The Making of Modern Arsenal - Part Two - 1996 - 2005 - The Wenger Glory Years
THE MAKING OF MODERN ARSENAL PART TWO - 1996 - 2005 - THE WENGER GLORY YEARS
ARSENAL HAD COURTED Arsene Wenger long before he finally arrived in 1996. In fact he had been a guest of vice chairman David Dein at Highbury as far back as the late 1980s while he was still coach at Monaco.
Dein had long championed Wenger as the potential successor to George Graham and was keen to appoint him in the summer of 1995 following Graham's dismissal. However with the Frenchman tied down to a contact with Japanese J League club, Nagoya Grampus Eight, Arsenal instead hired Bruce Rioch from Bolton Wanderers.
With an eye to the future and to get the fans onboard with what was a rather modest appointment, Dein helped secure the signings of England international David Platt from Sampdoria for £4.7 million and Dutch superstar Dennis Bergkamp from Inter Milan for a club record £7.5 million.
Despite these high profile arrivals the 1995/96 season was an unspectacular campaign. Rioch was a decent coach but he fell out with some of the players, most famously Ian Wright who he had negatively compared to Bolton striker John McGinlay.
When Wright handed in a transfer request in early 1996 the writing was on the wall for Rioch, especially as Arsenal knew they could get Wenger later that year.
In the end Arsenal finished 5th, an improvement on the 12th place finish from the previous traumatic season, and qualified for the UEFA Cup via a final day 2-1 victory over, ironically, Bolton Wanderers, with the goals coming from new boys Platt and Bergkamp.
By now Dein was stepping up his efforts to secure Wenger, and Rioch's days were numbered. Following a dispute with the club over potential transfers and two poor pre-season performances against Ipswich Town and Northampton Town, the club dismissed Rioch on 12 August 1996, the shortest reign of any Arsenal manager for over 100 years.
With Wenger unable to start immediately due to contact issues in Japan, Arsenal began the 1996/97 season with Stewart Houston as caretaker manager, as he had been after Graham had been sacked in February 1995.
However, Houston left the club in early September after being offered the manager's job at Queens Park Rangers so Pat Rice took temporary charge until Wenger could arrive.
The club had tried to keep the new appointment a secret but after Arsenal signed French players Patrick Vieira and Remi Garde, speculation grew. In the end Wenger was appointed on 22 September 1996, although he would not be able to officially take charge until 1 October.
Wenger had been seen as a rather surprising choice. At the time foreign coaches were something of a rarity and he had only had a very moderate playing career in the lower leagues in France.
Plus he was coming from the Japanese J League and not one of the top Europeans leagues. Questions were being asked.
Wenger had built a reputation as a fine coach with Nancy and then Monaco in France where he had won the Ligue 1 title in 1988 and the Coupe de France in 1991.
After moving to Nagoya Grampus Eight, a club famous for being where Gary Lineker had finished his career, Wenger won the Emperors Cup and the Super Cup.
Despite this success the headlines screamed, 'Arsene Who?' when he was initially unveiled, looking more like a geography teacher than a top football coach. But within a matter of weeks Wenger had begun transforming the club and the whole of English football.
His first job was to change the drinking culture at the club, helped by his newly sober captain Tony Adams, who had confessed to being an alcoholic following one last bender after the Euro 96 tournament. Wenger also introduced new diet and fitness regimes which had never been seen before in English football.
His first official game in charge was a 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers on 12 October 1996 and his first team selection, with Bergkamp injured, was the same as the one from the previous game against Sunderland - Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Bould, Adams, Keown, Vieira Platt, Merson, Hartson, Wright.
It was the basis of Graham's team, with the same back four and Wright still scoring the goals, but Wenger brought knowledge of an untapped European market and the signing of Vieira showed exactly how fruitful this would be.
Wenger started with the same 5-3-2 formation introduced by Rioch the previous season but with more flexibility. Keown often appeared as a holding midfielder in front of the defence alongside Vieira, giving more freedom for Merson and Bergkamp to support Wright.
Although sceptical at first, the players soon bought into the new diet and fitness regime, which included controversial vitamin injections, and it would prolong the careers of the famous back four, now all into their 30s.
And on the pitch the performances immediately improved.
In fact after a 2-1 win at Newcastle United on 30 November 1996, a win completed with 10 men following the dismissal of Adams, Arsenal went to the top of the table.
But in what would became almost a carbon copy of Graham's first season ten year's earlier, the title challenge could not be maintained with Arsenal eventually finishing 3rd.
Wenger was the complete opposite of Graham, both in the way he wanted the team to play and also in how he treated the players. While Graham was seen as a strict disciplinarian, Wenger preferred the players to take their own responsibility.
Not one for shouting and bawling at half time, Wenger would instead sit back and let the players discuss between themselves what was needed. He would then add his final thoughts before the players went back out.
At first the old guard like Adams, Merson and Dixon found this approach difficult to understand, waiting to be told what to do as had been the case before, but once the results started to improve on the pitch everyone got behind it.
So after a reasonable first season where he had gradually introduced changes, Wenger set about addressing the weaknesses in the squad.
The problem had been a lack of width so in came speedy Dutch winger Marc Overmars from Ajax for £6 million, and in a change of shape to a more traditional 4-4-2, left footed French midfielder Emmanuel Petit arrived from Monaco for £2.5 million to compliment the combative presence of Vieira.
Although the 1997/98 season would ultimately prove to be glorious it certainly had its problems. A run of only two wins from 10 games before Christmas threatened to undermine the whole season, but Wenger called for a players meeting to clear the air in December 1997 after which the team embarked on an 18 match unbeaten run in the league which would spectacularly take them to the title.
The final game of that run, at home to Everton on 3 May 1998, perfectly illustrated Wenger's new footballing philosophy. With the team 3-0 up and the title in the bag central defenders Steve Bould and Adams combined for Adams to smash home a stunning left foot half volley.
These may have been Graham's players but they were playing with a new found freedom. A je nais se quoi.
Two weeks later Arsenal completed the Double with a 2-0 win over Newcastle in the FA Cup final at Wembley. The team that started that day was Wenger's first great side: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Adams, Parlour, Vieira, Petit, Overmars, Wreh, Anelka.
The team was playing football years ahead of its time. As well as the quick passing game which had become a trademark of Wenger sides, the fitness and strength of the team was making all the difference.
Vieira was proving to be key in midfield, often covering the ground of two players, and once into their stride this team would literally overpower their opposition. It was 1990s football but not as we knew it. From 1-0 to the Arsenal to joie de vivre.
By now young Nicolas Anelka had replaced the ageing Wright, who left for West Ham United that summer, so the only other change to that team would be the injured Bergkamp, Footballer of the Year, in for Christopher Wreh.
But football was changing. The success of Wenger had prompted other clubs to bring in foreign coaches and with foreign players now arriving at a rapid rate, the Premier League looked very different in the late 1990s than it had at the turn of the decade.
It had also become much more of a squad game. While Graham's first title win in 1989 was achieved using just 17 players, Wenger had used 26 in his first title-winning season.
Competitions like the League Cup took on less priority, with many younger players being used, and no one played in every match anymore. Rest was a big part of the new regime.
Training was no longer than 90 minutes and was timed and staged precisely. The work was short and sharp and focused on coordination techniques and positional play. Gone were the days of endless running.
After the success in Wenger's first full season, the team come close to repeating the Double in the following 1998/99 campaign.
While in later years Wenger's team would be critisiced for their defensive frailties, this season they conceded a club record low of 17 league goals and lost just three matches.
However Alex Ferguson's treble winning Manchester United side pipped them to the title on the final day while also winning an epic FA Cup semi final over two matches. Ryan Giggs' chest and all that.
The theme continued as Arsenal would finish runners up to United again in the 1999/00 season and also suffer a penalty shoot-out defeat to Galatasary in the final of UEFA Cup in Copenhagen. Were they turning into the bridesmaid instead of the bride?
Meanwhile Wenger was developing a reputation for some shrewd transfer dealings. Anelka had already left for Real Madrid in 1999 for £25 million, £24.5 million more than he had paid for him, while his replacement, Thierry Henry, signed for a less than half that, scored 26 times in 1999/00. Meanwhile Swedish international Freddie Ljungberg had already arrived from Halstead for just £3 million.
It would be a time of rebuilding though. Overmars and Petit both joined Barcelona in the summer of 2000 for a combined fee of £32 million but Wenger already had replacements lined up. In came Robert Pires and Sylvan Wiltord, both stars of the French side that had won Euro 2000 that summer, for £19 million.
With teenage left back Ashley Cole from the club's academy now firmly established as Winterburn's replacement, Wenger was building his own side that would go on to even greater glories.
But it would take another year.
The 2000/01 season was an inconsistent one as Arsenal finished 10 points behind United but they did reach the FA Cup final, the first one at the Millennium Stadium, where they faced Liverpool.
In a game they dominated throughout and led with a goal from Ljungberg, Arsenal ended up losing 2-1. In the final ten minutes their ageing defence was twice beaten by the speed and sharpness of Michael Owen so Wenger knew they finally had to be replaced.
Over the summer of 2001 he pulled off one of a biggest transfer shocks of all time by landing the signature of Spurs' captain, Sol Campbell on a free transfer.
Very few players had crossed the North London divide and Campbell angered Spurs' fans even further by saying that he had left to win trophies.
With Dixon now retired, Cameroonian Lauren, signed the previous year as a midfielder from Mallorca, took over as right back, so the team that began the historic 2001/02 campaign was Wenger's second great side: Seaman, Lauren, Cole, Campbell, Adams, Parlour, Vieira, Pires, Wiltord, Ljungberg, Henry.
Bergkamp, now 32, was no longer considered a regular starter so would often switch places with Wiltord.
Wenger had made a slight adjustment to the formation now, with Ljungberg and Pires supporting Henry and Wiltord or Bergkamp from wide areas to become a 4-3-3 or even a 4-3-2-1.
It worked perfectly in away games where counter attacking was key and Arsenal would not lose away from home in the league all season. However occasionally at home they struggled.
Charlton Athletic played them at their own game in November 2001 with a 4-2 counter attacking masterclass at Highbury, while Newcastle later did the same with a 3-1 win in North London in December.
But in a run similar to that of 1998, Arsenal went unbeaten in the league in their final 20 matches to land Wenger his second title.
In fact it was also his second Double as just four days before sealing the title at Old Trafford of all places, Arsenal had beaten Chelsea 2-0 in the FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium.
It was around this time that Wenger had been quoted as saying he thought his team could go an entire season unbeaten in the Premier League.
Arsenal had not lost away from home in 2001/02 and had scored in every league match but going unbeaten did seem like an impossible task even for this great team.
And in the 2002/03 season that statement would come back to haunt him.
With Adams retiring after 20 years at the club, Vieira was installed as the new club captain and Wenger added to his squad with the signings of versatile Cameroonian Kolo Toure from Mimosas, and Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Silva from Atletico Miniero.
Arsenal was favourites to retain the title throughout much of the season but they inexplicably fell away in the run in.
The unbeaten run, which they extended to a record 30 matches in October, was ended by teenager Wayne Rooney in the last minute at Goodison Park, and in the end Arsenal finished five points behind United, losing six times. So much for going unbeaten.
However for the first time in their history Arsenal managed to retain the FA Cup. In the final against Southampton at the Millennium Stadium, played with the roof closed for the first time, it was a goal from Pires that sealed a 1-0 victory and the fifth trophy of Wenger's six years' at the club, only one behind Graham.
The title capitulation at the end of the 2002/03 season had hurt Wenger and his players so they were determined to make amends.
Firstly Wenger had to find a new goalkeeper. David Seaman had left after 13 years to see out his career at Manchester City, so in came German international Jens Lehmann from Borussia Dortmund.
The team that opened what would be become a monumental Premier League campaign at home to Everton on 16 August 2003 was Wenger's final great side: Lehmann, Lauren, Cole, Campbell, Toure, Ljungberg, Silva, Vieira, Pires, Henry, Wiltord, with Bergkamp as back up. It was the first time that Wenger's first choice XI contained none of Graham's players.
It was now a flexible 4-3-3 with Pires and Wiltord supporting Henry from wide areas and Ljungberg moving inside to create an extra attacker when the need arose. As in 2001/02 he would score some crucial goals.
This was a team at the very peak of its powers. Henry, now regarded as one of the best players in the world, scored 39 goals, while Pires, Ljungberg, Vieira and Silva were all unstoppable. In the end Wenger's prophecy would come true.
This was a style of football never been seen before in the English game. Pace, power and strength in every position, it was like football's version of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Not resting on his laurels, Wenger added to his squad in January 2004 as he broke the club transfer record to land 21 year Spaniard, Jose Antonio Reyes, from Seville for £10.5 million. He was the final piece in the Invincibles jigsaw.
Wenger's third title was sealed at White Hart Lane on 25 April 2004, the first time a team had won a top flight title without a losing a match since 1888. Now the only thing left was to finish the season unbeaten.
With four games left it was still a big ask but Arsenal muddled through before finally beating relegated Leicester City at home on 15 May 2004 to complete an Invincible season just as Wenger had predicted two years previously.
The problem now was going to be how to follow up such an monumental achievement.
Although Arsenal enjoyed a great season in 2004/05, finishing with 83 points, more than enough to win the title in all but one of the previous nine seasons, Chelsea finished with a record 95.
The unbeaten run was stretched to 49 matches, beating the previous record of 42 set by Nottingham Forest in 1979, before ending in a controversial 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford on 24 October 2004.
But Arsenal would gain revenge in the FA Cup final in Cardiff on 21 May 2005.
A week before the final, Wenger's team had given an attacking masterclass in a 7-0 destruction of Everton at Highbury.
It was one of the finest performances ever seen from an English side as they could easily have scored 10 or 11, and all achieved with Henry still recovering from injury.
21 year old Robin van Persie, signed from Feyenoord the previous summer for £2.5 million as the long term replacement for Bergkamp, showed what a talent he was to become but his mentor was not about to be overshadowed just yet.
Bergkamp was majestic that night and although now 35, that performance convinced Wenger to sign him for one final season.
Also emerging was teenager midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who Wenger had plucked from the Barcelona youth system. The 18 year old had broken into the team following a serious back injury suffered by Gilberto Silva, and had shown a maturity beyond his years.
But that win over Eveton was to be the swansong for this team and the downfall, when it came, was swift. In the FA Cup final Arsenal, without Henry, was battered by United but somehow clung on grimly for a 0-0 draw after extra time and then incredibly won the penalty shoot-out 5-4, with Vieira scoring the vital last kick.
It looked like the end of an era as a tired Arsenal side appeared almost too embarrassed to celebrate an thoroughly undeserved success, and that was exactly how it proved.
Vieira never played for the club again, signing for Juventus that summer, and Wenger would struggle to rebuild again.
By now the success he had brought the club meant it had also outgrown its old Highbury home and after a project that had started in December 1999, they would move to the new state-of-the-art Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2006.
Wenger, who had been the brains behind much of the design of the new stadium, would in many ways become the victim of his own success as everything that followed undoubtedly felt like an anti-climax.
After seven trophies in his first eight seasons at the club, making him the most successful manager in the club's history, it was always going to be a tough encore.
So a full ten years after Graham had left Highbury the club looked very different. A decade of success that eclipsed even the 1930s had taken Arsenal to a new level in world football.
Wenger had revolutionised the way football was played in this country but the challenge was now even greater than ever.
Chelsea, with their Russian billions, had emerged as genuine contenders and United looked stronger than ever. With Arsenal's money now tied up in the new stadium Wenger would have to sell before he could buy.
It was a policy that would lead to frustration and bitterness from the new era of fans that would fill the additional 22,000 seats at the Emirates.
But before all of that that there was one last season at Highbury. Could Wenger inspire this ageing team to one last glorious finale...
Coming up in Part Three I look back at that final heartbreaking season at Highbury and the difficult transition to those new surroundings just one mile up the road. Watch out for that coming soon.
ARSENAL HAD COURTED Arsene Wenger long before he finally arrived in 1996. In fact he had been a guest of vice chairman David Dein at Highbury as far back as the late 1980s while he was still coach at Monaco.
Dein had long championed Wenger as the potential successor to George Graham and was keen to appoint him in the summer of 1995 following Graham's dismissal. However with the Frenchman tied down to a contact with Japanese J League club, Nagoya Grampus Eight, Arsenal instead hired Bruce Rioch from Bolton Wanderers.
Despite these high profile arrivals the 1995/96 season was an unspectacular campaign. Rioch was a decent coach but he fell out with some of the players, most famously Ian Wright who he had negatively compared to Bolton striker John McGinlay.
When Wright handed in a transfer request in early 1996 the writing was on the wall for Rioch, especially as Arsenal knew they could get Wenger later that year.
In the end Arsenal finished 5th, an improvement on the 12th place finish from the previous traumatic season, and qualified for the UEFA Cup via a final day 2-1 victory over, ironically, Bolton Wanderers, with the goals coming from new boys Platt and Bergkamp.
By now Dein was stepping up his efforts to secure Wenger, and Rioch's days were numbered. Following a dispute with the club over potential transfers and two poor pre-season performances against Ipswich Town and Northampton Town, the club dismissed Rioch on 12 August 1996, the shortest reign of any Arsenal manager for over 100 years.
With Wenger unable to start immediately due to contact issues in Japan, Arsenal began the 1996/97 season with Stewart Houston as caretaker manager, as he had been after Graham had been sacked in February 1995.
However, Houston left the club in early September after being offered the manager's job at Queens Park Rangers so Pat Rice took temporary charge until Wenger could arrive.
The club had tried to keep the new appointment a secret but after Arsenal signed French players Patrick Vieira and Remi Garde, speculation grew. In the end Wenger was appointed on 22 September 1996, although he would not be able to officially take charge until 1 October.
Plus he was coming from the Japanese J League and not one of the top Europeans leagues. Questions were being asked.
Wenger had built a reputation as a fine coach with Nancy and then Monaco in France where he had won the Ligue 1 title in 1988 and the Coupe de France in 1991.
After moving to Nagoya Grampus Eight, a club famous for being where Gary Lineker had finished his career, Wenger won the Emperors Cup and the Super Cup.
Despite this success the headlines screamed, 'Arsene Who?' when he was initially unveiled, looking more like a geography teacher than a top football coach. But within a matter of weeks Wenger had begun transforming the club and the whole of English football.
His first job was to change the drinking culture at the club, helped by his newly sober captain Tony Adams, who had confessed to being an alcoholic following one last bender after the Euro 96 tournament. Wenger also introduced new diet and fitness regimes which had never been seen before in English football.
His first official game in charge was a 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers on 12 October 1996 and his first team selection, with Bergkamp injured, was the same as the one from the previous game against Sunderland - Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Bould, Adams, Keown, Vieira Platt, Merson, Hartson, Wright.
It was the basis of Graham's team, with the same back four and Wright still scoring the goals, but Wenger brought knowledge of an untapped European market and the signing of Vieira showed exactly how fruitful this would be.
Wenger started with the same 5-3-2 formation introduced by Rioch the previous season but with more flexibility. Keown often appeared as a holding midfielder in front of the defence alongside Vieira, giving more freedom for Merson and Bergkamp to support Wright.
Although sceptical at first, the players soon bought into the new diet and fitness regime, which included controversial vitamin injections, and it would prolong the careers of the famous back four, now all into their 30s.
And on the pitch the performances immediately improved.
But in what would became almost a carbon copy of Graham's first season ten year's earlier, the title challenge could not be maintained with Arsenal eventually finishing 3rd.
Wenger was the complete opposite of Graham, both in the way he wanted the team to play and also in how he treated the players. While Graham was seen as a strict disciplinarian, Wenger preferred the players to take their own responsibility.
Not one for shouting and bawling at half time, Wenger would instead sit back and let the players discuss between themselves what was needed. He would then add his final thoughts before the players went back out.
At first the old guard like Adams, Merson and Dixon found this approach difficult to understand, waiting to be told what to do as had been the case before, but once the results started to improve on the pitch everyone got behind it.
So after a reasonable first season where he had gradually introduced changes, Wenger set about addressing the weaknesses in the squad.
The problem had been a lack of width so in came speedy Dutch winger Marc Overmars from Ajax for £6 million, and in a change of shape to a more traditional 4-4-2, left footed French midfielder Emmanuel Petit arrived from Monaco for £2.5 million to compliment the combative presence of Vieira.
Although the 1997/98 season would ultimately prove to be glorious it certainly had its problems. A run of only two wins from 10 games before Christmas threatened to undermine the whole season, but Wenger called for a players meeting to clear the air in December 1997 after which the team embarked on an 18 match unbeaten run in the league which would spectacularly take them to the title.
The final game of that run, at home to Everton on 3 May 1998, perfectly illustrated Wenger's new footballing philosophy. With the team 3-0 up and the title in the bag central defenders Steve Bould and Adams combined for Adams to smash home a stunning left foot half volley.
These may have been Graham's players but they were playing with a new found freedom. A je nais se quoi.
Two weeks later Arsenal completed the Double with a 2-0 win over Newcastle in the FA Cup final at Wembley. The team that started that day was Wenger's first great side: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Adams, Parlour, Vieira, Petit, Overmars, Wreh, Anelka.
Vieira was proving to be key in midfield, often covering the ground of two players, and once into their stride this team would literally overpower their opposition. It was 1990s football but not as we knew it. From 1-0 to the Arsenal to joie de vivre.
By now young Nicolas Anelka had replaced the ageing Wright, who left for West Ham United that summer, so the only other change to that team would be the injured Bergkamp, Footballer of the Year, in for Christopher Wreh.
But football was changing. The success of Wenger had prompted other clubs to bring in foreign coaches and with foreign players now arriving at a rapid rate, the Premier League looked very different in the late 1990s than it had at the turn of the decade.
It had also become much more of a squad game. While Graham's first title win in 1989 was achieved using just 17 players, Wenger had used 26 in his first title-winning season.
Competitions like the League Cup took on less priority, with many younger players being used, and no one played in every match anymore. Rest was a big part of the new regime.
Training was no longer than 90 minutes and was timed and staged precisely. The work was short and sharp and focused on coordination techniques and positional play. Gone were the days of endless running.
While in later years Wenger's team would be critisiced for their defensive frailties, this season they conceded a club record low of 17 league goals and lost just three matches.
However Alex Ferguson's treble winning Manchester United side pipped them to the title on the final day while also winning an epic FA Cup semi final over two matches. Ryan Giggs' chest and all that.
The theme continued as Arsenal would finish runners up to United again in the 1999/00 season and also suffer a penalty shoot-out defeat to Galatasary in the final of UEFA Cup in Copenhagen. Were they turning into the bridesmaid instead of the bride?
Meanwhile Wenger was developing a reputation for some shrewd transfer dealings. Anelka had already left for Real Madrid in 1999 for £25 million, £24.5 million more than he had paid for him, while his replacement, Thierry Henry, signed for a less than half that, scored 26 times in 1999/00. Meanwhile Swedish international Freddie Ljungberg had already arrived from Halstead for just £3 million.
It would be a time of rebuilding though. Overmars and Petit both joined Barcelona in the summer of 2000 for a combined fee of £32 million but Wenger already had replacements lined up. In came Robert Pires and Sylvan Wiltord, both stars of the French side that had won Euro 2000 that summer, for £19 million.
With teenage left back Ashley Cole from the club's academy now firmly established as Winterburn's replacement, Wenger was building his own side that would go on to even greater glories.
But it would take another year.
The 2000/01 season was an inconsistent one as Arsenal finished 10 points behind United but they did reach the FA Cup final, the first one at the Millennium Stadium, where they faced Liverpool.
In a game they dominated throughout and led with a goal from Ljungberg, Arsenal ended up losing 2-1. In the final ten minutes their ageing defence was twice beaten by the speed and sharpness of Michael Owen so Wenger knew they finally had to be replaced.
Very few players had crossed the North London divide and Campbell angered Spurs' fans even further by saying that he had left to win trophies.
With Dixon now retired, Cameroonian Lauren, signed the previous year as a midfielder from Mallorca, took over as right back, so the team that began the historic 2001/02 campaign was Wenger's second great side: Seaman, Lauren, Cole, Campbell, Adams, Parlour, Vieira, Pires, Wiltord, Ljungberg, Henry.
Bergkamp, now 32, was no longer considered a regular starter so would often switch places with Wiltord.
Wenger had made a slight adjustment to the formation now, with Ljungberg and Pires supporting Henry and Wiltord or Bergkamp from wide areas to become a 4-3-3 or even a 4-3-2-1.
It worked perfectly in away games where counter attacking was key and Arsenal would not lose away from home in the league all season. However occasionally at home they struggled.
Charlton Athletic played them at their own game in November 2001 with a 4-2 counter attacking masterclass at Highbury, while Newcastle later did the same with a 3-1 win in North London in December.
But in a run similar to that of 1998, Arsenal went unbeaten in the league in their final 20 matches to land Wenger his second title.
In fact it was also his second Double as just four days before sealing the title at Old Trafford of all places, Arsenal had beaten Chelsea 2-0 in the FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium.
Arsenal had not lost away from home in 2001/02 and had scored in every league match but going unbeaten did seem like an impossible task even for this great team.
And in the 2002/03 season that statement would come back to haunt him.
With Adams retiring after 20 years at the club, Vieira was installed as the new club captain and Wenger added to his squad with the signings of versatile Cameroonian Kolo Toure from Mimosas, and Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Silva from Atletico Miniero.
Arsenal was favourites to retain the title throughout much of the season but they inexplicably fell away in the run in.
The unbeaten run, which they extended to a record 30 matches in October, was ended by teenager Wayne Rooney in the last minute at Goodison Park, and in the end Arsenal finished five points behind United, losing six times. So much for going unbeaten.
However for the first time in their history Arsenal managed to retain the FA Cup. In the final against Southampton at the Millennium Stadium, played with the roof closed for the first time, it was a goal from Pires that sealed a 1-0 victory and the fifth trophy of Wenger's six years' at the club, only one behind Graham.
The title capitulation at the end of the 2002/03 season had hurt Wenger and his players so they were determined to make amends.
Firstly Wenger had to find a new goalkeeper. David Seaman had left after 13 years to see out his career at Manchester City, so in came German international Jens Lehmann from Borussia Dortmund.
The team that opened what would be become a monumental Premier League campaign at home to Everton on 16 August 2003 was Wenger's final great side: Lehmann, Lauren, Cole, Campbell, Toure, Ljungberg, Silva, Vieira, Pires, Henry, Wiltord, with Bergkamp as back up. It was the first time that Wenger's first choice XI contained none of Graham's players.
This was a team at the very peak of its powers. Henry, now regarded as one of the best players in the world, scored 39 goals, while Pires, Ljungberg, Vieira and Silva were all unstoppable. In the end Wenger's prophecy would come true.
This was a style of football never been seen before in the English game. Pace, power and strength in every position, it was like football's version of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Not resting on his laurels, Wenger added to his squad in January 2004 as he broke the club transfer record to land 21 year Spaniard, Jose Antonio Reyes, from Seville for £10.5 million. He was the final piece in the Invincibles jigsaw.
Wenger's third title was sealed at White Hart Lane on 25 April 2004, the first time a team had won a top flight title without a losing a match since 1888. Now the only thing left was to finish the season unbeaten.
With four games left it was still a big ask but Arsenal muddled through before finally beating relegated Leicester City at home on 15 May 2004 to complete an Invincible season just as Wenger had predicted two years previously.
The problem now was going to be how to follow up such an monumental achievement.
Although Arsenal enjoyed a great season in 2004/05, finishing with 83 points, more than enough to win the title in all but one of the previous nine seasons, Chelsea finished with a record 95.
The unbeaten run was stretched to 49 matches, beating the previous record of 42 set by Nottingham Forest in 1979, before ending in a controversial 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford on 24 October 2004.
But Arsenal would gain revenge in the FA Cup final in Cardiff on 21 May 2005.
A week before the final, Wenger's team had given an attacking masterclass in a 7-0 destruction of Everton at Highbury.
It was one of the finest performances ever seen from an English side as they could easily have scored 10 or 11, and all achieved with Henry still recovering from injury.
21 year old Robin van Persie, signed from Feyenoord the previous summer for £2.5 million as the long term replacement for Bergkamp, showed what a talent he was to become but his mentor was not about to be overshadowed just yet.
Bergkamp was majestic that night and although now 35, that performance convinced Wenger to sign him for one final season.
Also emerging was teenager midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who Wenger had plucked from the Barcelona youth system. The 18 year old had broken into the team following a serious back injury suffered by Gilberto Silva, and had shown a maturity beyond his years.
But that win over Eveton was to be the swansong for this team and the downfall, when it came, was swift. In the FA Cup final Arsenal, without Henry, was battered by United but somehow clung on grimly for a 0-0 draw after extra time and then incredibly won the penalty shoot-out 5-4, with Vieira scoring the vital last kick.
Vieira never played for the club again, signing for Juventus that summer, and Wenger would struggle to rebuild again.
By now the success he had brought the club meant it had also outgrown its old Highbury home and after a project that had started in December 1999, they would move to the new state-of-the-art Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2006.
Wenger, who had been the brains behind much of the design of the new stadium, would in many ways become the victim of his own success as everything that followed undoubtedly felt like an anti-climax.
After seven trophies in his first eight seasons at the club, making him the most successful manager in the club's history, it was always going to be a tough encore.
So a full ten years after Graham had left Highbury the club looked very different. A decade of success that eclipsed even the 1930s had taken Arsenal to a new level in world football.
Wenger had revolutionised the way football was played in this country but the challenge was now even greater than ever.
Chelsea, with their Russian billions, had emerged as genuine contenders and United looked stronger than ever. With Arsenal's money now tied up in the new stadium Wenger would have to sell before he could buy.
It was a policy that would lead to frustration and bitterness from the new era of fans that would fill the additional 22,000 seats at the Emirates.
But before all of that that there was one last season at Highbury. Could Wenger inspire this ageing team to one last glorious finale...
Coming up in Part Three I look back at that final heartbreaking season at Highbury and the difficult transition to those new surroundings just one mile up the road. Watch out for that coming soon.
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