Final League Table -
Division I
Teams in a silver box denotes a player
representing England in 1930-31
Teams in
italics were
relegated to the second division for the following season |
|
Team |
P |
Home |
Away |
₧
|
|
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
|
Arsenal |
42 |
14 |
5 |
2 |
67 |
27 |
14 |
5 |
2 |
60 |
32 |
66 |
|
Aston Villa |
42 |
17 |
3 |
1 |
86 |
34 |
8 |
6 |
7 |
42 |
44 |
59 |
|
Sheffield Wednesday |
42 |
14 |
3 |
4 |
65 |
32 |
8 |
5 |
8 |
37 |
43 |
52 |
|
Portsmouth |
42 |
11 |
7 |
3 |
46 |
26 |
7 |
6 |
8 |
38 |
41 |
49 |
|
Huddersfield Town |
42 |
10 |
8 |
3 |
45 |
27 |
8 |
4 |
9 |
36 |
38 |
48 |
|
Derby
County |
42 |
12 |
6 |
3 |
56 |
31 |
6 |
4 |
11 |
38 |
48 |
46 |
|
Middlesbrough |
42 |
13 |
5 |
3 |
57 |
28 |
6 |
3 |
12 |
41 |
62 |
46 |
|
Manchester City |
42 |
13 |
2 |
6 |
41 |
29 |
5 |
8 |
8 |
34 |
41 |
46 |
|
Liverpool |
42 |
11 |
6 |
4 |
48 |
28 |
4 |
6 |
11 |
38 |
57 |
42 |
|
Blackburn Rovers |
42 |
14 |
3 |
4 |
54 |
28 |
3 |
5 |
13 |
29 |
56 |
42 |
|
Sunderland |
42 |
12 |
4 |
5 |
61 |
38 |
4 |
5 |
12 |
28 |
47 |
41 |
|
Chelsea |
42 |
13 |
4 |
4 |
42 |
19 |
2 |
6 |
13 |
22 |
48 |
40 |
|
Grimsby Town |
42 |
13 |
2 |
6 |
55 |
31 |
4 |
3 |
14 |
27 |
56 |
39 |
|
Bolton Wanderers |
42 |
12 |
6 |
3 |
45 |
26 |
3 |
3 |
15 |
23 |
55 |
39 |
|
Sheffield
United |
42 |
10 |
7 |
4 |
49 |
31 |
4 |
3 |
14 |
29 |
53 |
38 |
|
Leicester City |
42 |
12 |
4 |
5 |
50 |
38 |
4 |
2 |
15 |
30 |
57 |
38 |
|
Newcastle United |
42 |
9 |
2 |
10 |
41 |
45 |
6 |
4 |
11 |
37 |
42 |
36 |
|
West Ham United |
42 |
11 |
3 |
7 |
56 |
44 |
3 |
5 |
13 |
23 |
50 |
36 |
|
Birmingham |
42 |
11 |
3 |
7 |
37 |
28 |
2 |
7 |
12 |
18 |
42 |
36 |
|
Blackpool |
42 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
41 |
44 |
3 |
3 |
15 |
30 |
81 |
32 |
|
Leeds United |
42 |
10 |
3 |
8 |
49 |
31 |
2 |
4 |
15 |
19 |
50 |
31 |
|
Manchester United |
42 |
6 |
6 |
9 |
30 |
37 |
1 |
2 |
18 |
23 |
78 |
22 |
|
Aston Villa recorded a
seven-match
winning run from 31 January 1931:
Middlesbrough
(h) 8-1, Huddersfield (a) 6-1, Sunderland (h) 4-2,
Birmingham (a) 4-0, Leicester (h) 4-2, Blackburn (a) 2-0, Arsenal (h) 5-1, before
drawing 2-2 at Derby on 21 March 1931. Arsenal's biggest winning
sequence was their first five matches.
Everton, Millwall and Nottingham Forest, from the second division, also
each had
a player representing England. |
|
How The League Was Won 1930-31 Season |
|
Timeline |
36 Saturdays from 30 August 1930 to 2 May 1931, plus the first three Mondays and Wednesdays of
September, Christmas Day (Thursday, 25th December 1930), Boxing Day
(Friday, 26th December 1930), New Year's Day (Thursday, 1st
January 1931), Good Friday,
3 April 1931 and Easter Monday, 6 April 1931
There was
one game played on the last Wednesday in
September, one on the first Wednesday in December and one on the
last Monday of the year. In January, one game was played on a Monday
and six on Wednesdays.
Games were
played on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in February and March,
with four games played on the day after Easter Monday and one other
game played on a Wednesday in April. The
FA Cup took precedence on six weekends from the
third round on 10 January 1931 to the
final on 25 April 1931.
There were two weeks between each
round, apart from three weeks before the fifth round,
and six weeks before the
final. Last
league games were on Saturday, 2 May 1931.
|
Saturday, 11 April 1931 |
Aston Villa 4 Sheffield United 0
Villa
Park, Birmingham
(26,952)
Walker, Houghton
(pen), Waring
(2) |
Arsenal's win meant that they had equalled the record points
total of sixty with three games left to play. Villa were scoring goals at a phenomenal rate, but they were running out of
time and Arsenal needed two more points to lift the title. |
Grimsby Town 0 Arsenal 1
Blundell Park, Cleethorpes
(22,394)
Lambert |
|
Saturday, 18 April 1931 |
3.15pm
GMT
Leeds United 0 Aston Villa 2
Elland Road, Leeds
(10,388)
Waring 42, Chester 50 |
Despite the early setback, the Gunners recovered to secure their
historic triumph as the first southern club to win the league
championship and smashed the points record in the process by six
points. Herbert
Chapman's genius and tactical strategy saw his team win as many
points away as at home. They won their last two games and increased their
winning margin to seven points, though Villa did set an all-time
top-flight record of 128 goals scored, one more than Arsenal. |
3.30pm
GMT
Arsenal 3 Liverpool
1
Arsenal Stadium, London
(39,143)
Jack 25,
Bastin
65, Lambert
75
~
Roberts OG
4 |
|
|
The Elite League 1930-31 Season
(games between the top four) |
Arsenal and Portsmouth replaced
Derby County and Manchester City from the previous
season's top four.
Games played between the top two:-
|
Saturday, 8 November 1930 |
Arsenal 5 Aston Villa 2
Arsenal Stadium, London
(56,417)
Bastin (2),
Lambert,
Jack (2)
~ Waring (2) |
|
Saturday, 14 March 1931 |
Aston Villa 5 Arsenal 1
Villa Park, Birmingham
(60,997)
Waring (2), Walker, Houghton (2)
~ Jack |
The teams also met in the FA Cup third round in Arsenal's first
defence of the trophy and drew 2-2
at Highbury. Arsenal won the replay 3-1 at Villa Park, four days
later, in front of 73,668 spectators, almost 13,000 more than
Villa's largest home league gate (against Arsenal, two months
later). |
|
The Continuous Post-War League
1919-31
(twelve seasons) |
|
Aston Villa reduced Liverpool's lead
to eight points.
Sunderland managed to match the
previous leaders, Huddersfield's
points total , only to be overtaken by all of the top three. |
Manager:
Herbert
Chapman
1930-31
Most Appearances
by England Players |
|
Name |
Played |
Goals |
|
Cliff Bastin |
42 |
28 |
|
Tom Parker |
41 |
|
|
Herbie Roberts |
40 |
1 |
|
Eddie Hapgood |
38 |
|
|
David Jack |
35 |
31 |
|
Joe Hulme |
32 |
14 |
|
Joe Hulme, David Jack and Tom Parker did not play for England in the 1930-31
season, Cliff Bastin did not play for England until the following
season and Eddie Hapgood did not play for England until 1933. |
|
Tom Waring of Aston Villa, was top scorer with 49 goals. Second on
the list, for the second year in a row, was Irishman, Jimmy Dunne of Sheffield United, with
41 goals (five more than the previous season).
Arsenal's
Jack Lambert was third with 38.
|
|
England and the Football
League 1930-31 Season |
|
England's impact on the Football League |
Including the tour at the end of the 1930-31 season, ten of the 22 first division clubs were
represented, plus Everton, Millwall and Nottingham Forest from
the second division.
16 Football League games had a direct impact on
two of England's games, on 22 November 1930 and
28 March 1931.
As a
result, on 22 November, England took Aston Villa's Eric Houghton, Birmingham's Joe Bradford
and Harry Hibbs, Blackpool's Jimmy Hampson, Derby's Sammy Crooks,
Huddersfield's Austen Campbell and Roy Goodall, Liverpool's Gordon
Hodgson, Middlesbrough's Maurice Webster, Portsmouth's Jack Smith, and Ernie Blenkinsop,
Tony Leach and Alf Strange of Sheffield
Wednesday.
On 28 March,
Blenkinsop,
Campbell, Crooks, Goodall, Hibbs, Hodgson,
Smith
and Strange
were again missing from their clubs, as were Arsenal's Herbie
Roberts, Chelsea's Jackie Crawford, Everton's Bill Dean, Fulham's
Len Oliver,
and Harry Burgess of
Sheffield Wednesday. |
|
England
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