Rampaging Arsenal striker Ted Drake once scored seven goals in a match at Aston Villa. It was the season after he had scored 42 in the league, and both of those facts explain why it took Drake a mere 108 appearances to score 100 goals for the club.
It is still a club record. Thierry Henry, by comparison, needed 181 games, Ian Wright 143. Drake’s goal tally at Villa Park also remains a top-flight record. This was some player.
Drake was not just fast and prolific, he was, as this photograph from 1938 at Brentford confirms, indomitable.