Arsenal score in 26 consecutive league games and that’s just the start

On 2 February 2002 Arsenal drew 1-1 at home with Southampton.  It was considered a poor result since it left Arsenal 3rd in the table, whereas a win would have left them second.  For Southampton it meant that they were 13th – and the table showed them as a club that should have been beaten.

Worse it looked throughout the game that Arsenal would win – Southampton only getting their equaliser on 80 minutes.

But the result did mean that Arsenal had not only scored in every league during the season, but they also set the new record of scoring in 26 top league games.

The goal itself came from Wiltord.  Henry had crossed, Bergkamp took the cross down, and Wiltord scored from five yards.

As for why we didn’t win – the lack of Patrick Vieira who went off on 28 minutes was a major cause.  After that the free flowing football that we were expecting didn’t happen.  Gio van Bronckhorst came on, but the movement thereafter was not as good as before.

In the press it was the usual theme – Arsenal don’t take their chances, Wasteful Arsenal, and all that stuff. And yes it was disappointing.

The team:

Wright, Luzhny, Campbell, Upson, Cole (Grimandi 52), Pires, Vieira (van Bronckhorst 27), Parlour, Wiltord, Henry, Bergkamp (Edu 71).

Subs not used: Dixon, Stack.

After the game the table looked like this…

Pld W D L F A GD Pts
1 Manchester United 26 16 3 7 64 35 +29 51
2 Newcastle United 25 15 4 6 48 32 +16 49
3 Arsenal 25 13 9 3 50 30 +20 48
4 Liverpool 25 13 7 5 34 24 +10 46
5 Chelsea 25 11 10 4 45 25 +20 43
6 Leeds United 24 11 9 4 35 23 +12 42
7 Aston Villa 25 9 10 6 31 28 +3 37
8 Tottenham Hotspur 25 9 5 11 35 34 +1 32
9 Charlton Athletic 24 8 8 8 30 30 0 32
10 Fulham 24 7 11 6 23 23 0 32

Arsenal in third, but with a worse goal difference than Man U and thus effectively with four points to make up.

The next game (away to Everton who were having a poor season, languishing in 14th and who had already lost 5 home games) followed by the return game, were both eminently winnable.  But then there was second in the table Newcastle, away.  Not so easy.

In fact, what happened was utterly amazing.  Arsenal played 13 more games and won the lot!

  • 10 Feb 2002: Everton 0 Arsenal 1
  • 23 Feb 2002: Arsenal 4 Everton 1
  • 2 Mar 2002: Newcastle 0 Arsenal 2
  • 5 Mar 2002: Arsenal 1 Derby C 0
  • 17 Mar 2002 Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2
  • 390 Mar 2002 Arsenal 3 Sunderland 0
  • 1 April 2002: Charlton 0 Arsenal 3
  • 6 April 2002: Arsenal 2 Tottenham 1
  • 21 April 2002: Arsenal 2 Ipswich 0
  • 24 April 2002: Arsenal 2 WHU 0
  • 29 April 2002: Bolton 0 Arsenal 2
  • 8 May 2002: Man U 0 Arsenal 1
  • 11 May 2002: Arsenal 4 Everton 3

After the 29 April match Man U could still have won the league if they had won their two remaining  games and Arsenal had lost.   This was in fact possible given that the 8 May game was a Man U v Arsenal game.

But Arsenal won, and the final table looked liked this

Pld W D L F A GD Pts
1 Arsenal 38 26 9 3 79 36 +43 87
2 Liverpool 38 24 8 6 67 30 +37 80
3 Manchester United 38 24 5 9 87 45 +42 77
4 Newcastle United 38 21 8 9 74 52 +22 71
5 Leeds United 38 18 12 8 53 37 +16 66
6 Chelsea 38 17 13 8 66 38 +28 64
7 West Ham United 38 15 8 15 48 57 -9 53
8 Aston Villa 38 12 14 12 46 47 -1 50
9 Tottenham Hotspur 38 14 8 16 49 53 -4 50
10 Blackburn Rovers 38 12 10 16 55 51 +4 46

Arsenal had not only overtake Man U on points, but also on goal difference, which one might not have expected.   But then, no one really expected 13 wins in a row.

 The Anniversary Files (now containing over 3000 entries)

 

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2 Replies to “Arsenal score in 26 consecutive league games and that’s just the start”

  1. Great piece of history, only we couldnt have played Everton three times. The Feb 23 game should be Fulham.

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