Dan Betts tells us why it is important to remember and celebrate the achievements of George Graham and his Arsenal team who almost pulled off the impossible unbeaten season years before the Invincibles.

“1989 was the exception, it wasn’t the benchmark. It was a miracle. Prior to it, Arsenal hadn’t won the league in 18 years.” (Amy Lawrence)

Today, the Premier League or any top-level league football in general is such an ingrained part of the game that it’s difficult to imagine how revolutionary a professional, structured league was back in 1888.

Arsenal — Illustration by Revant Dasgupta

The Football Association, after a four-year struggle, finally permitted professionalism in the game on July 20, 1885. But, the haphazard system of FA Cup matches, inter-county fixtures and exhibition games would persist until March 22, 1888 when William McGregor, a director at Aston Villa, suggested a league competition guaranteeing a certain number of fixtures each season. The debut season began on September 8 that year. A Second Division would be formed in 1892. And funnily enough, Arsenal (Woolwich Arsenal back then) were not only the first Southern English team to compete, but they were also the first southern team to win the league, though that would be much later, in 1931.