Water bottles were shaken up and sprayed in the obvious absence of anything alcoholic, as players danced in the north London sunshine. Some strode across the pitch with flags tied around their necks as capes; others basked on the hallowed turf. Highbury was in no hurry to empty.
Football is fleeting: it’s a comfort and also a curse that nothing lasts forever. However, that afternoon, perhaps the most convincing and compelling case of immortality in the English game was presented to 38,419 people at Highbury, as Arsenal completed a 38-game league season without tasting a drop of defeat. It would become the single-most quoted statistic by any Gunners fan you will ever meet.
Over time, the Arsenal team of 2003-04 would become defined by that hollow column under the ‘L’ on the final table. Some would seek to humanise the feat, in comparison to modern squads. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and others, meanwhile, would go on to normalise such calculated consistency. Even Sir Alex Ferguson would sneer that his bitter rivals drew far too many matches to have been truly worthy of the history books: he wouldn’t be alone.
Frankly, however, invincibility was the least important thing about Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles.
It was a team that delivered a brand of football space-age to its era. That could dazzle or destroy; give you life or take it away. That could almost collect three points in the tunnel before a ball was even kicked, such was their presence.
To judge them by their statistics is to read poetry by page numbers. Calling them ‘Invincible’ misses the point entirely, of what made those misfits so magical.
“I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art,” Wenger once philosophised. On that radiant day two decades ago, the Frenchman’s side became far more than either invincible or immortal.
STONES AGAINST MACHINE GUNS
In February 2020, FFT asked former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein which player he’d induct into the Premier League Hall of Fame. “That’s easy,” he replied instantly, “I’d say the entire Invincible team.”
In 1983, he purchased a stake in his beloved Arsenal, at a time when the Gunners – and English football as a whole – were at a low point. Shaping the face of both his club and the league they’d storm, Dein was Highbury’s charming face and prolific recruitment arm for more than two decades – as the broker behind countless acquisitions, it was he who convinced his board to take a chance on an unknown Wenger. It was Dein who helped the former Monaco manager to supplement an experienced squad with continental flair, bringing a Double to north London in 1998 – and Dein who assisted Wenger, as the pair reshaped the club in their vision for a second Double in 2002.
Today, the former Gunners chief sits opposite us once more. Picking a favourite player ever must be like choosing between children: as we remind him of our chat shortly before COVID, a grin forms on his face.
“I was fortunate enough to sign all the players,” he remembers. “Sol Campbell was very special – he was coming from our neighbours and the way it played out, it wasn’t easy. He could have gone anywhere, given that he was a free transfer. When I think about Edu coming in, it was discovered he had a false passport, and he nearly didn’t come to the club because he was sent back to Brazil. Fortunately, we were able to sort it out for him. Bringing in Patrick
