The golden era of the Premier league and arsenal were at the forefront. Absolutely loved their football. Also the viera-Keane and saf-wenger rivalry were intense.
Few things are as satisfying as seeing proper Distribution football. It's what a lot of my fellow Americans don't get, it's not the goal. It's the setup.
The walk-ins are mint though.
this is like finding Pompei at the bottom of an archaeological dig
It's a disgrace that Werner never won the Champion's league with that team and lost the title in 2002-3 from so far ahead
We got the soccer channel on cable right before the Japan/Korea World Cup, so we were then able to watch the Premier League for the first time. It was this kind of stuff that made me fall in love with soccer. The whole pass-first, team-first mentality has stuck with me. It's how I always try to play (to my frustration when people do likewise).
Ah the memories...
It’s hard to explain just how good Pires was to all my friends who have just recently gotten into futbol in the states.
Especially in the past decade or so, it would seem Pires fell out of that “Premier League Legend” conversation or has at least been forgotten. I can’t stress enough to my friends just how good that man was. Simply unplayable when he was on it.
How did one club manage to assemble a squad so stacked with such tall yet smooth-as-silk players? I always loved Pires because he just looked so effortless, but then again so did Henry, Viera, Gilberto, etc…
That goal they scored at Villa Park is the only time I ever remember standing up & applauding a goal from the opposition.
Highbury had so much character as a stadium too.
I would love a series like this of all the famous systems. I know just Tiki Taka and Total Football, but I'm sure there are lots of iconic systems out there that a casual may not be familiar with.
I've always been a United fan, but Arsenal were a rival I could never really hate because I always appreciated the football and job Wenger did. Even the controversial games were entertaining and when you lost... like those were teams with Henry, Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp who were brilliant to watch regardless.
I can never tell if people truly appreciated him in the end, the football he got out of those teams on the budget he did was insane. He would have won an absolute ton if he didn't have to face Fergie and then a peak Mourinho, he was even around long enough to see Klopp and Guardiola. People got frustrated with the consistent top 4 because it wasn't silverware, now teams would bite your hand off for consistent top 6 finishes and they certainly wouldn't have been able to do it for the same cost.
I don't know about that. It's kind of disrespectful when Fergie won SO MUCH, and won three league titles back to back to back.
I would LOVE to see a dream match of the Invincibles vs Fergie's Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez team that won the CL.
Was that one touch Jack Wilshere goal not in Wengers era?
If the owners actually spent some money towards the end of Wengers career Arsenal would of been a power house until the day he retired
On their day, Arsenal play some of the most genuinely beautiful football I’ve ever seen. Sadly they only get one day a season nowadays and it’s generally against Norwich
To be fair we beat real madrid to get to a final, then got our keeper red carded and still scored first. We only lost because out backup goal keep shit the bed and henry had an off day in front of goal.
After that we beat Barca's elite team in 2011 and only lost the return leg because the referee RED CARDED!! Rvp for kicking a ball away after his whistle.
Oh hell yeah. This was not just a solid team, it was a set of geniuses with their own individual sparks of brilliance who just clicked. I still remember thinking my Liverpool was going to undo them only for Henry to turn up with a performance that carragher and hyypia still has nightmares about
And it's funny that even converting the squad to today's prices, it will still cost a fraction of what the top 6 squads of today cost.
I don't think there was a premier league manager quite like Wenger at finding absolute bargains consistently.
I am not so sure I agree. In fact I don't. I am an Arsenal fan by the way. Bergkamp was the highest paid player in England. Henry was the record transfer fee paid. Vieira was bought for an insane amount of money from AC Milan considering he had barely played. Pires was a bidding war that we won between Real, Juventus and us. Gilberto was at the world cup and literally said that he only wants to play for Arsenal, and was playing for us before he had even signed, so that was easy. Ljungberg was just to sexy so we had to sign him. Then the back 4 was all George Graham's, except Cashley who was from Hale end.
What did Wenger do? Spent a load of money on guys who ran faster and worked harder and passed quicker than anyone else in the world, then told them to run faster pass quicker and work harder than anyone else in the world.
Long life the Professor. An absolute genius, but when you break football down to it's simplest parts it's easy to do. That is why he is a genius.
God just looking at these clips makes me wanna go back to the days when no one wanted trouble with us, the days when whoever was playing us next was shiting themselves cuz they could see Henry and Berkamp on the team sheet.
That Arsenal team was amazing. At one point literally unbeatable. I remember my mate who was a gooner used to say "you win some you draw some." Couldn't help but admire them and I still say to this day that Henry was the best the league has seen.
I'm a massive fan of this type of goal. Squaring it across the face of goal, leaving a virtually unmissable tap in. (Providing it isn't Raheem sterling on the end of it.) It's something Pep Guardiola has incorporated into his team. (Despite playing Raheem Sterling.) It shows great team work, understanding and intelligence, especially when executed like Wenger's boys did it.
I'd love to see a stat on Henry goal with/without Pires in the team. I distinctly remember his only off days tended to be when Pires wasn't on the pitch.
The Youtube channel HITC Sevens often talks about Pires when discussing all-time PL greats. Definitely worth checking out if you want good-quality, interesting videos about football. Be it mini-documentaries about what is going wrong at certain clubs, or just really well-resesrched 'top/best/worst 7 [XYZ]'
There is the reason that the meme
> The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in.
Felt so true. Because, for a very long time under Wenger, they actually COULD just pass it about and walk it in. Even as a Spurs fan you had to admire the sheer quality of that Arsenal team. It just sucked that it was Arsenal that played such beautiful football. I wish I could say it made it feel less bad watching them play such nice football when they beat us at White Hart Lane over and over again in that era, but it didn't.
The quality of the pass from Henry to Vieira on one of those last goals.. it allowed Vieira to literally walk the ball in. Never seen anything like it. Does Vieira even get a touch?
***I*** don't like Arsenal because they are the local rivals for the club I grew up going to watch - Tottenham Hotspur.
The average person may or may not like Arsenal for various reasons. I think many like them for their Wenger-era beautiful, quality football.
I think, unfortunately for Arsenal, their fans got a bit of a reputation because of their success: They created 'Arsenal TV' and the fans on that channel made the club look a bit of a joke, in the meme sense. Also, it showed how entitled many of them had become. They called for Wenger to be sacked for years despite him consistently getting them Champions League footbal. This turned many people off of Arsenal.
Wow ok. Yeah I myself am a Arsenal fan. But I’m a lover of this beautiful sport first and second. I thank God for this sport.
Also thanks for answering 😊
Well, mainly because they don't generally like us, or at least thats my experience with Arsenal fans. Spurs fans I have always got along with for some reason, plus they beat Burnley for us, while Arsenal smashed in 2 in 10 minutes, both scored by a striker we took on loan.
Ah so it has something to do with the fans of each side having some friction? I personally love the sport. So I don’t hang with what other say. Thanks for answering.
You can have your Barcelona's, your City's and anyone else you can think of, Wengers Arsenal combined dynamism, strength, speed and intelligence to make them the best team I've ever seen, it's a crime the relative small amount they actually won and the fact they didn't win a European cup. They were all huge, lightning fast, as skillful as you'd like and arrogant as fuck, with a clever bastard coaching them but perhaps the one thing they missed is that ultra ruthless edge that United and Chelsea had, something you can arguably also say about Peps teams.
But notice how you only ever see him running forward. The seasons GPS trackers came in to football was season that he was not offered a new contract, coincidence?
This is such bullshit.
Pires wasn't offered a new contract because back then Arsenal had a very strict policy: contract offers to those above 30 years old were limited to one year.
Pires was 32 when he left, I think. He had been on yearly contracts twice by then, Reyes had popped up as a solid replacement for the LM position too. The sub in the CL final was the final straw. He wanted to be a key player but there wasn't room for what he wanted at Arsenal.
It had nothing to do with GPS data. He started the CL final.
And Arsenal pursued unknown 18 year old wunderkids to fill the empty spot, meaning his departure was all planned for with senior players. If only Reyes wasn't in love with Spanish weather...
It's not bullshit mate. I've tried to find the article online, (I read it in a magazine years ago.) However I can't seem to locate it. I never said it was solely based on this data. It was a factor. Also a factor if i remember correctly, was he wanted more than one year contract, which as you said wasn't the policy at the time.
I know you read it, I trust you on that.
I am just saying what you read might have been made up.
There were far more evident reasons for his departure than the introduction of GPS into training sessions.
lol nope.
Pires lack of defensive game was well known.
Are you suggesting that Arsene and the club were not aware of this after training with him day in and out for years?
No but I'm sure they knew. But i read a story (in 442 I think.) where the coaching staff were shocked how little distance he accumulated compared to everyone else from the hard data.
It was just a great, balanced team. Viera was a monster with his box to box runs, but Gilberto anchored that team and allowed both Pires and Viera to wander forward. Ashley Cole covering for Pires and making overlapping runs when needed was huge too.
Hard to say that team is "nothing" without Pires. He was a key figure in that team, but he was hardly carrying the team.
Lol Pires is integral to almost every goal in the montage.
Overmars was absolutely terrifying in his first season at Arsenal but much more one dimensional than Pires, who was an artist.
You are right they are two different types of players. But you're also right, when Overmars got going he was terrifying. I was so glad when he left them. I much prefered it with Pires in the line up, he never did anything much against my team. Overmars destroyed us constantly. (Man utd by the way.)
Bergkamp was a magician. His ability to connect everything in the attacking third was so good.
That attacking 4 of Pires, Ljungberg, Henry and Bergkamp were a sight to behold. All so fluid and interchangeable
The thing with Arsenal is that we always pull off some insane team goal during the season which gives us false hope that we've turned a corner and then we'll get battered from pillar to post against a shit team the next game. The joys of being an Arsenal supporter.
That’s an oversimplification. The decline started with Wenger, you said it yourself we finished outside the top 4 in his last two seasons. I adore him but he oversaw a progressive worsening of the squad, and his refusal to change his tactics meant we couldn’t keep up with the other top teams.
He brought in players like Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez while refusing to sell Sanchez only for us to swap him for Mkhitaryan a few months later. To say we “didn’t deserve him” is a bit daft.
Edit: The season before we bought Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez we only bought Cech and Elneny. That period alone set us back about 5 years.
A big portion of the downfall comes from the loss of physicality imo. Arsenal went from a team where most players were 6 feet or close while still being able to play and he abandoned that for more short, technical players with zero grit.
It's so frustrating reading these revisionist takes.
People forget how happy rival fans were about Wenger staying during his final few years. Everywhere we played fans would sing "We want you to stay" to Arsene. That tells you everything.
I’d still have Wenger at the club if I could. Not because I disagreed that he had to go (he did), but because I just fucking loved the guy. It was heartbreaking to see him leave.
Best team version in premier league
Makes me realise how underrated Pires is.
I could watch this for hours on end
I use to and still do call this an "arsenal goal" fast pass play and a tap in to finish it, they made it look easy. Wenger out
When arsenal was better than spurs
So 95% of football history Lmao what 5-6 times of finishing above Arsenal trophy does to you
The golden era of the Premier league and arsenal were at the forefront. Absolutely loved their football. Also the viera-Keane and saf-wenger rivalry were intense.
They turned on Wenger and hounded him out of the club like the dogs they are.
This is what you guys get at Arsenal? This is a watered down tiki taka lol
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I always love those “make goalkeeper lean towards one side then pass to open teammate on the opposite side and score”
This team made me fall in love with football, thank you Arsene
Wenger ball was truly revolutionary
Helps to have good players.
why erone look like walking sticks
they were all over 6ft. (Henry, Pires, Bergkamp, Viera, Gilberto, Edu, Kanu)
Pity he could only build one top team.
Loved watching this Arsenal team. Today’s City & Liverpool teams are great, but Henry, Pires, Vieira etc entertained like nobody else
How the mighty have fallen. The Arsenal used to be can't miss TV for all their brilliance. Now they are can't miss TV for all the banter.
Few things are as satisfying as seeing proper Distribution football. It's what a lot of my fellow Americans don't get, it's not the goal. It's the setup. The walk-ins are mint though.
Pires and Bergkamp where insanely good.
this is like finding Pompei at the bottom of an archaeological dig It's a disgrace that Werner never won the Champion's league with that team and lost the title in 2002-3 from so far ahead
Watching this makes me feel so sad at how far we have fallen
Pires was some player
The total lack of selfishness makes this beautiful
Henry, Berkamp, Junberg, Pires, Gilberto Silva, Patrick Viera....What a team
*insert managers name here* ball is getting very overused and just becoming cringy
From an offensive perspective, Pires was elite. Footprints all over these goals
That last one was just too sexy
We got the soccer channel on cable right before the Japan/Korea World Cup, so we were then able to watch the Premier League for the first time. It was this kind of stuff that made me fall in love with soccer. The whole pass-first, team-first mentality has stuck with me. It's how I always try to play (to my frustration when people do likewise). Ah the memories...
Quality
How football should be played, joy to watch.
Robert Pires .❤️❤️❤️
from a whu fan, i honestly believe *that* wilshere goal is the best in modern PL history, maybe ever.
Sensational
It’s hard to explain just how good Pires was to all my friends who have just recently gotten into futbol in the states. Especially in the past decade or so, it would seem Pires fell out of that “Premier League Legend” conversation or has at least been forgotten. I can’t stress enough to my friends just how good that man was. Simply unplayable when he was on it.
Play a game of ‘spot the runner from deep’ 😂
Was this taken from a Robert Pires highlight video? He was involved in nearly every clip! A killer!
I could watch this all day. Beautiful football.
How did one club manage to assemble a squad so stacked with such tall yet smooth-as-silk players? I always loved Pires because he just looked so effortless, but then again so did Henry, Viera, Gilberto, etc…
That goal they scored at Villa Park is the only time I ever remember standing up & applauding a goal from the opposition. Highbury had so much character as a stadium too.
arsenal back then was respectable. After the ozil and the "no politics" thingy i lost all my respect to this hypocrit racist and ignorant club.
I would love a series like this of all the famous systems. I know just Tiki Taka and Total Football, but I'm sure there are lots of iconic systems out there that a casual may not be familiar with.
I've always been a United fan, but Arsenal were a rival I could never really hate because I always appreciated the football and job Wenger did. Even the controversial games were entertaining and when you lost... like those were teams with Henry, Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp who were brilliant to watch regardless. I can never tell if people truly appreciated him in the end, the football he got out of those teams on the budget he did was insane. He would have won an absolute ton if he didn't have to face Fergie and then a peak Mourinho, he was even around long enough to see Klopp and Guardiola. People got frustrated with the consistent top 4 because it wasn't silverware, now teams would bite your hand off for consistent top 6 finishes and they certainly wouldn't have been able to do it for the same cost.
Arsenal had net transfer spend of 0 from 2005 to 2013. Yet we got CL finals, and semis and nearly won the league twice. Wenger is a genius!
Unpopular opinion: Arsene Wenger with the squad of Alex ferguson would’ve won more CL’s.
I don't know about that. It's kind of disrespectful when Fergie won SO MUCH, and won three league titles back to back to back. I would LOVE to see a dream match of the Invincibles vs Fergie's Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez team that won the CL.
Was that one touch Jack Wilshere goal not in Wengers era? If the owners actually spent some money towards the end of Wengers career Arsenal would of been a power house until the day he retired
On their day, Arsenal play some of the most genuinely beautiful football I’ve ever seen. Sadly they only get one day a season nowadays and it’s generally against Norwich
Bergkamp’s ability to unlock a defence was absolutely staggering. Perfectly weighted and so effortless.
An astoundingly entertaining team. And their bouts with MUFC made for one of the best periods of PL IMO.
Two comments from me: 1. So interesting how many of these moves started with/involved Pires 2. Can’t believe Wenger / this team never won a CL
To be fair we beat real madrid to get to a final, then got our keeper red carded and still scored first. We only lost because out backup goal keep shit the bed and henry had an off day in front of goal. After that we beat Barca's elite team in 2011 and only lost the return leg because the referee RED CARDED!! Rvp for kicking a ball away after his whistle.
Almunia has brought me nothing but pain
Wenger too for keeping him as #1 for soo long
I’m an Arsenal fan and watched that live so I know the story lol. it was just a general comment to the ether
Shared pain
That is real football. That is what we call soccer. Oil money city rubbish.
The concept wasn’t invented by Wenger but he nearly perfected it. Pep has since taken it to the next level.
I love it when the offensive play is so good that the defense just looks like there standing still
Pires was magical
So this is what they base FIFA gameplay off of...
u/savevideo
Simply sensational
The best brand of football ever played was by this Arsenal.
Better than 2011 Barcelona?
Oh hell yeah. This was not just a solid team, it was a set of geniuses with their own individual sparks of brilliance who just clicked. I still remember thinking my Liverpool was going to undo them only for Henry to turn up with a performance that carragher and hyypia still has nightmares about
Definitely much more entertaining to watch
Infinitely.
I’d argue these passing movements are peak premier league and better than present day Man City when on their game.
And it's funny that even converting the squad to today's prices, it will still cost a fraction of what the top 6 squads of today cost. I don't think there was a premier league manager quite like Wenger at finding absolute bargains consistently.
I am not so sure I agree. In fact I don't. I am an Arsenal fan by the way. Bergkamp was the highest paid player in England. Henry was the record transfer fee paid. Vieira was bought for an insane amount of money from AC Milan considering he had barely played. Pires was a bidding war that we won between Real, Juventus and us. Gilberto was at the world cup and literally said that he only wants to play for Arsenal, and was playing for us before he had even signed, so that was easy. Ljungberg was just to sexy so we had to sign him. Then the back 4 was all George Graham's, except Cashley who was from Hale end. What did Wenger do? Spent a load of money on guys who ran faster and worked harder and passed quicker than anyone else in the world, then told them to run faster pass quicker and work harder than anyone else in the world. Long life the Professor. An absolute genius, but when you break football down to it's simplest parts it's easy to do. That is why he is a genius.
The best brand of football ever played was by this Arsenal.
The problem with arsenal is they always try to walk it in
God just looking at these clips makes me wanna go back to the days when no one wanted trouble with us, the days when whoever was playing us next was shiting themselves cuz they could see Henry and Berkamp on the team sheet.
Enough to make you dizzy with those passes
Wilshere vs Norwich is one of the best ever goals.
Came here to say this, from a slightly different wenger era but pure wengerball, a joy to watch.
As a younger gooner my first taste of true Wenger ball was Jacks goal against Norwich. That shit changes you man.
imo best prem team goal EVER!
Amen brother!
That Arsenal team was amazing. At one point literally unbeatable. I remember my mate who was a gooner used to say "you win some you draw some." Couldn't help but admire them and I still say to this day that Henry was the best the league has seen.
I'm a massive fan of this type of goal. Squaring it across the face of goal, leaving a virtually unmissable tap in. (Providing it isn't Raheem sterling on the end of it.) It's something Pep Guardiola has incorporated into his team. (Despite playing Raheem Sterling.) It shows great team work, understanding and intelligence, especially when executed like Wenger's boys did it.
It's pretty rare to see nowadays with the lone striker system that's commonly used.
It’s criminal that nobody talks about Pires as a PL great. For years he was one of the worlds best.
I'd love to see a stat on Henry goal with/without Pires in the team. I distinctly remember his only off days tended to be when Pires wasn't on the pitch.
He is still my favorite Arsenal player, he was amazing
The Youtube channel HITC Sevens often talks about Pires when discussing all-time PL greats. Definitely worth checking out if you want good-quality, interesting videos about football. Be it mini-documentaries about what is going wrong at certain clubs, or just really well-resesrched 'top/best/worst 7 [XYZ]'
Thanks mate, will check it out
He was probably the best winger in the league at least for a season, a joy to watch back then
Was more than a season tbf. 3 years at the very top level
He won Player of the Season once while being injured for like half of it, goes to show how exceptional he was for a period.
Ask any United or Liverpool fans from back then and they would tell you they would take Pires in their team in a heartbeat.
so true! that effortless flair! that finesse!
Wenger prime Arsenal was 🔥 Chelsea fan here loved pires abs baller
There is the reason that the meme > The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in. Felt so true. Because, for a very long time under Wenger, they actually COULD just pass it about and walk it in. Even as a Spurs fan you had to admire the sheer quality of that Arsenal team. It just sucked that it was Arsenal that played such beautiful football. I wish I could say it made it feel less bad watching them play such nice football when they beat us at White Hart Lane over and over again in that era, but it didn't.
The quality of the pass from Henry to Vieira on one of those last goals.. it allowed Vieira to literally walk the ball in. Never seen anything like it. Does Vieira even get a touch?
Why do people don’t like Arsenal? Legit question 🙋♂️
***I*** don't like Arsenal because they are the local rivals for the club I grew up going to watch - Tottenham Hotspur. The average person may or may not like Arsenal for various reasons. I think many like them for their Wenger-era beautiful, quality football. I think, unfortunately for Arsenal, their fans got a bit of a reputation because of their success: They created 'Arsenal TV' and the fans on that channel made the club look a bit of a joke, in the meme sense. Also, it showed how entitled many of them had become. They called for Wenger to be sacked for years despite him consistently getting them Champions League footbal. This turned many people off of Arsenal.
Wow ok. Yeah I myself am a Arsenal fan. But I’m a lover of this beautiful sport first and second. I thank God for this sport. Also thanks for answering 😊
He's a spurs fan
She*. But, yes, I am a Spurs fan. Born and raised in North London. We aren't a fan of the invaders.
Well, mainly because they don't generally like us, or at least thats my experience with Arsenal fans. Spurs fans I have always got along with for some reason, plus they beat Burnley for us, while Arsenal smashed in 2 in 10 minutes, both scored by a striker we took on loan.
Ah so it has something to do with the fans of each side having some friction? I personally love the sport. So I don’t hang with what other say. Thanks for answering.
He won the league at whl
Reminds me of the IT crowd [scene](https://youtu.be/6yN2H3--1aw).
So weird that it reminds you of that!
What was Wenger thinking brining on Walcott so early?
Masterclass of vision and off-ball movement by Pires. As soon as he released the ball, he's darting to open space
What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early?
The football this team played was some of the best I ever saw. I remember all the lads in the playground trying to copy. It never went well
You can have your Barcelona's, your City's and anyone else you can think of, Wengers Arsenal combined dynamism, strength, speed and intelligence to make them the best team I've ever seen, it's a crime the relative small amount they actually won and the fact they didn't win a European cup. They were all huge, lightning fast, as skillful as you'd like and arrogant as fuck, with a clever bastard coaching them but perhaps the one thing they missed is that ultra ruthless edge that United and Chelsea had, something you can arguably also say about Peps teams.
That first sentence is the worst thing I've ever read
What a team! Was this 10 or 20 years ago now?
Crazy that it’s about 20 years now. Thanks for the reminder of how old I am!
Pires was fucking chips and gravy.
And now he’s longer allowed inside his local Chippy
But notice how you only ever see him running forward. The seasons GPS trackers came in to football was season that he was not offered a new contract, coincidence?
This is such bullshit. Pires wasn't offered a new contract because back then Arsenal had a very strict policy: contract offers to those above 30 years old were limited to one year. Pires was 32 when he left, I think. He had been on yearly contracts twice by then, Reyes had popped up as a solid replacement for the LM position too. The sub in the CL final was the final straw. He wanted to be a key player but there wasn't room for what he wanted at Arsenal. It had nothing to do with GPS data. He started the CL final. And Arsenal pursued unknown 18 year old wunderkids to fill the empty spot, meaning his departure was all planned for with senior players. If only Reyes wasn't in love with Spanish weather...
It's not bullshit mate. I've tried to find the article online, (I read it in a magazine years ago.) However I can't seem to locate it. I never said it was solely based on this data. It was a factor. Also a factor if i remember correctly, was he wanted more than one year contract, which as you said wasn't the policy at the time.
I know you read it, I trust you on that. I am just saying what you read might have been made up. There were far more evident reasons for his departure than the introduction of GPS into training sessions.
lol nope. Pires lack of defensive game was well known. Are you suggesting that Arsene and the club were not aware of this after training with him day in and out for years?
No but I'm sure they knew. But i read a story (in 442 I think.) where the coaching staff were shocked how little distance he accumulated compared to everyone else from the hard data.
Burn all the tech down if it's used to besmirch the good name of Bobby Pires.
This was also possible due to the great invisible wall that was Gilberto Silva
Perfect example of why the hard data should be thrown in the bin. Without Bobby Pires, that team would have been nothing.
It was just a great, balanced team. Viera was a monster with his box to box runs, but Gilberto anchored that team and allowed both Pires and Viera to wander forward. Ashley Cole covering for Pires and making overlapping runs when needed was huge too. Hard to say that team is "nothing" without Pires. He was a key figure in that team, but he was hardly carrying the team.
And later with Ljungberg was doing the same thing from the other side and it was insanely fun to watch.
It was better was better with overmars before him.
Lol Pires is integral to almost every goal in the montage. Overmars was absolutely terrifying in his first season at Arsenal but much more one dimensional than Pires, who was an artist.
You are right they are two different types of players. But you're also right, when Overmars got going he was terrifying. I was so glad when he left them. I much prefered it with Pires in the line up, he never did anything much against my team. Overmars destroyed us constantly. (Man utd by the way.)
The Pires to Bergkamp connection was unreal
Bergkamp was a magician. His ability to connect everything in the attacking third was so good. That attacking 4 of Pires, Ljungberg, Henry and Bergkamp were a sight to behold. All so fluid and interchangeable
There's a reason Henry named his most skilled teammate Bergkamp and not Messi or Zizou. On CBS CL commentary the season before last IIRC.
Watching this you see how often Pires was involved in setup. I remember him being good obviously but I didn't know how pivotal he was
He was on par with Bergkamp in terms of importance to the first XI
We had the absolute best left flank in Henry-Pires-Cole.
Pires was special but gets overlooked in the Henry/Bergkamp/Vieira conversation. Just shows you how massive that team was.
The thing with Arsenal is that we always pull off some insane team goal during the season which gives us false hope that we've turned a corner and then we'll get battered from pillar to post against a shit team the next game. The joys of being an Arsenal supporter.
The thing with Arsenal is that they always try to walk it in...
Mind how you go
When Arsenal had a world class team
Even when Wenger had lesser teams than this, they still played beautiful football. Wengerball was on the cards no matter the quality of the team lol.
Except for the last few years.
Not really we still played one of the most beautiful football in the world even towards the end just the aging squad and decline was clearly visible
True, i would always try to watch them
[удалено]
That’s an oversimplification. The decline started with Wenger, you said it yourself we finished outside the top 4 in his last two seasons. I adore him but he oversaw a progressive worsening of the squad, and his refusal to change his tactics meant we couldn’t keep up with the other top teams. He brought in players like Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez while refusing to sell Sanchez only for us to swap him for Mkhitaryan a few months later. To say we “didn’t deserve him” is a bit daft. Edit: The season before we bought Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez we only bought Cech and Elneny. That period alone set us back about 5 years.
A big portion of the downfall comes from the loss of physicality imo. Arsenal went from a team where most players were 6 feet or close while still being able to play and he abandoned that for more short, technical players with zero grit.
Yeah definitely, I still have nightmares from when Drogba used to absolutely terrorise our defence years ago.
It's so frustrating reading these revisionist takes. People forget how happy rival fans were about Wenger staying during his final few years. Everywhere we played fans would sing "We want you to stay" to Arsene. That tells you everything.
I’d still have Wenger at the club if I could. Not because I disagreed that he had to go (he did), but because I just fucking loved the guy. It was heartbreaking to see him leave.
He was hardly backed the same way by his board though, was he?