David Dein and Arsène Wenger first met during the 1988-89 season, a relationship embarked upon through “chance conversations and spontaneous invitations”, as detailed in Amy Lawrence’s fantastic Invincible: Inside Arsenal’s Unbeaten 2003-2004 Season. At the time, George Graham and his young Arsenal wizards were in a season that would explode on its last day, with that match at Anfield, crowning them with the title.
Dein had immediately sensed something prophetic during that meeting in London and, by the time Graham left and was replaced by Bruce Rioch, the wheels had already been in motion to bring Wenger to English shores. The stars finally aligned in the 1996-97 season, ushering in what would be a period of monumental change and success for the club, culminating in Arsène’s Invincibles. All of this at a time when there was no precedent for a foreign manager to succeed in the PL, much less leave the kind of impact Wenger has, both on Arsenal and the modern game.
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The Invincibles was originally coined for Preston North End’s 1888-89 squad which won the domestic double when a league season was 22 games, bringing their unbeaten run to 27 games with the FA Cup. When Wenger envisioned this “not normal ambition”, the season was 38 games long and it was actually, funnily enough, the George-Graham-managed Arsenal team of 1990-91 that had come closest, a 1-2 loss to Chelsea their only defeat in a league-winning season.
Even a semi-regular football fan knows that all it takes is one unfortunate deflection to wreck the ship. In fact, Arsenal’s Invincibles campaign opened with Sol Campbell getting sent off in the 25th minute as they trailed to Everton, forcing an immediate dive into the depths of their resilience. Just over a month later came the sternest test till then at the fortress of Old Trafford, in a fixture never quite far from ignited tempers during the height of the Wenger/Arsenal and Ferguson/Man United rivalry. It was 0-0 when Patrick…
Source link : https://www.footballparadise.com/breaching-the-golden-glass-ceiling-arsenal-and-the-invincibles/
Author : Anushree Nande
Publish date : 2024-05-15 13:30:00
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