The Invincibles: Arsenal's unbeaten Premier League season

The Invincibles was Arsenal's 2003/04 Premier League season, the only campaign in the competition's history that a team has gone through without losing a single match. Arsenal finished with 26 wins and 12 draws, no defeats and 90 points, under manager Arsene Wenger, and the side was dubbed the Invincibles. More than two decades on, no one has repeated it, and only one other team in the entire history of English top-flight football has ever done it.

The Invincibles' 2003/04 record

The numbers still look absurd. Across 38 matches, Arsenal won 26 and drew 12, scored 73 goals and conceded 26, and finished on 90 points, 11 clear of second-placed Chelsea, who collected 79. Wenger's side became the first team in Premier League history to go through an entire campaign unbeaten, playing the free-flowing game that the Premier League's own season review celebrated.

The title was effectively settled before the final whistle of the campaign. A 2-2 draw with north London rivals Spurs at White Hart Lane on 25 April 2004 was enough once Chelsea had lost at Newcastle. The unbeaten record needed one more push. On the final day, 15 May 2004, Leicester City arrived at Highbury already relegated and took the lead through Paul Dickov. Thierry Henry equalised from the penalty spot and captain Patrick Vieira scored the winner, completing a 2-1 victory and an unbeaten season.

How they did it: the back line and the key players

The back line was the quiet foundation: Jens Lehmann in goal, Lauren at right-back, Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure in the middle, Ashley Cole on the left. It conceded only 26 goals in 38 games, and that discipline let the attackers do the damage.

Vieira, the captain, anchored midfield alongside Gilberto, with Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires on the flanks and Dennis Bergkamp supplying the final ball to Henry. Henry finished as the division's top scorer with 30 league goals and was voted the Premier League Player of the Season for 2003/04.

The season had its scares. In September 2003, Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy missed a last-minute penalty that would have ended the run before it properly began, and Arsenal left Old Trafford with a 0-0 draw. In April 2004, they were 2-1 down at half-time to Liverpool before Pires levelled and Henry took over with a hat-trick in a 4-2 win. The Invincibles did not just coast; they kept rescuing results, and they did it while also running deep in the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Champions League.

The records they set

The unbeaten run stretched well beyond the one season. Arsenal went 49 consecutive top-flight games without defeat, from May 2003 to October 2004, breaking Nottingham Forest's previous record of 42, set between November 1977 and November 1978. The run finally ended at Old Trafford on 24 October 2004, where a Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty and a stoppage-time Wayne Rooney goal gave Manchester United a 2-0 win.

The 2003/04 campaign itself set the records that still define it: the first unbeaten Premier League season, 90 points, an 11-point winning margin and the fewest defeats in a season in Premier League history, which remains zero. Tiebreakers never came into it: Arsenal led from the front, and no side came close enough for the goal difference column to matter.

Only two unbeaten seasons in English top-flight history

Arsenal's achievement is usually measured against one other side: Preston North End, who went through the inaugural Football League season of 1888/89 undefeated. Preston won 18 and drew four of their 22 matches, scored 74 goals and conceded 15, and won the FA Cup that season as well.

The comparison flatters the scale of Arsenal's difficulty. Preston's league had 12 clubs and 22 games; Arsenal's had 20 clubs and 38 games. Preston's unbeaten run lasted one short season, while Arsenal's stretched to 49 matches in total. In the 115 years between Preston's feat and Arsenal's, nobody in the English top flight managed it, and nobody has managed it since.

Why it has not been repeated

It is worth being clear-eyed about what makes the season great, because the raw numbers have been beaten since. Manchester City won 100 points in 2017/18, Liverpool won 99 in 2019/20, and Chelsea's 2004/05 title side, the first to try to follow the Invincibles directly, took 95 with just one defeat all season. Even Liverpool's 97 points in 2018/19 outscored Arsenal's total, and that was not enough to win the title.

Yet none of those sides went unbeaten. Chelsea lost once in 2004/05, Liverpool lost 3-0 at Watford in February 2020, and Manchester City's record 100-point champions could not do it either. The 2003/04 season is romanticised, and part of the romance is fair: 12 of Arsenal's matches were draws, they trailed on the final day against a relegated side, and they needed a last-minute penalty miss in September to keep the run alive. This was not a season of dominance. It was a season of refusal to lose, and that is why, for all the higher points totals that have come since, the Invincibles remains the only unbeaten campaign the Premier League has produced. It is also the standard Arsenal's current side, defending champions entering the 2026/27 season, is still measured against: no team since 2004 has finished a Premier League campaign without defeat.

FAQ

What was the Invincibles season? The Invincibles was the nickname for Arsenal's 2003/04 Premier League campaign, in which Arsene Wenger's side went the entire 38-match season unbeaten, winning 26 and drawing 12.

Did Arsenal lose any games in 2003/04? No. Arsenal lost none of their 38 league matches in 2003/04, the only time a team has done that in Premier League history.

How many points did the Invincibles get? Arsenal finished the 2003/04 season with 90 points from 26 wins and 12 draws, 11 points clear of second-placed Chelsea.

Has any team come close since? Chelsea in 2004/05 lost only once on the way to 95 points, and Liverpool in 2019/20 lost once on the way to 99, but no Premier League team has gone a season unbeaten since Arsenal.

Key takeaways

• Arsenal's 2003/04 season: 26 wins, 12 draws, 0 defeats and 90 points, the only unbeaten campaign in Premier League history.
• The unbeaten run lasted 49 top-flight matches, from May 2003 to October 2004, ending with a 2-0 defeat at Manchester United.
• Only two English top-flight seasons have ever been completed without defeat: Preston North End's 1888/89 and Arsenal's 2003/04.
• Three champions have scored more points since: Chelsea's 95 in 2004/05, Liverpool's 99 in 2019/20 and Manchester City's 100 in 2017/18.
• The Invincibles' place in history rests on never losing rather than on dominance: 12 draws and a string of rescues show a side that refused to be beaten.