This series tells of Arsenal’s 100 consecutive seasons in the top division. Not only was this something that no other club has come near to achieving, the 100 year sequence culminated in Arsenal winning the League!
Recent posts
- Arsenal 2001/2: the problem of scoring, and after three second places, Arsenal come top
- Arsenal in 2000/01: second in the league for the third year running!
- 1999/2000: An Arsenal forward line the likes of which we had never seen before.
By Tony Attwood
As we saw in the last episode, after three successive years of coming second in the league frinm 1998/9 to 2000/01, Arsenal finally made it back to the top of the league for 2001/2. This meant that in the last five seasons, Arsenal had won the league twice and come second three times. But more than that, in each of the two seasons in which Arsenal had won the league (1998 and 2002) they had in fact done the League and FA Cup double, meaning that Arsenal had now won the double three times.
In essence, there were now three giant teams in the Premier League: Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United. And although Liverpool had indeed come second to Arsenal in 2001/02, pushing Manchester United into third, it was generally considered that it was going to be very hard for any other team to chase these top three.
Of the three top sides, however, Liverpool were clearly the weakest, not having won the league since 1990, and in the intervening years, they were considered as likely to slip down to 7th or lower, as they were to climb up to second.
They have, however, reached second in 2001/02, pushing Manchester United to third, but they failed to maintain their push to be champions, and in 2002/3 the league was once again a chase between Manchester United and Arsenal. Arsenal came second, five points behind ManU, while Liverpool sank to fifth, 14 points behind Arsenal and 19 points below Manchester United.
But the ability of Liverpool to challenge the top two was not a particular matter of debate – what occupied the newspapers and broadcast journalists was the throwaway comment by Arsene Wenger that it was possible that at some stage Arsenal could go unbeaten through the whole season.
Of course, the journalists, always looking for some new way to poke fun at a foreign manager who (they claimed) didn’t “get” English football, seized on this, and the cartoonists were instructed by editors to get as much out of the remark as they could. Indeed, such was the desire to knock Arsenal that the comment was still being re-run in the media when Arsenal became the first club in 20 years to retain the FA Cup, beating Southampton in the Final. Arsenal were second in the league, meaning that they had been in the top two for six seasons running – and of course, we all now know, that run was still not over.
What’s more, in the past six seasons starting in 1997/8 Arsenal had won the league twice, come runners up in the league four times, and won the FA Cup twice. 2002/3 did not deliver another League and Cup double, but it did result in yet another FA Cup win, and another runners-up spot in the League. Thus, since 1997/8 Arsenal had, in every season, either won one of the two major trophies, or come runners-up in at least one, if not both, of the competitions.
2002/3 turned out to be another FA Cup win, and a second place in the league, Manchester United taking the title by five points. Newcastle in third, were nine points behind Arsenal.
But those who took the trouble to notice such things did see something of particular interest in the 2002/3 final table, and that was that Arsenal scored 85 goals in the league, nine more than Manchester United, who won the league Indeed it was also noted in some quarters that Tottenham who by this time had sunk down to 10th scored 34 league goals fewer than Arsenal and conceded 20 more. An extraordinary drop in form.
But some of the “old timers” in the squad were starting to fade. Bergamp only started 23 league games, and while Henry started every league match save one, Keown only started 22, Ljungberg 19, Parlour 14, Pires 21, Seaman 28, Vieira 24… the old guard were slowly slipping into the background.
And yet despite this, Arsenal did win the FA Cup and came second in the league, which meant that in six consecutive seasons, Arsenal had been in the top two every campaign, and won the FA Cup three times, plus in this season had scored 85 goals. And although the media made nothing of that, 2002/3 saw the highest number of league goals scored by Arsenal in a season since 1963/4. And for anyone who did bother to notice, 1963/4 invovled Arsenal playing four more league games.
Top scorer of course was Henry who got 24 league goals in the season – the same in fact as the season before, although a number that was to be overtaken soon after. By Henry, of course.
But the fact was that Arsenal had a ground problem, for the legislation that had followed the rioting by Liverpool supporters in European games had resulted in all Premier League teams being forced to have all-seater grounds which had reduced Arsenal’s capacity to just over 38,000. Highbury, when the team had been donig well, had drawn in 50,00 to 60,00 when stading had been allowed.
So the decision was made for Arsenal to build a new ground – a ground that could hold over 60,000 fans, all of whom would be seated. That ground was opened on 26 October 2006, with 60,000 attending a home draw with Everton two days later.
This gave Arsenal a real problem because it meant that not only did the club have to buy some of the most expensive land in north London in order to build the stadium but also it had to raise the money to build the new ground while continuing to play in the old stadium now holding just over 38,000.
Obviously we all know it was achieved – the old ground was converted into apartments, and amazingl the new ground built effecitvely just around the corner from the old ground – meaning that Arseal underground station was still just around the corner, and the ground was also served by Finsbury Park underground,the overground station, and indeed Manor House for those who didn’t mind a little walk through Finsbury park.
That the ground was a success is, I think, undeniable, and I would like to pause to claim my own bit of involvement at this point. As soon as the new ground was open, the committee of Arsenal Independent Supporters Association (AISA) under whose auspices this website is run, had a meeting with the then chairman of Arslenal FC, Ivan Gazidis, at which he asked the four of us present, what could be done to make the new stadium feel more like Arsenal.
With no one else speaking, I chirped up, “Put statues of famous Arsenal people around the ground, so you connect the new ground with the history of the club. You should start with Herbert Chapman, standing in his traditional pose looking up at the ground as if to say, “I did that.” And then go on to Arsene Wenger.”
As you’ll probably know, the statues project was accepted there and then, and continued over many years, and the Chapman statue (and indeed some other statues, including the Arsene Wenger statue, were cfreated as per my very general comment. It is beyond doubt the connection with the club, that I hold most dear. And I would also say that Ivan Gazidis was very kind in not forgetting who it was who came up with the idea when anyone paused to ask him where the idea came from.
But of course I have meandered far forward for as I noted above the new ground was openined in 2006 and our Arsenal story has only reached 2002/3.
Having knocked Manchestr United off their top spot in 2001/2 we had imagined (well my pals and I had imagined) that in 2002/3 Arsenal would charge forth and win the league again, but it didn’t happen; ManU got four more points than Arsenal. Although in that season Henry showed us that his fire power was here to stay, and Arsenal were the top scoring team in the league – along with having the fourth best defence.
But we finsihed five points behind ManU and Wengher had made his comment about going all season without losing a game as being his target. When Arsenal then lost for the first time in their 13th game of the season, there was much mocking from other clubs’ supporters, and I would say, tragically, from some who proclaimed themsevles to be Arsenal fans too.
Arsenal did in fact lose six games in the season but as noted socred more goals than in any season since 1964 – when clubs played four extra games. And although it was noted that Arsenal were indeed five points behind ManU in the league, far less attention was given by the media to the fact that Arsenal finished the legue not only as top scorers but also 11 league goals higher than league winners ManU, than we might have wished. Even though this was also the season that both Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp reached over 100 goals for sArsenal.
The season also had a very memorable and emotional end with the FA Cup final against Southampton. It was David Seaman’s last game for the club – his 564th game and he was captain for the day. And we might also think of Gilberto Silva who in August 2002 scored on his debut.
As for the league, Man U won it again with Arsenal five points behind and nine points abovet the third placed team.
So yes Arsenal were runners up, not champions, and had been knocked out of the Uefa cup in the second phase (a league of four clubs including Valencia and Ajax who both finished above Arsenal). The points total and goals scored had slipped a little from the year bgefore, so we would have to wait for another season to get another set of winners’ medals.
And there was that really silly statement by Arsene Wenger about going through the whole season unbeaten whcih their supporters were still laughing about…. In fact they were still laughing about that in the early days of the 2003/4 season, althogh somehow that laugher seemed to fade a little as the season went on…
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