Ted Drake: A serial winner with Arsenal & Chelsea | History | News
A fearless striker for George Allison’s Arsenal in the 1930s, Ted Drake won two league titles and an FA Cup with the Gunners, and in his first full season at Highbury in 1934-35 he scored 42 league goals in 41 matches.
Originally planned as a Gunners signing by Herbert Chapman, Drake signed from Southampton for £6,500 a few months after Chapman’s death in March 1934.
Drake was an instant hit in N5, and Highbury audiences loved his physical, upbeat and full-blooded approach. In our 1992 interview, he espoused his philosophy of the game: “My job was to put my head where no one else dared to. My headache would disappear in the morning, but the memory of the goal scored would stay with me forever.”
It’s perhaps the quote that sums up Drake best and was kept outside the Emirates Stadium, where Drake took his place among Arsenal’s 32 greatest players.
In Athletic News, Jimmy Catton wrote: “Drake’s career is already a romance. In five months he has made meteoric progress from obscurity to become England’s centre-forward and one of football’s star players.”
In that season opener, Drake endeared himself to the Highbury faithful by scoring a hat-trick against Tottenham in a 5-1 victory in front of 70,544 spectators. Only Alan Sunderland and Eberechi Eze have since done the same in the Gunners jersey.
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Eze joins exclusive club of NLD hat-trick heroes
He would do anything to score and got my win bonuses on numerous occasions!
Footage from the time shows Drake suffered various beatings in the line of duty; gashes on his head, knee injuries, a concussion and broken toes.
Goalkeeper George Swindin explained: “I loved Ted. He would do anything to score and got my winning bonuses on many occasions. As a Yorkshireman who liked to watch his money, I can’t tell you how good that made me feel!”
One of seven Arsenal players in the England team that beat World Cup winners Italy 3–2 in November 1934, Drake scored the third goal in the infamous ‘Battle of Highbury’ and, a year later, scored all seven goals in his team’s 7–1 away victory at Villa Park.
Despite suffering a leg injury, Drake scored the winner in the 1936 FA Cup Final against Sheffield United. Injuries began to pile up for Drake, but despite this he still scored an impressive 17 goals in 27 matches as Arsenal won the thrilling 1937-38 title race.
His playing career – he scored 139 goals in just 184 appearances for Arsenal – cut short by a back injury, Drake became manager of Chelsea in 1952 and quickly introduced a rigorous new training regime, where the emphasis was placed primarily on ballplay rather than physical endurance.
He revamped Chelsea’s scouting network, using it to good effect when signing John McNichol, Frank Blunstone and Derek Saunders from lower league clubs. By 1955, the Blues, with Drake having given up the Pensioners moniker, were Division 1 champions. Two years later, Drake also brought in legendary striker Jimmy Greaves to the Blues first team.
A legend of the black and white era, Drake was the first footballer to win the Premier League title both as a player and manager.
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