100 seasons in the top division: Part 3 – the first north London league derby
By Tony Attwood
Previously in this series:
- 100 seasons in the top division. Part 1: The Election
- 100 Seasons in the top Division. Part 2: The opening season
In the last article we took a look at Arsenal in 1919/20 – the first post war season, and the first season that Arsenal were back in the top division. Arsenal were elected to the top division at the League AGM which also allowed Chelsea to remain in the top league because it was felt they had been relegated due to match fixing by Liverpool and Manchester United. The meeting also elected Arsenal back to the first division, in part as a reward for its support of the Football League in the days when the Southern League was presenting itself as a serious rival to the national competition.
Arsenal had finished 10th in the first division that season, while Tottenham, having been relegated from the first division in 1914/15, won the second division in 1919/20 and so returned to the first division in 1920/21.
Thus in 1920/21 both Arsenal and Tottenham were in the first division, and this for the first time since 1912/13 – which had been Arsenal’s last season playing in Plumstead. And therefore, the first North London Derby as we know it today, was played in the 1920/21 season.
So to be quite clear, the clubs had played each other before, but not in a league game with the two clubs occupying grounds just a couple of miles apart. (The clubs did not play each other in 1919/20 as Tottenham were a second division club at the time).
These games were played on the 15th and 22 January – the style at the time being that the clubs played each other home and away across two adjacent weekends. Tottenham won the first game 2-1 and Arsenal the return match a week later 3-2.
Not only were these scores close but so was the position of the clubs in the league. On the morning of the first match at White Hart Lane the league table showed the clubs sitting on the same number of points (each with 24 points from 22 games – remembering of course, that at that time it was two points for a win). Tottenham had a better goal average by 0.45 goals, and had scored 49 goals from the 22 games in the season, compared to Arsenal’s 33.
Below is the league table before that game, and I publish it here because of the remarkable similarity there is to the clubs in the top division as I write this in August 2025.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Burnley | 22 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 46 | 17 | 33 |
| 2 | Bolton Wanderers | 23 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 45 | 28 | 29 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 22 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 40 | 21 | 28 |
| 4 | Newcastle United | 22 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 42 | 25 | 28 |
| 5 | Manchester City | 22 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 38 | 28 | 28 |
| 6 | Middlesbrough | 22 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 34 | 28 | 27 |
| 7 | Everton | 24 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 37 | 34 | 27 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 22 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 49 | 31 | 24 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 22 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 33 | 29 | 24 |
The crowd for the first game at White Hart Lane was recorded as 39,220. The return match a week later had a crowd of 66,000 and Arsenal won that game 3-2. As a result of the two games, the clubs remained 8th and 9th in the League.
These were not the only very high attendances that Arsenal played in front of that season: the away game against Chelsea at the start of December was played in front of 60,000 and the return match one week later was played with 50,000 at Highbury. Such crowd numbers were a total vindication of Henry Norris’ decision to move the club in 1913 from Plumstead to Highbury. (The last home game at Plumstead had a crowd of 3,000.)
The season ended with Tottenham in sixth place, and Arsenal in ninth, with Chelsea, the only other London team in the top division, in 18th. The general feeling at the time was that no London team would ever win the league because of the diversions offered by London life – there was no proof of it of course, but it was an oft repeated comment of the day – but nevertheless Arsenal had fully repaid the enthusiasm of the rest of the league for having them in the top division. True Arsenal had gone out of the cup to Queens Park Rangers in the first round (a 0-2 away defeat) but the crowd numbers were indeed impressive For when the games were played on a Satuday afternoon, the attendance was regularly in excess of 40,000.
Of course, it wasn’t all plain sailing – indeed by 24 October Arsenal were down to 16th in the League. But even then, they were not the lowest-ranked of the three London clubs – Chelsea being 21st and thus occupying one of the two relegation positions.
And Arsenal were showing themselves as a team of resilience, for example going nine games unbeaten between the start of October and early December. They were never going to be challenging for the title, but it meant that by the end of the season, Arsenal now had two solid mid-table finishes since promotion, and they could now realistically see themselves as an established 1st division club.
Indeed, the only real worry was the last three games – two defeats and a draw – in which Arsenal failed to score a goal.
But there is another point we can take from the history of this first season back in Division One, and that is the issue of Fred Pagnam. He had transferred from Liverpool to Arsenal at the start of the 1919/20 season, and in 1920/21 he was Arsenal’s top scorer with 14 goals.
However, and I do think this is a key point, he stopped playing for Arsenal in late January and then moved to Cardiff City, having overall scored 26 goals in 50 games.
The only reason for his sale must have been either an argument with the manager, or (much more likely, given that players were all on fixed salaries, the maximum wage was not abolished until 1961) Arsenal’s need for more cash, and a good offer being received. The transfer fee quoted was £3000. Certainly, what we do know is that he scored 27 goals in 53 appearances for Arsenal with 13 of those coming in his truncated 1920/21 at Highbury.
Arsenal finished ninth in the 1920/21 season, a one-place improvement on the season before. And although the crowds sank toward the end of the season, the campaign could leave them with hope that they could and indeed would only survive in the top league but in due course, flourish.
Although, in fact, just how long they might survive in the top league, they surely could never have imagined!