Chandler Arthur Image 6 Leicester City 1927

Description

Paddington, London born centre forward Arthur Chandler began his football career with Handley Page after the end of the First World War, from where he signed for local newly elected Third Division club Queen’s Park Rangers in August 1920, making his Football League debut at Crystal Palace in January 1921. He signed for Leicester City in June 1923 after 18 goals in 86 appearances, not necessarily a foretaste of what was to come at Filbert Street, where he ranks among their greatest players. Chandler was already 27 years old when he was signed by Peter Hodge in the summer of 1923 to bolster his attack after Leicester had narrowly missed out on promotion by goal average. He made 118 consecutive appearances (a then club record) from his club debut in a 1-1 draw against Hull City on the opening day of the 1923-24 season (also debuting that day was fellow future Leicester great Hugh Adcock).

He registered his first two goals two days later in a 5-0 victory over Stoke City and he immediately started banging in the goals with 24 in his first season, 32 goals in his second season as Leicester won the Second Division Championship in 1924-25, the first of four occasions he would score more than 30 goals in a season. Forming a lethal goalscoring partnership with Johnny Duncan, the pair scored an incredible 62 League goals between them as Leicester won the Second Division with Chandler claiming the Second Division Golden Boot, beating teammate Duncan by 2 goals to the award. He then scored 34 goals each season as Leicester recorded their highest ever finishes in English football until 2016, coming third in 1928 and then runners up in the 1929 League Championship. He was selected for the 1929 FA Tour of South Africa and Rhodesia and played for The Professionals in the 1929 FA Charity Shield as they beat The Amateurs 3-0 at The Den in October 1929 in the last fixture of its kind.

To this day his total of 273 goal makes him Leicester City’s all time record goalscorer, from a total of 419 games. As well as being Leicester’s record goalscorer, Chandler also holds the club records for scoring the most goals in a single top flight season (34, a record which he achieved twice in 1927-28 and 1928-29), scoring the most top flight goals for the club (203), scoring the most hat-tricks or greater (17) and the joint record for the most goals in a single game (6 goals against Portsmouth on 20th October 1928 in Leicester’s 10-0 win, their biggest in the League).

Chandler notably held the record of being Leicester’s oldest goalscorer (aged 39 years and 34 dayswhen he netted his final goal for the club against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 29th December 1934) from 1935 through to 2014 until this was taken from him by Kevin Phillips. Remarkably, despite his goalscoring feats, Chandler never scored a penalty. He took two penalties in his career, both of which were saved. Aged 39 he had a brief spell at Notts County, joining them in June 1935 scoring 8 times in 13 games before retiring in 1936.