Arsene Wenger’s side might have used the same formation as their contemporaries, but the playing style they deployed within that system was a considerable way ahead of its time
Words Adam Clery
Heading into the summer of 2003, Arsenal were already a great side. Top of the table in April, by May they’d surrendered their lead to Manchester United, thus failing to defend the Premier League crown they’d won a year earlier.
Victory over Southampton in the FA Cup final was a salve to those burns but, under the skin, Arsene Wenger knew bigger things were to come.
Despite being accused of a ‘quiet’ and ‘unambitious’ transfer window – David Seaman replaced with Jens Lehmann being the only major first-team move of note – the Gunners were about to do something never seen before or since in the Premier League.
In 38 games, zero defeats – an unbeaten season that still forms an enormous part of the club’s cultural identity.
In the years since, many have tried to play down the magnitude of that legacy, and the least interesting people you’ve ever met will tell you that they did draw a lot of games.
But the sheer rarity of the feat should be proof enough that it’s an otherworldly accomplishment – it’s happened on only one other occasion in the history of the English top flight after all, in 1888-89 when there were 16 fewer games and the footballing landscape was very different.
On the one hand, Wenger had Arsenal’s traditional strengths of solidity and organisation. On the other, a veritable crystal ball of football’s evolving future and on-field innovation. How he blended them together was a thing of beauty.
01THE EVOLUTION OF 4-4-2
It wouldn’t be until Jose Mourinho’s arrival in the Premier League that the old trusty ‘two banks of four and some proper lads up front’ would slip out of vogue, but in Wenger’s Arsenal we were starting to see the first glimpse of the formation’s future.
Two bruising centre-backs flanked by ambitious but solid full-backs, a stable core of robust central midfielders, two attacking wingers and two forwards. It was 4-4-2, but working in a way none had before.
Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp were not used as classic centre-forwards – when in possession, Bergkamp would drop deep into pockets. Out of possession, his French team-mate would float onto the flanks, ready to receive the ball into feet and drive directly towards a terrified defence
