In what has been a very trying and generally pretty\nmiserable season for Arsenal fans I found myself becoming increasingly\nirritable and maybe ultra-sensitive every time I read an article or saw a\ndiscussion about how Liverpool were likely to overtake Arsenal\u2019s Invincibles in\ntheir run of unbeaten games and how they would be able to go through the season\nunbeaten. This is partly because a number of Liverpool fans who I have met ( by\nno means all) desperately need a course in humility and partly because the very\nsizeable anti- Arsenal lobby in the media were urging them on to destroy the\nuniqueness of the achievement that\nArsenal completed in 2003\/4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moment that Vieira seized on Dennis\u2019 through ball\nand waltzed around the Leicester keeper on that rapturous May afternoon at\nHighbury I think every Arsenal fan felt a huge wave of euphoria, relief and\npride as we realised that not only were we Premier League Champions ( we had\nbeen for weeks) but we were UNBEATEN throughout the whole season . We were\nInvincible, the first team in the modern era that could make that claim. The\nfact that we had done it playing football that was utterly sparkling on so many\noccasions and with a team that was studded with some of the greatest players\never to play for our club made that achievement incredibly special for every\nArsenal fan. I\u2019ve never met a Gooner who fails to swell with pride when you\nmention the Invincibles. They were a truly special team and they were our team.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On occasions listening to the cretin that is Adrian\nDurham , a man utterly consumed with spite and jealousy I have heard him\nrubbish the achievements of that side because of the number of draws that we\nhad in that season . Arsenal fans loyally refused to countenance that argument\nbecause the pressure of competition is such in the Premier League that to play\neach team twice and NEVER lose represented a monumental achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But wait we were told here come Liverpool , a side so\ncomplete that not only will they set a new unbeaten record and go through the\nseason unbeaten they will win virtually every game that they play. So we\nwatched and disconcertingly it seemed that Liverpool always found a way to win\ngames that they really didn\u2019t deserve to and always seemed to get a break that\nproved decisive. We could be accused of sour grapes and were as they approached\nour record and we wondered if a cataclysmic clash at our place might see us rob\nthem of the Invincible tag…..please! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well we need worry no longer. I\u2019ve already drunk a\ntoast to a Watford team that blew them away tonight and made what is an\nextraordinary team look very fallible indeed. Watford produced an unforgettable\neffort and in doing so underlined the huge difficulty that any side has in\ngoing through a Premier League season unbeaten. Watford were next to bottom,\nhad not won for five games and desperately needed points with sides around them\nwinning. Well win they did and they shattered Liverpool in a second half where\nthe Scousers looked as if they were running on fumes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inquests and debates will begin, I can almost hear\nthe nauseating drone from Durham now as he seeks, as he always does to\ndenigrate Arsenal . But the big news is that whatever he says, however\nLiverpool fans claim that they were never really worried about being Invincible\nand Sky pundits try to rate them in\ncomparison to other champions we can console ourselves that along the length of\na season in which we competed in the Champions League and the FA Cup to the\nlater stages ( beyond where Liverpool are now) no side could lower our colours,\nno side could beat us …we were Invincible and what happened tonight goes to\nprove just what an extraordinary achievement that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the great satisfactions of my life is that I\nbecame an Arsenal fan. It has meant, heartbreak, frustration, anger and deep,\ndeep joy at different times but the thing I am proudest of as an Arsenal fan is\nthat we did something remarkable in that season of 2003\/4. Nobody could beat\nus, in that season very few teams ever led us and never led us close to the end\nof games we played and no team can make that claim or share that achievement, in\na season that hasn\u2019t been much fun that fact resonates triumphantly tonight.\n\nEnjoy\nyour invincibility fellow Gooners…it\u2019s a very exclusive feeling! \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In what has been a very trying and generally pretty miserable season for Arsenal fans I found myself becoming increasingly irritable and maybe ultra-sensitive every time I read an article or saw a discussion about how Liverpool were likely to overtake Arsenal\u2019s Invincibles in their run of unbeaten games and how they would be able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}