That game was a bit of a downer. Remember how Liam Brady, Frank Stapleton et al just looked pure class.
Remember some Arsenal fans commenting what a great player our no.6 was, and the team should be built around him & Ward.
Despite the result Wardy managed to turn O'leary a few times who in the end resorted to fouling tactics.
Before the game (I think) Mullery had threatened to send out the reserves because the first team players had indicated that they should be on higher wages, now that they were in the top flight.
The fact that Mullery later in the year managed to turn the season around I think was his greatest achievement at the club.
The term 'ripped them a new one' was probably created after Ward's performance in the home game v Mansfield. He ran rings around them time and time again in the second half. Think Knockaert x 2.
I think we were all lulled into a false sense of security by the way Albion played between 1976 and 1979. Back then clubs like Forest, Watford etc could come up from Division Two and challenge. Maybe we thought likewise? What we got, at least for the first third of the 79/80 season, was a pretty rude wake-up call starting with that Arsenal game (as Mullery said of the first-half, 'It was like one of those Clint Eastwood cowboy films.....bang, bang, bang, and we were dead').
Probably my favourite season ever and Sept/Oct was the most memorable part of it with the 7-2 and 7-0 demolitions and the cup games. A big difference between big crowds now and then was the gradual build up. I used to take my North Stand place no later than 50 minutes before kick-off and would watch the ground filling with an explosion of sound when the teams ran out. We'd had a good season the year before but everything went up to a new level in 76/77.