It was the most turbulent season in the history of English football’s most conservative club.
George Graham, a legendary Arsenal player, was sacked as their manager amid a bungs scandal and star forward Paul Merson confessed to cocaine, drink and gambling addictions.
That was all within the space of three months in the 1994-95 season as Graham’s empire fell apart after he had led the club to two titles, a domestic cup double and European success during nine years in charge.
It was a truly shocking time and left the club reeling so badly they even flirted with a relegation scrap after Stewart Houston took up temporary charge. Graham was sacked in February 1995 after it emerged he took backhanders from transfers, while Merson had given a tearful press conference the previous November to confess his demons.
It was a season which also ended on a low for one of Arsenal’s greatest-ever strikers, Alan Smith, who was Golden Boot winner in both of Graham’s title-winning seasons of 1989 and 1991.
Smith, 54, now a Sky Sports pundit, said: “It was definitely the most turbulent season. It was such a weird time for the club, a strange season.
“There were whispers, we had spoken about it in the dressing room, saying, ‘Have you heard this about the gaffer?’ At first we thought it was just gossip and we were a bit sceptical. It seemed such a big thing that he’d possibly lose his job.
“That was probably about three months before it came out into the public domain. I was going to the hospital with the club physio Gary Lewin for an operation on my knee when the news came out that he’d been sacked.
“It was a big shock. He’d been so successful, been one of their own as a player and to be shunted out of the door like that created a big ripple.”
It was the end of an era for Graham, the manager who signed Smith from Leicester and put Arsenal back on the map after leading them to their first title in 18 years.
“He was a very good tactician, a stickler for detail,” said Smith.
“It’s well documented how hard he worked on the back four, and the likes of me, Merse, Brian Marwood and Rocky (David Rocastle) would be asked on the training ground to get past them – and we rarely did it.
“George had been a striker himself and would give me coaching lessons on the art of heading. He demanded high standards, he wanted you to be at your best day-in and day-out. He was always pushing and very rarely was he not at the training ground. I don’t think George even came back to say goodbye because it was a ‘Clear your desk’ situation.”
It was just as painful for the players to see the meltdown of one of their team-mates.
Smith says Merson was his favourite Gunners strike partner and they were incredibly close.
“We all knew that Merse liked a drink in the way that Tony Adams did, but we didn’t think he had a problem with it,” said Smith. “I got changed next to Merse every day for eight years and there was rarely a time when he was late or he was stumbling about.
“There were days when you could smell it on him or thought he’d had a session, but he went out and would sweat it out.
“It was upsetting for us all to see him like that, to see him break down in front of the cameras. Merse was a very popular guy. He was my favourite strike partner at Arsenal. We had a great partnership.”
The season ended badly for Smith, who suffered a cartilage injury in January 1995, which eventually forced him to retire the following summer. Arsenal also lost the Cup Winners’ Cup final to Real Zaragoza.
Smith recalled: “Me and Bouldy were sat in the stands for the final, the game was heading to penalties and he said, ‘Let’s go down to the pitch to see the penalties.’
“But by the time we’d walked down there, the players were lying distraught on the pitch and we’d missed Nayim’s winner from the halfway line!”