The Glorious History 1972 to 1986 |
 1972 Arsenal reach their 5th Cup Final in 5 years, only to have their hopes dashed. |
| After the glory of the 1970-71 season, 72 can only be described as a huge disappointment. In any walk of life achieving success is only half the battle. Living with the difficulties it can create is another matter altogether. A month after the "Double" was won, North London was alive with rumours of the first split in the camp which had seemed to be rock solid. Done Howe, who had proven so influential in his capacity as coach during the previous season left for West Bromwich Albion on July 8th 1972 . John Sammels also moved on to Leicester City for £100,000. These moves combined with inconsistent performances from Simpson, George and Storey resulted in Arsenal only finishing fifth in the league. The F.A. Cup remained Arsenals only hope of salvaging the season, and their fifth Cup Final in five years was in keeping with the rest of their season. The final against Leeds United was at best described as a drab affair. Had it been a boxing match the referee would have called for more action. The goal when it finally came near the end of the game was scored by Allan Clarke with a diving header that powerfully beat both Wilson and Barnett helping out in defence. Arsenal finished the season in fifth place with 52 points. The "Double" by now was only history, and in the following years the team that had showed so much potential slowly disintegrated as disgruntled players went their separate ways... Over the next four years Arsenal reached their lowest ebb since the dog days of Billy Wright ten years before culminating with a lowly position of 17th place at the end of season 1975-76 |
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1976 Terry Neill brought in to replace Berty Mee at the reigns. |
| In the mid season between 1975-6 and 1976-7 season Bert Mee resigned and after huge speculation (I must admit that even I applied for the position of Arsenal Manager and received an official reply from the club firstly telling me that they had received my application for the position, and then that unfortunately I was deemed unsuitable!?)Terry Neill was appointed as Arsenal Manager. His first task was to lure the near legendary Malcolm "Supermac" Macdonald from Newcastle United for £333,333.33. Macdonald joined a team including Pat Rice, David O'Leary, Liam "Chippy" Brady and Frank Stapleton and Graham Rix. Neill turned the team around, and in his first season Arsenal finished 8th with Macdonald scoring 25 goals. |
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1978 Ipswich Town spoil Arsenal's revival. |
| Terry Neill's second season in charge included the additions of Pat Jennings (A huge coup after Tottenham (scum) thought the 32 year old Northern Ireland International was ready for retirement and sold him for a mere £40,000. Jennings in fact went on to play over 300 games for Arsenal!), Willie Young, Alan Hudson and Alan Sunderland producing a team with huge potential. Neill's second season saw Arsenal climb to fifth position in the league and ended with another visit to Wembley. Arsenal were instilled as firm favourites for the game, and this should have been an indication of what was to come. Arsenal have always excelled in conditions of adversity, May 6th 1978 was not one of those occasions. A solitary goal by Roger Osborne (never heard of before or since) was the lowest point of a forgettable game. Arsenal's official excuse was their toll of injuries. Alan Sunderland was recovering from a broken bone in his foot and wasn't match fit, Rice, Nelson and Young were carrying knocks, Macdonald had been told he needed a knee operation on his right knee and lacked mobility and Brady had a shocker! There were more excuses, but I will save them for the 1980 Cup Final.... The only saving grace was Terry Neill's parting promise that Arsenal would be back next year. Macdonald unfortunately had a knee operation three days after the Cup final, it was unsuccessful and a series of operations followed that ended his career at the age of only 29. He had visited Wembley on three occasions (twice with Newcastle) and had three losers medals to show for his efforts. As an aside, Season 1977-78 included a game against Walsall in the 5th round of the F.A. Cup at Highbury on the 18th February 1978. Arsenal won 4-1 with goals from Stapleton (2), Macdonald and Sunderland. It was the first Arsenal game that I went to. It may not mean much to you, but it sure does to me!! |
The 1978-79 season will remain in EVERY Arsenal supporters memory for one game. It was unforgettable, one of the goals is still shown on television to this day. The date was 23rd December 1978, the venue was White Hart Lane, the opposition was "The Mighty Tottenham Hotspur" and the result was Tottenham 0 (zero, nothing, nought, nada!) ARSENAL 5 with Alan Sunderland scoring a hat-trick, Frank Stapleton scoring from an exquisite cross from Brady and Brady himself added to the tally with a sizzling curling wicked searing thunderbolt from the edge of the area!!
On a hot and stifling day, with Brian Talbot running his heart out in midfield, and Brady and Stapleton looking like world class players, the cup looked won with joint effort from Sunderland and Talbot - they arrived at the same time for a shot though the goal was later given to Talbot (probably only because Sunderlands name was by then certainly on the score sheet...) - and Stapleton's fine header. But with five minutes left the game was transformed by scrappy goals by McQueen and McIlroy for Manchester united. When Brady took the ball deep into United's half from the second kick-off, his only thought was to keep possession and hope for extra time, so fired up were United. But Graham Rix had summoned up the energy for a marvellous run, took Brady's pass and slung over a perfect cross to the far post for Alan Sunderland to slide the ball in for the winner ("There's a minute left on the clock, Brady for Arsenal.......right across, Sundeland...It's there, I do not believe it, I swear I do not believe it!"). There was no time for United to come back again. Arsenal had done it. Once again, they had given themselves a mountain to climb, and achieved glory. The victory meant that Brian Talbot had become only the second player in F.A. Cup history to win back to back winners medals with different clubs.
