The summer of 1980 saw the departure of Clive Allen leaving the club for a club record of £1,250,000 leaving for Crystal Palace FC. With Terry Neill in his fifth year in charge at the club during the 1980 -1981 season, Arsenal finished off their league campaign in a decent fifth place. Graham Rix and David O’Leary were in great form for the club that season.
Kenny Sansom had recently arrived at the club during the 1981- 82 season as Arsenal enjoyed similar league success, finishing the season off fifth position once again.
In what proved to be Terry Neill’s last season in charge of Arsenal, the 1982 – 83 campaign proved to be a mixed bag for the Gunners. Arsenal were fairly disappointing in the league by their standards, finishing the season off in 10th position. They did however enjoy fine cup runs that saw the club reach the semi finals of both the FA Cup and League cup. They lost both their semi final matches against Manchester United in the competitions.  Don Howe was installed as the new manager of Arsenal during the 1983 – 84 league season and the club saw a narrow improvement in their performances and an improved league table finish of sixth place. The Gunners suffered embarrassment in the fourth round of the FA Cup, losing against lower league opponents, Walsall.

Arsenal finished the 1984 -1985 campaign off in seventh place and suffered an embarrassing defeat in the fourth round of the FA Cup, losing against York City 1-0.