Gunners Target Burnley Record

Gunners Target Burnley Record

Burnley Football Club is in serious danger of losing a record that we have proudly held for over 80 years. The record is for the most unbeaten games in one season in top flight football and it currently stands at 30 matches. Arsenal are currently 27 games unbeaten in the league as they close in on the record for the number of games unbeaten at the start of season which is currently held by Leeds(29 games).

The magnificent run by Burnley started back in September 1920 and lasted until Easter of the following year. Incredibly Burnley actually lost the first 3 games of that campaign before embarking on a 30 game unbeaten run which was ultimately enough for the side to clinch our first ever championship. The opening day of the season saw the side lose 4-1 at Turf Moor to Bradford City before losing to Huddersfield(0-1) and Bradford(0-2) in the following games. It was common in those days to play the same side in the return fixture the following week and our run started with a 3-0 win over Huddersfield at the Turf.

The run saw some incredible results with the Clarets recording two 7-1 victories at the Turf against Oldham and Aston Villa. The most important wins were no doubt the double over local rivals Blackburn Rovers with Burnley thumping Rovers 4-1 at the Turf before winning 3-1 at Ewood Park.

The 31^st game of the run was to be played against the eventual runners-up in the league Manchester City. Burnley had suffered a shock defeat the previous Saturday to 2^nd Division Hull in the FA Cup but had responded well with the side recording a 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Good Friday. City had an impressive unbeaten home record which consisted of 14 victories in the 16 games prior to the visit of Burnley. The match was played on Easter Saturday and Burnley were well beaten by City going down by three goals to nil. The side avenged the defeat a week later at the Turf and ultimately went on to win the first ever league championship for the club.

The closest any side has come to breaking our record was back in 1974 when Leeds came within one game of equalling the feat. Leeds had bounced back from their shock defeat to Sunderland in the FA Cup final by not losing their first 29 league games in the following season. They should have at the very least equaled the record when they took on Stoke City at Elland Road. Don Revie’s side was leading two nil but Stoke staged a remarkable comeback to win the game 3-2. Leeds then had a spell of losing games following this match and older Burnley fans will remember the fantastic 4-1 victory we achieved at Elland Road just a few weeks later.

The only other significant unbeaten record is currently held by Nottingham Forest for the longest unbeaten run in football of 42 games which was spread over two seasons between 1977-78. Ironically their run started after losing to Leeds in November 1977 and they didn’t lose a league game until the following December against Liverpool.

So back to the important issue of Arsenal and our unbeaten record. The Gunners will play at Blackburn on Saturday before playing Bolton and Manchester United at Highbury, if they are still unbeaten after the Manchester United game then they will have equaled the record and for them to break it they would need to avoid defeat against Liverpool at Highbury. That match will be played, ironically, on Easter Saturday and we will all be hoping that history repeats itself with them suffering defeat just as we did on Easter Saturday in 1921.

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