They couldn’t have known it at the time, but the Arsenal supporters who streamed into Highbury during the early stages of the 1925/26 season were witnessing the early stages of a football revolution.

Not only had Herbert Chapman just been appointed manager, but legendary forward Charlie Buchan had recently arrived as well, signed from Sunderland for £2,000 plus £100 per league goal scored in his first season.

Buchan, who’d actually started out as an amateur with Woolwich Arsenal, headed to Sunderland in 1911 where he won the First Division title in 1913, and was their leading scorer for seven of his eight seasons on Wearside, plundering 209 league goals, a club record that still stands.

When Chapman casually strolled into Buchan’s sports shop in Sunderland in the summer of 1925 and told him he was signing him for Arsenal, the 33-year-old could scarcely believe what he was hearing. But Chapman swiftly sorted the deal with Sunderland boss Bob Kyle, and Buchan, often described as the best player in the country, headed to N5, where he was appointed our captain.

The vibe surrounding the new Gunners superstar was sensational. Arsenal supporter Leslie Anderson, whom I interviewed in the mid-1990s,...