Hmm 16, counted wrong at work. Clichy I had pencilled in, I guess we'll see how Kolasinac pans out.

Clrnc wrote:

Can't believe that squad didn't win the premier league in 98-99, 02-03 and 04-05.

04-05 i'll forgive. chelsea were unbelievable that season

the other 2 definitely got away

it's funny looking back that even our best teams succumbed to meltdowns, but were able to pull out them due to the sheer quality of the players we had. the invincibles almost fell apart in april after being knocked out of the cups, and were minutes away from a CL group exit before rallying to qualify.

01-02 is my favourite title win still. the invincibles is a little tainted for me because we didn't batter united like we should have in that season. in 01-02, we outplayed them twice

Gazza M wrote:

Clrnc wrote:

Can't believe that squad didn't win the premier league in 98-99, 02-03 and 04-05.

04-05 i'll forgive. chelsea were unbelievable that season

the other 2 definitely got away

it's funny looking back that even our best teams succumbed to meltdowns, but were able to pull out them due to the sheer quality of the players we had. the invincibles almost fell apart in april after being knocked out of the cups, and were minutes away from a CL group exit before rallying to qualify.

01-02 is my favourite title win still. the invincibles is a little tainted for me because we didn't batter united like we should have in that season. in 01-02, we outplayed them twice

That's a fair point as well. Was thinking about it the other day, the amount of times we bottled it those days either due to a lack of quality squad depth or complete meltdown could have been alarming signs. We would have to depend on our squad quality or big name leaders to pull us through, which we have none now. Wenger could have been right up there at the top if he know when to quit and have that little more ambition to try his best to win everything on offer those days. Obviously Paris was the biggest miss, but I'm sure he would also have regrets about these 3 title miss + 07-08 league, 98-99/00-01/03-04 FA Cup, 00-01 Uefa Cup, 03-04/05-06/06-07 League Cups.

01-02 we were truly incredible away from home. Teams were shit scared to play us. Yeah thought we should have thoroughly thrashed a weakened United team at highbury. 04-05 we basically lost the league the month where we were cheated out of our unbeaten run. Dropped 9 points right after which was all winnable. That would have won us the title given that 3 more points was dropped from our weakened team on the last match against Brum after we already lost the title.

Some good memories there. That champions league run was all the more remarkable considering how shit we were in league. If it wasn't for Thierry we'd have probably finished about 8th in the league.

Intelligent runs, intelligent decisions.

Now we have 4, 5, 6 players bombing forward or hanging out around the 18 yard box, only to waste a majority of the opportunities. Sheisser!

The team was significantly worse back then to be honest, we lost like 11 games in the league. But the CL run was a tactical miracle, while guys like Senderos, Eboue and Flamini at left back managed to put in some of the best performances of their careers. And of course the likes of Jens, Gilberto, Thierry and Cesc were fantastic too.

i'd say it was on par with the current team talent wise. henry was worth 2 players, cesc, hleb, rvp, and adebayor were on the come up, and bobby, freddie, kolo, jens, and gilberto were still dependable

goon wrote:

The team was significantly worse back then to be honest, we lost like 11 games in the league. But the CL run was a tactical miracle, while guys like Senderos, Eboue and Flamini at left back managed to put in some of the best performances of their careers. And of course the likes of Jens, Gilberto, Thierry and Cesc were fantastic too.

The Keown effect.

I always loved how the Keown effect could have us perform so badly in the league and so well in Champions League.

We were better defensively than the season before though.

Kolo was great that season too, especially when you consider Sol's mind seemed to snap for a couple of months.

Considering how good he was for us, i am amazed at what he did at his peak (before joining us).  :gape:

Bergkamp or Ozil?

You cannot be serious.
Even the Bergkamp we got who, arguably, was past his prime shits on Ozil from a great height.

Our Bergkamp was in no eay past his prime. Probably the best player in the wprld in 97/98.

flobaba wrote:

Bergkamp or Ozil?

Henry or Sanchez?

Bergkamps best football was easily when he played for us. Obviously Ozil doesn't come close though.

Mirth wrote:

flobaba wrote:

Bergkamp or Ozil?

Henry or Sanchez?

Welbeck or Jeffers?

Qwiss! wrote:

Bergkamps best football was easily when he played for us. Obviously Ozil doesn't come close though.

I would say that, as an Arsenal fan, but my Dutch brother in law says he was better at Ajax.
The main things we agree on is that Inter stalled his development and we resurrected him to a slightly different player from the striker he was when he played with Wim Jong.

Bergkamp was so much better for us and way more consistent.

I do think Ozil is up there with him but has never fulfilled his potential here.

having a reminisce

van judas was such a shithead but my god did he score some amazing goals

I've just read that this team:

Lehmann
Lauren
Toure
Campbell
Cole
Ljungberg
Vieira
Gilberto
Pires
Bergkamp
Henry

Only played 2 PL games together in 03/04. Mental.

Probably because Bergkamp did not start like half the games that season.

I think the best way to look at it is how many players we've used in total that year amd out of those hpw many played more than 5-10 games. I'm sure it can't have been that many and definitely not more than the main 11+5 subs we had at the time.

Other than the main set of names you mentioned I can only think of Parlour, Edu, Wiltord and possibly Reyes who played significant numbers.

We were very fortunate not to have had mamy injuries or suspensions at the same time that year given how small pur squad was.

I recall Ljungberg struggling with injuries even in that season.

I had recently read a fact that in the whole of our unbeaten season we did not go into the last 20 minutes of any match behind by a goal or more, which was quite astounding.

I don't think Ljungberg missed many games that season at all. He was injury prone throughout his time with us but pretty sure he played most gamed that year. As did the rest of tve group of players Shady mentioned.

The most likely reason we only played that same 11 two times is because of Bergkamp missing chunks of the season as second choice to Wiltord as well as Edu, Parlour and Wiltord being used frequently from the start subbing in for whoever of the midfield/forwards were missing. Really we had a first 14 that season.

Anyone seen 89? Went to the cinema just after Christmas to watch it. I’d recommend it highly.

Got it for Christmas and watched it with the fiancée soon after. Surprised at how engrossing it was. Even she enjoyed it and she isn't really a football fan.

I miss being relevant in the UCL. We haven't been decent in it since 2009, almost a decade ago now.

I will never forget how happy I felt watching us in Europe that season.

Bold Tone wrote:

Considering how good he was for us, i am amazed at what he did at his peak (before joining us).  :gape:

<3

The guy who made me a Gooner.

Shady wrote:

I've just read that this team:

Lehmann
Lauren
Toure
Campbell
Cole
Ljungberg
Vieira
Gilberto
Pires
Bergkamp
Henry

Only played 2 PL games together in 03/04. Mental.

That's insane. And looking at those names just gave me butterflies.

What a team.

banduan wrote:

Bold Tone wrote:

Considering how good he was for us, i am amazed at what he did at his peak (before joining us).  :gape:

<3

The guy who made me a Gooner.

100% truth for me as well..  when he signed for Arsenal, i started following Arsenal and havent stopped since

My favourite Arsenal team

Nice tribute demonstrating the flair and grit that team had - unlike anything we've seen from a Wenger side since.

Tim-bob wrote:

Anyone seen 89? Went to the cinema just after Christmas to watch it. I’d recommend it highly.

You know, hardly a day passes when I don't think of that season.

I've seen great things since, the invincibles etc, but for the incredible feeling of that Thomas goal, the Bear on the pitch, my best friend {RIP} and I going mental {We went to every match that season} can't ever be matched. You have to remember that we hadn't come close to the title since '71, but that season we just knew something was happening.

Real Arsenal. 

That's how I felt in the first half of 07/08

The late equaliser against Utd, the first win against Chelsea in years, the sexy football, the domimance in our Champions League group, the variety of goalscorers. It felt like our season until Birmingham away.

I don't know about anyone else but I quite enjoyed looking back on Song's passing ability. Did some great assists I'd actually forgotten and all in his nonchalant style. At his peak, I reckon he was the best DM we've had since Gilberto (albeit not a great deal of competition). Didn't like it when he started playing a more attacking role.

Fuck me that looks good.
I'm impressed by the movement!