of the second division. They had just lost 5-2 away to Middlesbrough and had a goalless draw with Bradford City. The commentary was that they were saving themselves for Arsenal. And in fact they did get a 2-2 draw at home on 29 January, but lost the replay on 2 February 1-0 at Highbury.
The Cup games, however, seemed to drain Arsenal, and in the next two league games, Arsenal were defeated by Liverpool and Leicester, leaving Arsenal 12th.
The fifth round of the Cup was on 19 February, and Arsenal were drawn at home to Liverpool, who were seventh in the league. Arsenal won 2-0 in front of 43,000. The following week, the winning run continued with a 6-2 win over relegation candidates Burnley.
March 5 saw Arsenal beat Wolverhampton 2-1 in the FA Cup in front of over 52,000, meaning Arsenal were in the FA Cup semi-final for only the third time in their history. They had, however, lost the previous two semi-finals.
But this time they were drawn against second division Southampton who were at that moment ninth in Division 2. Having had five victories and two draws in their last seven games going up to the Arsenal match, there were suggestions that the Saints could beat Arsenal, but in fact Arsenal won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in the semi-final, leaving Arsenal looking forward to their first ever cup final on 23 April.
In their run-up to the semi-final, Arsenal had lost their last three games; a losing run that ultimately went on for six consecutive defeats, in the last two of which alone they conceded 11 goals!
But then, with the cup final scheduled for April 23, Arsenal pulled themselves together and gained three successive victories.
On 23 April, the day of the cup final, the first division league table showed…
Team
P
W
D
L
F
A
Pts
1
Newcastle United
40
24
6
10
93
55
54
15
Cardiff City
39
14
9
16
52
63
37
17
Arsenal
38
14
9
15
66
82
37
With 42 games in a season, neither club was in danger of relegation, but although the two clubs were on equal points, Arsenal clearly had a much, much worse defence, and so it turned out to be on the day as Arsenal lost their first FA Cup final 1-0. in front of over 91,000.
Arsenal now had four games to play – they won three of them (including a 0-4 victory away at Tottenham on the last game of the season in front of a mere 29,555 spectators.
Arsenal had still not ever won a trophy, but in the two seasons after missing relegation by one place, and after Knighton had been replaced by Chapman, Arsenal had finished 2nd in the league and been in their first ever Cup final. The transformation of the club was beyond most people’s wildest dreams. Here are the top, middle, and bottom placements of the final league table.
Team
P
W
D
L
F
A
Pts
1
Newcastle United
42
25
6
11
96
58
56
**11**
**Arsenal**
**42**
**17**
**9**
**16**
**77**
**86**
**43**
13
Tottenham Hotspur
42
16
9
17
76
78
41
21
Leeds United
42
11
8
23
69
88
30
22
West Bromwich Albio[n](https://www.11v11.com/teams/west-bromwich-albion/)
42
11
8
23
65
86
30
And although Arsenal’s final place of 11th in the league was disappointing. having come second the season before, they could consider the fact that even in a seaosn where they were chasing the FA Cup (and this at a time when it was felt impossible for a club to even contemplate doing the Double) an 11th place and a cup final was an achivemeent which just a couple of seasons before would have been considered utterly impossible for any London team.
In the season, Arsenal used 27 players, of whom 10 played 20-plus league games. This was a decline in the number of regulars in the team but it was clear that Chapman was getting closer to his ideal team.
**Previously in this series**