Arsenal’s Invincibles remain the only side to go unbeaten in modern English football after Man City’s loss to Wolves… but Mikel Arteta claims records ‘are there to be broken’
- Manchester City’s unbeaten start to the season came to an end against Wolves
- Arsenal remain the only side to go unbeaten in modern day English football
- Mikel Arteta says the ‘great record’ will be broken once again by another team
Mikel Arteta smiles when asked whether Arsenal organised a small celebration last weekend when Manchester City lost. It does after all preserve a slice of Arsenal history.
The significance, of course, is that Arsenal are the only Invincible club since Preston’s 1888-89 season and, after City’s defeat to Wolves last weekend, will remain so for another year at least.
For if any team can match Arsene Wenger’s team it is surely Pep Guardiola’s centurions and treble winners?
And yet they have actually never come close to Arsenal’s 2003-04 unbeaten record. By their own standards, they are slow starters and have usually blown the chance before the clocks go back, losing Premier League games in October and September twice and in August in the past five seasons.
The best they have done is getting to January 14th before losing 4-3 to Liverpool in 2017-18, the season in which they accumulated 100 points and recorded 32 wins, an extraordinary performance, arguably a better season than Arsenal’s: Sir Alex Ferguson would always be keen to point out that Arsenal’s Invincible season included a 12 draws.
Man CIty’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season came to an end against Wolves
It means Arsenal remain the only side in modern day english football to go a season unbeaten
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And yet Wenger’s team still stand apart, seeming untouchable. ‘It’s a great record to have,’ said Arteta. ‘It shows the achievement and difficulty of that task because no-one else has been able to do it.’
You wonder whether it can even be done in this era of football, with the amount of investment in the Premier League meaning the depth is greater than twenty years ago.
Though when Liverpool looked like they might get close in 2019-20, it was bizarrely relegated Watford who scuppered them on February 29th, beating Jurgen Klopp’s team 3-0 showing that the ratcheting up of the pressure is as hard to navigate as the actual opponents.
‘It was a form a satisfaction [seeing them lose],’ said Wenger later. ‘I had a lot of messages from Arsenal supporters that day. We always like to be the only ones to achieve something.’
Arteta thinks it can be done. ‘100 points – it was never done. To do 90 or 100, it’s more difficult to do 100, no? And to score a record amount of goals, clean sheets and all these things. They are both great things to do. Things are there to be broken. Probably one day somebody will do it.’
Liverpool came close to going unbeaten before being beaten 3-0 by Watford in February 2020
Mikel Arteta says going unbeaten is a great record which will be achieved once again
And there’s the rub for Arteta. The reality is that Arsenal, for all their excellence last season, are chasing down perhaps the greatest Premier League team, which explains Arteta’s ruthlessness in axing Aaron Ramsdale for David Raya and spending £105m on Declan Rice.
‘We are very far from what they have done,’ said Arteta, when asked to compare the teams.
‘We have not won any Premier Leagues. They have three in a row. They have set standards that nobody else has seen in this league, ever. That’s the reality.
‘With that level of consistency, ever. No team has done that in the history of the Premier League. That’s unquestionable. So we need to seek to be the best and to be the best, we need to be better than them. You know where the temperature is, and how much you have to raise it.’
Arsenal might have beaten City in the Community Shield and they have a famous FA Cup semi final in which Arteta outwitted Guardiola and yet the Arsenal’s Premier League record against Guardiola under Arteta is abysmal – 0-3, 0-1, 0-1, 0-5, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4.
The Arsenal boss was full of praise for Manchester City for their dominance in recent years
He might be styled as a Mini Pep but his former Barcelona team-mate and the manager to whom he was to assistant at City is his Nemesis at present. It goes some way to explaining the cold logic Arteta has employed to team changes this season.
Aaron Ramsdale is hugely popular with Arsenal fans, had an immense season and David Raya didn’t exactly cover himself in glory in the defeat to Lens on Tuesday. And yet Raya is clearly now the No.1.
Arsenal should surely have closed out the title last season when they were eight points clear in April. Ramsdale produced an extraordinary save against Liverpool in the 2-2 draw that precipitated their title capitulation, so he was often a hero.
But he was arguably at fault for the Jarrod Bowen goal that saw West Ham also come back from 2-0 down to 2-2 a week later. He was certainly at fault for the goal within 28 seconds against Southampton, passing to Carlos Alcaraz, a game which ended 3-3.
And some might quibble about his technique in the 4-1 demolition at the Etihad a week later, a game that effectively sealed the title for City.
Man City effectively sealed the Premier League title last season with a 4-1 win over Arsenal
If Arsenal are to get a rare win against Man City, David Raya will have to be at his absolute best
Of course, Ramsdale wasn’t alone responsible – Gabriel gave a shocking penalty away against West Ham, the whole team were awful in the opening 15 minutes against Southampton and Thomas Partey and Rob Holding were schooled by Erling Haaland against City.
And yet chasing down this City team has pushed a superb Liverpool team under one of the best managers to their absolute limits and even so they have only managed to get in front of them once in the last six years.
If Arsenal want to do that they will require Raya at his absolute best, Rice to dominate a midfield which City usually boss and Kai Havertz to follow up his first Arsenal goal with a performance of authority.
Sunday is a day for the newcomers to demonstrate that Arsenal 2.0 is an upgrade on last season’s model. A point would do. Small steps for now. They can work on the giant leaps.
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