15 May 2004. Ever since that day, those of us who were at Highbury have been saying, yes, I was there. And so of course on the anniversary of the day, we celebrate the day the Invincibles came Invincible.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s had spent the week telling anyone who would listen how his Rangers team had been heading for an unbeaten season and then lost the very last game – and how he wouldn’t be surprised if that happened to Arsenal. Which is how it felt at half-time with the score Arsenal 0 Leicester 1. I remember tears welling up as the final whistle blew, trying like mad to hide the fact from others around me, and then realising that the guy next to me was sobbing uncontrollably. It was that sort of moment.
It was a time when there was talk of the new stadium, of Arsenal buying David Beckham and talk of Patrick Vieira going to Real Madrid. There is always talk. But what there really was, was the unmistakable fact of the league table. And the laughter we had at every journalist who through the season had said it would not be done.
What makes the day extra memorable is that Leicester City did turn up and made a game of it at the start. They expected Arsenal to be nervous, and Arsenal were, so they exploited it. On 26 minutes Vieira passed to Sinclair (ooops – wrong team) and the ball went to our old boy Dickov and he headed in. Talk about parking the bus, this was 11 men on the Leicester goal line from that point on.
Half time was horrible. Surely we could not lose, not as Sir Alex predicted? Not to relegated Leicester! But then on 47 minutes, Dennis Bergkamp chipped the ball over the top of Frank Sinclair. Sinclair turned, brought down Ashley Cole in the area and for the next six weeks (or so it seemed) we waited for Henry to step up. Surely this could not be the day Henry hit it into the north bank…..No, of course it wasn’t. 1-1.
Then on 66 minutes Bergkamp did that wonderful thing he liked to do – he stopped, with the ball, looked up, looked around, considered the windspeed, noted the temperature, checked for any gravitational anomalies, measured the gradient, took into account the inward gasps from the crowd, re-checked who was where, noted the position of the sun, made sure the cameras were rolling, rounded a divot, and simply passed an impossible ball to our Patrick who had about 25 square miles of space through which to walk the ball around Ian Walker. 2-1 to the Untouchables.
It wasn’t just that we were Invincible, it was Bergkamp, Henry and Vieira. And I am going to add Lehmann. Not a player normally spoken of with the other three, but still, the only man ever to keep goal through a whole season in the top division and not lose a game. An amazing achievement.
But there was sadness too. Kanu was going, as was Wiltord. Martin Keown made his last appearance too, and there was talk of the replacement already having been found – what the Guardian called “the Swiss prodigy Philippe Senderos”. Hmmm.
Of course we stayed after the game to see the players walk the pitch. Mr Wenger was there with his daughter shaking supporters’ hands and just smiling, smiling, smiling as he walked around. You might remember the way when, at the final whistle, he would turn and go straight down the tunnel. On this day he looked like he would never leave.
You might recall that at Highbury there was that corner of the ground between the clock end and the west stand where the away support was housed. Leicester took up all their places even though they were relegated, and many stayed to see the celebration, and as Arsenal walked past them on the lap of honour, they too applauded. It was a nice touch.
On the North Circular road everywhere there were cars on the roads with red and white, windows down, horns blaring. It was our day, and we were not going to let it end.
Attendance: 38,419. I was there.