Resuming after four years, the Football League expanded its numbers by four, maintaining competition in two Divisions of equal size.
Discussion of how the expansion should be handled began on 13 January 1919 when James Catton published an article in Athletic News raising the issue of match-fixing which had dogged the 1914/15 League season and been left unresolved because of the cessation of the League for the duration of the war.
In the article, Catton argued one of the two teams that ought to be returned to the first division (if that league was to be expanded, as had already been proposed), should be Chelsea as they had been relegated due to the match-fixing.
[2] However, detailed reports of the meeting in The Sportsman, Athletic News, Daily Mirror and The Times the following day made no mention of this.
Arsenal have not been relegated from the top flight of the English game since, the only club in continuous membership since 1919.