Trophy’s barely up and the arguments have started. That’s Arsenal for you. Confirmed the title Tuesday night at Bournemouth and within minutes half the internet had pulled up 2003/04 for comparison.
So let’s do this properly.
Position upfront: Invincibles are the greatest Arsenal team, probably the greatest Premier League team ever. But 2025/26 is closer than anyone watching 2003/04 would’ve believed. Head-to-head on the best day? Less obvious than people want to admit.
THE NUMBERS
2003/04: 38 games. 26 wins. 12 draws. Zero losses. 90 points. 73 goals. 26 conceded. 15 clean sheets. Henry scored 30 in the league. Finished eleven points ahead of Chelsea.
2025/26: 38 games. 25 wins. 7 draws. 6 losses. 82 points. 72 goals. 26 conceded. 17 corner goals. Eight 1-0 wins. Five points ahead of City.
The Invincibles conceded exactly the same number of goals across the season. The 2025/26 side scored one fewer. The points gap is eight, which is significant. The goal difference gap is negligible.
What’s that tell you? 2003/04 drew twelve games a more ruthless side would’ve won. Unbeaten because they found ways not to lose, which is genius in itself. 2025/26 lost six but won bigger when they won. Two routes to the same place.
THE FORWARDS
Henry: 30 league goals in 2003/04. Thirty. In 38 games. One of the greatest individual seasons this league’s ever seen, will probably ever see. Movement English football had never seen. Started runs from deep, blew past defenders who saw it coming but couldn’t stop it, finished like he’d done it a million times before. He had. Best striker on the planet that year. Not just the Premier League. The world.
Gyokeres is 2025/26’s closest version. 25 goals, 12 assists. Everything Arteta builds goes through him. Excellent holding the ball up, bringing others in. Good. Really good. But not Henry. Nobody’s been Henry since Henry.
Saka versus Pires is more interesting than most people think. Pires was brilliant, technically beautiful, but he went missing in big away games when Arsenal needed him. Saka at his peak does everything. Assists, goals, pressing, crossing, willing to take the game on when it’s not working. Pires was prettier to watch. Saka’s more reliable and arguably more vital to how his team functions.
Bergkamp versus Odegaard is the argument that won’t end. Bergkamp in 2003/04 was doing things technically that barely anyone in England had done before, operating between the lines before people had a name for it, releasing Henry with passes at exactly the right speed and angle. Odegaard conducts Arsenal the same way. Both are the orchestra’s leader, not the loudest instrument. Both essential. Bergkamp slightly more creative, slightly less available through injury. Odegaard slightly less creative, far more available. Genuinely close.
Ljungberg versus Eze is the one area where 2025/26 wins clearly. Eze is a better footballer than Ljungberg was.
Verdict on forwards: 2003/04 by a distance. Henry alone wins this comparison.
THE MIDFIELD
Vieira 2003/04. Six foot four. Athletic. Technically excellent. Physically dominant in ways that were legal then, still legal now. Could bully midfielders then turn and play a forty-yard diagonal. Captain, enforcer, playmaker rolled into one. Nobody like him since.
Rice 2025/26: best defensive midfielder in England. Passes like a metronome, positions perfectly, snuffs out danger before it starts, keeps Arsenal’s shape. He’s the engine. Whole system needs him there and performing. He’s been both all season.
But Rice isn’t Vieira. Vieira played when the physical battle in midfield was more direct and he won it almost every week. Whether that works in the modern game is the question. Rice’s pressing and positional intelligence suit 2025/26 football better. Vieira’s physical presence and technical range would suit any era.
Gilberto alongside Vieira gave the Invincibles a base that allowed Bergkamp and the wide midfielders to operate freely. Zubimendi alongside Rice does the same thing for Saka and Odegaard. Both partnerships worked. The Invincibles’ midfield had more individual quality at the top.
Verdict on midfield: 2003/04 wins. Vieira is the difference.
THE DEFENCE
Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole. Campbell was one of the best centre-backs in world football that season, Cole probably the best left-back on earth. Lauren at right-back was underrated for years. Kolo Toure was physically exceptional. Lehmann in goal was commanding, furious, occasionally mad, and excellent. 26 goals conceded.
Saliba 2025/26: best centre-back in the league, probably the most important player in the title win. 24 years old and already at a level Campbell didn’t hit till his late twenties. Comparison’s genuine and Saliba probably edges it. Gabriel next to him is different from Toure but just as reliable. Raya plays more comfortably with the ball than Lehmann ever did.
Hincapie and Mosquera aren’t Ashley Cole. Honest truth. Cole 2003/04 was exceptional. Nobody in 2025/26 comes close from full-back.
Verdict on defence: essentially even. Campbell and Cole push 2003/04 just ahead. Saliba keeps 2025/26 in it.
THE MANAGERS
Wenger 2003/04 was years ahead of English football. Diet, training, tactics, French recruitment, trusting youth, making Arsenal brilliant to watch and impossible to break down. Invincibles were the end point of eight years of building.
Arteta in 2025/26 learned from Guardiola, inherited Wenger’s legacy, built something impressive. Corner routines. Defensive identity. Transfer strategy. Six years making Arsenal harder to score against, harder to beat. Ended with a title.
Wenger was an innovator. Arteta is a very good implementer who’s made the methods current. Both built great teams. Wenger built one that went unbeaten.
Verdict on managers: Wenger wins easily.
SO WHICH SIDE WINS THE ARGUMENT
2003/04 wins. Invincibles are Arsenal’s greatest team, one of the Premier League’s greatest ever. Full season unbeaten – City with 100 points couldn’t do it, Mourinho’s Chelsea with 95 couldn’t do it. Nobody’s done it since and probably nobody will.
But here’s what nostalgia misses: 2025/26 conceded the same goals, scored one fewer, won in a harder era against City with Haaland, made a Champions League final. Invincibles did none of that. Won the league by eleven points against Chelsea spending Abramovich’s money for the first time.
2025/26 is genuinely close to the Invincibles. Shouldn’t be surprising. Arteta’s been building this for six years and the result is an Arsenal side that belongs in the same conversation as the greatest team this club’s produced.
Henry wins it for 2003/04. Head-to-head on the best day of each team, neutral ground, full strength? Invincibles, by a goal.
For everything from Arsenal’s title-winning season and the full story of how they got there, our Premier League 2025/26 coverage has every match report, analysis and reaction piece, alongside the rest of our Arsenal and football coverage.