5 Mar 2002: Robert Pires of Arsenal charges past Giorgi Kinkladze of Derby County during the FA Barclaycard Premiership match played at Highbury, in London. Arsenal won the match 1-0. DIGITAL IMAGE. Mandatory Credit: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

OTD Arsenal beat Derby on way to third Double

Mar 5, 2017

On 5 March 2002, Arsenal beat Derby County to go top of the Premier League table on their way to their third Double.

Arsenal beat Derby 1-0 at Highbury with the only goal of the match coming from Robert Pires. It was win no.4 out of 13 for the Gunners, who went on to win the League with 87 points – seven ahead of Liverpool in second.

That season Arsenal won their third Double seeing as they also clinched the FA Cup in May. After beating Watford (2-4), Liverpool (1-0), Gillingham (5-2), Newcastle (1-1, 3-0 replay) and Middlesbrough (0-1), the Gunners faced Chelsea at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in front of a crowd of 73,963.

Arsenal won 2-0 with goals from Ray Parlour and Freddie Ljungberg.

Elsewhere, the Gunners were knocked out of the fifth round of the League Cup by Blackburn Rovers (4-0) and failed to make it out of the Champions League Group stages after losing games to Deportivo and Juventus.

Although winning the club’s third Double probably made up for it.