Untouchables
By from May 16, 2004
Yesterday Arsenal Football Club of the English Premier League beat Leicester City 2-1 to finish out their season. What is most interesting about this victory is that it enabled the Gunners to end their campaign as not only winners of the leauge, but UNBEATEN winners of the league with a 26-12-0 record. Truly an outstanding event, something that hadn't been done in the top tier of English football in well over a hundred years.
It might be difficult to put this achievement in the proper perspective in regards to American pro sports, considering they only play 38 games. However, I think it's surprising to anyone who watches the highly competetive EPL, especially when you see how much money Manchester United and Chelsea give to their players. I have to admit I'm a fan of the Arse with all their talented Frenchmen, but it might be bad for the game if this type of dominance continues.
<< | Posted on May 16, 2004 at 4:06 PM | >>
Ryan, great calls--I wish I would have made more of an effort to catch the final match after reading your description. Man U. did have an off season, but it seems like they should be able to compete at the highest level even with injuries since they have so much money to throw at even the bench players, (plus they picked up Saha during the season to pick up the scoring slack).
Interesting how Chelsea performed so well against the top clubs in Europe and finished second in the League, yet everyone thinks that their coach should be fired because they didn't give Arsenal a good enough run for the title. I might even argue that they should be more proud of getting further in the Champions League than Arsenal...it's one thing to beat up on Wolverhampton, it's something entirely more difficult to step it up against the big dogs of across the Europe.
Posted by J_John @ May 18, 2004 10:13 PM
as of last night, i still had arsenal v. leicester on my tivo... if it's still there when i get home, i'll try to get you a copy. :)
Posted by wise @ May 19, 2004 8:50 AM
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I watched the arsenal games vs. fulham and leicester city this weekend and seeing them grab the premiership trophy again was truly amazing, especially when, after all of arsenal's magic season, it seemed that leicester city had them on the ropes in the first half of their last game, thanks to a beautiful run down the wing by Patrick (i believe it was) and a header by Dickov put leicester up 1-0. Arsenal seemed quite flustered and the Leicester defense held solid until the halftime whistle.
Second half was another story, however. the gunners knew their game needed to step up, and it did, drawing a penalty kick in the first 5 minutes (on a run that was bound to score anyways), and then a sensational Bergkamp/Viera hookup was the coup de grace.
It was reported at the end of the game that Arsenal's unbeaten record hadn't happened since the 1888-89 season! 115 years, and back then they only played something like 22 games. whether arsenal will continue to dominate this way i think remains to be seen: man united had a very off season this year, losing beckham to real madrid, rio ferdinand and paul neville to suspension, and ruud van nistelrooy to injury. i would venture to say that if united get their ducks in a row, they could reclaim their status, and even though chelsea was alternately hot and cold through the season, when they're on, they can take on some of the best clubs in europe (cf. UEFA semis).
yay for more football on true fan!
Posted by wise @ May 17, 2004 1:26 PM