Were the Arsenal Invincibles OVERrated?🤔

Yeah, I’m going there. I woke up extra early to be a hater today.

Football fans who were born in the nineties will remember Arsene Wenger’s 03/04 Arsenal side, so named the “Invincibles” due to their feat of completing an entire Premier League season of thirty-eight games without suffering a single loss.

A mind-boggling achievement, to be sure.

Over twenty years later, the feat has not yet been repeated, even with various sides having the capability and the juice to do it. Jurgen Klopp’s 18/19 Liverpool were a millimetre away from following in Arsenal’s footsteps, if not for John Stones’ goal-line clearance in Liverpool’s defeat at the Etihad.

Some say this crop of Arsenal players were and are the finest team ever to grace England’s premier footballing competition. There was a time when I would have counted myself amongst those people, but as times change, so has my understanding of the sport, and now I have some newer, slightly more controversial outlooks on this team.

I’m The Average Joe, let’s talk about the Arsenal Invincibles and why they’re overrated.

The Invincibles Disclaimer.

As I always say, AJ is a fair guy, so let’s get the disclaimer out of the way.

As a kid born in the late nineties, Arsenal were the first team I actually remember seeing win the league. Growing up in a house full of Arsenal fans, Thierry Henry was one of the first footballers I actually knew of, and a legend in my household.

I could easily have ended up an Arsenal fan. Even now, I could probably name the side off by heart, or close enough. To this day, I remain a huge fan of Robert Pires, of Gilberto Silva, Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira and — last but not least — the one and only Denis Bergkamp.

Never be another like Denis. Allegedly, Arsene Wenger was interested in signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Lisbon at the same time as Sir Alex was. Thank goodness we didn’t let that happen.

Imagine that front three — Bergkamp, Henry, Ronaldo💀.

So if I have so much respect for this Arsenal side, what makes me say it’s overrated? To understand a bit more about that, let’s go into the numbers of that season.

The Arsenal Invincibles by Numbers🔢

Arsenal played in four competitions in the 03/04 season, winning just one and falling short in three. What does this mean?

Off the bat, it means that Arsenal went invincible in the only one of four competitions that you don’t actually need to be invincible in to win, but despite their failures that season, they actually enjoyed one of their best ever campaigns in terms of numbers.

Let’s start with the League Cup.

The Carling Cup.

The 03/04 Carling Cup was contested between Steve McClaren’s Middlesborough and Sam Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers, two juggernauts of English football.

On their route to the final, eventual champions Middlesborough had to face Wenger’s Arsenal in the semi-final, winning 3–1 on aggregate over two legs. Bearing in mind that this was an Arsenal team featuring Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy, Martin Keown, Kanu, Ashley Cole, Patrick Vieira and Edu.

At least three of those names are to this day considered to have gone an entire season without losing any games.

The FA Cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy winning the FA Cup in 2004

Yeah, you know who won the FA Cup that year😜.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United steamrolled past Millwall in the final in a 3–0 win with teenaged Cristiano Ronaldo earning a place on the scoresheet with a header and Ruud van Nistelrooy bagging a brace, one from the spot, to secure United’s eleventh title in the competition.

So where was Arsenal? Arsene Wenger is subtextually credited with the creation of a footballing set-up that was incapable of losing a football match, and yet United edged Arsenal in the semi-final of the FA Cup, with a goal from Paul Scholes being the difference between the two premiership sides at Villa Park.

Again, we’re not talking about Wenger fielding a second-choice team, this was a team that featured Frederick Ljungberg, Vieira, Lauren, Sol Campbell, Denis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry — they played their first-choice players against a Premier League side at a neutral Premier League ground and lost.

Two decades later, many of these players are considered “invincible”.

The Champions League.

Jose Mourinho’s Porto lifted European football’s biggest prize in 2004

The footballing world needs no reminder of who lifted the UEFA Champions League in 2004. Jose Mourinho’s side took their fair share of scalps on their road to the final, including Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side.

His win would fuel his blockbuster move to Arsenal’s city rivals Chelsea in 2005, kicking off an era of Chelsea dominance that would see them become only the second Premier League side to ever successfully defend the Premier League title.

But Chelsea’s not just famous for winning two titles back-to-back, they’re also famous for sending the Invincible Arsenal side crashing from Europe in a 2–1 win at Highbury, courtesy of goals from Super Frankie Lampard and a late stunner from left-back Wayne Bridge. Another loss, this time with home field advantage to a Premier League rival.

Go into the match facts, and you’ll see the same culprits on the team sheet — Frederick Ljungberg, Kolo Toure, Thierry Henry, Jose Antonio Reyes, Robert Pires. These are the same players credited with invincibility, a word that means in inability to be defeated.

Okay, sure, maybe you’ll say that these players are all Premier League Invincibles, in that none of their losses came in their domestic league. Adding caveats to the word invincible always felt a bit fraudulent to me. At best, this team is improperly-named, since the core of the team were unable to apply the same grit, the same determination, the same obsession to avoid defeat in any other competition.

The Premier League.

Now for the good part.

Arsenal won the Premier League with their best ever tally of ninety points, winning twenty-six games from thirty-eight, drawing twelve and losing precisely none.

They scored seventy-three goals (a tally that was actually bested by the 22/23 Arsenal side that racked up eighty-eight), conceded twenty-six and finished with a considerable goal difference of forty-seven. Very tidy numbers, even I must admit. For this achievement, they were gifted a golden Premier League trophy, the only ever team from this competition to receive one.

Even now, decades later, the Hale End faithful will testify to this Arsenal side being the finest ever in the competition’s history.

So why does AJ think it’s overrated?

Losing is pretty inevitable in football, all things considered.

Coaches obsessed with winning such as Guardiola will strive with all their might to eliminate losing a football game from the DNA of their team’s, but it’s not something that’s actually possible when you think about it.

There is no footballing set-up that can actually eradicate losing in its entirety, simply because coaches are not in total control of everything that happens on a football pitch. I’ll give you an example.

You all remember the Manchester Derby, right? United cruise past treble-chasing Manchester City at Old Trafford.

The reason this game was as memorable as it was was because of the controversial VAR decision that followed as a result of Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser at the Stretford End. Casemiro’s through ball in behind the city defensive line set Rashford away on his bike, but the city defenders held their nerve, confident the linesman would spot Rashford several yards offside.

With Akanji shadowing Rashford as he ran onto the ball, and Walker tracking the run of Bruno Fernandes, confusion would soon hit the defenders as Rashford “shepherded” the ball into the path of Bruno Fernandes, who would strike it past a baffled Ederson for the equaliser.

Rashford was most certainly offside, but the goal was given because the Englishman didn’t actually touch the ball. Whether or not he illegally affected the play was a different question, and Man City would go on to lose the game by two goals to one, a result that would set the internet ablaze with complaints of cheating and incompetent referees.

What’s my point?

My point is the better team sometimes loses in football, as we know. Any number of factors can cause an unfavourable result, outside of not being the better side.

Man City were rocky in the first half, but had control of the tie in the second, and one could argue they would have went on to consolidate their win had the equaliser not been given and the momentum inside the stadium switched.

Here’s what I want to impress upon y’all: Man City lost a game for reasons that had nothing to do with the football that they played. They weren’t sh*t, they weren’t technically “outplayed”, in fact it could be argued they were the better side for much of the game.

They just lost…because they lost. They were unlucky.

Not convinced?

Okay, I’ll do you another example. I’ll use Arsenal this time. You guys remember Arsenal hosting Brentford this season at Emirates.

Title-chasing Arsenal actually dropped points in this game, a result that — it could be argued — helped title-rivals Man City to close the considerable gap Arsenal had built up and eventually pip them to the trophy.

The funny thing about this result is, okay fair enough Arsenal didn’t actually lose, but they drew a game where they scored and the opposition technically…didn’t.

Arsenal took the lead through winger Leandro Trossard, but minutes later, would concede the equaliser from Brentford striker Ivan Toney. Despite Toney appearing to be offside, VAR would review the incident and later decided that Toney had not scored an illegal goal. After the fact, however, the officials admitted that the goal actually should not have been allowed to stand, and had done through “human error” as the VAR official had “forgotten to draw the lines”.

See how ridiculous that sounds? The offending official, Lee Mason, was actually relieved of his job in the resulting media storm, but the damage was done, and Arsenal dropped points in a game where they were the only team to score a goal. A freak of logic.

The point still stands: this had nothing to do with football.

Any number of factors can cause a loss on any given day. The referee can have an argument with his missus the night before and wake up in a bad mood, the sun can shine into David Seaman’s eyes right before Ronaldinho takes a free-kick, or the VAR can “forget to draw the lines”.

Good football cannot cover every single way to lose a football match, it can’t even guarantee one victory, never mind a thirty-eight match league season. You have to be incredibly determined to avoid defeat — but also incredibly lucky — to achieve this, and this is why it’s never been repeated.

Liverpool in 18/19 just didn’t have that luck — they put the ball over the line, and through some act of God, John Stones was there to rescue the Citizens.

Look, I get that I’m going to be called a hater for this.

But the only reason that Arsenal 03/04 is considered up there with the best Premier League sides of all time is because of this achievement — lasting a season without a league loss, and I think there was a crazy amount of luck involved.

The difference between them going unbeaten and not is essentially the flip of a coin. It only would have taken one random hiccup to cost them the gold trophy — something that could have had nothing to do with their performance on a football pitch.

I guess what my point is, is that good football can’t ensure you never lose. Football doesn’t have the capacity to do that, it doesn’t cover all the bases. Only luck can do that. Luck is limitless, it can help you do anything. This is why they say it is better to be lucky than smart.

It was still a great team. Arsenal fans should still be proud of what they did that year, and the word “unbeaten” still holds a considerable amount of weight.

I just think calling it “the best team” is a disrespect to other league teams that have played better football, amassed more points and won more trophies within a single season.

You play football for points and for trophies. You don’t play it to avoid losing. That’s what’s up.

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