The date is 12 May 1979, Arsenal are playing their 59th game of the season and Graham Rix is preparing to strike the ball. It is the 89th minute of the FA Cup final at Wembley and the club’s whole season is in danger of falling at the last, leaving them with nothing to show for all their efforts. Rix swings his left foot, sends a cross to the far post and Alan Sunderland puts the ball into the Manchester United net to score the winner.

Fast forward 368 days to 14 May 1980 and Arsenal are playing their 68th match of the season and Rix is again preparing to strike the ball. Arsenal have already played 90 minutes in the FA Cup final and 120 minutes in a Cup Winners’ Cup final. Again they are in danger of winning nothing. Rix swings his left foot.

Two different seasons with two very different outcomes. Arsenal’s triumph in the FA Cup in 1979 was a joyous occasion, a therapeutic experience after the horror show against Ipswich in the final the year before. But there would be no such happy ending in 1980. This time the club embarked on a 70-match emotional rollercoaster that hit so many highs but only ended in crushing lows. You don’t always get what you deserve in life and sport is no different.

There was a crazy spending spree in the summer of 1979. Yet, while Manchester City were paying Wolves £1,437,500 for midfielder Steve Daley, Arsenal were choosing to stay away from such nonsense. Their only arrival that summer – the midfielder John Hollins from QPR – cost the club just £75,000.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Arsenal’s new signing John Hollins poses for the camera at Highbury while David O’Leary puts the FA Cup to good use. Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images

The Charity Shield soon gave Arsenal – and the rest of the First Division – an indication of how difficult it would be to finish above Liverpool. Arsenal responded to their 3-1 defeat at Wembley with an emphatic 4-0 victory over newly promoted Brighton on the opening day of the campaign, but too many draws – 16 in 42 matches – put paid to any faint chances of title success.

The cup competitions would provide the thrills and spills during the club’s eventful season. A shock defeat to Swindon in the quarter-finals of the League Cup blocked one possible route to Wembley, but Terry Neill’s team did reach the FA Cup final – although they did it the hard way, playing five replays across the five rounds. The beat Cardiff (after a replay) in the third round to get the ball rolling, before wins over Brighton, Bolton (after another replay) and Watford set up the frightening prospect of Liverpool in the semi-finals.

Liverpool were not the only European giants between Arsenal and a showpiece final. After beating Fenerbahçe, Magdeburg and IFK Gothenburg in the Cup Winners’ Cup, Arsenal were looking forward to an exciting semi-final against Juventus, who were managed by Giovanni Trapattoni and boasted stars such as Dino Zoff, Antonio Cabrini, Claudio Gentile, Gaetano Scirea, Franco Causio, Marco Tardelli and Roberto Bettega.

With all these cup replays and two-legged European ties, the fixtures were piling up for Arsenal. The club played a whopping 17 matches in the last 48 days of the season, with bone-juddering semi-finals, heart-breaking finals and exhaustion served up along the way.

The fixture congestion was so intense that Arsenal even asked for the north London derby to be rearranged. Having already played league matches on 2 April and 5 April, a trip to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham on 7 April was far from ideal, especially with Juventus visiting Highbury two days later. When Tottenham refused to move the game, Neill risked the wrath of the FA by fielding an under-strength team. Beating Spurs in their own ground while playing with six reserves was delicious for Arsenal.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A policeman enjoys the tussle between David O’Leary and Chris Jones during Arsenal’s 2-1 win at White Hart Lane on 7 April 1980. Photograph: Monty Fresco/ANL/Shutterstock

Yet, they did not have much time to savour the moment. Their attention now turned to two huge semi-finals in the cups. Two days after beating Spurs in the league, Arsenal welcomed Juventus to Highbury. Antonio Cabrini scored the opener for the visitors early on, but an own goal from Roberto Bettega mean the tie was even after the first leg. Despite that late equaliser, Juventus were installed as firm favourites to progress. After all, no British team had ever won at the Stadio Comunale.

Before Arsenal could consider the task ahead of them in Turin they had to worry about a trip to Hillsborough three days later for an FA Cup semi-final that would become a test of their endurance. The first London Marathon was not run until the spring of 1981, yet Arsenal and Liverpool gave us their very own London-to-Liverpool epic a year earlier. Their first meeting on April 12 ended a drab goalless draw. Four days later they played out another draw, this time 1-1, at Villa Park. The two teams met again at Anfield for a league fixture on April 19 (another 1-1 draw) before Arsenal turned their attention back to their European odyssey.

The odds were stacked against Arsenal as they lined up against Juventus in Turin on April 23, yet their underdog spirit shone through once more. Typically for that season, they left it late. With 75 minutes gone, it looked as if the game would peter out and finish a goalless draw, a result that would have taken Juventus through on away goals. Terry Neill threw on striker Paul Vaessen as one final throw of the dice. The 18-year-old, who had only turned professional that season, guided a header past Dino Zoff in the 88th minute to send Arsenal into the final.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Arsenal sub Paul Vaessen heads home a late winner to give the visitors a famous victory in Turin. Photograph: Ferdinando Meazza/AP

Arsenal had become the first British team to beat Juventus on their home soil – and they still had another semi-final to complete at home. After squeezing in a league match against West Brom on 26 April, their FA Cup saga with Liverpool moved back to Villa Park on 28 April. Arsenal took the lead in the first minute through Alan Sunderland and looked destined for Wembley until Kenny Dalglish conjured up an equaliser in the 90th minute. It would have been too much for most teams to take, but this group of players was made of strong stuff.

The tie finally reached a conclusion on the fourth time the clubs met. On 1 May, just nine days before the final, Arsenal delivered the knockout blow against Liverpool, a Brian Talbot goal finally separating the teams at Highfield Road in Coventry. Things were looking good for Arsenal. Having overcome the might of Liverpool and Juventus in two excruciatingly tight semi-finals, they were now favourites to win two trophies. With West Ham (who were then in second tier) and Valencia (who would finish sixth in La Liga that season) awaiting in the two finals, surely the hard work had been done already.

When Arsenal won the FA Cup ... after playing four replays in the same round Read more

It was not to be. Arsenal’s season was about to come crashing down in a nine-day period of hurt that left the club empty-handed, punch drunk and open-mouthed in astonishment. They did not turn up in the FA Cup final, losing 1-0 to West Ham at Wembley. “At half-time, Don [Howe] came into the dressing-room and ordered ‘Get yourselves under the showers. For God’s sake wake yourselves up.’ It was no good. We were gone,” explained David O’Leary in his autobiography. Talbot, who played in all 70 matches that season, collapsed with exhaustion on the coach after the game.

Arsenal had very little time to lick their wounds though. Just four days later the team took on Valencia at Heysel. O’Leary, playing after a painkilling injection, kept Mario Kempes quiet throughout but Arsenal were unable to force a breakthrough and the match drifted towards a penalty shootout, a relatively new concept in 1980.

Kempes and Liam Brady both missed from the spot as the shootout inevitably limped into sudden death. Trailing 5-4, Rix moved forwards, his socks rolled down around his ankles, knowing he had to score to keep Arsenal in it. He failed, bending over to put his hands on his knees, his tired body language neatly summing up the feeling among players and supporters.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carlos Pereira saves a penalty from Graham Rix as Valencia win the Cup Winners’ Cup final in a penalty shootout. Photograph: Colorsport/Shutterstock

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rix reacts to his miss. Photograph: Colorsport/Shutterstock

There were still a couple of hits to come. After somehow beating Wolves 2-1 in a rearranged league match two days after Brussels – Neill admitting: “I had no idea how we had achieved it, nor did the players” – Arsenal then travelled to Middlesbrough on 19 May knowing they needed to win the game to finish third in the league and qualify for the Uefa Cup. But it was a bridge too far.

They lost 5-0. The team simply had nothing left to give. “We had to crack up some time, but I was pleased we held out right to the end,” Neill wrote in Revelations of a Football Manager. The misery was completed in the close season, when Brady left Arsenal for Juventus.

The heady days of 1979-80 proved to be the beginning of the end for Neill. With Brady in Italy and Frank Stapleton following him out of the club the following year, the club went through a period of relative decline. But what memories Arsenal gave their fans in 1979-80, even without a trophy to show for it. Beating Liverpool and Juventus in semi-finals is not to be sniffed at, even if losing to West Ham and Valencia drove some Arsenal fans to tears.

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