Invincible

The previous season Arsenal finished second they were beaten by champions Manchester United. However they did win the FA cup 1-0 over Southampton.

But then in the Community the shield against Manchester United they unfortunately lost on penalties. The 2003-2004 is famous because Arsenal completed this season undefeated. Furthermore, the next season which was 2004-2005 they won the next eleven games. This created the famous name of ‘49 games unbeaten’. Before the season Wenger even stated that he thinks his immortal side will complete the season undefeated. Only one team had gone an entire season without losing a single game and that team was Preston North End. They did this when they were in the top flight division in the English league. Preston North End did this in the season of 1888-1889.

Stakes were getting harder for teams to win the league due to the fact that teams started to make changes to their club. For example:Chelsea hired a new club owner named Roman Abramovich who was a billionaire. Chelsea were sold for one hundred and forty million pounds. With his money they bought new talented players and successfully won the 2004-2005 season with a new manager named Jose Mourinho.

Team:

Amongst this squad were some extremely talented footballers. There were thirty one men in Arsenal’s 2003-2004 squad. Three of which that never played a full single game in the whole entire season (including competitions as well as the Barclays Premier league). During the league campaign there were only fifth teen different goal scorers. Arsenal played a classic ‘four-four-two’ formation. But the players on each wings played wider. Kolo Toure had the most appearances for the club that season with fifty there full games and two games in which he was substituted on. Also Jens Lehmann played in all thirty eight games in the 2003-2004 season.

This immortal side scored one hundred and fourteen goals in all competitions. Thierry Henry scored thirty nine goals in every competition. Henry carried on scoring goals and became Arsenal’s leading goal scorer of all time. Robert Pires was the second highest goal scorer that season scoring nineteen goals in all competitions. Moreover, Dennis Bergkamp had the most assists that season. He was by far the best at assisting and no body was even close that season to beating his assist tally. In fact, he assisted the most goals that season as well. Also, five Arsenal were given a red card during the 2003-2004 season. They were: Jeffers, Viera, Cole, Campbell and Keown.

Final Day:
Arsenal vs Leicester City:

The final day of the season was very nerve racking for all Arsenal supporters and members of the club because if they lost this last game there unbeaten streak would come to a crashing end. and they wanted to be in the hall of fame with Preston North End as a unbeaten side. The team acknowledged that it is challenging to beat a side like Leicester. Due to this tension Arsenal started the game less confident than usual. Arsenal desperately wanted to win this game. But the last game of the season surely had drama. This is when Frank Sinclair’s cross was guided into the back of the net by Paul Dickov. This goal made all Arsenal fans heart drop. Now Arsenal had a harder challenge by scoring two goals. The score stayed the same until half time and this when Arsene Wenger had an emotional talk with the players which changed there frame of mind.

So they came back on to the pitch hoping to pull of a victory. It was two minutes in after the restart and Henry is brought down in the box and the referee awards a penalty to Arsenal. Henry steps up and buries the ball into the back of the net. then Arsenal’s day was becoming even better due to the fact that in the sixty sixth minute Dennis Bergkamp threaded through a superb through ball towards Patrick Viera.

The frenchman shot and the ball went rushing past the keeper into the back of the net. After this Arsenal were more calm and composed and therefore the held the score two-one till the final whistle. Arsenal had just done the unthinkable. they went an entire season unbeaten. Now the celebrations commenced and Arsenal triumphantly lifted there third Barclays Premier league title and their thirteenth league title.