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The Rise and Fall of the Invincibles
Arsenal Football Club, the London giant with a rich history and tradition of excellence, holds the most unique triumph in the history of the domestic championship, winning the league unbeaten and being crowned with the golden cup to commemorate their Invincible hallmark.
It would be thought that this rare type of success would continue to surface at the core of the football club, but the opposite was the case as they suffered a spell of subpar performance after their most successful season domestically (2003-04), the Gunners began to decline under the stewardship of the Invincible Coach, Arsene Wenger.
The Frenchman became conservative with his recruitment and stopped bolstering his squad with needed forces. The team that had the likes of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Freddie Lunjuberg, and Patrick Viera went on to be with Squillaci, Gervinho, Mannone, Frimpong, Chamakh, etc.
Arsenal fell from contending for the Title with Manchester United to celebrating the Top 4 finish and becoming the King of the FA Cup. They continued with this until Arsene took his recruitment further and gave a deadline surprise to the Arsenal Fans.
The Professor announced the signing of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid for the 2013-14 season. The emirate got a breath of the old days as Mesut hit the ground running against Sunderland and went on to push Arsenal to challenge for the title after so many years. After a nine-year drought, they won the Fa Cup, dubbed their major trophy. Arsenal looked like they were serious with business when they announced the signing of Alexis Sanchez from Barca the following season following the Puma deal in 2014. Arsenal went closest to the title in ages as they came to a few points behind Leicester City in the 2015-16 season, a record later replicated and surpassed with the club's recent rise under Mikel Arteta.
The End of An Era and the Dampened Crisis
Following the epileptic performance, Arsene Wenger looked tired of the manager position after over 20 years in office. On 20th April 2018 announced he’d be leaving the club and was accorded a guard of honor. Following his departure, the board appointed Unai Emery to take charge. The Spaniard mounted the mantle and continued with poor performances despite high hope and an influx of starlets from the Hale end academy. In his first season, he had problems with senior players, especially Mesut Ozil, who fell out of favor with him as Emery was reported to have lost control of the dressing room.
During his reign, Granit Xhaka was appointed captain and later stripped of the captaincy armband after boong fans amidst all the challenges faced by Emery. The Fans thought that’d be all, not until they witnessed the unforgettable Night at Baku when the biggest hope to win a European trophy was dashed. Emery began using young players and promoted the trio of Saka, Smith Rowe, and Martinelli. Following the disappointing defeat at the hands of their London rivals at Baku, Arsenal dismissed Unai and appointed the 37-year-old Assistant manager to Pep Guardiola, the former Arsenal captain, Mikel Arteta.
The Remontanda of the old giants
Following the situation of the Arsenal dressing room when Mikel Arteta came on board, Mikel Arteta fielded the youngest players in his first match as a head coach. Unfortunately for him, Covid 19 struck, and he’s to take up his first managerial role in one of the strangest time football has witnessed, where the emotional connection from fans was divorced from the sport as games were played under closed doors.
Arteta was backed by the board in his first season and repaid the favor by initiating a project whose execution won him his first-ever trophy despite not being at the level of the then giants, Liverpool and Manchester City. Arteta defeated City in the Semis and Chelsea in the Finals to win the FA Cup and beat the league leaders Liverpool in the Community Shield.
For the first time in many years, the arsenal was challenging the Big 6 and looking like they were back in business.
The second season came with more backing from the Korenkes as Arteta began to revive the DNA of the Gunners with developments in training, the mural of Invincibles, the reconnection of old players like Ian Wright with the club, and so many off-field reforms from the Spaniard.
Arsenal began the reform of their biggest Achilles (defense) by signing Aaron Ramsdale and Ben White as they relived the old times of having an English core in the team.
The transfer window got a lot of backlash from the fans as they were ignorant of the massive nature of Arteta’s project dubbed “Trust the Process.” Still, he continued with the signing of Partey, Odegard, and some important players with the support of Edu Gaspar.
Arteta began to rebuild the defense and introduced the play from the back tactics, he introduced the positional play and transitional flow, and he brought his magic wand of improving wingers as he does at City with the likes of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane. He got the best of Bukayo Saka, who has gone on to become one of the most lethal right Wingesrs in the world at present. From Wing back and Left winger, he was converted to a right winger and turned into the beast he’s become today.
Arteta continued his fine reform by letting go of players like Ozil and releasing those that don't fit into his project, he was mocked and attacked for many of his decisions, and with all the reforms, Arsenal came 7th in the league missing out on UCL for the second time in a row.
The board seeing the progress and the development, which the fans were blind about, backed Arteta further and gave him more to spend going to his third season in charge,
Having solved the defensive problem, Arteta went on to bolster his attack with reinforcements from his old club. He brought in Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko and signed some other important players to his project.
Surprisingly in his third season, Mikel’s young gunners looked like a proper title challenger as Arsenal climbed to the top of the table and remained there till the summer. Arsenal was struggling with injury woes as their common tradition at the turn of January went on to add Trossard and some defensive power like Kiwoir to his squad. Arsenal went on to have their best season ever in the EPL, even better than the Invincibles, and looked like they’d clinch their first league victory after over a decade.
Arsenal, for the first time in 6 years back in the UCL after coming short in their last few games to City as the runner-up for the 2022-23 Season.
The gunners are now a force to be reckoned with in the English topflight and Europe at large.
With the current transfer window, Arsenal continues to show their rebirth gene of the Invincibles as they are winning the signings of favorite players over other top clubs.
With the completion of the transfer deal of the German star, Kai Havertz and battling the league leaders for a generational talent in Declan Rice and coming off as favorites to sign Ajax wonder kid, Timbers
Arsenal looks like a team ready to rewrite her history and stamp her feet further in greatness.
Mikel Arteta has done a lot of wonders and brought the Gunners closer to the football club than ever. It is now common knowledge that Arteta and his backroom staff are not building only a football club but a family that breathes and lives the culture of the London Giants.
