{"id":3388,"date":"2026-04-07T21:20:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2026-04-07T21:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:20:50","slug":"arsenal-should-use-invincible-season-for-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3388","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal should use invincible season for inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Before the Carabao Final, I reflected on our loss to Birmingham City<\/span><\/span> in 2011 and how it represented such a mental blow; it seemed to trigger a domino effect across other competitions. Within two weeks after the defeat at Wembley, the Gunners were eliminated from the Champions League and FA Cup and lost ground in the Premier League title race.<\/p>\n

There are comparisons with the current squad in terms of youth and a perceived lack of leadership. The manner of our two Cup exits has raised fears that a similar pattern could unfold in Europe and the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Learning from the Past<\/h2>\n

That said, history also shows moments where adversity was transformed into inspiration. It is unusual to go from quadruple dreams to a double within the space of two fixtures.<\/p>\n

Yet in 2004, Arsenal<\/span><\/span> lost an FA Cup semi-final and a Champions League quarter-final in the space of four days. Many remember that year as one of the most iconic in the club\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The schedule was gruelling: we faced Liverpool<\/span><\/span> on a Friday, twice finding ourselves behind, while our lead at the top of the table would have been four points.<\/p>\n

Amazon released a documentary in 2021, Arsenal Wenger \u2013 Invincible<\/em>. Thierry Henry<\/span><\/span> reflected on that day against Liverpool, saying he had never experienced Highbury like it. \u201cI felt like Highbury died; something had gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was tradition for Arsene Wenger<\/span><\/span> to trust his dressing room to find solutions for themselves. He described his approach to \u2018reducing crisis time\u2019 and linked being invincible to mental resilience, a deeper refusal to accept defeat at any cost.<\/p>\n

Inspiration for the Present<\/h2>\n

In that second half, Henry put the traumas of the week behind him and inspired the Gunners to never look back.<\/p>\n

The current team cannot be compared directly to the Invincibles. Mikel Arteta<\/span><\/span> would not grant creative licence for a player to run at the Liverpool defence in the way Henry did that day.<\/p>\n

Yet the question remains: who in the current squad wants to step up, become famous, and create a lasting legacy?<\/p>\n

It might be worthwhile showing our players this documentary, not only to inspire them but to remind them how mental strength can define greatness.<\/p>\n

Dan Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before the Carabao Final, I reflected on our loss to Birmingham City in 2011 and how it represented such a mental blow; it seemed to trigger a domino effect across other competitions. Within two weeks after the defeat at Wembley, the Gunners were eliminated from the Champions League and FA Cup and lost ground in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}