Over the close season of 1970, England reached the Quarter Finals of the Mexico ’70 World Cup, but blew a two goal lead to lose 2-3 to West Germany. The following week, a political shock arguably bigger that the one in recent weeks occurred when Edward Heath’s Conservatives unexpectedly beat Harold Wilson to win the 1970 General Election. Some people even wondered whether England’s defeat effected the election result. For Arsenal, after winning their first trophy for seventeen years and despite their low finish in the League table, Bertie Mee saw fit to add no further new additions to Arsenal’s first team squad.

On their way out of the club however were David Court transferred to Luton Town, Bobby Gould to Wolves, Malcolm Webster to Fulham and former Captain Terry Neill who at the age of just twenty eight joined Hull City to take over as Player-Manager. Arsenal’s historic Double season started with the perennial pre-season home fixture with Watford behind closed doors at their London Colney training ground in July. The format of the game played would be over three thirty minute periods. Goals for Jon Sammels and Charlie George meant a 2-1 victory for Arsenal. There followed a pre-season tour of Scandinavia in late July and early August.

Arsenal took on a Gothenburg alliance side and goals for Bob McNab, George Graham and two for Charlie George meant a 4-2 victory. Three days later, Arsenal took on Kungsbacka BI. Goals for Ray Kennedy and two apiece for George Graham and Jon Sammels meant a 5-0 victory for Arsenal. The tour finished with a fixture against a Copenhagen Alliance side in Denmark. Another goal for Charlie George meant a 1-0 win. Arsenal’s final pre-season fixture would be a Friday night game against Crystal Palace at the National Sports Centre on behalf of the National Sports Development Fund, eight days before the start of the League season. Two goals for John Radford meant a 2-0 win.

As with the previous season, Arsenal kicked off against reigning Champions Everton – though this time it would mean a trip to Goodson Park where the Gunners had failed to bag a win for the previous twelve years. Goals for George Graham and Charlie George meant a 2-2 draw, the latter would spend months on the side lines as a result of suffering a broken ankle in scoring his goal through a collision with Everton keeper Gordon West. An away trip to the Boleyn Ground followed forty eight hours on. The two sides played out a 0-0 draw. Arsenal’s first home game of the season came the following Saturday and would be caught for posterity by the BBC’s when ‘Match of the Day’.

A hat-trick for John Radford within an hour put Arsenal three goals up. After Radford put his third away, United keeper Alex Stepney was taken off through injury with David Sadler covering in the United goal. George Graham added a further goal to give Arsenal a 4-0 win – a score line which we’d fail to repeat against United for the next thirty one years when Sylvain Wiltord bagged a hat-trick against a second string Man United side in 2001. Seventy two hours on, Arsenal met Huddersfield Town for a Tuesday night fixture at Highbury. A goal for Ray Kennedy gave Arsenal a 1-0 win which took the Gunners to the top of the table for twenty four hours, before Leeds United returned to the summit with a 3-0 win over West Ham at Elland Road and with their fourth straight win gained a two point cushion over Arsenal.

The Gunners fell further off the pace the following Saturday. While 600,000 people gathered to watch the Isle of Wight Festival on the final Saturday of August 1970, Leeds United made it five in a row with a 3-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor. Arsenal that same day meanwhile visited seventh place Chelsea at Stamford Bridge – highlights of which were covered by LWT’s ‘The Big Match’. The Blues took the lead with a goal from John Hollins. A header from Eddie Kelly gave Arsenal an equaliser, before a Paddy Mulligan inflicted a 1-2 defeat on the Gunners. The fast and furious tempo of this London Derby however did little to impress Brazil’s Mexico ’70 World Cup winning manager Mario Zagalo in attendance, who was quoted as holding the game up as an example as to why English football was unable to produce players of the quality of Pele. Arsenal however had the opportunity to claw back the deficit as Leeds United came to Highbury seventy two hours on.

Arsenal had Eddie Kelly sent off on twenty eight minutes for kicking out at Billy Bremner, but held out for a 0-0 draw to end the away side’s one hundred percent record from the start of the season. Manager Bertie Mee hailed the performance, proclaiming that: ‘if we can live through an occasion like this, we can live through anything’. The following Saturday came an equally important counter with Spurs coming to Highbury for the first North London Derby of the season in early September 1970. Two George Armstrong goals gave Arsenal a 2-0 win, which pushed the Gunners up to fourth in the table, four points behind Leeds United at the top. A further three days on, Arsenal faced a trip to Suffolk to face Ipswich Town in the second round of the League Cup. The matched ended in a goal-less draw.

Back in the league the following Saturday would be an away trip to Turf Moor to face bottom of the table Burnley. The home side had failed to score for their previous six games. Ray Kennedy gave Arsenal the lead, before Burnley’s goal drought ended with a John Roberts own goal. A late winner for John Radford however gave Arsenal both points in a 2-1 victory. More importantly, league leaders Leeds United lost their unbeaten record with a 0-3 away defeat to Stoke, which moved Arsenal to within two points of the West Yorkshire side. Next up for Arsenal would be a trip to Rome to face Lazio in the first round of their defence of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. Two goals for John Radford put Arsenal two goals up in the Olympic Stadium by eleven minutes into the second half. Arsenal held this cushion until the last five minutes.

Lazio however were saved by a player who was born in South Wales and started his career playing for Swansea Town (later known as Swansea City) but moved to the land of his parentage in 1966, won fourteen caps for Italy in the early to mid-1970s and finished up playing alongside Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto with the New York Cosmos in the NASL, scoring an incredible 193 goals in 213 games between 1976 and 1983. Two goals for Giorgio Chinaglia, the last a penalty, earned Lazio a 2-2 draw. The main drama however occurred off the pitch after the match, with a full blown street brawl between the Arsenal and Lazio players.

Speaking to online blog ‘In Bed with Maradona’, Chinaglia explains that: ‘I remember everything… in those days we would go with the other team to have dinner after the game and then we would exchange gifts… but some of our players didn’t want to give Arsenal any gifts because they’d had a bit of a battle on the field, which I think they should forget about after the game. Anyway, some punches were flying, our players started hitting the Arsenal players and that was it – the dinner came to an end!’ Allegedly, Young Ray Kennedy was set upon by three Lazio players on leaving the restaurant, which led to his Arsenal team mates leaping to his defence.

The trouble escalated to the point where the majority of the Arsenal and Lazio squad were involved in the scrap with even Bertie Mee swapping blows with his opposite number, something which finally endeared him to many of his players who previously saw him as a stiff upper lip type. Three days later back at Highbury, twenty four hours on from the death of rock star Jimi Hendrix in London’s Notting Hill, Arsenal met fifteenth place West Brom. On the very same day, over in the West Country, the very first Glastonbury Festival (known as the Glastonbury Fayre) took place, with a bill which included Marc Bolan and T. Rex. The Baggies had failed to win a single away game since beating Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park exactly a year earlier – a run which included a 0-7 loss to Man United at Old Trafford in their penultimate fixture of 1969/70.

Goals for George Armstrong, two apiece for Ray Kennedy and George Graham and a West Brom own goal gave Arsenal a 6-2 victory which moved Arsenal up to third in the table. Another four days on saw the visit of Lazio for the second leg of their Inter Cities Fairs Cup first round tie with Arsenal. In front of a crowd of 53,013, Arsenal added to their two away goal cushion as John Radford put the Gunners ahead on eleven minutes. With seventeen minutes left to play, Armstrong added a second to put Arsenal 4-2 up on aggregate. The front page of Italy’s ‘Corriere Dello Sport’, in reference to handshakes between the managers and players beforehand, went with the headline of ‘In peace Lazio surrenders’ (the Rome side were actually relegated to Serie B at the end of the 1970/71 season after finishing second from bottom).

However the following Saturday, Arsenal faced a further battle in the Potteries. A bus strike in the Stoke area and the fact that the home side had been dumped out of the League Cup by losing to Millwall meant a crowd of just 18,000 turned out at the Victoria Ground. Covered by BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’, goals for Terry Conroy, Jimmy Greenhoff, Alan Bloor and two for John Ritchie saw Arsenal thrashed 0-5 by Stoke City. Conroy’s strike won MOTD’s first ever Goal of the month competition and came third for the goal of the year, however Conroy speaking to the Stoke Sentinal Newspaper years after the event stated that: ‘the day was far more special because of the fact we stuffed Arsenal 5-0 and could have scored 10. That's how good we were that day because we played some unbelievable football and everything went for us’.

Luckily for Arsenal, no further ground was lost in the title race, as Leeds United drew 0-0 away at Nottingham Forest. Forty eight hours after their hammering at Stoke, Arsenal faced Ipswich at Highbury in their replayed League Cup second round tie. Goals for John Radford, John Roberts and two for Ray Kennedy meant a thumping 4-0 win. Five days later, Arsenal’s first league fixture in October 1970 against Nottingham Forest saw a repeat score line, as goals for George Armstrong and a Ray Kennedy hat-trick meant a 4-0 win over a Forest side that had failed to win their last seven games.

Seventy two hours on, in the third round of the League Cup Arsenal travelled to Kenilworth Road to face a Luton Town side who sat third in the Old Second Division at the time. A George Graham goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 win. Back in the league the following Saturday, George Graham was on target again at St James’s Park against Newcastle United. However a Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson goal for the Magpies meant a 1-1 draw and a point dropped with Arsenal failing to capitalise on a 2-2 draw for Leeds United at West Brom, as well as second place Man City drawing 1-1 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. One week on, Arsenal met champions Everton at Highbury in a game captured by the BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’.

The Toffees had been making an underwhelming attempt at retaining their title, sitting in eleventh place and needing to wait until their seventh game in before bagging their first win of the season. Everton’s misery continued as goals for Eddie Kelly, a Peter Storey penalty and two for Ray Kennedy meant a 4-0 win for Arsenal. A failure for Man City to beat Southampton at home meant Arsenal climbed to second. Also a 2-2 draw for Leeds United at home to Man United meant the Gunners were within two points of Don Revie’s side at the top of the table. Next up for Arsenal though would be a trip to Austria to meet Sturm Graz in the second round of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

Arsenal were originally drawn at home first, though the tie was switched due to the threat of snow in Austria when the second leg was due to be played. The Gunners suffered a 0-1 defeat in Austria. Back in the League three days on, Arsenal’s final away league fixture of October came at Highfield Road against Coventry City. Goals for George Graham, Ray Kennedy and John Radford meant a 3-1 win for Bertie Mee’s side. Arsenal then headed to Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace in the fourth round of the League Cup in midweek, where the two sides played out a 0-0 draw. Arsenal ended October 1970 with a visit from Brian Clough’s Derby County captured by LWT’s ‘The Big Match’ with an interview by Jimmy Hill with George Armstrong.

Just one year on from games on ITV being first captured in colour, coverage of matches on ITV highlights shows such as ‘The Big Match’ had suddenly reverted back to black and white as a result of the ‘Colour Strike’, due to an industrial dispute between the management of the ITV companies and the Technicians unions. In the event, goals for Eddie Kelly and John Radford meant a 2-0 win for Arsenal. In the week, Arsenal were required to overturn a one nil deficit to Sturm Graz at Highbury. Ray Kennedy levelled the tie, as well as the visitors’ goalkeeper substituted through injury.

Arsenal were deemed wasteful in front of goal with the game heading for extra time before Arsenal were awarded a penalty five minutes into injury time after a George Graham volley was handled on the line. Peter Storey converted to give Arsenal a 2-1 win on aggregate and a passage to the next round. Three days on, Arsenal headed to Blackpool in the league. A goal for John Radford meant a 1-0 victory for the Gunners, which moved Arsenal to within one point of Leeds United after Don Revie’s side drew 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with a Gary Sprake howler cancelling out Peter Lorimar’s opener. Palace were next to face Arsenal in the League Cup just forty eight hours on at Highbury in their replayed fourth round tie.

In front of a crowd of 45,026, with goals for Gerry Queen and a Bobby Tambling penalty, Palace achieved their first ever win over Arsenal by inflicting a 0-2 defeat (what turned out to be Arsenal’s only home defeat throughout 1970/71) with the Gunners crashing out of their first tournament of the season. Five days later, Crystal Palace would be back at Highbury for the League fixture. John Radford would give Arsenal the lead, though Crystal Palace would pull it back for a 1-1 draw (this match would be the only score draw at Highbury throughout 1970/71). This result meant that Leeds United stretched their lead to two points after a 3-1 home win over Blackpool.

A 2-0 away win for Spurs over Chelsea meant that Arsenal also dropped to third on goal average. During the week, Leeds United beat Stoke City 4-1 at Elland Road to stretch their lead over Arsenal to four points, though the Gunners would now have a game in hand. Arsenal headed to East Anglia the following Saturday to meet Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town. A goal for George Armstrong gave Arsenal a 1-0 win which took them back up to second after Spurs lost 1-2 to Newcastle at White Hart Lane. November ended with a visit from Bill Shankly’s Liverpool, who sat in sixth place.

That same day, the BBC launched their local radio service for the capital – BBC Radio London. That day’s sport was covered on their ‘Sportscene’ show. Whether this game was covered is unknown, highlights of the game however would be captured by LWT’s ‘The Big Match’ with Jimmy Hill interviewing Frank McLintock. Goals for George Graham and John Radford meant a 2-0 win. The midweek saw the visit of Belgian side Beveren in the first leg of their Inter Cities third round tie with Arsenal. Goals for George Graham, John Sammels and two for Ray Kennedy meant a 4-0 win to take back to Belgium. For their first fixture of December 1970, Arsenal headed to Maine Road to face a Man City side who had now dropped to fifth in the table. Goals for George Armstrong and John Radford meant a 2-0 away win for Arsenal.

A draw for Leeds United that same day meant that their lead over Arsenal was shortened to three points, with Arsenal having a game in hand over Don Revie’s side. Next up for Arsenal were fifth placed Wolves at Highbury, covered by the BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’. George Graham gave Arsenal the lead. Into the second half, John Radford doubled Arsenal’s lead. Wolves pulled one back, however Arsenal ran out 2-1 winners. Leeds United meanwhile dropped another point at home to Ipswich Town with a 0-0 draw at Elland Road, meaning that the gap now stood at two points with a game in hand for Arsenal. Nine days before Christmas, the Gunners secured their passage to the last eight of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup with a 0-0 draw in the second leg tie at Beveren.

Arsenal’s last fixture before Christmas was a trip to Old Trafford to meet a Manchester United side managed by an under fire Wilf McGuiness. The game would be covered by the BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’. United had won just one of their last six games and had slumped to sixteenth place. The Gunners had only managed two wins at Old Trafford since the end of the Second World War, the last coming eight years prior. Despite this, the Gunners pulled off a shock and awe first half performance which put them three goals up at half time with Frank McLintock, George Graham and Ray Kennedy on target for Arsenal. A second half goal for Carlo Sartori pulled one back for United, however Arsenal ran out 3-1 winners.

For the under fire Wilf McGuiness, a 4-4 draw with Derby County on Boxing Day meant his dismissal, with Matt Busby coming out of retirement to take over at Old Trafford until the end of the season. For Arsenal, their Boxing Day fixture meant the visit of eighth place Southampton. 1970 was the last time that London experienced a white Christmas and twenty four hours on, this too meant a snowbound Highbury. Captured by LWT’s ‘The Big Match’, Arsenal played out a frustrating 0-0 draw and a 3-0 home win for Leeds United against Newcastle meant the restoration of a three point cushion for the West Yorkshire side. Despite this, on ‘The Big Match’ Christmas Special, Tottenham’s Alan Mullery, with his own side having fallen eight points off the pace actually tipped Arsenal for the title.

This was the final fixture of the calendar year for Arsenal. There would be no New Years’ Day fixture in England back then on account of the fact that it wasn’t a public holiday until 1974. North of the border however a fixture between Celtic and Rangers ended with the deaths of sixty six fans as a result of the Ibrox Disaster. Arsenal’s first scheduled fixture of 1971 would be their third round away tie with non-league Yeovil Town. With the country in the grip of snow, the tie would be postponed. The match was replayed four days later with some element of crowd trouble. Goals for Ray Kennedy and two for John Radford meant a 3-0 win to progress to the next round.

Another third round tie that week would be West Ham’s visit to Blackpool, where the Hammers lost 0-4. The evening before the game, Bobby Moore, Jimmy Greaves, Brian Deer and Clyde Best broke a curfew by staying at a nightclub owned by Boxer Brian London until the early hours, those involved received fines and suspension (though rumour has it that Ron Greenwood wanted to sack all four). All but Clyde Best (apparently on soft drinks that night) were suspended for the Hammers’ visit to Highbury in the League the following week. Goals for George Graham and Ray Kennedy gave Arsenal a 2-0 win.

That same day, a 2-1 win for Spurs against Leeds United at Elland Road meant that Arsenal moved within a point of the top of the table with a game in hand. One week later, Arsenal headed to Leeds Road to play sixteenth place Huddersfield Town away, captured for posterity by the BBC’s ‘Match of the Day’. Chapman is a name forever linked with both side and ironically, Les Chapman gave Huddersfield the lead. Ray Kennedy equalised for the Gunners with a header from a free kick, however a penalty would be awarded against Frank McLintock that would neither be handball nor within the area. The subsequent penalty would be converted by Frank Worthington to inflict a 1-2 defeat on Arsenal – their first in the league since September.

That same day, despite West Ham coming back from two goals down, Leeds United left Upton Park with a 3-2 win to give Don Revie’s side a three point lead. Next for Arsenal came the fourth round of the FA Cup to face Portsmouth at Fratton Park, captured by the BBC’s Match of the Day. Pompey at the time were sixteenth in the second tier. Arsenal took the lead with a Peter Storey penalty, however Portsmouth equalised with a goal from former Everton FA Cup Final hero of five years prior – Mike Trebilcock – to secure a 1-1 draw and a replay back at Highbury. One bright spot for Arsenal however would be the return of Charlie George who had been injured since the opening day of the season, who came on as substitute for Pat Rice.

Arsenal’s poor end to January continued a week later in the league with a trip to Anfield to face Bill Shankly’s Liverpool in eighth place, which after their trip to Stoke in September would rank as one of their worst afternoons this season (but for Bob Wilson who received a standing ovation from the Kop, Liverpool’s score line could have been as great). An in form Steve Heighway, as well as goals for John Toshack and Tommy Smith inflicted a 0-2 defeat on Arsenal. Matters were compounded further by a 2-0 win for Leeds United over Man City at Maine Road as the West Yorkshire side opened up a five point gap. One newspaper report remarked: ‘Arsenal can now concentrate on the Cup! They must now realise after this battering that their title challenge is over’ adding that: ’Liverpool are on the way back to greatness. Arsenal must hope they don’t meet them again in the Cup’.

Forty eight hours on, on the same day as the abolition of the licence fee for ownership of a Radio, back at Highbury Arsenal were to face Portsmouth in the replay of their FA Cup fourth round tie. The Gunners’ misery seemed to be continuing after Pompey took the lead after six minutes. In only his second start to the season, Charlie George equalised for the Arsenal just ahead of the quarter hour after running with the ball from the half way line and shooting from twenty five yards out. Peter Simpson put Arsenal ahead on the half hour. Pompey pulled it back to two all, before a Peter Storey penalty put Arsenal through to the last sixteen to face Man City at Maine Road. Two days on saw the Premier of the year’s biggest Brit flick – ‘Get Carter’, starring Michael Caine and the bloke that went on to star as Alf Roberts in Coronation Street.

Before Arsenal faced Man City in the FA Cup however, Arsenal would meet City at Highbury in the League. The blue half of Manchester stood in seventh place in the League, though having a much better season than their red neighbours in fourteenth place. The game would be captured by LWT’s ‘The Big Match’. Arsenal ran out 1-0 winners after John Radford pounced on a rebound from a Peter Simpson shot. After the game Jimmy Hill would interview Bob McNab discussing Arsenal’s poor run of results and the return to form of Charlie George. The win was all the more important due to the fact that Leeds United suffered a 0-1 home defeat to Liverpool, meaning that Arsenal narrowed their to three points with the Gunners having a game in hand.

Arsenal were due to meet City again in the fifth round of the FA Cup the following Saturday, though the game was called off due to a waterlogged pitch. The game would finally be played the following Wednesday and in the meantime, Britain introduced decimal currency two days prior on 15th February 1971 which caused great disruption for older people, such as Doris Hare from ‘On the Buses’ in this public information film. target="_blank"> Highlights of Arsenal’s Quarter Final tie were shown on BBC’s ‘Sportsnight’. Ahead of the game, Frank McLintock decided to use the TV persona cultivated by City coach Malcolm Allison - since his time on the panel of ITV’s Mexico ’70 World Cup coverage - to his advantage with Charlie George. According to Frank, Charlie had a very black and white approach to making judgments about individuals. To Charlie you were ‘either a diamond geezer or a c***… Malcolm is exactly the sort of person that Charlie would normally like. He admires talent and brashness but on this occasion I thought it might help us if Charlie thought Allison fell into the other category’.

Frank hence misinformed Charlie that he’d heard through the media that Allison didn’t rate him and thought he was a fancy Dan who couldn’t last the full ninety minutes. The trick however worked as Charlie bagged two goals at Maine Road. City pulled one back, though couldn’t stop Arsenal progressing with a 2-1 win. On leaving the pitch, Charlie George screamed obscenities and gestured to Malcolm in the City dug-out, to which Frank had to bundle George down the player’s tunnel to prevent repercussions that he hadn’t anticipated. Initially thinking Charlie was some sort of head case, Frank decided to fill Malcolm in afterwards who had luckily seen the funny side. As Frank stated Malcolm ‘liked to use psychological stunts to get the best out of players and was gracious enough to have a laugh when the tables had been turned on him’.

League title rivals Leeds United meanwhile exited the FA Cup with a shock 2-3 defeat to fourth tier Colchester United at their Layer Road ground, with a starring role for former Ipswich star Ray Crawford. Next up for Arsenal, three days after Maine Road would be a visit from eighteenth placed Ipswich Town. Goals for Charlie George, Frank McLintock and John Radford put Arsenal three goals up at half time. In the second half, former Arsenal star Jimmy Robertson pulled two back for Ipswich, however Arsenal held on for a 3-2 win. Arsenal ended the month heading to the Baseball Ground to face Brian Clough’s Derby County, who were languishing in the bottom half of the table despite winning their last four games.

The Rams had Colin Todd making his debut in central defence. Goals for Kevin Hector and Roy McFarland inflicted a 0-2 defeat on Arsenal. A 1-0 victory for Leeds United away at Coventry opened up a seven point gap over the Gunners, though Arsenal had two games in hand. Four days on, Arsenal travelled to Wolverhampton to face fourth placed Wolves away. After a disappointing loss at the weekend, Arsenal pulled off a 3-0 victory at Molineux with goals for George Armstrong, Ray Kennedy and John Radford which closed the gap on Leeds to five points. Four days on, Arsenal headed to Filbert Street to face Leicester City in the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup.

At the time, the Foxes were one point from the top of the old Second Division with a game in hand, making it a kind of tricky tie for the Gunners. The match ended in a 0-0 draw. On 8th March 1971, Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in the ‘Fight of the Century’. One day later, Arsenal then faced a visit from 1FC Koln in the Quarter Final of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup three days later at Highbury. Goals for Frank McLintock and Peter Storey meant the Gunners took a 2-1 lead to Germany. By the following weekend, Arsenal headed to Selhurst Park to face a Crystal Palace side in fourteenth place who the Gunners had failed to beat twice at Highbury already that season. The game would be covered by LWT’s ‘The Big Match’. ITV’s Colour Strike with the Technicians Unions was now resolved and ‘The Big Match’ was now back in glorious technicolour.

Goals for George Graham and Jon Sammels meant a 2-0 win for Arsenal. The win was vital for the Gunners as Leeds United were held to a 1-1 draw away at Blackpool. Just forty eight hours later back at Highbury came the FA Cup replay with Leicester at Highbury. A Charlie George header just before half time gave Arsenal a 1-0 win and a Semi Final tie with Stoke City. Before then, came the visit of bottom of the table Blackpool who had picked up just two points from the last six games. A Peter Storey head meant a 1-0 victory for the Gunners, which left Blackpool four points adrift at the foot of the table. Three days later, Arsenal headed to 1FC Koln to play the away leg of their Quarter Final Inter Cities Fairs Cup tie with the German side. A dubious penalty was awarded against Arsenal which the home side duly dispatched, meaning that the German side proceeded through to the Semi Finals on the basis of the away goals rule.

With Arsenal’s defence of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup over, their attentions turned to the FA Cup and the following Saturday – in the final weekend of March 1971 - came their Semi Final tie with Stoke City at Hillsborough. Highlights had been captured by LWT’s ‘The Big Match’. Stoke City took the lead with a freak goal from Denis Smith. The Potters doubled their lead after John Ritchie pounced on a misplaced Charlie George back pass to Bob Wilson. Into the second half, a hammered shot from Peter Storey found its way into the Stoke City net. The Potters however held their lead into the dying seconds when John Mahoney handled on the goal line from a Frank McLintock header. Up popped Peter Storey again to slot it away to earn Arsenal a 2-2 draw. The highlights footage includes a post-match interview with Peter Storey.

Four days later, the game would be replayed at Villa Park. Goals for George Graham and Ray Kennedy secured Arsenal’s passage to Wembley for the first time in nineteen years with a 2-0 win, meaning that that Arsenal would play Bill Shankly’s Liverpool, who saw off Everton in the other Semi Final at Old Trafford. Back at Highbury the following Saturday came the visit of third place Chelsea. The week earlier, the Blues did Arsenal a massive favour by beating Leeds United 3-1 at Stamford Bridge. Arsenal were now six points behind Don Revie’s side with three games in hand. Arsenal however had only beaten Chelsea once at Highbury in the last thirteen years.