Arsene Wenger has become the fifth Arsenal representative to be inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame after Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Ian Wright.
The Frenchman managed the Gunners for 22 years between 1996 and 2018 taking charge of a record 828 matches in the league and winning the title three times in 1998, 2002 and 2004.
While the first two titles were capped were garnished with triumphs in the FA Cup, it was the ‘Invincible’ season of 2004 that continues to go unmatched in the modern era.
Challenged by Wenger to go unbeaten, his players did what no team had done in 115 years securing the top spot thanks to 26 wins, 12 draws and zero defeats.
Two legends who helped define the Premier League.
Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are the first two inductees of the 2023 #PLHallOfFame pic.twitter.com/fwgwtst5c3
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 29, 2023
In a video celebrating his success, Wenger reflected: “When I look back at it today and how the whole season went, I really feel I was crazy. Your craziness can kill you, as well it can make you achieve remarkable things.”
🥁 Our latest inductee to the Premier League Hall of Fame…
It’s a special entry, Gooners 🙌
🏆 One gold trophy
❤️ One Arsene Wenger pic.twitter.com/iNsBbe1A9t— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 29, 2023
Wenger receives his accolade alongside legendary rival Sir Alex Ferguson with the pair becoming the first managers to be recognised by the Hall of Fame.
“To share this with Sir Alex is a great honour for me,” said Wenger. “It’s like two boxers, you fight like mad and go the distance together. At the end of the day, you have respect and it will be a great opportunity to meet with him, share a good bottle of win and memories of our old battles.”
Typically humble, the boss added: “I feel a little bit grateful, I feel as well, I don’t deserve it.”
We can say with certainty Arsene, you must certainly do.
__
To watch the Premier League’s full video, which also features cameos from Patrick Vieira, Ian Wright and Mikel Arteta, click here.
Totally deserved, a legend. Not only for the successes that he achieved, invincible, but also for performing incredibly well with the burden of paying off the new stadium, whihc meant that he couldn’t spend as much on players and their wages at a time that lots more money was coming into the game.
Deserves our love and respect!
“At the end of the day, you have respect and it will be a great opportunity to meet with him, share a good bottle of win and memories of our old battles.”
I didn’t realise you can get a win in a bottle, we need to be buying ten of those to help us finish of the season in style.
I love artetas summing Arsene up in one word “class” says it all for me. I remember sitting in the east upper in 2004 and my friend said to me “you know we are being spoilt” thank you Arsene for the wonderful memories.
Sure you can, all you need to do to is put the ball in the back of the cabar-net
*takes coat and gets the fuck out of here*
Deserves not only for what he did for Arsenal, he revolutionised the whole English game which was light years behind the continent at the time.
Players like Parlour and Adams were typical English workhorses. All courage and endeavour. Wenger made them into elite athletes and showed the league what it could become.
I hope arsenal can find a fitting tribute to the man before we’re all much older. The naming of a stand doesn’t seem too much for me.
True but what can you really do other than a statue?
Deep down we all know it’s the stadium that Arsene built, and that stadium will still be there next century after we’re all long gone.
I assume commercial considerations make it impossible–but the stadium itself should be named for him.
Personally I’m not big on the idea of naming the stadium after any one person.
Granted it was built using some funds generated from Wenger’s success, and I think a Bank of England loan on the guarantee Wenger signed a new contract, but we would have moved to a new stadium eventually anyway.
Even before Wenger arrived we were the 3rd biggest club in the country. Smaller clubs Everton, West Ham, Sp*rs have have/are moving.
Wenger won 3 Premier Leagues. It may be a bit awkward if Arteta goes on to win 4 in the Arsene Wenger Stadium.
How many trophies have Real Madrid taken to the Santiago Bernabeu?
Wenger Stadium?
Or the stadium name in future? I don’t know what the extent of the naming rights to the stadium are with Emirates, but I’d back naming it after Wenger!
Quite right, too.
Completely revolutionised the modern game with diet, stretching and employing technical data to measure player performance. And that’s before you even begin analysis on the brand of football he advocated.
Before Wenger, British club players largely drank lager, eat steak and chips, did a few shuttles to warm up and hit and hoofed and hoped for the best.
THERE IS ONLY ONE ARSENE WENGER
Magnifique!
My love for Arsene knows no bounds, he absolutely deserves to be there alongside Fergie.
Speaking of Fergie, I will never be as forgiving with him as Arsene. He basically cheated (with the help of bent referees) and kicked us in order to beat us, he and his players couldn’t accept we were superior in every department over them during and after the Invincibles season. I don’t want to bring down the mood or anything, but despite all he won I would just like to say one last time, fuck you Fergie.
Well said. United won a lot of trophies – but a lot of it was on the back of inexplicable luck and highly dubious refereeing decisions. United players, for the most part, got away with murder in terms of committing acts that wouldn’t go unpunished at any other club. Surrounding the referees en masse a prime example. ‘Fergie Time’, too, was something that the media gamely indulged and made allowances for – rather than question. For all their skill and supposed greatness, on the evening of Arsenal’s visit to Old Trafford in May 2002, where the Gunners were looking to… Read more »
I still loathe ManUre and fergie, Keane and Neville have a lot to do with my hatred – pure dross the three of them
Wenger’s grin when he watches the footage of van Nistelrooy’s penalty miss up at Old Trafford in 2003; en route to the Premiership and the Invincibles Crown.
Priceless.
Everything has been said on Le Prof, though I’m happy to rediscover that stat: Arsenal scored in every PL game in 01/02, remaining the only team to achieve that in PL history.
Invincibles & Unstopables🫡
Part of me suspects the only reason we don’t have a Wenger statue at the Emirates is due to Arsene’s humility
In fact the whole stadium should be named after him: the Arsene Wenger Emirates Stadium. Why not?
Mixing sentiment with sponsorship doesn’t quite sit right.
I do like that the initials spell out the AWE Stadium though.
A bust since 2007 https://www.arsenal.com/arsenal-history/arsenal-s-heritage/arsenal-busts
Yes I’ve seen the bust in person, but it’s somewhat tucked away in comparison to the statues around the stadium.
Legend
Arsene absolutely spoilt us. The Invincibles. The 3 Premier Leagues and 4 FA Cups in 7 years. It was just incredible to live through that generation.
But it still hurts that Arsene deserved a lot more. The triple shots in such close proximity to each other really took their toll on the club;
2005; Abramovich and his billions take over Chelsea.
2006; Leaving Highbury.
2007; David Dein leaving the club.
Despite all that, so close to winning the 07-08 season!
I honestly think the failure that season and then combined with Man City takeover in 2008 spelled the beginning of the hard times.
2005: Chelsea FC was founded. There, fixed it for you.
Quadruple ‘shots’ …
2006: Being robbed in the Champion’s League Final.
That’s true. But the other 3 had significant long-term effects lasting many years.
Yep, I agree but for the first time since that triple hit, we finally have a team ready to genuinely challenge for the title… Wenger will never be forgotten, especially as the sexy football we play even today can be referenced back to Wenger’s arrival in the 90’s. Absolutely fucking love you Arsene. And yes the stadium should be named after you.
We were achingly close in 2016. Leicester City only won that title because our centre halves couldn’t hack it; we lost that Premiership title down to poor defending. Elsewhere on the pitch, we were smashing it.
Had we won that, Wenger’s departure – and ultimately, I think, Mesut Ozil’s – would have had an entirely different context.
A richly deserved honour. Class personified, a great man as well as a great manager.
Merci, Arsene!
Great football manager, even better human. If they ever make a “human being hall of fame” he should be in the first class of inductees.
That Video was quite cool. Man those last seconds where Arteta, Vieira and Wrighty sum him up in one word..goosebumps man, they nail it
Should have won the title in 99, 03 & 08 but missed out due to dirty tackles and dubious refereeing!! Despite that we still are the only invincible team which is incredible when you look at it
You can add the Champions League Final in 2006, the Premiership of 2016, the FA Cup of 1999 (had Bergkamp’s penalty gone in, we’d have beaten Newcastle again in the final, no problem) and 2001, the UEFA Cup of 2000 and the League Cup of 2011.
All perfectly well within our reach and lost due to a combination of bad luck poor officiating and, on occasion, self inflicted downright dodgy defending.
Sling that lot as imaginary victories alongside what we actually won under Wenger, and, in my opinion, you get a far more truer reflection of the man’s unquestionable genius.
Fantastic, unbelievable first ten years, but Wenger hung around for far too long and eventually tarnished his own great legacy. For oldies like me, what happened between ‘96 and ‘06 was pure fantasy. We went from being “boring Arsenal” to the most stylish and successful team in English football. Arsene Wenger completely and utterly transformed Arsenal Football Club. The apogee of his tenure was, of course, that brilliant unbeaten season. But Wenger didn’t know when to walk away and he ended up hurting the club that he loved so much. Immediately after we won that FA Cup in 2014 he… Read more »
I don’t think I’ll ever stop missing Arsene. Everything about him has been said 100 times over, so just want to say thanks for everything once again. And sorry on behalf of the …vocal minority that ruined it for everyone towards the end.
It’s easy to compare Wenger and Fergie. With Man Utds greater resources would Wenger have won the Champions League? Quite likely as he nearly did it anyway. If Fergie had tightened the purse strings and operated on Arsene’s budget could he have gone a season undefeated? Like fuck he could.
What took them so fucking long?
He is my God. Praise be.