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Mike Ticher recalls Arsenal's first championship – the same season that saw Manchester Utd relegated

The long-term significance
Arsenal’s first League title (and the first by any southern club) set them on their way to their domination of the 1930s. The previous year’s FA Cup final victory over manager Herbert Chapman’s old club, Huddersfield, was neatly symbolic, but the championship cemented the north Londoners’ arrival. It had taken Chapman six years to win it, but then the floodgates opened, with three in a row from 1933-35, another in 1938 and a second Cup win in 1936 – though he didn’t live to see most of the silverware, having died in 1934.

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Monday 1 How long do you go on waiting for results?” asks Wolves chairman Rick Hayward after sacking Dave Jones with the club 19th in the Championship. Bradford’s Dean Windass has the second yellow card shown to him during a 4-0 defeat at Luton rescinded – he had protested at the referee allegedly taunting him about the score.

Tuesday 2 “There is no need to get dramatic because we are still unbeaten in Europe,” says Arsène as the Gunners are held 1-1 at home by Panathinaikos. Pascal Cygan, now firmly established as the new Frank Sinclair, contributes an own goal for the visitors’ equaliser after the Greeks miss a penalty. Chelsea are through to the Champions League knockout stages, though, after a 1-0 win at CSKA Moscow who also squander a spot-kick. Celtic can still avoid elimination after beating Donetsk 1-0. In the Championship, managerless Wolves are only three points above the relegation zone after a 3-1 defeat at Sunderland and West Ham lose to Cardiff for the first time since 1952, 4-1 at Ninian Park. The top two, Wigan and Ipswich, both win, the latter setting a club record by scoring in their 29th consecutive game, a 5-1 victory over Sheffield United.

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Dear WSC
Are you aware of the administrative/secretarial difficulties that the English FA head­quarters are currently experiencing? Over the past six months I have been attempting to apply for membership of “englandfans”, as the travel club is now known, for the period 2004-06. In July the “englandfans team” announced that packs would be out in August, but in spite of my non-membership I was in­vited to apply for tickets for England v Ukraine at Newcastle. Presumably, my earlier attendance and behaviour at the pre-Portugal tournament in Manchester had been monitored and found acceptable. I would like to continue to offer my support and the friendly in Madrid sounds attractive, but I am still not an “englandfan” and unlikely to be until January 2005! A letter in October ex­plained that “the club is being restructured” (has Sven been told?) but that away tickets would for now only be available to existing members.Apart from the 76 fans arrested in Portugal, more recently in Baku a group of “englandfans” were reported to be displaying a banner saying “No Asylum Seekers”. I hope the FA find “sufficient evidence” on this occasion to create some vacancies for replacement fans.
Geoff Lord, Chesterfield

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Wednesday 1 Middlesbrough insist that Steve McClaren is not in the frame for the Newcastle job. Bolton likewise say Sam Allardyce is staying put. “Sam is committed to rewriting the history of this club,” says chairman Phil Gartside. Clive Woodward, who is about to step down as England rugby coach, may be offered a role at Southampton, waving a clipboard and shouting.

Friday 3 Terry Venables is believed to be having talks with Newcastle (keep the receipts, Freddie). “That was real Scottish football,” says beleaguered Berti as his side secure a moral victory in Spain, their friendly being abandoned at 1-1 due to floodlight failure, torrential rain and a plague of boils.

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It was the end of football as we knew it. With everything set to change with the introduction of the Premiership the following season, 1991-92 saw us wave goodbye to the days when Division One meant exactly that. Philip Cornwall reports

The long-term significance
Played under the shadow of the FA’s Blueprint for Football that spawned the Premiership, this was the final season that the Football League champions were the champions of England, that Division One was the first division. As it has turned out, it was the last time so far that the champions of England had an English manager. It was also a season of transition: neither of 1991’s top two seriously challenged for the title.

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