This Sunday, the Emirates Stadium will again host international football as Gabriel’s Brazil square up to Alexis Sanchez’s Chile. Arsenal’s new stadium has a recent history of entertaining the Seleção, whose friendly games have become something of a global roadshow. But Arsenal have provided the canvas for international football prior to the new stadium and its significant mortgage. Highbury was the venue of an international match or two. None more famous than a 1934 friendly between England and Italy, which has since been dubbed ‘The Battle of Highbury.’
The match was significant for Arsenal not solely because they played genteel hosts. November 1934 saw the peak of Herbert Chapman’s great Gunners side – even if the sculptor himself had shuffled off this mortal coil in January of the same year. In those days, only eleven players were called up for international sides. On this occasion, the England selectors deigned to choose a total of five Arsenal players. Goalkeeper Frank Moss, Eddie Hapgood, elected to captain the side, Ray Bowden, Wilf Copping and Cliff Bastin all made the cut (as did a 19 year old Stanley Matthews).
Withdrawals through injury saw defender George Male and striker Ted Drake added to the line-up, bringing the Arsenal contingent to seven. In addition to this, Arsenal manager George Allison provided radio commentary for the match. The game has earned a place in Highbury (and indeed, England) folklore, not just because of the Arsenal-centric constitution of the England side. But the game was played against a heavily jingoistic backdrop that tied itself inextricably to the rise of nationalism in 1930s Europe. It was something of a physical game, to say the least.
With typically British restraint, the Guardian’s match report described the game as “a match of unusually robust character.” In his autobiography ‘Football Ambassador’, England skipper Eddie Hapgood was rather more candid, describing it as “the dirtiest football match I had ever played in.” The build up to the game revealed a maelstrom of political tension. For Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, the Italian national team was a key component of nationalist propaganda. His motto, “good kicking is good politics” permeated the Azzurri.
Italy were the reigning world champions, having hoisted the trophy on their own soil in the summer of 1934, an achievement that perfectly complimented Mussolini’s fascist doctrine. England were more isolationist in their outlook, but just as jingoistic. They had refused to take part in the 1934 World Cup out of a misguided sense of moral superiority to their continental cousins. The English press dubbed the match “the real World Cup final”, regarding it as an opportunity to diminish Italy’s status and justify their supposed global superiority.
At this point, Highbury was fast morphing into one of the world’s most palatial football grounds. The West Stand and the North Bank had been redeveloped in 1932. The East Stand, with its famous façade and marble-halled entrance, was under construction (It would be complete in 1936). With Tom Whittaker as club physician, Highbury had become the leading centre for treatment of sports injuries in Europe. Tennis players such as Fred Perry and Bunny Austin were known to have used the seemingly space age facilities.
Highbury’s redevelopment had been noticed as early as 1931 and was selected to host an international between England and Spain in December 1931. The late Chapman had been a very early proponent of a European Cup competition. His pleas were met with deaf ears by the insular authorities (thankfully, the Football Association is a more urbane outfit nowadays and would not dream of such parochialism), but he would regularly invite teams such as Austria Vienna to play friendlies against Arsenal at Highbury. Hosting international matches suited the club’s cosmopolitan outlook.
The match itself, however, was played with a very different sense of espirit de corps. After only 2 minutes, Italy’s Argentinean centre half Louis Monti emerged from a 50-50 with Arsenal’s midfield enforcer ‘Iron’ Wilf Copping with a broken bone in his foot. Monti tried to play on, but his immobility proved too great a handicap. England scored three times in the first twelve minutes. Manchester City’s Eric Brook headed the home side ahead from a Britton free kick. The same player made it 2-0 soon after. Italian keeper Ceresoli, who had earlier saved a penalty from Brook, elected not to erect a wall as Brook lined up a long range free kick, a decision he regretted instantly.
Arsenal’s Ted Drake made it 3-0 and Italy’s captain Monti decided he could no longer play through the discomfort. He left the pitch and Italy reorganised. By now, he was far from alone at the threshold of physical pain. Eddie Hapgood had to leave the pitch for 15 minutes to have his nose reset after Italian right half Attilio Ferraris “carefully smashed his elbow into my face” in Hapgood’s own words. Ted Drake was punched in the face, Ray Bowden damaged his ankle ligaments and Eric Brook fractured his elbow after a sly dig as he tried to hoist himself up from the turf. By half-time, the match had become little more than a dog fight.
The English press painted the England side as victims of a physical onslaught. The headline from the Guardian read, “TOO MUCH ROUGH PLAY BY VISITORS” in ominous capital letters. The F.A. publicly deliberated as to whether England should continue to play international fixtures in the post match fallout. The Guardian’s match report sheepishly brushes over a blow administered to Italian keeper Carlo Ceresoli, who “suffered an injury to his right groin and looked rather pale.” I wonder how that might have happened?! This one eyed view of the match apparently spread to the players too.
Hapgood alleged in his autobiography that the Italians “were getting wilder and dirtier by the minute.” Yet he describes teammate Wilf Copping’s “real, honest shoulder charging” and his “famous double footed tackle” with a sense of misty eyed mirth. Contrary to Hapgood’s impression of Italy’s increasing physicality, The Times match report suggests that Italy’s second half fightback was a product of a more even tempered approach. “Players who had formerly run wild began to run into position,” their reporter wrote. Italy striker Giuseppe Meazza scored twice early in the second half, despite Italy’s one man deficit, but the effort was in vain.
The Azzurri’s more focused second half display may have owed itself to more materialistic overtures. It was rumoured that Mussolini, aware of the political importance of the match, offered the Italy side a £150 per man bonus, a new Alfa Romeo car a piece and exemption from military service as inducement for victory. The English press were very cognizant with the spirit of partisanship. The Daily Mirror triumphantly declared that the 3-2 victory offered “irrefutable proof that Italy are world champions in name only.” Famous sports cartoonist Tom Webster captioned his match illustration with, “You never know when this Latin temperament is going to leave the field and set about the spectators.”
One newspaper reporter, in response to the fiery conduct on the Highbury turf, sardonically referred to himself as “War Correspondent.” It was an apt quip really, the game was an intense physical battle against a backdrop of jingoism. Ultimately, little was resolved in the propaganda playground. England continued to regard themselves as “moral” world champions. Italy, feeling cheated by the early injury to Louis Monti, were christened “The Lions of Highbury” by the Italian press for their brave fightback with a one man arrears. It remains one of the most infamous games Highbury ever staged. Let’s hope that Gabriel and Alexis are more congenial when they lock horns at the Emirates on Sunday.
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