Brian Talbot spent just two weeks of his six years with Arsenal on top of the league.
As the Gunners prepare for their North London derby with Tottenham at No.1 in the charts, marathon man Talbot admired their view from the summit and admitted: “It's good to see them back up there.”
The former England midfielder, who was ever-present in Arsenal's mind-boggling 70-game season in 1979-80, says it would be even more exciting if they were still sitting pretty at Easter. Talbot, voted in the top 25 of the club's all-time greatest players in a fans' poll six years ago, warned the Gunners will have to tether Spurs' “frightening” front three to extend their stay at the top.
He is still on football's front line – as head of recruitment at Fulham, where he joined the staff as a scout in 2011. But he has enjoyed seeing Mikel Arteta build a team in his own image at the Emirates, saying: “When you spend six years at Arsenal as a player, the club never leaves your heart.
“I still go to watch them when I can, maybe four or five times a season and I look out for their results every week. Of course, I am now committed to my role at Fulham, but I still have a great affection for the Arsenal. If you had offered them six wins and being top after seven games, I think every single person at the club would have accepted it gladly.
“Before the season, getting back in the top four would have been their priority, but now they must be aiming higher and it's good to look at the table and see Arsenal at No.1 again. Obviously they spent a lot of time there when Arsene Wenger was in charge, but it's been a very good start for them and Arteta has made his mark.
“They move the ball quickly through the lines, their passing is slick and they go about the game in a positive manner. It took him a while to put his stamp on it, but he has brought in his own players and this is his team now. They play a bit like Manchester City and it will be interesting to see how they fare over 38 games.
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“Every North London derby is a big test, and I expect it will be a tight game on Saturday if both teams play to their strengths. To be fair, Tottenham's front three is frightening – when (Heung-min) Son comes off the bench and scores a hat-trick in a quarter of an hour, you know they have serious depth to their squad.
“But Arsenal are playing well, they have a very good coach and everyone has bought into his ethos. From the outside, I would say the club is buoyant and bubbling – and they are taking that confidence on to the pitch.”
Talbot, now 69, went to the World Cup final as a 13-year-old in 1966 after his family landed a single ticket in a ballot. While he stood on the terraces, his mum watched the game on TV in a nearby shop.
11 years later, after the Tartan Army had dismantled the Wembley goalposts and torn up chunks of the pitch as souvenirs, Talbot – who had played in England's 2-1 defeat by Scotland – went back out into the deserted stadium an hour later and claimed a divot of the hallowed turf himself. He put it in his kit bag and gave it to his parents back home in Ipswich to incorporate in their back garden.
Talbot would go on to make history as the first player, in more than 100 years, to win the FA Cup in consecutive seasons with different clubs – Ipswich in 1978 and Arsenal the following year. In 1980, fortune was less kind: Arsenal lost both the FA Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup finals (against West Ham and Valencia) in the space of five days.
But Talbot has high hopes for the Gunners over the winter, adding: “Being top is the place you want to be – but it's always better to be there in April and May, not September. I had some joy in the cups during my time at Arsenal, but I think we were only top of the League for a short time once (in October 1984, when Talbot's three goals in two games against Leicester and Sunderland propelled them to the summit for the first time in 11 years).
“I'm not criticising anyone, but the fact is we lost our two best players – Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton – and it took us a while to recover from that. If you take the top scorer and a world-class midfielder who dictates games out of any side, you are going to find it hard to adjust.
“ Liverpool dominated Europe in that era, but they would not have been the same force if you took Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish out of the side. We didn't really challenge them for the title, but in 1980 we played them four times in an FA Cup semi-final marathon and we came out on top – I scored the winner in the third replay at Highfield Road.
“At full strength, we were a match for anyone – but all of a sudden we lost two of our best players and unfortunately it took two or three years for us to get over it.”
