Arsene Wenger has praised Chelsea for their impressive winning streak this season as they close in on Arsenal’s run of 13 consecutive victories; a record his side set across two seasons between 10 February and 18 August, 2002.
The Blues have picked up maximum points in every Premier League game since the Gunners hammered them 3-0 in September and now sit top of the table six points ahead of second place Liverpool.
Antonio Conte’s side can equal Arsenal’s achievement when they play Stoke on New Year’s Eve. The record will be there’s outright if they subsequently beat Sp*rs on 4 January.
“What they do is fantastic,” admitted Wenger in his final press conference of 2016.
“If they do it, it’s absolutely marvellous because nobody expected that. They had quite a little bit a dodgy start but after, since they’ve changed their system, they’ve been on a run.
“Confidence plays a big part. If they do it, you can only say, ‘well done’. The records are there to be beaten and If someone does better than you, you have to acknowledge and say, ‘well done’.
“They have addressed their problems well. You have to give credit to [Antonio] Conte to find a solution that has balanced well his team. Of course, they bought as well [David] Luiz who stabilised their defensive record. Overall, they have been the team who has been most consistent until now.”
Chelsea could be 12 points clear of Arsenal by the time Crystal Palace visit the Emirates on New Year’s Day.
“I’m worried about our next performance,” replied Wenger when asked about the worrying gap.
“At the moment we have not to look at that. We have to look at our performance for the next game and fight back. It can as well be the other way round. I know as a journalist is to imagine the worst, I wish that in 2017 that you wish us the best.”
Arsenal’s 14-game winning streak
Feb 10, 2002 – Everton 0-1 Arsenal
Feb 23, 2002 – Arsenal 4-1 Fulham
Mar 2, 2002 – Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal
Mar 5, 2002 – Arsenal 1-0 Derby
Mar 17, 2002 – Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal
Mar 30, 2002 – Arsenal 3-0 Sunderland
Apr 1, 2002 – Charlton 0-3 Arsenal
Apr 6, 2002 – Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham
Apr 21, 2002 – Arsenal 2-0 Ipswich
Apr 24, 2002 – Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
Apr 29, 2002 – Bolton 0-2 Arsenal
May 8, 2002 – Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal
May 11, 2002 – Arsenal 4-3 Everton
Aug 18, 2002 – Arsenal 2-0 Birmingham
If Chelsea win their next game who wants them to then beat the Spuds?
Thumbs up for “no” thumbs down for “yes”.
Totally depends on our result
Why?
Really, this record is bigger than their entire “club” and its whole “history”.
If Chelski beat our record, then it will be tasty when we’ll claim it back!
We need them to start losing. They have some tough games coming up – sp*rs, leicester, liverpool, us.
Need Chelsea to drop a few points so we can catch up before we play them. So hoping they draw the spuds and a couple others after!
Chelsea are the league leaders so want them to drop points. Totally unconcerned about Tottenham come may.
Let them lose against Stoke then draw against Spuds. That works for me.
Let them lose both…that works for me
A draw is the only good result obviously
classy comments from Wenger per usual. Imagine it was Mourinho’s record being broken. He’d be making up excuses like the other team had easy games, the league isn’t as tough, refs are colluding to help them…haha.
Arsenal, let’s get our record back if ChelSKI beat it!
Do you think it’s just Wenger being classy? I think it might also be a bit of psychological pressure. agree vote up, disagree vote down
“agree vote up, disagree vote down” – isn’t that how it always is? Or have I been up voting comments incorrectly my whole life??????
Boo
I was saying Boo-urns
It sounds like the first part of the article needs revision to reflect the fact that Arsenal’s record is 14?
Of the 14 teams we played in the record run, the majority of them no longer play in the Premier League.
How times change…
I have nothing but praise for this man Conte and i hate Chelsea.
I wonder how the media will twist this? They already made a big deal about Jack saying that Chelsea are playing well so this comment from Wenger will probably be reported as him after Conte’s job.
Mourinho leaves and respect returns
Respect for Conte, perhaps, but the majority of their players are twats. The same can be said of their fan base, and their owner is pretty despicable.
there’s > theirs
Still doesn’t take away the fact that they are a bunch of classless whores though does it. Who remembers Chelsea in Division 2 in front of 14000 racists with Mickey Droy and Kerry Dixon.
We would definitely need another winning streak like this if we are to even consider achieving out 87 points target.
Funny how Conte can find a solution to Chelseas problems and yet Wenger can’t seem to find one to Arsenals!!!
‘
Mostly he is just playing the same players that won them the title two seasons ago. For some reason they like him better than Mourinho.
Not sure we can consider buying David Luiz a masterstroke.
I’d take a pile of poop over Mourinho as my manager if I were a player tbh
They still have their ridiculously expensive squad that should, solely based on the quality of their players, be finishing in top 2-3 every season along with City and United (the 3 richest teams and most expensive squads) Mourinho was a disaster and Conte is just getting the players to play on their expected level + he has built a strong defence.
Arsenal and Spurs are performing above their levels in the current financial situation.
*Above their expectations from a financial point
Our manager is so good at applauding,analysing the success of others but can’t make his own team as successful anymore
‘They changed the system and did well’…. that’s just crazy… who’d have thunk it?
Personally, I think it’s him getting ready to move on, SAF also started getting friendly with other managers when he felt it was time.
We’re going to be at half way mark so we have a bit of time to catch up but we must be ruthless like them.
Hopefully City and Liverpool will shed points. We have opportunity to take 3 from Chelsea and if they drop 2 before that, that gap drops to 4 points.
But we need to focus on ourselves and get maximum points in January.
Conte is doing fantastic .
But , like most Chelsea managers since the clubs founding in 2003, they’ve been treated badly and cast off , regardless of achievement .
Conte to arsenal one day perhaps ??
Already we are only concentrating on our next performance. Sounds all too familiar when the title has gone from seasons past.
Mathematically we can still win it will be soon
In hindsight, we should have beat them just 1-0 with a scrappy last minute goal instead of hammering them into a new system.
Very respectful comment from Wenger but dont you think winning the league is not that difficult as we are told. Foreign managers come in and do it in 2 years time ( Mancini, Pelgrni, JM) and now Conte might be the next. And we… with all our stability, knowhow, class and everything still manage to stay around the top 4.Every year, a very predictable run which eventually fades away. And at the end, we are made to believe that winning PL is tough.. a FA cup win and CL qualification is a mark of successful season. I’m a AW fan… Read more »
They come in and win the league inheriting teams full of top players, being given an unlimited budget. At the time we couldn’t compete financially.
Only Ranieri has done it without the financial advantage. Only now do we have a comparable squad to the others.
There are many teams with expensive squads and top managers now. Only one will win the league.
Conte is clearly a good manager and they are doing very well but its still basically the same team that won the league a couple of years ago. They massively underperformed last season. They replaced JT with two defenders, Cesc with Kante. Costa and Hazard are firing again.
They will probably be very hard to catch.
John Terry is still a cunt
Without costa I dont think they would sustain the run. I hate costa, he is a massive twat. But he has so much skill, strength, determination and aggression that he is rather dangerous. More so now he seems to be less influenced by the mighty cunt that is mourinho and more influenced by playing football. Lolo will do him in our next match. Hell get sent off, we will lose….but costa will be injured for four months and theyll lose the title. ….to Liverpool.
Chelsea wins yet again today, as does ManU. Disturbing: over the last 17 days, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Spurs, and Man U have played a total of 17 games. Those teams have won every single one of those matches, 51 of a possible 51 points. Not a single point dropped by any of the teams at the top of the table. Not one single draw for any of them, much less a loss. That run will have to end today as Liverpool are playing against Man City right now. But our rivals have all combined to take every single possible… Read more »
Wenger brushing up on his Aussie slang “a dodgy start”.