Arsenal History: Arsenal’s Boy Bastin, Original Golden Era Hero and Record Goalscorer

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·15 September 2025

Arsenal History: Arsenal’s Boy Bastin, Original Golden Era Hero and Record Goalscorer

Cliff Bastin was not only one of the greatest players to grace the game at Arsenal, but also in world football.The current third top goalscorer (178) in the Gunners’ history was originally North London’s talisman for almost 60 years (1939-1997) before his records were surpassed by Ian Wright and Thierry Henry, bumping him down the pecking order.

At Highbury, “Boy Bastin” as he was once called, sealed five English top-flight titles (1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1938), two FA Cups (1930, 1936) and five Charity Shields (1930, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1938), assisting Arsenal during their original “Golden Era”.

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The calm and calculated left winger was renowned for his deadly accurate striking of the ball, cutting inside to find the back of the net.

Bastin’s Early Rise

The Exeter faithful, who was inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame in 2009, became the first player by the age of 19 to lift the First Division, throw the FA Cup in the air, and to have featured for England.The future goalscoring hero was brought to North London after less than 20 games for Exeter, his hometown club in the Third Division, due to legendary pioneering manager Herbert Chapman. Chapman saw potential in the youngster, who would end up surpassing expectations after being purchased in 1929.

His first ever game for the Gunners came versus Everton on October 5th 1929, during a bitter 1-1 draw at Goodison Park, against the Toffees at their greatest, including the likes of Dixie Dean and Ted Sager.

The regular penalty taker at N5 showed his worth in red and white sleeves, being Chapman’s greatest striker during the 1932/33 and 1933/34 campaigns, as Arsenal went on to herald a hat-trick of English top-flight titles.

Highbury 1935. (L-R): Wilf Copping, Cliff Bastin, Eddie Hapgood, Ted Drake, George Male. (Photo by J.A Hampton/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Golden Era and International Recognition

During the Gunners’ 1936 FA Cup success story, which saw an injured Ted Drake score the only goal of the final versus Sheffield United at Wembley, Bastin bagged six goals during the journey. He ultimately sent Arsenal to the final of the competition after scoring the winner in the semi-final against Grimsby Town in an arduous display of football. This was the last time he would lift the trophy, having also been part of the 1930 FA Cup final 2-0 victory over Huddersfield Town.

For his country, Bastin found the net 12 times in 21 appearances. His debut came in 1931 on November 18th when Wales were beaten 3-1.He would have to wait for his next England outing to demonstrate his goalscoring prowess, striking hard away to Mussolini’s Italy in a 1-1 draw.

Within a year, he was up against the Italians again at his home ground in North London during “The Battle of Highbury”. World Cup winners Italy were narrowly defeated 3-2 in a game where a record seven Arsenal players represented the Three Lions.

He also appeared in the England side that controversially gave the Nazi salute before facing Adolf Hitler’s Germany in 1938, a match his country won 6-3, with Bastin contributing.

The 1937/38 season saw him score 15 times in 38 matches as he helped Arsenal lift their fifth title in eight seasons, under George Allison, who had taken over from Chapman in 1934 after his death from pneumonia.

Like many players of his time, Bastin’s career was paused between 1939 and 1945 due to the outbreak of the Second World War.However, because of his increasing deafness and ongoing right leg injury, he wasn’t called up to fight in the army. Instead, he was chosen to warden Highbury.

Within a couple of years after the end of the war, Bastin was forced to hang up his boots in 1947, haunted by that same leg injury for almost a decade.

Several decades later he passed away in his birthplace, Exeter, in 1991 at the age of 79, remembered as Arsenal’s greatest talisman of his time.

A distant name now, Bastin set the bar for all future Arsenal strikers to beat.

A tribute to Cliff Bastin – A true Highbury Hero!

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Liam Harding

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