Arsenal last won the Premier League title in 2004, but they did it in style as they became the only team to have ever completed an undefeated season.
20 years ago, Arsene Wenger and his side made history as they became the Invincibles, and this feat becomes even more remarkable when considering how they narrowly missed out on the title in the previous season.
Wenger then raised eyebrows as he did not make many changes to his squad, recruiting just one senior player, but his side went onto achieve the greatness he had envisioned for them, and they immortalised themselves in history.
Arsenal did not need a new signing to make a transformative impact to propel themselves to glory, they simply continued to carry out Wenger’s tactical ideas and it paid off. However, preparing for such a campaign was not easy.
Arsene Wenger explains why Arsenal had quiet transfer window before Invincible season
Speaking to Arsenal media on the 20th anniversary of his side completing the unbeaten season, Wenger highlighted the difficulty of trying to make major signings in an already strong team.
“No, I didn’t really try for anyone else. I wanted a goalkeeper because David Seaman had gone, and as always every year I took a young player of top, top potential to join the squad too. I wanted to bring them in to educate them, and to see if they have a chance to play,” he replied when asked if he wanted more signings before the season began.
“Offensively, if you look overall at the options we had at that time – it was difficult to add much more! But what was one of the brands of that team was that it was a very cheap team. Hardly any players of that team had arrived as big signings, and that was the big characteristic of that squad.
“People spoke a lot about the exceptional defence, but that defence – Ashley Cole, Lauren, Kolo and Sol Campbell – was very cheap. Even with Jens included, all together they cost less than £10 million.”
How Arsene Wenger completed the Arsenal squad ahead of the Invincibles season
Just one senior player arrived, as German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann replaced outgoing club legend David Seaman, but the rest of the main starting XI stayed the same, with young talents padding the rest of the squad.
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Defender Gael Clichy and midfielder Cesc Fabregas arrived in the summer, and winger Jose Antonio Reyes gave Arsenal a boost as he joined from Sevilla in January.
Arsenal’s Invincible side had the perfect blend of defensive strength and power with the likes of Sol Campbell and Patrick Vieira, with genius technicians in Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires supporting Thierry Henry, and club icons including Ray Parlour proving to be vital utility players.