At the beginning of the 1984/85 season, there were few more inspiring sights for Gooners than right-back Viv Anderson marauding down the right wing, preparing to set up another attack, or perhaps even scoring a goal himself.
Don Howe’s Gunners made a barnstorming start to that campaign, leading the table in late summer and hammering in goals aplenty. In tandem with left-back Kenny Sansom, Anderson – signed in the close season from Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest for £250,000 – flittered effortlessly between attack and defence.
Anderson is a key figure in English football history. The son of Audley and Myrtle Anderson, who arrived in England from Jamaica as part of the Windrush generation, Viv became the first black player to play for England’s senior men’s national team when he debuted in 1978, and would win 30 caps for his country. A pioneer, Anderson later admitted to “thinking about the importance of it more and more the older I get. At the time, I just took it in my stride.”
Under Clough, the ultra-reliable Anderson won a league title in 1978, with Forest having only gained promotion to the top-flight in the previous year, and consecutive European Cups in 1979 and 1980. “I don’t think it would be possible for a club of Forest’s size to replicate what we did in the modern era,” he said.
Aged 28, Anderson’s move to Highbury in 1984 reinvigorated him. With Charlie Nicholas now playing behind strikers Tony Woodcock and Paul Mariner, the tall and rangy Anderson was given licence to roam. In a famous Highbury match against champions Liverpool in early September 1984, he also turned provider.
With us already leading 1-0, Anderson drove forwards, exchanged passes with former Forest teammate Woodcock, and crossed into the box for Woodcock to slam home after a scramble, and then charismatic defender put in another pinpoint cross which was superbly headed home by Brian Talbot. The 3-1 victory prompted Howe to say: “There’s no better player in the country at the moment than Viv.”
Arsenal’s form collapsed in mid-winter however, and by 1986, Don Howe had been replaced by George Graham. The Scot was keen to blend younger homegrown talents like Tony Adams, David Rocastle, Martin Hayes and Niall Quinn with experienced professionals such as Anderson and Sansom.
Footage of an Arsenal v Manchester City match on in November 1986 shows Anderson schooling Adams at corners – telling him when to close down the opposition striker, and when to remain still. “Viv was invaluable during that process,” Graham explained.
Anderson, O’Leary, Adams and Sansom were the original Arsenal back four during the Graham era; four highly talented individuals relentlessly drilled to play as a unit. “It was tough and unforgiving,” Anderson explained, “but it sowed the seeds of Arsenal’s success.”
Having forced home a crucial goal at White Hart Lane against Tottenham in the semi-final second leg (Arsenal went on to win 2-1 in the replay), Anderson ended his third – and last – season at Highbury with a League Cup winners’ medal, as his trademark runs down the wing in the second half at Wembley induced panic in Liverpool’s backline during our 2-1 victory.
Aware of young right-back Michael Thomas’s potential, Anderson departed to Manchester United, and later played for Sheffield Wednesday.
A trailblazing figure for black players in this country, Anderson rightly will go down as a Forest legend, who also played a vital role in Graham’s early rebuilding process in north London.
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