30 September 1996 Arsène Wenger formally appointed as Arsenal manager.

30 September 1996 Arsène Wenger formally appointed as Arsenal manager.

He had played football for four clubs: Mutzig, Mulhouse, ASPV Strasbourg and RC Strasbourg, and then before coming to Arsenal he managed Nancy, Monaco, and Nogoya Grampus Eight.  

Of course you’ll know a lot about him already, including perhaps that he won more league titles than any other manager at Arsenal (Chapman, Allison, and Whittaker each won two) and more FA Cups than anyone else in history (seven) – and that includes those managers who won during the time when only a handful of clubs entered the FA Cup.

But perhaps what you might not know is that of all our permanent managers he holds the record for the highest win ratio (57.25%) of anyone in the history of Arsenal.   Interestingly the nearest there is to him in terms of win percentage is Unai Emery on 55.13% and after that… Mikel Arteta on 53.19%.

Of all the men who have managed Arsenal only three managers (all on short term non-permanent contracts) have beaten Mr Wenger.

Joe Shaw, who took over the management of Arsenal after the sudden death of Herbert Chapman and managed the club for 23 games had a win percentage of 60.87%.  

Above even that between March and April 1898 Arsenal were managed by someone whose name we have never discovered for eight games, and Mr Unknown got a win ratio of 66.67%.

And then finally, top of the tree is Pat Rice, who managed the club for four games while waiting for Mr Wenger to arrive from Japan.  He won three of his four games, giving him an unassailable 75% win ratio.