Everyone at Highbury and all the fans including me were looking forward to the new season with great excitement and expectation after the team’s success in the Fairs Cup. However Arsenal couldn’t have had a tougher start to the 1970-71 season. Away to the Champions Everton at a raucous Goodison Park. The Gunners were one down to a Joe Royle header with 20 minutes to go and under the cosh as the Toffees went looking for a second decisive goal. Arsenal broke away and Charlie George just got to the ball as he collided with Everton keeper Gordon West to put Arsenal level. Unfortunately Charlie suffered a double fracture of his ankle in the process. Everton went back in front six minutes from time. However a resilient Arsenal as they’d do so many times that season came back for a second time to snatch a point when George Graham chipped over Gordon West for a late equaliser.
George Graham grabs at late equaliser at Everton
As well as the injury to Charlie George at Everton ruling him out for months Peter Simpson missed the start of the season needing a cartilage operation that would keep him out till late November and John Roberts deputised. Garth did a magnificent job filling in for Stan. Jon Sammels who’d been so looking forward to the new season was also out injured with a cracked bone in his right ankle and he didn’t return till late November either. Peter Storey played in midfield at Goodison to man mark Everton’s Alan Ball and Pat Rice came in at right back. Snouty returned to right back for the next match a 0-0 draw at Upton Park against West Ham. But that was the last time he played there as he then became Arsenal’s midfield enforcer with Pat Rice becoming our right back for the rest of the campaign and the decade come to that. Another two pieces of the jigsaw in Storey and Rice were slotted into place.
The Arsenal players proudly run round Highbury parading the Fairs Cup before the first home game of the season
Before the first home fixture of the season the players paraded the Fairs Cup on the pitch and yet another important piece of the the jigsaw was put into place to devastating effect when Ray Kennedy came into the side and was paired alongside John Radford and they clicked together immediately. Manchester United who always attracted a big crowd with George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law in their side were annihilated by the Gunners 4-0 and it was the twin juggernauts upfront of Radford and Kennedy that did the damage that day. They terrorised the United defenders, (who included our old centre half Ian Ure) Ray Kennedy set up Raddy for his hat-trick goal with George Graham also on the scoresheet. The game was also memorable for a fantastic save from Bob Wilson diving at the feet of George Best taking the ball off his toes to Bestie’s astonishment.
Bob Wilson takes the ball off Bestie’s toes at Highbury
Leeds United were our big rivals in the Double season and they’d got their season off to a flyer winning their first five matches. These were the days of only two points for a win and we were 3 points behind them already when they came to Highbury on 1st September. Although they were capable of playing some stunning football it was the dirty cynical Leeds that turned up at Highbury that day the same Leeds that had kicked the living daylights out of George Eastham at Highbury in the Billy Wright days. True to form Billy Bremner went in late on young Eddie Kelly getting away with there being no action taken against Bremner by the referee and when Eddie naively took his revenge on Bremner in the 28th minute the referee sent Eddie off. But this was a different Arsenal. Don Revie’s Leeds weren’t going to bully us like they did in Billy Wright’s time as manager and the ten men of Arsenal refused to back down and went toe to toe with Leeds fighting fire with fire. We drew 0-0 and although we couldn’t inflict their first defeat of the season on them they did drop their first point of the campaign. I remember standing in our usual spot on the North Bank and every time Jackie Charlton ambled forward when Leeds got a corner the whole of the North Bank would be whistling at him and we gave him and his team so much abuse that day. We hadn’t forgotten what he’d done a couple of years earlier at Wembley to poor old “Fingers” Furnell and the Eddie Kelly sending off just added to the hatred the Arsenal fans had for Leeds. When the players and match officials left the pitch at the final whistle the referee Iowerth Jones needed a police escort!
The next game was the North London derby and it was George “Geordie” Armstrong the man who provided so many pin point crosses for Radford and Kennedy in the Double season that scored both our goals on a sunny day at Highbury to beat the old enemy 2-0. I remember Ken Hancock was the Tottenham keeper making a rare appearance deputising for the great Pat Jennings. Little did we know at the time how significant the return fixture at White Hart Lane would be in May.
Geordie Armstrong scores in the North London Derby 5th September 1970
In September Arsenal travelled to Rome to open their defence of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup against Lazio. It was a clash of footballing cultures and was a bad-tempered encounter that ended up in a 2-2 draw with one of the Lazio goals a disputed penalty. Arsenal were 2-0 up at one stage with a brace from John Radford when Lazio turned to the dark arts using every trick in the book. Bob Wilson said “They were treading on us and elbowing, and they would spit in your face at a corner. Also they went up to the younger players and pulled their hair to provoke them. It really was horrible stuff”. Frank McLintock said Guiseppe Wilson Lazio’s half English left back almost cut Geordie Armstrong in half with a terrible tackle and Eddie Kelly added when you went down after a tackle they would help you up and pinch the skin under your arm so you’d react and lash out so it looked like you were the aggressor.
Amazingly somebody thought it would be a good idea to hold a banquet for the two teams in a Rome restaurant. What could possibly go wrong! The Arsenal players were presented with man-bags by some local dignitaries and though they were thought of as the height of fashion by the Italians. The Arsenal players thought the bags were effeminate and proceeded to take the piss and started chucking the bags around which obviously didn’t go down too well with the Lazio players who were giving their English counterparts daggers across the restaurant. The Gunners were soon glowering back at the Italians and Peter Storey was still seething over Lazio’s roughhouse tactics and was growling “We’ll fucking get them back. We’ll fucking do them”.
Meanwhile Sammy Nelson who was outside the restaurant with Ray Kennedy takes up the story. “The guy who had been playing against Ray tried to knee him as he was passing. Ray just went smack and splattered him. I couldn’t believe it”. Bob Wilson was near the front door of the restaurant and heard the commotion coming from outside. “I heard heated exchanges between some Italians and Ray Kennedy who was unmistakable with his Geordie accent. Within seconds Ray was attacked and a fight started”.
I’ll leave the next part of the tale to our captain Frank McLintock as told in his book “True Grit”. “A flustered Bob Wilson ran in and said in a very anxious yet dramatic way. ‘There’s a fight going on outside’. I rushed outside with Eddie Kelly and a Scots reserve, Jackie Carmichael, and started throwing punches and I distinctly remember Peter Marinello flying through the air over a parked car. One guy was on my back punching downwards onto my head as their players and fans quickly outnumbered us. At one point their manager, an Argentinian nutter schooled in the Estudiantes academy of thuggery, picked up Bertie Mee by the lapels and forced him against our bus. The police came and drew their guns and the fight soon broke up. They started to clear a space to let us back on the bus but, just as I was about about to leave, I spotted the little bugger in the maroon blazer with brass buttons who had been pounding on my head. He had become detached from his mates so I sized myself up to whack him. Just as I was about to unwind, two strong arms grabbed me around the neck and dragged me back to the bus with my heels scrapping along the flag stones. It was Garth, the strongest man in the club. He’d been fantastic in that fight and laid out about three of them but he knew my temper was still raging and that I wanted revenge so he’d intervened to save me from my wilder instincts”.
The Lazio manager incidentally was none other than Juan Carlos Lorenzo the manager of Argentina in the 1966 World Cup when on another infamous occasion Antonio Rattin was sent off in the Quarter-Final against England and refused to leave the field and Ramsey called the Argentinians “Animals” and refused to let George Cohen swap shirts with the opposition after the game with Ramsey and the Argentinian having a tug of war with Cohen’s England shirt. Anyway I digress. Bertie Mee stood at the front of the bus and said “Right boys we are The Arsenal, we don’t want any scandal. We keep this under wraps. We don’t speak to the press. We don’t mingle with the press in the bar at the hotel. We go straight to our beds”. Of course the story leaked and the team were met on arrival at Heathrow by a hoard of pressmen and photographers. However Bertie stood up for his club and his players saying to the press “I am proud to be the manager of these players. They withstood terrible provocation during the match. It was asking too much of any group of men to then resist defending themselves when they were provoked again and more seriously after the match. I cannot condone fighting but the players all have my sympathy”.
The experience in Rome bonded the players even more. They knew they could rely upon one another be it going toe to toe with Leeds or fighting against the odds against a mob of Italians in a back street in Rome. As I mentioned earlier these Gunners were a real band of brothers.
The next two games both at Highbury saw West Bromwich Albion despatched 6-2 and Lazio put to the sword in the second leg 2-0. Snouty was right we did have our revenge! Arsenal had only lost one game that season against Chelsea away when the Gunners headed to the midlands in late September to face Stoke City who would give us more than a few problems that season. Inexplicably they smashed us 5-0 talk about a bad day at the office!
I remember two cracking 4-0 victories against Nottingham Forest and the Champions Everton at Highbury a fortnight apart in October when Henry Newton played on the losing side in both games having moved from Forest to Everton in a £150,000 deal. Arsenal then drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the League Cup to secure a replay at Highbury and to round the month off in style we saw off Derby County at home 2-0. They were managed by the unforgettable Brian Clough who had developed them into an excellent side that were destined to win the title the following season. However after the win against Derby we were still two points adrift of Leeds after 15 games.
On 7th November a goal from John Radford was enough to pick up the two points against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road. But we suffered a shock defeat at Highbury in the League Cup replay against Crystal Palace and we came out of the ground very disappointed at getting knocked out the competition 2-0. Then on the Saturday Palace gave us more problems as they took a point off us in the League holding us to a 1-1 draw at Highbury. But all in all December wasn’t a bad month for the Gunners as we progressed past Strum Graz of Austria and Belgium outfit Beveren-Wass in the Fairs Cup. Arsenal also won six out of eight games in the League including fine victories over Bill Shankly’s Liverpool at home 2-0 as well as two important away wins against Manchester City 2-0 and Manchester United 3-1. The Liverpool game was particularly memorable for a fantastic goal by George Graham volleying home after a great one two with Jon Sammels.
Arsenal’s last game of 1970 was on Boxing Day against Southampton at home and Highbury was a winter wonderland. On a snow covered pitch with thick snow continuing to steadily fall and playing with an orange ball with the Gunners wearing unfamiliar red shorts we battered Southampton but a combination of the woodwork and an inspired performance from Eric Martin the Southampton keeper kept Arsenal at bay and it ended disappointingly 0-0. As we headed into the New Year we were three points behind Leeds with a game in hand and the Gunners were left as the only realistic title contenders to Leeds. It was looking like an exciting second half of the season was to come and you can read all about that in the third part coming up next.
Started going to Highbury in ’66. Season ticket holder since ’76. Love The Arsenal. Need I say more?
Great piece Gary. I think a combination of 0-5 thrashing and the fisticuffs in Italy did so much to give us that team spirit which got us over the finishing line especially after Charlton’s last minute winner at Leeds – Bob M was offside unfortunately. Norman Burtenshaw in his book which I read for libel – and that is another story – said at HT in the Leeds game he told his linesman to look out for McNab because he was slow coming off the back four line
Well done Gary. Wonderful memories. You know this very lucid account revises days when ( I think ) football and the “in-the blood” devotion of the fans was more genuine than it is now.