History – 1937/38 Arsenal win 5th title in the space of one decade

1937/38 First Division season: How Arsenal became Champions for the fifth time in nine years

In 1938 Arsenal won their fifth and final league title of the 1930s to become the most successful side throughout the country during the decade.

The Gunners originally secured the first of their five Championships in 1931 under Herbert Chapman, who was taken over by George Allison in 1934 after an unexpected and ill timed death where by 1935 Arsenal had won the First Division Treble, becoming the second club in the football league history to do so after Chapman’s Huddersfield Town in 1925.

The Gunners would win the 1937/38 First Division title on the final day of the season pipping Wolves in second by a single point.

Ted Drake proved to be the Gunners main talisman in the league for the fourth consecutive year picking up 17 goals in all tournaments despite picking up injury in the final part of the season.

Arsenal picked up three wins in their first three games to get the ball rolling, beating Everton comfortably 4-1 at Goodison Park  with Drake scoring a hat-trick and Cliff Bastin helping out with the other strike. In the second match Drake, Bastin and Crayston all chipped in with the goals putting Huddersfield Town to bed 3-1 at Highbury with the third victory being a 5-0 romping over Wolves, Drake hit two, Bastin fired in from the spot and Joe Hulme found the fifth.

Following this impressive run of matches seeing The Gunners find the back of the net 12 times, for the rest of September Arsenal failed to seal more than one win in five fixtures. That victory came up against Sunderland who had just won the FA Cup final 3-1 versus Preston North End, Drake, Hulme, John Vance Milne and Robert Trimming Davidson all grabbed a goal each.

October commenced with a close victory against Manchester City 2-1 thanks to the help from Milne again and Alfred Kirchen. The Gunners would then reach a woeful five points in their next four games, drawing three times on the trot against Chelsea, Portsmouth and Stoke before losing by the narrowest of margins 1-2 at home to Middlesbrough.

It didn’t get any better for Arsenal going into November after a gruelling five hour trip nearly up to Grimsby they were defeated 1-2 for their first match of the month. The Gunners then drew 1-1 at home to West Brom in front of a crowd of 32,324 which was less than half of Highbury’s capacity with Denis Compton rescuing a point that afternoon.

After a tricky spell of games Arsenal secured eight points out of a possible eight (with two points for a win then) from late November to early December. This saw Arsenal whip Leeds United 4-1 witnessing Drake score twice, Bastin from the spot and Kirchen slotting in as well as a crucial 2-1 victory away to Birmingham with Sidney Cartwright and Kirchen again pulling his weight.

Whilst finishing December off with two points picked up in their final three matches of the month, The Gunners got the New Year off with an almighty bang beating Everton 2-1 in a fierce dual. Reg Lewis scored his first goal for Arsenal on his debut and George Hunt helped finish off the points.

In mid-January title contenders Wolves woke Arsenal up 3-1 at the Molineux, a week later The Gunners gained revenge knocking them out the FA Cup Fourth Round 2-1.

Arsenal finished off the month with a difficult 1-1 draw against Sunderland at Roker Park, all due to Hunt chipping in with the goods.

February saw The Gunners go undefeated securing four wins and one draw.  Eight points were achieved versus Leicester City 3-1, Derby County 3-0, Manchester City 2-1 and giving Chelsea the blues 2-0 with strikes from Drake and Mal Griffiths.

Middlesbrough ended Arsenals four game run without defeat in early March putting them to one side 2-1 at Ayresom Park. The Gunners won one and drew one out of their remaining two matches of the month, Grimsby Town were battered 5-1 Bastin and Griffifths scored twice before a tedious 0-0 draw with West Brom.

Two points were dropped in Arsenals first game of April after drawing 2-2 with Charlton Athletic. Five days later fresh Gunner Gordon Bremmer popped up with the 1-0 winner for nearly 30,000 fans in the stands of Elland Road. In Arsenals next three games only one point out of six were picked up, losing twice to Brentford 0-2 and 0-3 as well as drawing in between against Birmingham City in a 0-0 stalemate.

After having beaten Preston North End and Liverpool just about 1-0 with a strike from Edward Carr, Arsenal went into the final game of the season needing a victory to win their fifth Championship of the 30s.  After bombarding Bolton Wanders 5-0 at home all mercy to Bastin and Carr both wondering the ball over the opposition’s line twice and Kirchen joining in with the fifth, The Gunners had sealed their fifth Championship ever and all 5 in the space of one decade!

Liam Harding