Herbert Chapman (19 January 1878 – 6 January 1934) was the legendary manager of Hudderfield and Arsenal. He played for Northampton Town, Sheffield United, Notts County, and Tottenham before returning to Northampton as player-manager in 1907.  He was not a great footballer but his understanding of tactics and strategy would make him one of the legendry managers of the game.  He made his name at Huddersfield, a club which was in the middle of a financial crisis when Chapman  arrived in 1919.  Within a few years they had won the F.A. Cup (1922) and would win the championship for the following two years. After his departure for Arsenal, the team he had formed went on to win the 1925-6 championship, for an unprecedented third consecutive season.   Although Arsenal finished second in 1925-6, they spend the rest of the decade in mid-table.  The only significant event during this early phase of Chapman's time at Arsenal was a famous defeat to Cardiff City in the 1927 F.A. Cup Final.   By the early Thirties, however, Arsenal had established themselves as one of the most fearsome attacking sides in the First Division.  He combined revolutionary tactics with high profile signings including David Jack, Eddie Hapgood and Alex James.  Arsenal’s first trophy under Chapman’s management was the F.A.Cup in 1930 against his old club Huddersfield Town.  They won the League the following season, becoming the first club from London to do so.  Two years later they followed it up with the 1932-3 title.  In January 1934, despite suffering from a chill, Chapman insisted on watching his third team in action at Guildford. Pneumonia claimed him just three days later. Within hours, Arsenal's players were arriving at Highbury for a vital match against Sheffield Wednesday. Winger Cliff Bastin later recalled: 'As I approached the ground, the newspaper sellers were shouting out the news of Chapman's death. It seemed just too bad to be true. In the dressing room nobably had anything to say, yet each of us knew what [the others] were thinking. Herbert had been loved by us all'. According to the writer of his obituary in The Times: ‘The full effect of his influence on the game cannot be gauged yet, and it also remains to be seen whether or not there will be disciples who will carry on his work of popularizing football, making it attractive to the shilling-paying public’.   Chapman is now acknowledged as  the founding father of Arsenal as a major force in English Football.  On 9 December 2011, Arsenal unveiled a statue of Chapman outside Emirates Stadium in celebration of the club's 125th anniversary.