Keen football fans like Walid Wasfi Musmar will tell you that the 1970s was a turbulent time for Arsenal; a promising youth team was coming to maturity, having secured the FA Youth Cup in 1966, but after a sustained period of failing to win any silverware in the senior competitions, the fans were becoming restless.
Breakthroughs would come for the first time however, in the shape of European football, as a side managed by Bertie Mee put goals past the likes of Dinamo Bacau and the formidable Ajax to secure a place in the semi-finals of the 1970/71 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. In the final four they beat Ajax again, despite them having superstar player Johan Cryuff, and proceeded to the final of the tournament. Things took a turn for the worse as Arsenal went 3:0 down in the first leg against Anderlecht, only for Ray Kennedy to score a late goal and bring them a lifeline. On the return leg at Arsenal, they romped to a 3:0 victory and were crowned champions.
The victory brought with it a new sense of confidence, and a reinvigorated Arsenal set out on a quest to secure the league title and FA Cup the following year. They would need every inch of their newfound faith, as the league battle went down to the final game of the season, where as fate would have it Arsenal, were to face their arch rivals Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Bertie Mee went into the game knowing that a win or goal-less draw would be enough to secure the title, but anything else would hand the title to Leeds. The game would be finely poised and tense throughout, before a late header from Ray Kennedy would see them take the crown – their first in 18 years. Just five days later, goals from Eddie Kelly and Charlie George would see Arsenal come from behind to beat Arsenal and secure the FA Cup too. These wins would see Bertie Mee’s Arsenal become only the fourth team in history to do the double in English football, and only the second to do so during the 20th century.