Since Brighton & Hove Albion’s promotion to the Premier League in 2017, we have locked horns with the Seagulls regularly, but prior to that, the fixture was a rare occurrence.
The two clubs first met in the FA Cup third round in January 1935 at The Goldstone Ground, Brighton’s much-loved stadium between 1902 to 1997. In front of a 22,343 crowd, Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners against the Division Three (South) side, courtesy of goals from Joe Hulme and Ted Drake.
Although Seagulls fans went home disappointed, the healthy gate (way above their average of 6,000) meant that Brighton enjoyed a healthy pay day. Despite the chilly weather, a healthy number of Arsenal fans travelled down to the south coast via steam trains and charabancs to take in the sea air. George Allison’s men lost in the quarter-finals to Sheffield Wednesday, but won the league title to complete a hat trick of championships.
It would be another 44 years until we met again, and having waited so long for one game, incredibly five came along in five months.
Alan Mullery’s free-flowing side finally reached the promised land of the First Division ahead of the 1979/80 campaign, but in their first-ever game in the top tier, we won 4-0 at the Goldstone Ground with Liam Brady netting a penalty, Alan Sunderland following up his 1979 FA Cup final heroics with a brace and Frank Stapleton also netting to spoil the Seagulls’ big day.
It was a similar story at Highbury in the return fixture on November 3, as Brady again scored from the spot and Sunderland got on the scoresheet again, while a Graham Rix goal ensured we were 3-0 victors.
But five days before that First Division fixture, the sides had played out a goalless draw at the Goldstone Ground in the League Cup fourth round, forcing a replay in north London a fortnight later. On the face of it, Arsenal could have done without the second match, as the fixtures were already piling up.
Having qualified for the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup thanks to our dramatic late win over Manchester United at Wembley the previous campaign, we were in the midst of a hectic campaign when we would play a total of 70 matches in all competitions, including a scarcely credible 27 cup games.
However the League Cup replay was one of the most straightforward matches that season. Despite the presence of Brighton’s fearsome captain Steve Foster in the Seagulls’ defence, both Stapleton and Paul Vaessen scored a brace apiece. These were 18-year-old Vaessen’s first goals in an Arsenal shirt, and he served notice of his aerial ability with a headed goal from a Brady cross. Later in the season, Vaessen would net a more famous headed goal against Juventus in the semi-final of the Cup Winners' Cup.
After another thumping and yet to find the net even once in the four previous matches, Brighton might have been relieved not to have to face us again for a while, but in January 1980, the FA Cup fourth round draw brought us together yet again. During an 11-game run to the final that saw us play five replays, this was one of our easier games as Sammy Nelson and Brian Talbot secured our passage.
But heartbreak would come in the final of that tournament as well as in Europe, as we finished runners-up in both across a five-day period in May as understandably fatigue set in.
No team has played a 70-match season before or since in England, and incredibly the five times we played Brighton wasn’t even the most we faced a single opponent that term. We tangled with Liverpool six times, as three replays were needed to separate the sides in the FA Cup semi-final before we finally prevailed.
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