Arsenal finally immortalized Arsene Wenger with a statue at the Emirates Stadium, etching his place in the club’s amazing history for his 22-year stint with the club. As expected, the club took to social media to celebrate the legend and current head coach, Mikel Arteta, waxed lyrical in his praise of Wenger,
“It’s such a great tribute that the club has done something special for Arsène that he fully deserves and merits. With a statue now at the stadium, Arsène can have that recognition and be here at our club forever.
“I’m so grateful to have played for Arsène at this club in my career. He chose me to be one of his players and selected me to be the captain of the club and that’s something I will never forget.”
With Wenger spending over 8,000 days as Arsenal’s head coach, he had a lot of moments with the club, so it was difficult to pick my top 10, but here’s my best of the lot
The Invincibles
You can’t mention Arsene Wenger without speaking about the Invincibles, the amazing team that went through 38 matches without experiencing defeat in the Premier League, raking up 26 wins and 12 draws.
The team was led by Patrick Vieira and has so many important players with Jens Lehmann protecting the goal, Kolo Toure and Sol Campbell in the heart of the defense, Robert Pires providing attacking returns from the left wing, and Thierry Henry raking in phenomenal numbers in attack. Sadly, that Premier League win of 2004 still remains Arsenal’s last title win, and the clock was almost reset by Mikel Arteta last season.
18 Consecutive Champions League Appearances
We will always remember when Wenger stated that finishing in the Top Four is a trophy, but Wenger must be lauded for his consistency in qualifying for the competition, with Arsenal always finishing in the European qualifying places in the Premier League.
It’s really amazing when you think of the fact that Arsenal’s second place finish last season ultimately ended Arsenal’s wait to return to the competition, as they had been out of it for seven seasons.
The 98′ and 02′ Doubles
Arsenal dominated the domestic scene in the early years of Wenger’s reign in the club, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United providing stiff competition for the right to be the alpha club in the division.
However, Wenger and his lads blew the division away with two Premier League and FA Cup doubles in 1998 and 2002, which epitomized his legendary status with the club. Wenger went on to win six FA Cups in the course of his managerial career with Arsenal.
Promoting Project Youth
In Wenger’s time at Arsenal, there was enhanced focus on producing young talent that went on to be world beaters for the club. One of the greatest prodigies the club ever had was Francesc Fabregas who was poached from Barcelona’s La Masia Academy, but there were some phenomenal talent like Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, and Wojciech Szczesny.
Under Wenger, Arsenal unearthed so many gems and gave them opportunities to shine at the club.
Ending the Trophy Drought
When Patrick Vieira scored that penalty against Manchester United in Wembley in May 2005, Arsenal fans and Arsene Wenger probably didn’t believe that they’d go through nine years of a trophy drought.
There was the 2006 Champions League final heartache against Barcelona in Paris, the failed 2007/08 Premier League title challenge, reaching the Champions League semis in 2009, shockingly losing the 2011 Carabao Cup final to Birmingham City, and yet another failed title challenge in 2012/13.
The 2014 FA Cup final against Hull City was meant to be a walk in the park, but the Gunners found themselves two goals down, but goals from Santi Cazorla, Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey allowed Arsenal win the FA Cup, which coincided with the biggest trophy ground parade of over 250,000 fans!
Signing Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry was a struggling winger Juventus signed from AS Monaco and shipped him off to Arsenal at the first call from Wenger.
377 games and 228 goals later, Henry is regarded as a one of the greatest ever forwards to play the beautiful game.
This was all down to Arsene Wenger.
An Unfortunate Night in Paris
It started with five wins on the trot against FC Thun, Sparta Prague and Ajax, before the dead-rubber draw with the Dutch giants in Matchday 6. The first knockout round fixture was against the illustrious Real Madrid, but an exceptional solo strike from captain Henry was enough to seal victory. The departed Patrick Vieira and his Juventus teammates came to Highbury and were outclassed by Fabregas, before Kolo Toure’s header and Lehmann’s penalty save from Juan Roman Riquelme spot kick sent Arsenal to the Champions League finals against Barcelona.
Sure, Lehmann’s red card for his professional foul on Samuel Eto’o put Wenger’s men in the lurch, but Campbell’s header put Arsenal ahead, and they had the uphill task of holding on for the entirety of the game, which seemed insurmountable. Eto’o’s equalizer was inevitable but Juliano Belletti’s effort from the byline was heart wrenching to say the least.
The quest for a triumphant campaign in Europe’s premier competition is still on the hunt, but Arsenal has Wenger to thank for coming really close.
Creating Wenger-Ball
Arsenal under George Graham was a bore-fest, with the manager building a reputation for having one of the meanest defenses in the division.
The uber-talented David Seaman had a rearguard of Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon, Tony Adams and Martin Keown / Steve Bould in front of him that took no prisoners, with 1-0 to the Arsenal becoming an instant cult classic.
Arsene Wenger revolutionized how Arsenal played, going the further mile in enhancing the well-being of his players, which translated to orgasmic football on the pitch.
Moving to the Emirates Stadium
In May 2006, Arsenal hosted Wigan Athletic in what would prove to be the final fixture at the club’s old ground of Highbury. Henry scored a magnificent hat-trick and the Gunners got all three points, but the major milestone was that Arsenal were leaving their eternal home to the state of the art Ashburton Grove, or Emirates Stadium, when you factor in the greens.
This turned out to be a monumental time with everyone associated with the club, as it coincided with some years of lack of silverware, but Wenger was there to steer the ship and kept the team competitive.
There you have it, my top 10. What’s yours?
Sayonara.
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