may 16th
Last season Arsene Wenger made a comment about how he thought his team could go unbeaten for a whole season. Like a game of Chinese Whispers, it soon became commonplace to misquote the Arsenal manager and make it appear as if he said Arsenal would go the whole season unbeaten. He, and Arsenal, were labelled arrogant, swaggering, cocky and too damn French.
Well, this season we’ve done it. We’ve gone through the entire season, 38 games, without losing a single one. An unprecedented achievement in modern football. Preston North End went through their 22 game season unbeaten back in 1889, but in recent times it just hasn’t been done. We’ve made history. We’ve won the league, and won it without losing a game.
And not only have we done it without losing a game, we’ve done it by playing a brand of attacking football that’s so the opposite of what people have associated with Arsenal for years. The magical talents of Bergkamp, Henry, Pires et al, backed up by the steel and grit of Vieira, and the meanest defence in the league. When you’ve achieved something like this it’s easy to pick out the big names and say it couldn’t have been done without them, but every player that got a medal today contributed something to our season, to staying unbeaten, to winning the league.
Players like Kanu, Cygan and Wiltord – they haven’t featured much in the latter part of the season, but they’ve all done their job well when called upon this season. Without them we wouldn’t be celebrating now.
Arsene Wenger has created a team spirit I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere before. I’ve written previously about how one of the things I really like about this squad is how they come back from disappointments and come back hard. We had a barren spell in the late 90s and early 00s, but we won the double in 02. We chucked away the league last season, had people bleat on and on about how we were saying we’d go unbeaten, then come back this year and do exactly that. That’s a focussed team, a team that can respond.
I listened to people on TV all day yesterday saying Arsenal wouldn’t be a great team unless we won the Champions League. That hairy handed cockgoblin on Sky had to bring it up as many times as possible, that clown Ray Houghton was talking about it on Irish TV, well, I don’t agree. Anyone who’s seen this team play football this season will realise this is a great team. A decent side doesn’t go the whole season without losing a game, a great side does. Yes, the CL is the last major trophy we haven’t won. I’m sure the manager and players know that fine well, but what we’ve achieved this season is special.
Nobody has done it before. I’m sure someone will do it again, eventually, but we’ll always be the first. Be proud of the boys, remember how they pulled victories out the fire; remember how well we fought to get back into Europe after the first three games; remember that our kids, and it was our kids, beat Wolves 5-0 and had the balls to get through a penalty shoot-out in which both keepers scored it went on that long; remember they got to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup; remember that it was Manchester United and Chelsea that beat us in knock-out competitions, not Scarborough and Carlisle; remember that we’re Champions, unbeaten; remember that we’re the Arsenal.
It’s been a great season, to the players, the manager, the coaches, the backroom staff and to all of you who come to read this site every day, I’d like to say thanks. It’s been a blast. Football, this site, Arsenal and you lot have helped make what’s been a difficult year for me at times bearable and enjoyable. I’ve had a laugh, hope you have too.
For your viewing pleasure, I’ve got some Arsenal Championship winning wallpapers. The Kolo Toure one is already on my desktop. Enjoy.
Team wallpaper 1 – Team wallpaper 2 – Team wallpaper 3 – Team wallpaper 4 – Team wallpaper 5 – Kolo Toure backflip wallpaper.
