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Behind the photo

“Arsenal's Gunners under fire at Chelsea”: the Shoot centre spread, August 1970

By True Blues · 1970-08-29

Photo: private archive · originally published in Shoot magazine (IPC), 1970

Caption: Left to right, as printed in the magazine: George Graham (Arsenal), Peter Houseman (Chelsea), Pat Rice, Bob Wilson, John Roberts (Arsenal), Peter Osgood (Chelsea), Bob McNab and Eddie Kelly (Arsenal). Chelsea 2–1 Arsenal, Stamford Bridge, 29 August 1970.

People in the photo

  • Peter Osgood

    Striker, Chelsea — the man in blue in mid-air

    “The King of Stamford Bridge”. A few months before this photo he had scored in every round of the 1970 FA Cup, replayed final included. The following May he scored in both Cup Winners' Cup finals in Athens. He started up front alongside Ian Hutchinson in this game.

    Chelsea apps: 150 goals in 380 games

    Legend profile →

  • Peter Houseman

    Winger, Chelsea

    A Battersea boy from the youth ranks, the team's “water-carrier” who supplied Osgood and Hutchinson. He scored six goals on the 1970 FA Cup run, including one in the first final at Wembley. He joined Oxford in 1975 and was killed in a car crash in March 1977, aged just 31.

    Chelsea apps: almost 350 games, 39 goals

  • George Graham

    Midfielder, Arsenal (ex-Chelsea)

    Wore blue from 1964 to 1966 and won the 1965 League Cup under Docherty before joining Arsenal (Tommy Baldwin came to Chelsea in the deal). He later became one of Arsenal's most successful managers.

    Chelsea apps: 35 goals in 72 league games

  • Bob Wilson

    Goalkeeper, Arsenal (in green)

    Eleven years at Arsenal, more than 300 appearances, capped by Scotland. After playing he became a well-known TV football presenter.

  • Pat Rice, John Roberts, Bob McNab, Eddie Kelly

    Arsenal

    Rice (Northern Ireland) later became Arsène Wenger's assistant. Welsh centre-half Roberts and left-back McNab were part of the Double-winning squad. Kelly scored Arsenal's goal in this match and in May 1971 became the first substitute to score in an FA Cup final.

The fold down the middle, the worn edges, the marks in the corners: this page has spent years on a wall. It was the centre spread of Shoot, the weekly football magazine, and across the top, yellow on red: “ARSENAL'S GUNNERS UNDER FIRE AT CHELSEA”.

What we see

A cross has gone up over the Arsenal box. Peter Osgood, in blue, rises with John Roberts. Bob Wilson waits on his line in green, surrounded by red and white: Graham, Rice, McNab, Kelly. On the left, in dark blue, Peter Houseman. Behind them is a wall of faces, with the Bridge full to the rafters.

The magazine's short blurb in the corner said, in our paraphrase, that it would take a brave man to bet against the South winning something that season. The match had been so full of action that both sides looked set for a big year.

The match

Saturday 29 August 1970, Stamford Bridge, First Division. Chelsea 2–1 Arsenal, in front of 53,722.

  • 38′, 1–0. John Hollins opens the scoring. Half-time 1–0.
  • 50′, 1–1. Eddie Kelly equalises for Arsenal.
  • 84′, 2–1. Paddy Mulligan wins it for Chelsea.

Osgood and Houseman both started, with Peter Bonetti in goal and Ron Harris as captain. Charlie Cooke came off the bench, for Hutchinson according to 11v11.

Shoot got it right

The magazine called it. The Arsenal side in this photo won the Double in 1970-71. Chelsea, months after their first FA Cup, lifted the Cup Winners' Cup in Athens in May 1971, the club's first European trophy. Two London sides in one frame, a year before their biggest moments.

From the newsagent to the bedroom wall

Pages like this were a whole generation's posters: you carefully pulled them from the middle of the magazine and stuck them above the bed. In the post where this image circulated, one supporter wrote that they had it on their bedroom wall in Dublin throughout the 1970s and still keep it framed. Still blue, fifty-odd years on.

Image: private archive. Originally published in Shoot magazine (IPC), 1970.

Sources: stamford-bridge.com, 11v11, biographies from Wikipedia (Houseman, Graham, Kelly, Wilson).

Sources

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