Are the Invincibles back?

Let's not forget then though that their unbeaten run ended due to a Rooney dive, while we're at it jibers.

Hapless_Hans wrote:Let's not forget then though that their unbeaten run ended due to a Rooney dive, while we're at it jibers.

That's prime Rooney dive to you. We'll be lucky if shrek doesn't get a yellow for going to ground now. I'm not that bothered about the diving, I just think that they are ovverated. Similar to how our Treble team are ovverated although I think we are much greater than the invincibles.

In some all time lists of top 10 team in football history I have seen the invincibles mentioned!

jibers wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:Let's not forget then though that their unbeaten run ended due to a Rooney dive, while we're at it jibers.

That's prime Rooney dive to you. We'll be lucky if shrek doesn't get a yellow for going to ground now. I'm not that bothered about the diving, I just think that they are ovverated. Similar to how our Treble team are ovverated although I think we are much greater than the invincibles.

In some all time lists of top 10 team in football history I have seen the invincibles mentioned!

Well, it's something memorable and and a great achievement to be sure.
At the same time I didn't follow the PL back then so I couldn't say how great they actually were.
But I guess your point is corrobarated by the fact that the invincibility in the league did not translate to any kind of dominance in Europe

Well to put it in context, the 'Invincible' term has only been used in terms of league football - in case of both Arsenal and Preston earlier.

In that day and age, it was a feat and a commendable one at that. Wenger said (in 2002 iirc) that it is possible to win the league without losing a single game. Needless to say, he was ridiculed by the same media for being deluded. Fast forward 2 years, he does what he said he could and it was a bit of history.

Also, it was not just 38 games (although that was the 'Invincible' season) but a total of 49 games that Arsenal were unbeaten in the league.

@Zigra - whether you want to call your team Invincible or not is your prerogative. It is indeed a matter of opinion, but giving credit where it is due is not too much to ask, me thinks.

Also, like I said earlier, it's always rival club fans who have tried and failed at emulating the feat who want to shit all over it. The fact that it has only been done twice in the history of English league football speaks for itself.

I also want to add another point, for the sake of discussion. It has long been argued, and agreed, that league and cup competitions are two different beasts altogether, requiring different approaches, skills, endurance, fitness, form, etc. Ever so often, we have teams perform overwhelmingly in cup competitions while being piss poor in the league - Dortmund this season in CL and BuLi is an immediate example. Vice versa, it is only logical that league form need not necessarily be replicated in cup competitions. I guess another example could be Juventus winning the league unbeaten recently but failing in Europe - I don't follow Serie A and could be wrong, but I vaguely remember reading this.

The reason why I stress on this distinction is, no (Arsenal) fan, to the best of my opinion, who has followed football pre- and post- the 03/04 season, ever said that it was the best team ever in the history of the game. The claim is only that it was one of the best teams in the context of the league. That's why comparisons with Sacchi's Milan or Guardiola's Barcelona are always unqualified hyperboles imho.

Fact remains that it was an unbeaten league run which hasn't been replicated yet. And until it is repeated, it remains a unique feat in modern English league football.