In this history episode, Tim talks about the situation for Arsenal during the Second World War from 1939 until 1945. Tim covers the beginning of the 1939-40 season which was quickly suspended as war was declared on Germany, Highbury being requisitioned for the war effort as an air raid shelter, how the Football League reorganised competitions during hostilities and some of the strange games that happened during that period when Arsenal used White Hart Lane as their home ground. Tim also focuses on the 42 members of staff that served in the war and the nine that died in service, the bombing of Islington in 1941 and how it destroyed much of Highbury and then the immediate ramifications for the club and the game as a whole as football emerged from the war in 1946-47.

In this history pod, Tim talks about how Arsenal won the 1970-71 League and FA Cup double, becoming only the second team to achieve the double in the 20th century. Tim sets the context for Arsenal enduring over a decade of mediocrity in the mid-50s and 1960s, English football’s more competitive, egalitarian model, Arsenal’s struggles with status anxiety due to the shadow of those dominant teams of the 1930s. Then Tim moves on to Arsenal appointing their physio Bertie Mee as manager to instill discipline into a talented side, as well as key figures like Don Howe, Frank McLintock, Charlie George and how Arsenal were more than the sum of their parts. There is also the crucial context of losing League Cup Finals in 1968 and 1969 and winning the Fairs Cup in 1970 and how McLintock, Mee and Howe forged a steely team spirit that would become their biggest strength.

In this history pod, Tim is joined by Arsenal historian and author Andy Kelly to talk about the election to expand the First Division in 1919 when Arsenal were promoted and Tottenham demoted by the vote. Andy talks about the post First World War picture and why the top flight expanded, the preceding match fixing scandal between Liverpool and Manchester United and the politics behind the vote (aka, why teams voted for Arsenal and not Spurs). Andy also comprehensively debunks inaccuracies that have subsequently grown up about potential corruption in the vote which are totally contradicted by Andy’s research from contemporary sources. Tim and Andy also talk about where these inaccuracies originated from and how they took hold.

[ Original Title: 1919 and all that: Arsenal are elected to the First Division. Tottenham are not. What’s not to love? ]

In this history pod, Tim gives an oral history of the Arsenal programme, from the first recorded programmes in 1890- which were poems produced by a fan- to the club's main and only corporate voice. How a programme editor went on to manage the club to multiple league titles, how a programme editor gave the club its 'Victoria Concordia Crescit' motto in the 1940s, the evolution of the purpose and voice of the match day programme, how it has adapted to the digital era and some of the more contentious messaging printed in its pages over the last 100 years or so.

On this history episode of the Arsenal Vision Post Match Pod Podcast, Tim talks to author, football historian and Arsenal fan Jon Spurling about Arsenal in the 1980s. Tim and Jon talk through Arsenal’s trajectory from a club down on its luck struggling to hold onto key players at the beginning of the decade, to winning the title with an exciting young team by the end. Tim and Jon talk about some of the off pitch elements too such as hooliganism, the TV blackout and the arrival of David Dein in 1983 and how he changed Arsenal’s ambition, as well as the reigns of Terry Neill, Don Howe and George Graham.

In the latest history pod, Tim gives an oral history of Arsenal FC's stewardship from 1927, when Henry Norris is banned from football, to 2007 when KSE become involved. This is a story of two families, the Hill-Woods and the Bracewell-Smiths. Tim talks through their respective involvements in the club, how they used their connections from other industries and passed shareholdings and titles down their respective family trees and some of the key trigger points of their reigns.

In this episode, Tim covers Royal Arsenal’s decision to ‘go pro’ in the summer of 1891. The pod recounts the events that led to the decision that the club were ready to become a professional club even though it was against the rules of their regional FAs and not the done thing in the south. Then Tim covers how they achieved it, the ‘shamateurism’ that preceded it and the internal and very bitter external politics that threatened the decision.

In this episode, Tim covers how some men from the Dial Square cricket club in the Royal Arsenal factory decided to start a football team at the conclusion of the cricket season in 1886. Tim covers off the meetings that formed the club, the founders, some of the decisions that set the path to the club we know today and why Woolwich was ready for a football team in 1886.

In this episode, Tim talks over the move from Woolwich to Highbury in 1913. Some of the background that led to the move, how and why they did it and how they used Henry Norris’ connections and his experience in property to enable the move and defeat the opposition to it.

Tim goes through the history of the Marble Halls and the palatial East Stand as the brainchild of Herbert Chapman and his vision for a more luxurious, welcoming Highbury in the 1930s. Tim then goes through the history, the intention and the iconography of the Clock End clock.

Chapman wouldn’t live to see the finished versions of the clock or the east stand but both embody his legacy and gave Arsenal its sense of class, tradition and eternal branding.