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...