Prior to the Bees\u2019 promotion to the Premier League in 2021, Arsenal and Brentford hadn\u2019t locked horns in the top flight for 74 years. Yet following Brentford\u2019s ascendancy to Division One in 1934, clashes between the two clubs were often hard-fought affairs, with the new boys often getting the better of George Allison\u2019s expensively assembled team.<\/p>\n
These were exciting times for the men from Griffin Park. In 1937\/38, as Arsenal won the league, Brentford finished in 6th place, completing a league double over Arsenal in the process. Under manager Harry Curtis, the Bees extended the terracing at Griffin Park to raise the capacity to 40,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between October 1937 and March 1938, Brentford sat on top of the table. Scottish forward David McCulloch, who\u2019d cost Brentford a hefty \u00a36,000, scored goals aplenty, and inside forward Billy Scott was capped by England.<\/p>\n
By the start of the 1938\/39 campaign, battle fatigue had set in for both teams. Injuries and loss of form meant that Gunners stalwarts George Male, Ted Drake and Cliff Bastin\u2019s effectiveness was drastically reduced, and only Drake, with 14 league goals, reached double figures for Arsenal in the 38\/39 season.<\/p>\n
Their 55-goal haul was 22 down on the previous season. Arsenal were never realistically in the hunt for honours. English football\u2019s record signing, Bryn Jones, laboured under the pressure of the \u00a314,000 price tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brentford\u2019s form slumped alarmingly in the 38\/39 season, with several players, including the popular David McCulloch, sold in order to balance the books. Brentford finished in 18th place and Arsenal in fifth.<\/p>\n
In the final game of the 38\/39 season, with speculation about the pending conflict in Europe growing, Arsenal faced Brentford at Highbury and won 2-0, in a match which became part of cinematic history.<\/p>\n
In 1938, George Allison was approached by G&S films to see if he was willing to allow the Production Company to come to Highbury to film \u201cThe Arsenal Stadium Mystery,\u201d based on a novel by Leonard Gribble. Inspector Slade \u2013 who finally cracks the case \u2013 was played by Allison\u2019s old friend, Leslie Banks. Seven Arsenal players, including Ted Drake, volunteered to take part, and were paid \u00a3250 for five weeks of filming; a tidy sum in an era of the \u00a38 per week maximum wage for footballers.<\/p>\n
The story was based around a mythical friendly match between Arsenal and The Trojans. One of the Trojans players is poisoned at half-time, and collapses and dies on the pitch. The culprit, as it turns out, is the Trojans\u2019 manager.<\/p>\n