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(THREAD) THE INVINCIBLESWe want to conmemorarse this recovery from @Arsenal with this thread about The Invincibles.
I wish you love this and you show it here, thanks to @MesutGunner1 that helped me out with this thread!!
On May 2003 Arsenal closed the season as English Cup Champion and stay with the same players for the coming season 2003/04. With a very strong squad that counted on players like Robert Pires, the captain Patrick Vieira & the chosen best player of the competition Thierry Henry.
The highlighted change in the squad is that Seaman left the club to Manchester City and his place was going to be took by Lehmann who was Borussia Dostmund's goalkeeper.
Arsenal started the league with 4 consecutive wins against Everton, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough & Manchester City. In the Sixth Match week Arsenal faced Manchester United at Old Trafford, Wenger's team visited the last champion of the league which was pointed as a potential rival.
Near the end of the game a jump in order to head the ball, this leads to a contact between Vieira and Van Nistelrooy where the Dutch fall making a scene. immediately the referee show the second yellow card to Patrick and he had to leave the field.
This action unleashed a fight between both team's players. Although Arsenal had 10 players they kept fighting until the end. In the last minute Martin Keown pushes Diego Forlán what gives Van Nistelrooy the chance of winning the game, but his kick hit the crossbar and missed.
Arsenal players took revenge on Van Nistelrooy who was accused of overacting when Vieira pushed him & was sent-off. This behavior meant a sanction for the London team, but Arsenal anyway could keep his condition of unbeaten. Later this match was named 'The Battle of Old Trafford'
On the next matchweek, although the Gunners suffered in order to get the win against Newcastle United, they could get that win after a penalty well kicked by Henry 10 minutes from the end.
On their visit to Anfield, Liverpool began scoring the first goal against 'The Invicibles'. Although this bad beginning, EdĂş and Pires, decided the match for Wenger's team.
On the 9th matchweek Arsenal faced Chelsea, the two of them were the only teams that remained unbeaten in the competition, they have to play in Highbury with the objective of breaking the tie on the top of the rank.
At the beginning of the match a kick of EdĂş ends in the back of the net after a deviation on a blue's player. Chelsea was capable of tying the game after a good shot by Crespo. Arsenal constantly looked for the victory guided by Henry.
Not only the bad accuracy, but, the great performance of Cudicini didn't allowed them to get it. Ironically the Italian goalkeeper would be the one that make the fatal error letting the ball escape from his hands that will end in a goal scored by Henry.
Arsenal seams unbeatable, they played by heart. During the last days of November and the begening of January they lived the only bad streak of the season tying 4 games out of 7. This got them onto the second place in the ranking 3 points from Manchester United.
From there the Gunners chained 9 consecutive victories. Arsenal used the winter transfer window and sign José Antonio Reyes who made his debut against Manchester City. Arsenal consolidated their leadership and chained 25 unbeaten matches surpassing their season record in 1990-91.
On their visit to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea took the lead 48 seconds into the game through Gudjohnsen, but it took Arsenal only 20 minutes to turn the game around with a goal brought by a good pass from Bergkamp culminated by Vieira and a goal made by EdĂş from a corner.
After that victory the Gunners left Chelsea 9 points behind. The games passed and Arsenal continued without losing. The Gunners were annihilating their rivals, 22 victories and 7 draws in 29 games just at the time of facing United that was already 12 points away.
Those led by Wenger tipped the scales with a screamer from Henry. However, the 9-win streak came to an end with a goal from Louis Saha and the game ended 1-1.
With the Premier League practically in their pockets, Arsenal dreamed of the triplet came to an end within 3 days, they were eliminated from the FA Cup against Manchester United and suffered a painful defeat from the champions league quarterfinals against Chelsea.
Despite this, Arsenal rose quickly in the premier with a victory over Liverpool taking a 7-point lead with only 6 games to go. A draw against Newcastle on the following day would also be a positive result, as Chelsea lost on that day.
Arsenal's win against Leeds 5-0 after a beautiful football demonstration by Henry, providing 4 of the 5 goals scored left Arsenal 1 point away from being champion.
As an act of destiny the next game was Tottenham Away, the perfect game for the gunners to become champions and celebrate the title at White Hart Lane. With goals from Patrick Vieira and Pires, the Gunners got a draw.
This crowned them as Premier League champions which would be the 13th league title in it's history. After securing the Premier, Arsenal would have 4 more games to achieve an historic record, finish the season without reaping a single defeat.
And so it was, in the final match of the tournament, the gunners won 2-1 against Leicester City ending a dream season, with goals from the captain Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, the last being crowned as the Premier League top scorer with 30 goals.
It has been more than 100 years since an English team completed an undefeated season and the first time in the Premier League history to happen.
The invincibles also did it with incredible numbers, 26 wins and 12 draws. The highest scoring team in the tournament with 73 goals and the fewest goals scored with 26, a feat almost impossible to match.
