By Tony Attwood
Last season 2025/26 was Arsenal’s 100th consecutive season in the top division of English football – a series of seasons that started in 1919 as professional football resumed after the First World War. And it is an absolute record.
Now of course it is not my job to keep track of other clubs and their efforts, but as far as I know Everton are second in this regard having just clocked up 72 consecutive seasons in the top flight, which means they won’t make their centenary of consecutive top flight seasons until 2055, (if they don’t get relegated in the meantime).
And since I think it is extremely unlikely that I shall be around to see that event, I’m not making a note in my diary. But I have spent some of this summer writing up a series on Arsenal’s 100 consecutive seasons, starting of course, in 1919. It’s not complete, and it still needs quite a bit of editing, so if you do take a look at it and find any errors, you might care to write to me so I can correct them. The email address is Tony@schools.co.uk
Meanwhile, however, there is a full index to the series here, and if you go a-looking in the near future, please do remember that this was just me, passing the time of day, writing up a bit of Arsenal’s history that for some reason the club itself didn’t seem very bothered about. I will of course correct errors and slips as I am told about them and as I find them on the next read-through. But of one thing I am quite certain. 2025/6 was Arsenal’s 100th consecutive season in the top flight, and no other club has got anywhere near that.
But there is another point here, and that is that there are bits and pieces of Arsenal history that the club itself doesn’t really seem to be very interested in. Now, in a way I think that is fair enough, since its job is to run the club in order to bring in money and success now, buying new players, winning the league, and keeping the ground in a state that makes watching Arsenal an enjoyable experience (especially as one gets a bit older!)
Actually I am not sure that this in itself is a totally good reason not to write quite a bit about 100 successive seasons in the top flight – especially as it ended with Arsenal winning the league in that 100th consecutive season, but obviously, I don’t run the publicity department of the club nor handle arrangements relating to celebrating the history of the club, so I leave it up to them. I just think that maybe sometimes they haven’t quite got a full grip on the club’s history.
Still, it was a bit of fun researching and writing up the history of the 100 seasons, knowing I wasn’t in any sort of race with the official historians at the club (if they have any). And it made me want to say this… As with all the articles on the Arsenal History website, it is for the most part just my research and writing it, and so it is more than likely that there are a few slips or omissions in there since I don’t have access to official Arsenal records. If you see an error, please do leave a note correcting the error, and maybe also drop me a line (Tony@schools.co.uk) so I can find it and correct it.
If you do manage to have a read of the series, I’m hoping the series gives you a bit of pleasure in flipping through the century of achieving something no other club has come close to, and I am hoping there are not too many slips therein. But mostly I do think it was worth someone taking the time to commemorate this very special something. Why Arsenal itself has not made much of it, I don’t know but that’s up to them. The full index of articles is published here Thus my point is that 100 consecutive seasons in the top division is, I believe, one of Arsenal’s greatest and most incredible achievements – and just how incredible it is is shown by the fact that our nearest rivals in this regard are still over a quarter of a century behind us.
Knowing my own age, and knowing the average age at which old geezers pass away in this country, I know I ain’t got that many seasons to go of enjoying supporting The Arsenal (something I began doing in 1955, thanks to my father who was himself an avid supporter) so recording 100 consecutive seasons in the top division has been a little bit of fun for me with more than a few special memories brought back to the surface. And I was especially happy to do it when it became clear that no one else seemed to want to take much note of what I think is such an amazing achievement.
So yes, for me it was a bit of fun. And it is nice to know just how far ahead of everyone else Arsenal is. I am sure there are slips and errors in the account, but I do hope you will be gentle in writing in and correcting them.
The full index of articles is is published here
