Nostalgia paints with honey – and so it should, because to where else but a romanticised past can supporters escape the frustrations of the present? The point arises because Arsenal approach the end of their near six-year wait for a trophy. Comparisons with the Invincibles of 2003-04 and Arsène Wenger's two Double-winning sides could yet burn up the debating hours.
Birmingham City fans will have to forgive the presumption of an Arsenal win on Sunday. No ribbons are on the cup. Cesc Fábregas is limping and Theo Walcott is hors de combat with an ankle strain. Wenger's classiest defender, Thomas Vermaelen, has been much missed this term. But for the purposes of a quality assessment that starts its work in 1998, it is reasonable to take the bookies' odds and guess Arsenal are about to escape their mini-wilderness.
Only when the Premier and Champions League campaigns have expired will we be entitled to place the current lot alongside Wenger's finest teams and assess their merit. Yet one of the most innocent pleasures of following a successful football team (not that most of us know that feeling) is deciding which of a string of winning sides is the one that best pumps the blood.
There are still Manchester United followers who refuse to vacate those gilded years (1992-97) before Sir Alex Ferguson won his first European Cup near the end of the Millennium. These were teams of mighty intent. Schmeichel, Hughes, Cantona, Ince, Bruce, Irwin, Pallister: these were goliaths, assembled for the purposes of domestic domination.
With that mission fulfilled, United fanned out with a more European style, first with an unprecedented Premier League-FA Cup-Champions League treble in 1999 and then the cosmopolitanism of the Cristiano Ronaldo years. The realm of the senses is no bad place to start, and for many, still, no memory excites quite like the image of Ferguson's early title-winning sides ripping visitors to Old Trafford apart with a blend of skill and muscularity.
Strong characters are an entertainment genre, and that United side had plenty. By "strong" we mean possessed of an inability to regard defeat as an acceptable outcome. Compulsive winners experience losing as a personal affront, and are driven, by a fear of suffering such depressions, to avoid them at any price, which is why you hear conquered players say: "I never want to experience this feeling again."
Wenger's Invincibles were shot through with this mania. From the 2-1 home win against Everton on 16 August 2003, they went all the way through to a 2-1 victory against Leicester City on 15 May 2004 without losing a single league fixture. Along the way they lost FA Cup and Carling Cup semi-finals and went out of the Champions League to Chelsea in the quarter-finals.
Again, unlock the sensory memory bank and Highbury glows afresh with the pace, beauty and macho resolve of Arsenal's play. At the back, Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Kolo Touré and Ashley Cole kept guard. Ahead of the back five, Vieira, Edu and Silva were complementary pistons, defending and driving up the pitch with equal force. Best of all, the squadron of assisters and finishers: Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Ljungberg, Parlour, Reyes and Kanu.
Watching last week's Arsenal-Barcelona style parade, the thought occurred that no international football match in memory has achieved so many artistic highs all the way through the 90 minutes. Also salient is the knowledge of how much the elite game has changed since the Invincibles, and certainly Wenger's Double-winning sides of 1998 and 2002.
In his early years, Wenger's success was based on George Graham's Impenetrables: Adams, Dixon, Keown, Bould, Winterburn, plus Vieira and the marvellous Petit. Bergkamp, Henry and Pires could afford to attack without wing-mirrors. The fundamental difference between the Arsenal of 1998-2005 and now is that the current generation have lacked the collective defensive strength to sustain the Wenger manifesto of constant positivity.
In the goalkeeping position, Wenger is guilty of consistent miscalculation. Old-guard defenders also mutter about the current back four's failure to operate as a single entity. The great Arsenal back lines were never five individuals. Co-ordination was the religion.
Wenger, though, has never adopted a fixed standpoint. His view was that football was evolving into a highly athletic game of top-speed counterattacks and sweeping moves, with less meaty tackling. But his mind was moving faster than history. Parts of the game remained resistant to his ideas about how it should be played. Safe goalkeeping is a non-negotiable. Consistent centre-back pairings are still not optional extras. Struggling teams still need to be picked up and carried by the mentally tough.
For nearly six years Wenger has worked his way round fallibilities to the point where Arsenal, with March nearly here, are strong on four fronts. These are tantalising days for a manager who found a glorious formula, seven years ago, but then craved an even better one.
Source: Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 24 Feb 11
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