Pick an Arsenal all-time XI and you'll get half of it written for you by one season. The 2003-04 side went 38 league games without losing, 26 wins and 12 draws, and the run carried on to 49 before United stopped it at Old Trafford in October 2004. The fight is over how many of them you let in, and who from the other hundred years gets to push one out.
The XI
4-4-2, Wenger's shape. Bergkamp sits off Henry, and Henry goes wherever he likes.
Goalkeeper
David Seaman (1990 to 2003). Thirteen years, two doubles, and the save from Paul Peschisolido in the 2003 FA Cup semi-final at Old Trafford, scrambling back to claw a header off the line. He captained the side in the final a month later, his last game for the club. Jens Lehmann kept goal for the Invincibles and has a case, and so do Pat Jennings and Bob Wilson.
Defence
Lauren was very good in 2003-04 and I've still left him out. Lee Dixon (1988 to 2002) won the league in 1989, 1991, 1998 and 2002 and played under Graham and Wenger as if they were the same job. He was there at Anfield in May 1989 too, when Arsenal needed to win by two. It was his long ball up to Alan Smith that Smith flicked on for Michael Thomas to score in stoppage time. Pat Rice, who won the 1971 double and then sat beside Wenger for years as his assistant, would be my second choice at right back.
May 1998, Everton at Highbury, title already won, and the captain comes charging through from the back to lash in a left-footed volley. Tony Adams (1983 to 2002) had the armband at 21 and still had it when he lifted the league trophy in 2002. Four titles across three decades. His statue went up outside the Emirates in 2011.
Sol Campbell (2001 to 2006, and briefly in 2010) walked across from Tottenham on a free in 2001. Spurs fans still haven't forgiven him, and that's sort of the point. He won the double in his first season, went the whole of 2003-04 unbeaten, and headed Arsenal in front in the 2006 Champions League final. Keown and Bould were brilliant next to Adams for years, but I'd still have Campbell.
Ashley Cole, left back (1998 to 2006). Came through the academy, won the double in 2002 and three FA Cups in all, and was an Invincible. Nigel Winterburn is the hardest one to leave out. He played on the left of that Graham back four for thirteen years and was still there for the 1998 double. But Cole at his peak was the best left back in the world. I know how he left. It doesn't change how he played.
Midfield
Freddie Ljungberg (1998 to 2007) arrived late in the box better than anyone Arsenal have had. In the run-in to the 2002 double he couldn't stop scoring, then got the second in the FA Cup final against Chelsea, and the Premier League named him player of the season. Bukayo Saka is coming for this spot on the right, and maybe in a few years I'll have to give it to him.
Patrick Vieira (1996 to 2005). Signed from Milan in August 1996, on Wenger's advice, before Wenger had even officially started. He captained the Invincibles. Most people my age remember him for Roy Keane, though, and the Highbury tunnel in February 2005, the two of them going at each other before a ball was kicked. United won 4-2 that night, and Arsenal fans still argue about who started it. His last kick for the club was the winning penalty in that season's FA Cup final shootout, against United again.
The 1979 FA Cup final, United have come back from 2-0 down to 2-2 with a minute or so left, and Liam Brady (1973 to 1980) picks it up deep and carries it forward. Graham Rix crosses and Alan Sunderland slides in the winner. Gilberto Silva was the other half of the Invincibles midfield and did his job perfectly, and Cesc Fàbregas has a claim of his own. But Brady was the best footballer Arsenal had in the 1970s and the PFA Players' Player of the Year that same season. Next to Vieira, he'd have the ball all day.
Robert Pires (2000 to 2006) was Football Writers' Player of the Year in 2002. A year later he scored the only goal of the FA Cup final against Southampton.
Attack
Dennis Bergkamp (1995 to 2006). The goal at St James' Park in March 2002 is the one people show you, the flick round Nikos Dabizas and the finish. He was PFA and Football Writers' Player of the Year in 1998, and he made Henry better. Fear of flying meant he missed a lot of away games in Europe. Nobody cared.
November 2002, Spurs at Highbury. Thierry Henry (1999 to 2007, plus a loan spell in 2012) picks the ball up on the edge of his own box and just keeps going, past one, past another, the whole length of the pitch, and scores. Then the knee slide in front of the away end. He's the club's record scorer with 228 goals, and 30 of them came in the league in the Invincibles season.
Manager
Arsène Wenger (1996 to 2018). Three titles, seven FA Cups and a season without a league defeat. Herbert Chapman built modern Arsenal from 1925, won the league twice and died in January 1934 before the third title in a row was finished. I'd have a long chat with anyone who picks him. George Graham is unlucky to miss out, and I'd still go Wenger.
Close, but not quite
Seven Invincibles, then. I tried to get it down to six and couldn't.
- Ian Wright (1991 to 1998). The real fight in this team. He scored 185 goals for Arsenal and broke Cliff Bastin's club record against Bolton in 1997. If you want him alongside Henry with Bergkamp in the hole, you lose a midfielder, and that's how I'd talk myself out of it. Plenty of Arsenal fans would still put him in before anyone on this page.
- Cliff Bastin (1929 to 1947). A goalscoring winger in Chapman's side who held the club scoring record for decades.
- Ted Drake (1934 to 1945). Scored seven at Villa Park in a single league game in December 1935.
- David O'Leary (1975 to 1993). The club's record appearance maker, with 722 games.
- Frank McLintock (1964 to 1973). Captain of the 1971 double side.
- Marc Overmars (1997 to 2000). Won the game at Old Trafford in March 1998 that turned the title, then scored in the cup final.
- David Rocastle (1984 to 1992). Rocky. A proper winger, and a 1989 title winner.
- Michael Thomas (1984 to 1991). Anfield, 1989. You know the rest.
- Gilberto Silva and Lauren, the other two Invincibles.
- Cesc Fàbregas (2003 to 2011). A teenager in the Invincibles squad who became captain.
The modern side is the hardest to judge. Saka, William Saliba and Martin Ødegaard are the ones with a shout, and they're still adding to it.
Quick answers
Who is Arsenal's record goalscorer? Thierry Henry, with 228 goals.
Who has played the most games for Arsenal? David O'Leary, with 722.
Build your own
You might want the Invincibles exactly as they lined up, Lehmann to Henry. Or Graham's back four, or the 1971 double team, or the side that won at Anfield in 1989. You can build any of them, or your own Sunday side, in our team builder. Pick the players and formation, the kits and pitch, add a title and a message, and we'll email you a proof before it goes to print. If you'd rather have a famous side ready to go, start with our Arsenal prints.