By Tony Attwood
As you will know by now (if you have been reading my ramblings through the summer) 2026 was the 100th consecutive season that Arsenal played in the top division. Not only an amazing record for Arsenal, but the greatest run in the top league of any club ever in the entire history of everything – or at least England.
The nearest rival to Arsenal’s amazing 100 seasons is Everton, who came into the top league in 1954/5. So while Arsenal have celebrated 100 consecutive seasons in the top league, Everton are still on 72 – quite a long way behind. Maybe some of the Arsenal directors are friends with Everton directors and have promised not to mention it.
But the fact that Arsenal hardly even bothered to mention 100 consecutive seasons for the club in the top league as achieved in 2025/26 (and thus could not celebrate the fact that winning the league in 2026 was actually a case of winning the league in the 100th consecutive season), made me wonder what else the club has missed out in its own history.
And I am going to slip in a caveat here, because in the very early days of the club, Arsenal played part of the season in Division 2, and part in the London League or sometimes the United League. So I’m taking these very early seasons out of the equation and only including seasons in which Arsenal played the whole season in either Division 2, Division 1 or the Premier League.
Even the most obvious record to look for – the most points scored by the club in a season, is a bit of an oddity given that in the olden days it was two points for a win, now it is three. Also of course, for many years Arsenal played 42 games in a season in the league; now it is 38. But we’ll try and deal with these as they come along.
The Most Points
So to begin, ignoring the issue of changes in the number of points for a win, and the number of games in a season, the most points Arsenal ever got was 90 in 2003/4. That as 90 points, and the 25th anniversary of that wonderful total will be 2029.
The Most Wins (without winning the league)
What about the most wins? That was 29 in 1970/71, the original double season of 42 games. The highest number of wins in the modern Premier League, playing 38 rather than 42 games, was 28 in the season 2023/24. And when we look at 2023/24 that was pretty amazing – four games fewer than the first double season but only one fewer win!
Plus there is another extraordinary thing. In 2023/24 we got the record number of wins (28 as noted above) but still didn’t win the league.
So to summarise – most wins in a 42-match season was 29 in the first double season. Most wins in the 38 match seaason was 28 in 2023/24. Pretty close!
Most goals
The most goals in a 42 match season came in 1930/31 with 127 or 3.02 a game. The most goals ever scored in the Premier League was 91 in the season 2023/24.
But who was the best scorer? That is more complex to work out because there has been such variations across the season. Ted Drake did score 44 goals in one season (1934/5) when we won the 42-game First Division. That just beat Jimmy Brain who got 43 in 1925/26. Third in the list is Theirrhy Henry, who in the Unbeaten Season of 2003/4 got 39 goals, equalling the record of Jack Lambert in 1930/31 at the launch of the wonderful 1930s run.
So did we break any other records last season, as well as winning the league in our 100th consecutive season in the top divisions?
Only once have we got more than 26 wins in a Premier League season (that was 2023/24, but because this was an Arsenal achievement, the media failed to mention it). We were however, short on goals – scoring 20 fewer in the league than 2023/24.
|But there was one amazing record that we came within a fraction of, and which really should be celebrated as part of last season, although, because of the club’s churlish attitude about not celebrating achievements and anniversaries, is missed.
You will know what happened in 2003/4 – we didn’t lose a single league game. What you perhaps don’t remember is how the goals tally looked (and yes I would admit it would be pretty nerdy if you did remember after 22 years). Arsenal scored 73 and conceded 26.
Goals for and against
In the season we have just had, 2025/26, Arsenal scored 71 and conceded 27. So two goals fewer scored than the unbeaten season and one goal more conceded. That was all.
And there’s something else. In 2003/4, of course, we had Thierry Henry. He scored 39. This last season we didn’t have one person knocking in goals all season long – the top scorer was Viktor Gyökeres with 21. It just shows there is more than one way to come out on top!
Now of course, I know that 2003/4 will live forever in the memories, especially that final game when we were one down at half-time. But there were elements in 2025/6 that ran the unbeaten season close. And that gives me rather a lot of hope for next season. Here are the league figures….
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003/4 | 38 | 26 | 12 | 0 | 73 | 26 | 90 |
| 2025/6 | 38 | 26 | 7 | 5 | 71 | 27 | 85 |
I am rather looking forward to 2026/7.
