by Nia Griffiths

While at the recent launch of the Arsenal PUMA home and away kits in India, Ray Parlour spoke in depth about the Invincibles era and how the current team differs.

Parlour featured in the 2003/04 unbeaten season and had first hand experience of how the team was run by Arsene Wenger back then and Parlour doesn’t believe a whole lot has changed.

“I don’t think his approach has changed,” Parlour said. “His personnel might have changed. Probably didn’t have as many good players, lost few important players and obviously the moving stadiums is a big thing for the football club – moving from Highbury to Emirates – there wasn’t that much money to spend on players. So he’s done an unbelievable job just of getting into the Champions League every single season.”

He continued, “Now I think the club is in a much better situation. They can go and buy player like Mesut Ozil with £42m and Alexis Sanchez and hopefully they can bring one or two more big players in to really give them a great chance of winning this season.

“Certainly winning the two FA Cups the last two seasons has been great for the team and the squad and for the team spirit. The first trophy is always the hardest to win for a squad and they have done that now and they have loved every minute of it. They have been on the bus tour around London and they will now want more of it, hopefully.”

Ray Parlour of Arsenal in action during the Pre-Season friendly match between Barnet and Arsenal
LONDON – JULY 17: Ray Parlour of Arsenal in action during the Pre-Season friendly match between Barnet and Arsenal at the Underhill Stadium, Barnet on July 17, 2004 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

The legend also spoke about the chances of a repeat by this particular Arsenal team, and what match during their unbeaten run really stood out to them.

On Arsene Wenger’s tactics, Parlour said, “Well he was always really positive. At the start of the season, in the pre- season, his mentality was always to win everything of course. He was always positive.

“He did say the year before that we could go unbeaten. Maybe one of the players – Martin Keown I think — felt that it just put too much pressure on the players but Wenger knew that he had a squad that maybe could.”

He went on, “He will always look back and say that that was one of the best squads I had and managed. And we had a lot of winners in that team — mentality where you’d never get beaten or you never knew when you were beaten.”

This winning mentality is something a lot of current players have brought up since winning the first FA Cup. Once you win, you become addicted to the feeling and find yourself constantly wanting more.

“In certain games we were really under the cosh, maybe we had a poor game but we managed to get a draw out of it,” Parlour explained. “Credit to all the lads, the staff the others involved in the club that we went unbeaten. But the last four games were difficult, really difficult.

“After winning the league we still had four games in a row and sometimes you take the foot off the pedal but we had to keep going and showed focus and finally did it. It was a brilliant season.”

When asked about their favourite matches during that historical season, Parlour said, “Probably the Liverpool game as well that took place after we had lost in the Champions League and FA Cup and Thierry Henry scored that hat-trick against Liverpool. That was a great moment.

“And obviously, winning the league at White Hart Lane. Sol certainly enjoyed doing that but it was a great moment to do that because the rivalry was very intense and to win the league there… I’ve never seen a stadium empty so quickly. Which was great!”

Parlour, who had been a Gunner his entire career so far, left in 2004, making almost 400 appearances during his time with us.

His name will go down in history as being part of that team and I don’t think anyone will forget it in a hurry.