initially appeared on . Add The Sporting Information as a .
What a distinction six weeks make.
Commercial
When to at a raucous Etihad Stadium on April 19, Mikel Arteta’s aspect had received one sport in six throughout all competitions and their imposing lead on the high of the Premier League had been whittled away.
Looking back, that defeat and the spectacular efficiency they turned in regardless of falling foul of Pep Guardiola’s aspect got here to really feel releasing for Arsenal. They’d misplaced a cup remaining, been knocked out of the FA Cup by a Championship aspect, and seen their benefit within the title race dissolve. However they had been nonetheless there, high of the desk after the worst had occurred.
Against this, after beating Arsenal at Wembley and in Manchester, having slogged themselves again into competition from method behind, Metropolis didn’t have one other kick in them to go once more. Over the identical interval, Arsenal strung collectively gutsy wins and clear sheets. ‘s comfort for on the ultimate day of the season was the primary objective from open play the Gunners had conceded since ‘s winner in east Manchester.
MORE:
Commercial
They had been, after all, , for the primary time in 22 years. That was the last word objective, the holy grail and the validation for your complete Arteta venture.
However this weekend, towards in Budapest, Arsenal have the prospect to finish the uncommon feat of a Premier League and Champions League double, following within the footsteps of in 1998/99 and 2007/08 and Manchester Metropolis in 2022/23. Within the pre-Premier League period, had been champions of Europe and England in 1976/77 and 1983/84.
For soccer supporters of a sure technology, the mere suggestion may be thought of near sacrilege. But when Arteta’s workforce beat reigning European kings PSG, will they be higher than the Invincibles?
Mikel Arteta Arsenal 05262026
Getty Photographs
Commercial
Who had been the Arsenal Invincibles?
Arsene Wenger’s nice Arsenal aspect received the 2003/04 Premier League with out dropping a single match, therefore the “Invincibles” epithet.
It stays the one time that feat has been achieved within the Premier League. In English soccer historical past, the one different ‘Invincibles’ had been Preston North Finish, who received the First Division with out defeat in 1888/89, when the season was solely 22 video games lengthy.
In Arsenal’s 38 Premier League matches in 2003/04, they received 26 and drew 12, amassing 90 factors. Wenger’s males scored 73 targets and conceded 26, a remarkably comparable report to the 71 for and 27 towards for Arteta’s classic, contemplating the vastly totally different perceptions relating to the respective leisure worth of the 2 sides.
Commercial
Wenger’s workforce went on a 49-game unbeaten streak in whole, which led to a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United in October 2004.
MORE:
Are Arteta’s Arsenal higher than the Invincibles?
We might make this argument quite simple. If Arsenal beat PSG within the Champions League remaining, they’re going to have achieved a feat that was past Wenger’s workforce or every other Gunners’ aspect. So, in purely easy, trophy-winning phrases, over the course of a season, they’d be Arsenal’s biggest.
However it’s not so simple as that. If we measured soccer purely when it comes to the variety of video games received, targets scored and trophies lifted, then we’d as effectively watch spreadsheets and save ourselves the effort. Sport is about the way it makes you are feeling.
Commercial
“The Invincibles had extra of an X-factor, however that is due to gamers like , Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires,” former Arsenal favorite Paul Merson advised The Sporting Information. “However they did even have that depth with Nwankwo Kanu and Sylvain Wiltord, too. They’d critical ammunition in attacking areas.
“However this present technology and the Invincibles each have togetherness — that is what it takes to win a Premier League title. Each groups are bodily too, and naturally, exhausting to beat throughout all 38 video games.”
Arsenal Invincibles
Exhausting, or within the case of Wenger’s aspect, truly unattainable. Not that his Invincibles did not expertise turbulence as they had been dumped out of the Champions League by London rivals and misplaced an FA Cup semifinal to Manchester United.
Commercial
The drawback Arteta’s workforce has on this dialog is the passage of time. We’re higher capable of view the Invincibles in context, and it is some context. They weren’t only a magical season; they had been the end result of a journey that modified English soccer and received widespread admiration.
After profitable his first Premier League and FA Cup double in 1997/98, Wenger needed to endure three titles in a row from Alex Ferguson’s treble-winning Manchester United machine. Arsenal supporters in the present day would possibly make an identical level about Guardiola’s Metropolis, however his nice aspect collapsed throughout 2024/25 on the finish of a cycle, ending third behind the Gunners and Arne Slot’s Liverpool.
The lately concluded marketing campaign noticed Slot’s aspect limp to a fifth-placed end, whereas this Metropolis workforce is a brand new one with only some first-team survivors from their treble and four-in-a-row seasons.
Wenger’s workforce received again the title in 2001/02, going unbeaten for the ultimate 21 matches and concluding with 13 victories in a row — an exhilarating foreshadowing of what the Invincibles would do. The likes of Henry, Bergkamp and Pires, and the swashbuckling play they instigated was like nothing else English soccer had seen. You may say the identical for scoring 40% of your targets from set-pieces, but it surely tends to attract a unique response.
Commercial
“No one ever likes profitable groups. Folks used to hate Manchester United after they had been profitable each week,” mentioned Merson, maybe attending to the center of the recognition Wenger’s workforce loved with neutrals. “Arsenal ought to proceed doing what they’re good at. They’re there to win trophies and Arsenal followers will not thoughts the way it’s carried out. Everybody desires to see a profitable workforce — I see quite a lot of entertaining groups within the Premier League they usually by no means win something.”
If Arsenal can beat PSG this weekend, it will stand as an important achievement, one in every of English soccer’s most interesting. However a private view, once more going again to how sport makes you are feeling, is that the Invincibles would stay forward as their triumph topped a profitable interval of golden reminiscences. If Arteta’s workforce go on to dominate following their very good 2025/26, maybe with the shackles loosened just a little, then it will be time for a reappraisal.
Paul Merson was talking on behalf of, dwelling to the world’s largest personal newspaper archive and personalised newspaper items