Arsenal pre 1996 was anything but the Arsenal many associate it with today. Under the stewardship of George Graham, Arsenal were a team built not to ship goals first, score goals second, a strategy that brought a haul of seven major trophies in nine years. Despite winners medals coming to Highbury, few would have said Arsenal were proponents of attacking football, so much so they were mocked with the song ‘One Nil to the Arsenal’. The infamous ‘Back Five’ of David Seaman in goal, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn as side defenders, with Steve Bould and Tony Adams as central defenders, were the bedrock of Arsenal’s success under Graham, resolute defending that thwarted all attack forces. In addition, there was Paul Merson pulling the strings in midfield and the then record scorer Ian Wright spearheading the attack. Bruce Rioch inherited this team for a season, bringing in Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt, only for Arsene Wenger to arrive in October 1996. Arsenal would never be labelled boring again.
Initially, Wenger kept with the conservative approach ingrained by Graham, a steady 4-4-2, the side defenders rarely venturing forward, the midfield mechanical, the strikers always looking to poach. However the first piece that would give Arsenal life was an AC Milan reject, Patrick Vieira, a tall gangly figure who effectively doubled up as a 1 man midfield such was his presence. The Arsenal midfield now had an enforcer and lung to breath life into the attack. Arsenal finished 3rd in a season where he was still assessing the squads capabilities and their compatibility to Wenger’s style.
At the start of the 1997/1998 season, the real Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal took shape. To compliment Vieira in midfield, he brought in his former protégé Emmanuel Petit, a crocked but highly talented Dutch winger called Marc Overmars, and talented youngster Nicholas Anelka from P.S.G. The old Arsenal emphasis on defence only was replaced by attack when the opportunity arose and Arsenal would now create opportunities at will. Dixon and Winterburn, who had a phobia of going beyond the halfway line, became more adventurous than previous before, playing as Argentine full backs constantly on the overlap to provide crosses. The center back pairing began to push up more rather than hang by the 18 yard box squeezing the opposition further up the pitch.
In midfield, a dynamic duo of Petit and Vieira took center stage. Petit with a cultured passing range, and his background as a defender allowed him to act as a third defender in offensive moves. Vieira set the standard for what a modern central midfielder had to be which still has a legacy today, dominant on and off the ball, a box to box player adept all over the pitch. On the left, the jet heeled Dutchman Overmars terrorised defences single handedly recapturing his Ajax Champions League winning form providing assist to the strikers and scoring himself. Ray Parlour on the right added industry and valuable assists, and importantly balance to the team that allowed Arsenal to score and defend in equal measure.
Up front, Dennis Bergkamp set the standard in England for the supporting striker behind the poacher supreme Ian Wright and Nicholas Anelka. Bergkamp was the link between the midfield and the strikers, and it was literally a foreign concept to English defenders, and it became common to see them dragged all over only for Bergkamp to receive the ball and pass intricately in one movement and a few seconds later the ball in the back of the net.
This new style, in Wenger’s first full season duly delivered the much coveted League and FA Cup Double, amassing 78 points to pip Manchester United to the title, and the defensive unit that rarely conceeded let in 33 whilst scoring 68 at the other end, and hence obliterating the way the game was interpreted in England forever. Side defenders were now expected to attack, central midfielders would not only have a hardman and attack minded player but a duo who could dominate the match, wingers who would not just be there to cross but to tuck inside and score, and have a striker that was also a chief assist provider. Arsenal had entered a new era tactically, the Wenger Era.
Arsene Who? 