The List | Arsène Wenger's Top Ten Matches - Football News

1000 games as a football manager is mightily impressive, but 1000 games as manager of one the top Premier League clubs is even better. Who? Arsene Wenger of course. On Saturday Wenger will take his Arsenal side to Stamford Bridge, marking his 1000th game at the helm of the North London club.
 

999 games to date has provided us with some amazing matches and to narrow them down to a top ten games has been a pretty hard task. But that's exactly what we've done. So here are what we think are the best ten games for the Gunners under their Frenchman.

Arsenal v Liverpool 2003/2004 (4-2) – Arsenal had just crashed out of the Champions League courtesy of a Wayne Bridge goal and their treble hopes had gone down the toilet with it. After going one nil down at Highbury, the club had only one man to turn to. Thierry Henry, who when the Gunners were floundering stepped up and the rest was history.

Chelsea v Arsenal 1999/2000 (2-3) – Chelsea fans will never forget this one – but for all the wrong reasons. The Blues looked like they were actually about to record three points, and then Kanu stepped up scoring an incredible hattrick, the forward secured all three points for Arsenal and bagged hero status at the same time.



Arsenal v Chelsea FA Cup final 2001/2002 (2-0) – One of the best periods in the history of the club, the Gunners beat Chelsea by two goals in the final to lift the FA Cup and that wasn't the only big cup they lifted that season. With a crucial league match less than a week later, Arsenal went all out to win the all London final and goals courtesy of Ray Parlour and Freddie Ljungberg saw them do just that.



Manchester United v Arsenal 2001/2002 (0-1) – Arguably the greatest result of them all, Arsene Wenegr and his men managed to not only win at Old Trafford with Sylvain Wiltord the hero of the hour, but also secure the league title at the same time, ending the run of titles Fergie and his men had lifted the three seasons prior. After winning the FA Cup as well, it is a season all Arsenal fans will remember with pride.



Inter Milan v Arsenal 2003/2004 (1-5) – A result that sent shockwaves all throughout Europe and showed just how classy a player Thierry Henry was - as if we needed a reminder! The forward inspired the crushing defeat of the Italian giants in their own backyard with Henry, Pires and co running the Inter backline ragged.



Real Madrid v Arsenal 2005/2006 (0-1) – The North London side became the first English club to win at the Santiago Bernabeu and did so by dominating the game and stunning the Spanish giants en route to the Champions League final. Of course there was only one man who could have netted the winning goal, a certain Frenchman called Henry.



Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur 2011/2012 (5-2) - There had to be a win over North London rivals Spurs in here somewhere and the 5-2 demolishing of the Lilywhites is the pick of the bunch. What exactly makes it so good? Well Spurs were 2 goals to the good – and still managed to mess it up, conceding five to a side who had just lost 4-0 to AC Milan and been knocked out the FA Cup by Sunderland. What better way to fix those blues than to batter your bitter rivals.



Arsenal v Slavia Prague 2007/2008 (7-0) – An utter demolition en route to the knockout stages of the Champions League with Arsenal producing one of the most complete and superior performances we have seen in football. In the ascendancy throughout, the free flowing and scoring football was on full display here.



Arsenal v Barcelona 2010/2011 (2-1) – One of the greatest games seen at the Emirates. Arsenal beat Barcelona with two late comeback goals from Robin Van Persie and Andrei Arshavin in the first leg of their Champions League knockout tie and it was a night that Arsenal fans will never forget. Barcelona who were easily the best team in Europe at that point took the lead but the Gunners never gave up and recorded a sensational victory.



Chelsea v Arsenal 2011/2012 (3-5) – Football fans as a whole rejoiced when Chelsea not only lost at home to Arsenal, but their ‘Captain, Leader, Legend’ John Terry managed to hand Robin Van Persie the winning goal on a platter. Theo Walcott was also on the score sheet and to demonstrate just how poor the Blues were, Andre Santos even scored.

Of course, come Saturday, should Wenger mastermind a victory over Jose Mourinho, who has not lost to the Frenchman in ten games, and break that unbeaten home record of his, the match would shoot straight to the top of this list.

What do you think Wenger’s best games have been so far? Let us know. Join the conversation online, on Twitter and on Facebook.