“We won the league at Anfield, we won it at The Lane. Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, no one can say the same” is how the famous song goes, demonstrating our remarkable ability to win the title at our biggest rivals.
The championship was secured in dramatic fashion at Anfield in 1989, at Old Trafford in 2002 and twice at White Hart Lane in 1971 and 2004.
But what about Stamford Bridge? Here’s the story of how we did it not only won it at the home of Chelsea once, but twice.
WHEN DID ARSENAL first WIN THE LEAGUE AT STAMFORD BRIDGE?
We missed out on the First Division title by two points in 1932 and set about amending that near miss in the 1932/33 campaign. We lost just one of our first 14 games in a run that included a remarkable 8-2 win over Leicester City and 7-1 victory over Wolves.
The goals kept coming with a 9-2 win over Sheffield United but back-to-back games against Leeds United over Christmas yielded just one point, triggering a run of just four wins in 13 games to leave us battling Aston Villa for the title.
But a 5-0 victory over title rivals Villa was followed up by four more wins on the spin to leave us on the brink of glory as we headed to strugglers Chelsea on April 22, 1933, knowing a win would be enough for a second league title in three seasons.
In front of 72,000 at Stamford Bridge and with 20 minutes on the clock, we demonstrated why we were top of the table. A lightning-quick counter-attack, synonymous with our play under Herbert Chapman, saw us carve open Chelsea as David Jack, left unmarked, slotted home.
Five minutes later, Cliff Bastin got in on the act with his first of the game, after he was left unmarked from a corner to double our lead.
Chelsea came out on the offensive with our goalkeeper Frank Moss the busier of the stoppers. But as the hosts continued to push forward, we picked them off once again with a swift counter as Ray Bowden’s shot was saved into the path of Bastin who netted his second and our third of the afternoon.
The Blues then missed a penalty through George Mills before Hughie Gallagher scored a consolation with 10 minutes to go, but the result was never in doubt. The 3-1 victory handed us the title with two games to spare, and we finished the season with 25 wins from 42 matches, netting a remarkable 118 goals in the process with Bastin scoring 33 from the wing.
HOW DID WE WIN THE LEAGUE AT STAMFORD BRIDGE IN 1934?
We started off our title defence strongly, losing just three of our opening 24 games, securing crucial wins at Huddersfield Town and Liverpool. But tragedy struck on January 6, 1934, as our legendary manager Herbert Chapman died of pneumonia. Joe Shaw took charge until the end of the season, looking to continue Chapman's work and clinch another First Division.
After three successive defeats, including to title rivals Spurs and Manchester City, we went on to win nine of our next 11 matches to see us pull away from our rivals and into a commanding position.
We headed to Stamford Bridge on the penultimate day of the season, knowing that we could win the league title in west London for a second successive campaign.
This time only requiring a point, we went 1-0 up as Bastin found Alex James who managed to bundle the ball home to give us a half-time lead.
Jack Horton equalised for the hosts but Bastin [below], as he had done the season before, gave us the lead as he eluded the Chelsea backline. The hosts found an equaliser through George Mills but the point was enough to ensure back-to-back titles had been claimed at Stamford Bridge.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
