It has been over 12 years now since Arsene Wenger and that incredible and invincible Arsenal team lifted the Premier League trophy after doing what almost everyone said was impossible and completing the Premier League season without a single defeat.
Coincidentally enough that unbeaten run gave the Gunners beat the record previously held by the team that we are about to play in the ELF cup, the Nottingham Forest side managed by the duo of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, who also achieved that double European Cup success that is unlikely to ever be matched, at least by a club of a similar size.
Many football experts feel that the achievement of the Arsenal invincibles is another one that will never be repeated and I agree, but Arsenal fans would be happy with the title winning part right now, as we have not really come close in the intervening years.
If this season is to be the one to end our long wait, perhaps it will be thanks to the inspiration that the current playing squad get from the return of some of those invincibles, as suggested by Laurent Koscielny in an Arsenal.com report in which he talks about one of those Arsenal legends Kolo Toure.
The French defender said, “The Invincibles were amazing for Arsenal. They had an amazing season and there are a lot of French, like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and some good centre backs like Kolo Toure in there.
“I have the same career like him. He came here, nobody knew him and he became a very good centre back for the Arsenal and he had an amazing career in England.
“He is strong, he likes duels, aerial duels or on the floor, one against ones and he did a very good job for Arsenal.”
Toure will be just one of many members of that invincibles squad that will face some former legends of Milan at the Emirates this weekend and if I was Arsene Wenger I would be telling the current crop of Gunners to spend as much time as possible with them and to try to get a sense of what happened that season and how it happened.
Do you think that the return of the invincibles could be the catalyst for Arsenal finally regaining the title we last one that year?
Bob.