Arsenal Advent Calendar The Invincibles: Where it started, parts one to six

Welcome to the Arsenal Advent Calendar: The Invincibles edition. Every day in the build-up to Christmas, The Athletic will bring subscribers content to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the unbeaten season in 2003-04. It could be a short story, a long interview, or a segment of audio. It might be published early or late in the day. Whatever it is, there will be a little something, a reminder, or a new take on an event that happened during that campaign. If you miss a day or want to gorge on it all at once, like the small chocolates in your festive calendars, we won’t judge. Simply step this way to find all the treasures in one place. Enjoy! 

So, where did it all start?

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Frankly, no player ever spared a thought about going a season unbeaten. It wasn’t considered a sensible aspiration. Even Arsene Wenger, who dreamed about it since childhood, said it was “not a normal ambition”. So where did it come from?

Where it started, part one.

Preston, 1888. The only occurrence of invincibility in England happened way back, with Preston North End in the first season of professional football on these shores. As over a century passed without repeat, it wasn’t a reasonable barometer for a modern team in the ultra-competitive world of 21st-century Premier League football.

Where it started, part two.

Duttlenheim, 1950s. Young Arsene was not short of big ideas. Growing up above his parents’ pub in his small village in Alsace, when he would watch the men in the local football team come in for a drink to dissect their games, he formed his own strong opinions.

The farmers would represent what Wenger interpreted as the cult of physical effort. They believed, absolutely, in hard work. It is Wenger’s nature to “strive for perfection”, which is why in a world of tough pragmatism, he held on to these unusual, almost romantic notions of doing things that were unusually elite. As he wrote in the first sentence of the first chapter of his autobiography, “I have always suffered from the intensity of my desires.” When he got to Arsenal, many years and experiences later, he thought he had a team capable of striving for perfection.

Arsene Wenger Wenger’s first game managing Arsenal, in October 1996 (Shaun Botterill/Allsport via Getty Images)

Where it started, part three.

Foggia, 1992. The grand AC Milan of Fabio Capello completed a Serie A campaign undefeated and became known as ‘Gli Invincibili’ (The Invincibles). It was a symbol to all in football that for the very best, the seemingly impossible can be possible.

Where it started, part four.

Hertfordshire, 2002. At a routine press conference, with Arsenal’s double winners off to a great start in the new season, the subject of an unbeaten season came up. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek. The old trick of chucking some mischievous bait in there to see if they might get a catch.

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David Woods from the Star asked: “Can you go a season unbeaten?”

There was a pause. Woods remembers watching Wenger as if he was thinking for a second, mulling it over: ‘Should I, or is it best to keep those thoughts private?’. Essentially, Wenger replied that it could be done. “Do you think Man United, Liverpool or Chelsea don’t dream such things?” the Arsenal manager said. “They don’t say they can because they’re scared of being made to look ridiculous. But it’s not ridiculous because anything can happen in this job.”

The subject caused a big commotion, particularly when Arsenal lost their next game to a teenaged Wayne Rooney and critics lined up to make Wenger look ridiculous.

The squad had a meeting at the end of the season to debrief on what went wrong. Martin Keown was not shy in putting some of the blame on his manager. As Wenger recalls, “He said to me, ‘It’s your fault’. I said, ‘Yes, I am ready to take the blame, but why?’. He said, ‘You put too much pressure on us. The idea of winning the championship without losing a game was too much pressure to take. It’s impossible’. I said, ‘Look, I said that because I think you can do it. But you must really want it’.”

Martin Keown Martin Keown after Ruud van Nistelrooy missed a penalty in September 2003 (Shaun Botterill via Getty Images)

Where it started, part five.

Highbury, 2003. Technically, Arsenal’s Invincibles started at the end of that frustrating 2002-03 season. Having effectively blown the league against Leeds, they won the next two games, kickstarting the longest unbeaten run in English football history. Here’s a pub quiz question. How many of that starting XI can you name from game No 1 of 49 undefeated, which was Arsenal 6-1 Southampton? Answers at the end of the article. (This author, who was there watching, had abysmal recall without looking it up — anyone who gets more than seven players without cheating is a hero).

Where it started, part six.

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Old Trafford, September 21, 2003. Nil-nil. Stoppage time. A penalty to Manchester United. Ruud van Nistelrooy vs Jens Lehmann. Insane tension. Dicing with defeat in only the sixth game of the season. This would be the closest shave of the season. When Van Nistelrooy’s kick thwacked against the frame of the goal, nobody — and I mean nobody — realised at the time how significant that would end up being for a team who went on to take a shot at sporting immortality.

Quiz answer: Arsenal XI vs Southampton, May 7, 2003: Stuart Taylor; Ryan Garry, Igors Stepanovs, Kolo Toure, Oleg Luzhny; Jermaine Pennant, Ray Parlour, Giovanni van Bronkhorst, Robert Pires; Nwankwu Kanu, Thierry Henry.

(Lead picture: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

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