Every Arsenal fan knows about the legendary, yet-to-be-repeated "Invincibles" season of 2003-2004, which saw the club go the entire Premier League campaign (and a further 11 games of the following campaign) without losing a single match. This great feat had not been done by a top-flight team since Preston North End in 1889.
In 2012, the Invincibles were voted the "Best team in the Premier League's 20 seasons", by a panel of top football persons - but what was it that made the Invincibles, invincible?
Let's start by taking a look at the starting eleven. (Made up of the eleven players with the highest number of appearances for the season.)
This group of players, helped Arsenal to finish the season on a grand total of 90 points; 11 points more than runners-up Chelsea, 15 points more than third-placed Manchester United, and a whopping 30 whole points above fourth-placed Liverpool.
Besides stating the blatantly obvious, that winning 26 games, drawing just 12 games, and losing 0, there were many more factors that in my opinion, played a big part in a successful 2003-2004 season.
German shot-stopper Jens Lehmann was a world class, reliable 'keeper. In what was his first season with the club, he played each and every Premier League game, keeping 15 clean sheets, and conceding just 26 goals. In comparison, last season, Szczesny kept 17 clean sheets, but conceded 41 goals, in 37 appearances.
Again, Lehmann was a world class 'keeper, no question about it, but he also had a solid back four in front of him, that communicated well and had a great understanding between them. This is in no small part due to the number of games that they played together. (Unlike this season, where I've lost count of how many different back fours we have fielded - albeit, due to the "injury curse" that seems to plague the club). Ashley Cole made 32 appearances, Lauren made 30 appearances, Kolo Toure and Sol Campbell notched up 36 and 35 games respectively.
For those who don't remember Kolo Toure pre-Liverpool and Manchester City (and the hilarious memes that still circle the web today), he was a pretty decent centre-back. His partnership with Sol Campbell was magnificent. Cole was in fine form, and Lauren was great. I think people only realised how good Lauren was, once he left. Very underrated.
Look at the midfield compared to what we have now. Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva. Two solid, intimidating, defensive midfielders with nerves of steel, who were good on the ball. We simply don't have that now, and haven't since back then. Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg on the flanks. Wonderful players. Quick and creative, with Pires being the more technical of the two. Pires finished the season being the joint top assist provider, with Dennis Bergkamp, and scored 14 goals in the league that season, second only to both Premier League Golden Boot and European Golden Boot winner, Thierry Henry. (30 in the league, 39 in all competitions)
We do have the quick and creative players now - in abundance - but as I said in my last post, 3 Things We're Missing, we do not have a midfield general. In 2003-2004 we had two.
The forward pairing of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry was just incredible. The two of them had played many games together, both knowing the other's style of play inside out, which made them a dream to watch. Granted, Bergkamp was in his final years, and retirement approaching, but he was still just as magnificent with the ball, even if he wasn't scoring as many goals as he used to. Although he never really was a prolific goalscorer - but when he did score, they were rarely ordinary goals!
I don't need to talk about Thierry. Everybody knows everything about him by now. There's nothing to be said except, for me, and I would assume for the vast majority of Arsenal fans, 2003-2004 was his best season in an Arsenal shirt.
So, looking back, and looking at the stats, I would say one of the main reasons The Invincibles were indeed invincible, is consistency.
To play the same back four together, with two rock-solid defensive midfielders, week-in, week-out, would give us a great boost. We wouldn't concede as many goals, and we would certainly be able to retain our lead more often than we do now. Again, with the forwards, a consistent pairing would benefit the team no end. I'm not a fan of playing a lone striker the majority of the time. We do score goals, but they tend to come from the midfielders. Whilst in the bigger scheme of things, it doesn't matter who scores, as long as we do indeed score, wouldn't it be nice to have a deadly duo up-front?
I suppose these days rotation is the norm for most teams. For many reasons. Ours being mainly, that we always have 5 or 6, if not more, key, "starting" players injured at any one time. There's also the fact of trying to keep all of the players happy. You can't keep a big name, or top quality player on the bench for too long, for example. It's also common practice to give the young players a chance, a vital experience.
A final point worth noting, is that we also fared well against those considered to be the "big" teams, as they were then, and until our record against our rivals improves dramatically, we won't be true title contenders.
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