Arsenal 1995-2004: The Premier League's first London dynasty

Even in the decades preceding the Premier League, Arsenal were London's most successful football club.

The Gunners had been crowned champions of England on ten occasions, won the FA Cup five times and took home one of the last editions of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

English football's top tier was given a makeover in 1992, and though it would take Arsenal some time to get their hand on the new trophy, they still hoovered up silverware.

But later in that decade, Arsenal didn't just become the dominant force in London - they became a revolutionary one.

Rioch's rally

Arsenal parted ways with club legend George Graham in February 1995, with Stewart Houston taking charge for the rest of that season. A miserable season ended with heartbreak in the Cup Winners' Cup final against Real Zaragoza when ex-Tottenham player Nayim scored the latest of clinchers from 40 yards.

Vice-chairman David Dein had an outside candidate in mind to take to the dugout, but he was overruled and Arsenal appointed Bolton Wanderers boss Bruce Rioch instead.

The Scotsman's year or so in charge has largely been forgotten because of the Gunners' transformation in the years that followed, but there was no doubt he was responsible for setting up some of the foundations of the club's future success. Most notably, he helped Dennis Bergkamp acclimatise to English football, with the new manager implementing a more possession-based style.

Arsenal ended the 1995/96 Premier League season as London's top dogs again, but they were only just getting started.

'Arsene Who?'

Frosty relations with some players and the board led to Rioch's departure just before the start of the 1995/96 season.

Houston was again placed in temporary charge, with Pat Rice then taking caretaker duties for little over a fortnight too.

Huge names were linked to the job - most notably Johan Cruyff and Terry Venables - but this time, Dein was allowed to bring in his dark horse. He gave Nagoya Grampus Eight boss Arsene Wenger a bell, and he agreed to take the reins from the start of October 1996.

It was a move derided by the English press, but Wenger's Arsenal quickly silenced a lot of doubters and naysayers. The Gunners spent several weeks top of the Premier League in the Frenchman's first months and were in touching distance with eventual champions Manchester United until the last few weeks of the season.

Arsenal were cruelly denied a first trip to the Champions League by virtue of their slightly inferior goal difference to title-challenging Newcastle United, but in the long-term, this mattered very, very little.

The professor's revolution

Some of the basic components of running a top-level football club were not present in England until Wenger joined Arsenal. He had been tasked with reinventing the club, but ended up reinventing the sport altogether.

"The biggest things in life have been achieved by people who, at the start, we would have judged crazy. And yet, if they’d not had these crazy ideas, the world would have been more stupid," Wenger once said.

"I changed a few habits of the players, which isn't easy in a team with an average age of 30 years - at the first match the players were chanting, 'We want our Mars bars!'" he told after making adjustments to diet and nutrition.

"At half-time, I asked my physio Gary Lewin, 'Nobody is talking, what's wrong with them?' He replied, 'They're hungry.' I hadn't given them their chocolate before the game. It was funny."

Red meat and sugary sweets were out, boiled chicken and pasta were in - Wenger was to Arsenal's professionals what Jamie Oliver was to schoolchildren, disgusted with the habits of a country out of shape. Ultimately, Wenger's plan paid off and his players reaped the rewards.

Wenger also utilised foreign markets to sign undervalued players, a trend most savvy clubs are heeding back to nowadays due to the riches of the Premier League.

On the pitch, Arsenal were blowing teams away with their fast and free-flowing football, owed in-part thanks to Wenger's request for new and improved training and fitness facilities.

A first Double

Wenger's Gunners came flying out of the blocks in his first full season in charge, going unbeaten during their first 12 Premier League games.

Some patchy form through the winter saw Manchester United take the initiative in the title race, though. Arsenal needed to come up with a special run to claw themselves back into the contest. A special run is what they embarked on.

With the chips down, Arsenal won ten games in a row - including a pivotal victory at Old Trafford - to secure their first league title since the days of the old Division 1. Wenger had worked his magic, the critics firmly put in their place.

The glory continued with success in the FA Cup, seeing off Newcastle in the final at Wembley and earning Arsenal their first league-and-cup double since 1971. It wouldn't even be their last of this era.

Falling short to the treble-winners

Twice Arsenal had chances to ensure Manchester United did not go on to win the treble, but twice they fell short.

Ryan Giggs tore the Gunners apart again in one of the most enthralling FA Cup semi-finals in history, while defeat to Leeds on the penultimate weekend of the season handed control of the Premier League title race over to the Red Devils.

But history remembers that version of Sir Alex Ferguson's side as one of the best ever. There was no shame in being pipped to the post by them.

Arsenal ended that Premier League campaign with a record-low 17 goals against, but scored only 59 times themselves. Some more firepower was needed.

Va Va Voom

Two seasons after joining for £500,000, Nicolas Anelka was sold to Real Madrid for a whopping £23.5m (and remember, this is in 1999 money).

Wenger had already flexed his deep knowledge of the French market in his first years at Arsenal, but the decision to rescue former Monaco striker Thierry Henry after a few months of playing wing-back at Juventus was undoubtedly his best. The charismatic and talismanic forward would define a generation and end up as the single greatest player in the history of the Premier League, oozing class and epitomising what Wenger's side stood for.

Manchester United ran away with the 1999/2000 title and Arsenal were denied UEFA Cup glory on penalties to Galatasaray in the final, but London was still unquestionably their turf.

The seeds of future success

Arsenal were still struggling to wrestle the Premier League crown back from Manchester United, but they were preparing themselves for future successes.

The summer of 2000 saw huge dressing room presences like Nigel Winterburn, Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit leave the club, but Wenger reinvested that cash with the signings of Robert Pires, Lauren, Sylvain Wiltord and Edu Gaspar.

Another season of consolidation and another second-place finish followed, as well as heartbreaking defeat in the FA Cup final. But the pain would all be worth it soon enough.

Campbell's Double

In 2001, Arsenal carried out one of the biggest power-plays in Premier League history, signing Sol Campbell from rivals Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer.

At the very least, it asserted they were truly the dominant force in London. At most, he would become a club legend with a helping hand in winning various honours.

Arsenal had put their foot on the accelerator again and swept their way past all comers en route to winning a second league-and-cup double in the Wenger era.

To really hammer home how emphatic this conquest of England was, the Gunners wrapped up the Premier League title with a 1-0 win at Manchester United, who would finish the season behind even Liverpool in third.

Victory against soon-to-be-rich London rivals Chelsea in the FA Cup final was a real sweetener - the capital was still Arsenal's.

The Wenger invitational

Over the course of his Arsenal career, Wenger would win the FA Cup a record seven times as manager.

He racked up the third in this dynasty with victory against Southampton in David Seaman's final game for the club. The Gunners lost their Premier League title back to Manchester United, but they were making quite a habit of these cup runs.

And besides, they were about to drop the most unique Premier League season of all time.

Invincible

"It's not impossible to go through the season unbeaten and I can't see why it's shocking to say that. Every manager thinks that but they don't say it because they're scared it would be ridiculous," Wenger said towards the start of the 2002/03 season.

Arsenal would end up losing several times in the Premier League that campaign, but not once in 2003/04.

38 games, 26 wins, 12 draws, 90 points. Wenger's Gunners were invincible.

Not one defeat across an entire league campaign, a feat only matched in the English top-flight by Preston North end back in the 19th century.

Arsenal again wrapped up the title on enemy territory, clinching top spot with a 2-2 draw at Tottenham. After beating Leicester 2-1 on the final day, they were rewarded with a special gold Premier League trophy.

It's the single most astounding feat in Premier League history. Many teams have accumulated more points, but none have gone unbeaten for 38 straight.

This was the peak of the Arsenal dynasty, a culture club rewarded for diving into the unknown and sticking to their principles. London was red.

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