Guy i dont want to reply to your messages but now i will reply you cos you don pass ur boundary,#MyopicArsenalFan.#OlutayeseTemitopeSunday makes a candid point .Time to extricate ourselves from the past.Arsenal were unbeaten during the 2003-04 Premier League season But they didnt capitalise on their dominance and failed in Europe Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry werent part of best-ever Arsenal side Anyone else fed up with the fawning over the Arsenal Invincibles 10 years on? Boring.Here’s what that team achieved – failure in Europe when the Champions League was there for the taking, and at the same time they directly helped Jose Mourinho become greater than Arsene Wenger. Funny how the Wenger lovers conveniently ignore all this. The myth of the Arsenal Invincibles grows beyond all credible recognition as every year passes without another title or any Champions League success for the Gunners.There has been so little to shout about since that unbeaten season in 2004 that Arsenal fans and admirers insist on relentlessly eulogising about the awesome power and glory of the Invincibles. One Gooner is living in the past so much they have even written a book about them.I’ve already ripped the myth of the Invincibles to shreds elsewhere. In brief, here’s why.When they were named the best ever Premier League team, they were overrated: they collected 90 points – five fewer than Chelsea the following season; they scored 20 goals fewer than Manchester City in 2011-12.It was a good side that won the title in 2003-04, but they certainly weren’t the best Premier League team ever, and they probably weren’t the best Arsenal side to win the title.The Premiership title was the only trophy they won that season – other Arsenal teams did doubles, Manchester United did the Treble in 1999. How could the 2003-04 team be the best? It doesn’t add up.They ended the season playing for draws just to preserve the unbeaten record – the best teams go out to win matches, and win them in style.But when placed into its historical context, that Invincible season has proved to be the worst thing that ever happened to Arsenal Football Club.Let’s take a look at what happened: by the end of February, the possibility of going the season unbeaten in the Premier League was becoming a probability. Arsenal won at Chelsea on February 21 and that was a huge hurdle for the Gunners to overcome.Many thought that if Arsenal could avoid defeat at home to Manchester United on March 28 that would be their last big test. They drew the game 1-1.Including those two matches, Arsenal played five League matches in that period, an FA Cup tie at Portsmouth, two Champions League games with Celta Vigo, and then the quarter final first leg away to Chelsea. That’s a total of nine games in five weeks.Wenger kept the same team for all nine games apart from alternating Jose Antonio Reyes and Dennis Bergkamp, and using Gael Clichy twice at left back instead of Ashley Cole.After that draw against United, Arsenal faced four games in nine days over the Easter period. United knocked the Gunners out of the FA Cup at Villa Park. A few days later Chelsea turned up at Highbury and Wayne Bridge’s late goal ended the Gunners Champions League challenge.A Thierry Henry masterclass resurrected Arsenal on Good Friday after they trailed to Liverpool at half time. And then on Easter Sunday it finished goalless at Newcastle.That side created by Wenger was widely regarded as the best Arsenal squad ever assembled .Thirteen games in just over six weeks called for some astute squad management. But with one or two exceptions the same players were used over and over again, and so their European campaign suffered, and they didn’t have enough in the tank to beat Chelsea.I suspect that Wenger became obsessed with his place in history, and completing the league season unbeaten, rather than focusing on how to win both the title and the Champions League. What a mistake! A huge error because had Arsenal beaten Chelsea they would have had to face Monaco and then Porto to secure their first ever European Cup success.That would have guaranteed Arsenal’s place in history as the first London club to ever win Europe’s top prize. It gets worse. Wenger’s obsession with the unbeaten Premier League season cost them in Europe, and opened the door for Mourinho to win the Champions League with Porto. Off the back of that he got the job at Chelsea, and became Wenger’s unbeatable nemesis over the last 10 years, when only token FA Cup glory has papered over the dirty great seismic cracks.Arsenal ended up winning the title by 11 points that year. If Wenger had rested top players at the right time in the run-in that season, they may have lost a couple of games in the league, but they had room to spare. Instead the Frenchman chose to rinse those players, stay unbeaten, and it cost them the even bigger prize of Champions League success.The Invincibles should have won the title and the Champions League. Instead, the mismanagement of Arsenal allowed Mourinho to turn Wenger from a man who nearly won something in Europe, to a specialist in failiure. The Arsenal invincibles were one of the best teams the premier league has ever seen, but not the best ever! But I feel the Chelsea of 2004/2005 are always given less recognition than they should. We are talking about a team that has set the record for best goal difference in the PL, a team that has set a record for goals conceded: 15. FIFTEEN goals let in all season, thats almost a goal let in every 3 games!!! This is also a team that has set a record for points scored: 95, which btw is higher than what the invincibles got. The Chelsea team also beat practically the same Arsenal invincibles team a year after they went unbeaten by 11 points!! Obviously its hard to compare across seasons but that tells you something at least about how good that chelsea team was. Moreover, they only had one loss, against Manchester City, which btw was an unfair penalty. Now lets look at the team: this is a team with Terry, Lampard, Carvalho, Ferreira, Makalele, Drogba, Robben, Duff, Gudjohnsen, Cech.....world class players all across the pitch Im a chelsea fan, so of course Im prone to bias, and in my mind the Arsenal invincibles will always hold a unique reverence, which is deserved, but what a difference that one loss Chelsea had. Just one penalty less and the same Chelsea side would have been hailed as the best ever! Both teams were fantastic, but in my mind that Chelsea team deserves a bit more recognition for the strength they had and the accomplishments they achieved
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 07:11:14 +0000
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