The 2003/04 Arsenal side that went unbeaten in the Premier League was arguably the best group of players to grace English football. To go from that feat to not retaining their title was a surprise, let alone to never winning another championship. What has gone so wrong? And will they ever return to England’s summit?
After the finest season in the club’s history, Arsenal entered the transfer window and brought in Emmanuel Eboue, Mathieu Flamini, Manuel Almunia and Robin van Persie. But the issue was not what they were doing; it was what Chelsea were doing.
The Roman Abramovich era was underway and they brought in Champions League-winning manager Jose Mourinho. He signed Petr Cech, Tiago, Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba, Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho, who joined Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and John Terry at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea lost one league game and conceded a record 15 goals. That record still stands and probably will not be broken. At least Arsenal won the FA Cup. And they would be back in the Premier League, right?
ON THIS DAY: In 2004, Chelsea appointed Jose Mourinho as their new manager.
In his debut season, he:
◉ Won Chelsea”s first ever PL title
◉ Won the League Cup
◉ Set the record for the fewest goals conceded in a PL season (15)The Special One. ™️ pic.twitter.com/BBTq5fjaCB
— Squawka (@Squawka) June 2, 2022
But just two seasons on from an unbeaten campaign, Arsenal lost 11 times and finished fourth, two points above Spurs in fifth and 24 points behind the league winners – the biggest distance between themselves and the champions since 1994/95 when they finished 12th on 51 points, 38 points behind Kenny Dalglish’s Blackburn Rovers.
Notable signings that season were Theo Walcott, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alexander Hleb and Abou Diaby so a pretty positive season on the transfer front. The Gunners reached the Champions League final and went 995 minutes without conceding in the competition from September to May. Of course, they lost the final to Barcelona but were 14 minutes away from winning with ten men. Onwards and upwards, you’d think.
Arsenal had officially moved from Highbury into the Emirates Stadium. And this fact has a huge bearing on everything you will read on this page.
The club had to pay off that stadium debt, resulting in disappointing transfer windows which saw star players depart and other players join on the cheap. The first window of the Emirates era saw Arsenal spend £13.5m on Tomas Rosicky and Denilson,…
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