As Bad As Things Got - Arsenal: 14th May 1980

The only top flight team in England ever to play a 70-match season ended it with nothing.

It’s different with Arsenal, of course. Which year to choose for a club with more than 100 years unbroken in the top flight? How bad can things get? Do you go all the way back to the 1912/13 season, their penultimate under the ‘Woolwich’ name, when they were relegated for the only time in their history, from the First Division? Or perhaps to the 1924/25 season, when finishing in 20th place in the First Division was only one above the relegation spots? Those of a certain age may remember 1965/66, when Highbury crowds dipped below an average of 30,000 in front of a soporific team which finished in 14th place, just four points above relegation. One season, however, stands out more than any other.

Terry Neill’s arrival at Arsenal in the summer of 1976, coming as it did directly from Tottenham Hotspur, caused a stir. Bertie Mee had only managed to get the team to 17th place in the First Division at the end of the 1975/76, their lowest final league position in more than half a century, though only one place lower than the previous year. Mee was much loved at Highbury. He’d delivered the club a wholly unexpected league and cup double in 1971. That success, however, was not built upon and as the decade wore on it became increasingly evident that the club was becoming rudderless. Key players such as Bob Wilson, Ray Kennedy, Charlie George and captain Frank McLintock left and were not adequately replaced.