Arsenal’s marathon man who played 70 games in just one season as they chased two trophies

EVEN for super-fit Brian Talbot, rolling away the stone proved too much in the season when Arsenal played 70 games.

On the retreat from the Gunners’ FA Cup final defeat against West Ham, he collapsed on the team coach through exhaustion and missed the post-match reception because he was hooked up to a heart monitor.

Running on empty at Wembley, and trailing to Trevor Brooking’s header, Arsenal coach Don Howe’s half-time pep-talk had been onpoint: “Get in the showers and for God’s sake wake up.”

But on a hot day, Howe’s cold shock therapy was in vain. Arsenal lost 1-0 and, four days later, cruelty breached new frontiers after a barren European Cup Winners’ Cup final ended in shoot-out heartbreak against Valencia in Brussels.

It would be another seven years before they reached another final and won a trophy, ending Liverpool striker Ian

Rush’s record of never being on the losing side when he scored in the 1987 League Cup final.

And if Arsenal are going to finish the current season with silverware to show for their tenacity, they will have to go to the wire again. Talbot, now 70 and Fulham’s chief scout, recalls the season where he played all 70 games as his best – despite the Gunners finishing empty-handed and his close encounter with an electrocardiogram.

“I don’t think anyone knew what caused it,” he shrugged. “Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the occasion, maybe it was the disappointment or dehydration.

“But I wasn’t allowed to go to the banquet at our hotel because I was wired up to a heart monitor for 24 hours.

“It can’t have been anything too serious because I played 120 minutes against Valencia on the following Wednesday and I scored my penalty in the shoot-out.

“Although we finished the season with nothing to show for it, after reaching two finals and losing only one league game in about four months, it was the most enjoyable season of my career and I have only fond memories of it.

“When you play so many games together, travelling all over Europe and going through so many replays where you don’t give an inch and you refuse to be beaten, you build a special camaraderie with your team-mates.

“I loved playing for the Arsenal and that year I was lucky to be part of a really good team who just never gave up.”

Talbot’s workload 44 years ago would make modern managers squeal but he relished the absurd schedule of 17 games in 48 days at the conclusion of Arsenal’s ultimate endurance test.

They were ordered to play Tottenham at White Hart Lane just two days before their European semi-final against Juventus at Highbury – and despite six changes, they still beat Spurs 2-1.

It was even more delicious when 18-year-old sub Paul Vaessen headed an 88thminute winner in

Turin as the Gunners, moments away from elimination on away goals, became the first British team to conquer the Old Lady’s Stadio Comunale.

“In those days, you tended to play through knocks with your ankle strapped up or a pain-killing injection,” said Talbot (below). “I’m not sure the sports scientists would let you do it now. “How did I manage to play 70 games? Stamina was never an issue for me – maybe I wasn’t designed to be a sprinter, but I could run all day. “The walls of my heart were thicker than average and I had a pulse rate of 39 beats per minute, which is a marathon runner’s pulse rate, so getting up and down the pitch from box-to-box was one of my best attributes.

“It was certainly an asset when we played Liverpool, who were probably the best team in the country, five times in about three weeks – once in the league, once in the FA Cup semi-finals and three replays.

“I scored the winner in the third replay (at Coventry’s Highfield Road) which took us to Wembley, but maybe all those games caught up with us in the last week of the season.”

Incredibly, 48 hours after their heartache against Valencia, Arsenal went to Molineux and beat Wolves 2-1. Neither manager Terry Neill nor his players had any idea how they summoned the energy to do it.

The Gunners went to Middlesbrough on the final day needing a win to qualify for Europe, but the schedule’s brutality overwhelmed them and they were trounced 5-0.

Talbot hopes Mikel Arteta’s side do not suffer comparable trauma over the next eight weeks, but he believes Declan Rice’s imperious form in midfield will yield a happy ending.

“Yes, they paid a lot of money for him but Rice is a tremendous player who has made a big difference” he said. “I hope, after everything they have brought to the table over the last couple of seasons, that unlike our side in 1980 they have a trophy to show for it.”

Stamina wasn’t an issue for me. I was no sprinter but I could run all day

We won nothing but it was the most enjoyable season of my career