7 Classic Games Arsenal Fans Should Rewatch While Football Takes a Break

As another football-less week monotonously drags on and now that the novelty of doing keepy-uppies with a battered toilet roll has worn off, why not rewind the clock to a time when Belarus wasn't the epicentre of the live sport. 

Given how the season has gone so far, looking back at the golden years may have been a more preferable option for Arsenal fans even in the absence of this hiatus. 

With the Premier League table frozen, Arsenal are not only one agonising position below Tottenham, they're also as many points off the bottom three as they're behind the top trio. 

So, let's head back to the days of Highbury and when the manager had more than ten league games of coaching experience, to look back on some classic clashes any Arsenal could do with remembering...


Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal (1989)

26 May 1989. Anfield. Final game of the season. 

​Arsenal need not only to win against a Liverpool side who had won 13 trophies in the previous eight years, but win by two goals. Yet, George Graham didn't go all-out attack, in fact, he fielded a five-man defence and played for 0-0 at half-time - which he got. 

Alan Smith teed up an incredible climax with a goal seven minutes into the second half, which was awarded after a discussion between the referee and his assistant - who had bizarrely never worked together before, or since. 

As the clock ticked down, fans at home didn't know how long was left, so TV producers took the hitherto unheard of step of putting a running clock of the screen to put a timer on the agony of nail-biting supporters. 

Then the ball fell to Michael Thomas' feet and after feinting to shoot, he stabbed over the diving Bruce Grobbelaar to seal the most dramatic game in the history of English football. Well, until that one. 


Arsenal 4-0 Everton (1998)

Arsenal had Slaven Bilić to thank for easing them into this game, the Croatian defender inadvertently heading the ball past his own goalkeeper in the sixth minute. 

Going into the match Arsenal were four points clear of second-placed ​Manchester United with a game in hand, and knew that a win would secure Arsène Wenger's first Premier League title – which they emphatically secured against Everton

Despite trailing United for the majority of the season and even lagging 13 points behind the leaders on Boxing Day, Arsenal claimed the title with a 4-0 victory crowned by Tony Adams' rampaging charge through the centre. The lumbering captain latched onto his fellow centre-back's delicate chip to volley - left-footed - past ​Everton's keeper. 

The resulting celebration of Adams with arms outstretched was so iconic that it's the pose he's in for his bronze statue outside the Emirates.  


Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal (2002)

Gary Neville,Frederik Ljungberg

Four days after winning the FA Cup, Arsenal travelled to Old Trafford again knowing a win would seal the Double and snatch the trophy from Alex Ferguson's grasp after a hat-trick of ​Premier Leagues

This victory came in a sequence of 13 consecutive Premier League wins to end the season and Sylvain Wiltord's goal not only ensured the Gunners netted in every game they played that campaign, but also sealed their unbeaten record away from home in 2001/02. 

After Unai Emery's tumultuous reign, this propensity to avoid defeat on the road had actually started to ​re-emerge under Mikel Arteta prior the suspension of play. 


Inter 1-5 Arsenal (2003)

Arsenal's Invincibles, wrongly or rightly, often get lambasted for their Champions League run in their unbeaten season. The common argument revolves around the notion that their loss to a fellow English side, Chelsea, in the quarter-final somehow denigrates an achievement only matched in the country's top flight by a team in the 1880s. 


Nevertheless, that ​Champions League campaign provided Arsenal fans with one of their greatest ever performances in the competition. After failing to win in any of their opening three group games, Arsenal travelled to San Siro to face the previous season's semi-finalists, Inter. 


Thierry Henry produced a mesmeric display, scoring twice, assisting another two and generally terrorising Inter's backline as Wenger's Arsenal were at their counter-attacking best, mercilessly ripping the Nerazzurri to shreds on the break. 


Real Madrid 0-1 Arsenal (2006)

Henry is often accused of being a 'big game bottler'. And while his record of never having scored in a final (other than the 2003 Confederations Cup) doesn't exactly dispel the myth, he certainly turned up for Arsenal in this big game. 


Having blitzed the group stage, the Gunners travelled to the Spanish capital for the Champions League round of 16 and their first ever meeting with the European giants Real Madrid. Coming off the back of a loss to Liverpool and sitting fifth in the league, Arsenal couldn't exactly afford a humbling at the hands of Los Blancos. 


But an under-strength Arsenal side pulled off the unthinkable and toppled Madrid with an astonishing solo goal from their number 14, becoming the first English team to win at the Bernabéu. 


Arsenal 3-2 Hull City (2014)

FBL-ENG-FACUP-ARSENAL-HULL

Arsène Wenger's first eight full seasons in north London brought seven trophies. His following eight seasons would serve as an interminable wait for the next piece of silverware, with the 2011 League Cup final defeat to Birmingham City proving to be the most painful blow in this sequence.


Until Hull City took a 2-0 lead inside eight minutes in the 2014 FA Cup final, Arsenal had been billed as such clear favourites the pressure that would have brought on the players must've been suffocating. 


However, Santi Cazorla scored a sublime free kick to quickly reduce the deficit as Arsenal regained some composure in the second half, Laurent Koscielny levelling proceedings. 

Extra time brought more frayed nerves for Arsenal fans at Wembley but, with just 11 minutes remaining, ​Olivier Giroud produced a delicate back-heel - the Frenchman's clarity of thought in that moment has been unfairly lost in the fog of time - teeing up Aaron Ramsey to stab in the winner and seal the FA Cup. 


Arsenal 3-0 Chelsea (2016)

Mesut Ozil

Aside from a poor display at Anfield on the opening day, Arsenal had started the 2016/17 season in encouraging fashion.

By the time Chelsea arrived at the Emirates in September, the Gunners were sitting third in the table with Mesut Özil, Alexis Sánchez and particularly Theo Walcott in blistering form. Those three would prove to be the Blues' downfall, as Arsenal tore apart their London rivals with electric speed on the counter-attack, harking back to the golden days of the mid-2000s. 


This game would go down as the day Antonio Conte decided upon Chelsea's 3-4-3, which would eventually win them the title that season. But, especially in those first 45 minutes, Arsenal produced their best league performance for years and recorded their largest margin of victory over Chelsea in Premier League history. 



Source : 90min