Although Arsenal had some excellent attacking players in Jimmy Logie, Doug Lishman, Peter Goring and Cliff Holton, the 1952/53 team struggled to gel throughout the campaign.
Yet somehow, Tom Whittaker’s dogged Gunners dug deep, and put together a five-match winning run in April which kept them in the title mix with nearest rivals Preston North End and Wolves.
With just two games remaining, a nervous Arsenal lost 2-0 at Deepdale, succumbing to the brilliance of Preston's Tom Finney. The Lilywhites then won their season finale at Derby County, held two days prior to ours, to put them two points clear at the top.
That meant that we had to win at home against sixth-place Burnley in order to pip Preston to the big prize. We had garnered 52 points from 41 games, the fewest any potential champions had gained at that stage of the season, but boasted a better goal average than our title rivals, which would ultimately prove vital.
In our mid-1990s interview, winger Don Roper [below] said: “By May, the pitches became really heavy, and the Highbury surface barely had a blade of grass on it. We felt the pressure, but had the chance to win the league in front of our own fans at Highbury, which would be a huge honour.”
Due to the absence of floodlights, on the first day of May the match kicked off at the early time of 6.30pm on a showery Friday. As one of the 51,586 supporters packed into our home that evening, Harry Wright recalled: “Lots of fans wore their colours, which was quite rare for those days. All of us sang ‘Arsenal, Arsenal’ in unison – that’s the North and South terraces. Even the stands joined in. It was a marvellous atmosphere.”
The action was frenetic. After six minutes, Des Thompson put Burnley ahead against the run of play, but midway through the first half, we found our attacking rhythm. Alex Forbes – courtesy of a huge deflection – equalised, and two minutes afterwards, Logie ducked out of the way to allow Lishman to score his 25th goal of the campaign and put us 2-1 up. Just before half-time, Logie [below] pounced from five yards out to snaffle a poacher’s goal and extend the lead. One hand was on the championship.
At the interval, a torrential downpour sparked false rumours in the crowd that the match would be abandoned. But on a sodden surface, Burnley proved in the second half that they weren’t dead and buried. If they won, they would finish fourth – no mean achievement for a team which had laboured in mid-table until March.
Five minutes into the second half, the Clarets’ Billy Elliott pulled the score back to 3-2. By now, the old leather ball weighed, in Roper’s words, “an absolute tonne.” Arsenal attempted to shut up shop. The tension was unbearable. Whittaker walked down the tunnel and poured himself a double brandy.
With around a minute to go, Roper caught Elliott’s ankle in the Arsenal box. To Elliott’s credit, he stumbled, carried on, and told Roper: “There are better ways of denying you the title than that, Don.” Finally, at around 8.10pm, the referee blew his whistle, and Arsenal had won the title on goal average, by 0.099 of a goal.
By now, the rain had eased off, and, with Arsenal fans throwing their scarves and rosettes into the air in celebration, the sky turned red. Hundreds of joyful fans invaded the pitch and hoisted skipper Joe Mercer aloft. His side had finished top of the league for the seventh time in our history, but in the most dramatic of circumstances.
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