Remembering the Invincible season: Arsenal vs Aston Villa

Thierry Henry of Arsenal

Welcome to the third edition of “Remembering The Invincibles” feature to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the greatest ever achievement in the history of Arsenal Football Club.

It was 10 years ago that we found out our Champions League group opponents and tonight we will surely confirm our 16th consecutive year in the Champions League group stage. But before we were drawn against Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev and Lokomotiv Moscow in the 2003/04 Champions League, we played a midweek game against Aston Villa in the Premier League.

Arsenal went into the match with an unchanged side for the third consecutive game; lining up against a well-organised Aston Villa team and their new manager David O’Leary.

David was and still is adored by the Arsenal faithful for his years of loyal service and record number of appearances. His Villa side were hard to break down in his first years in charge at Villa Park and also played some attractive attacking football.

Villa were spearheaded by Juan Pablo Angel, who Arsenal supporters will remember us being heavily linked with for a few windows before splashing out on Jose Antonio Reyes in January 2004. Gooners who dreamt of seeing Henry and Juan Pablo Angel linking up got their wish when those two players led the New York Red Bulls attack in the MLS.

Teams

Arsenal: Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Touré, Cole, Ljungberg, Gilberto, Vieira, Pires, Henry, Wiltord Subs: Taylor, Keown, Parlour, Edu, Bergkamp

Aston Villa: Sorensen, Delaney, Johnsen, Mellberg, Samuel, Barry, De La Cruz, Whittingham, Hendrie, Kinsella, Angel Subs: Postma, Alpay, Hitzlsperger, Kachloul, Vassell

Match

Aston Villa had mostly been a decent mid-table side but the previous season saw them finish 16th under Graham Taylor. David O’Leary was brought in as the new manager and things weren’t looking as though they had improved much in terms of results (though Villa went on to finish 6th). However, this didn’t stop Villa giving Arsenal’s attack a tough time, stifling attack after attack as Arsenal looked to get into their usual pomp.

The first half was entertaining and could have seen Arsenal 3-0 up in the first 15 minutes. Henry had a shot saved, fired wide after leaving the Villa defence for dead and Ljungberg hit the crossbar. Villa weren’t without chances with Angel firing wide and forcing Lehmann into a save. The biggest event of the first half came just before the whistle when Pires looked to have dived. The bad blood from this spilled over into the tunnel as Mellberg squared up to Bobby as the Villa coaching staff screamed xenophobic obscenities at Pires.

The second half ignited 12 minutes in when Campbell nod in Arsenal’s opener after a scramble in the box. Aston Villa didn’t look like scoring and sterotypically Arsenal “dropped little bit physically in second half” with the game trailing off and shaping up to be a 1-0 victory for Arsenal. Wenger replaced Ljungberg and Wiltord with Parlour and Bergkamp with the latter looking a bit out of sorts until Dennis set up Thierry Henry, who slipped through the Villa defence in added time to curl in our second goal sealing a third win and sending Arsenal to the top of the table.

Result: 2-0 win

Standing: Played 3: Won 3: Drew 0: Lost 0