1944–45 Arsenal F.C. season

59th season in existence of Arsenal F.C.

The 1944-45 season was Arsenal Football Club's sixth season playing wartime football during World War II. They finished eighth the Football League South, their poorest performance of the wartime era. Arsenal reached the semifinals in the Football League South Cup.

Arsenal 1944–45 football season

Arsenal
1944–45 season
Chairman	Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 8th Marquess of Londonderry
Manager	George Allison
Football League South	8th
Football League South Cup	Semi-final
← 1943–44 1945–46 →

Background

Arsenal played their home games at White Hart Lane, as Highbury had been transformed to support Air Raid Precautions.^[1]

Arsenal had a poor start to the league and failed to recover, finishing eighth in the Football League South. Arsenal's most reliable scorer Reg Lewis was unavailable due to his military service. Stan Mortensen, a guest player from Blackpool, scored 18 goals for Arsenal in 12 games.^[2] Ted Drake, another reliable scorer, was injured with a slipped disk and his career came to an end.^[1]

Arsenal reached the semifinals of the Football League South Cup but did not reach the finals, losing to Millwall.^[3]

Results

Arsenal's score comes first^[4]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League South

Selected results from the league.

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance
2 September 1944	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–4
21 October 1944	West Ham United	H	0–3	27,800
28 October 1944	Crystal Palace	A	3–4
25 November 1944	Chelsea	A	1–2
9 December 1944	Tottenham Hotspur	H	2–3
23 December 1944	Brentford	H	5–2	18,527
24 February 1945	Reading	H	0–2
24 March 1945	Crystal Palace	H	1–0
2 April 1945	Brentford	A	1–3
28 April 1945	Chelsea	H	3–0
5 May 1945	West Ham United	A	1–1	9,000
	Reading	A	1–3

Final League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts
1	Tottenham Hotspur (C)	30	23	6	1	81	30	2.700	52
2	West Ham United	30	22	3	5	96	47	2.043	47
3	Brentford	30	17	4	9	87	57	1.526	38
4	Chelsea	30	16	5	9	100	55	1.818	37
5	Southampton	30	17	3	10	96	69	1.391	37
6	Crystal Palace	30	15	5	10	74	70	1.057	35
7	Reading	30	14	6	10	78	68	1.147	34
8	Arsenal	30	14	3	13	77	67	1.149	31
9	Queen's Park Rangers	30	10	10	10	70	61	1.148	30
10	Watford	30	11	6	13	66	84	0.786	28
11	Fulham	30	11	4	15	79	83	0.952	26
12	Portsmouth	30	11	4	15	59	61	0.967	26
13	Charlton Athletic	30	12	2	16	72	81	0.889	26
14	Brighton & Hove Albion	30	10	2	18	66	95	0.695	22
15	Luton Town	30	6	7	17	59	104	0.567	19
16	Aldershot	30	7	4	19	44	85	0.518	18
17	Millwall	30	5	7	18	50	84	0.595	17
18	Clapton Orient	30	5	7	18	39	86	0.453	17

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(C) League Champions

Football League South Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result
GS	3 February 1945	Reading	A	3–1
GS	10 February 1945	Clapton Orient	H	5–0
GS	17 February 1945	Portsmouth	A	4–2
GS	24 February 1945	Reading	H	3–0
GS	3 March 1945	Clapton Orient	A	3–1
GS	10 March 1945	Portsmouth	H	2–4
SF	17 March 1945	Millwall	N	0–1

References

^ ^a ^b Soar, Phil; Tyler, Martin (1995). Arsenal: Official History. London: Hamlyn. p. 98. ISBN 0600588262.
^ Attwood, Tony (2 December 2019). "The man who scored 18 goals for Arsenal in just 12 games". The History of Arsenal. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
^ Cooper, Vince (10 May 2023). "The War Cups". The League. Archived from the original on 29 July 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
^ http://www.statto.com/football/teams/arsenal/1944-1945/results ^{[dead link]}