Arsenal went 49 Premier League matches without defeat between May 2003 and October 2004. The run took in the whole of the 2003-04 season, when Arsene Wenger’s side won the title without losing a game, and it is still the English top-flight record more than 22 years later.
All figures below are counted from the match-by-match list in Wikipedia’s article on the Invincibles, checked on 21 October 2026.
The 49-game run in numbers
| All 49 matches | 2003-04 season (38) | |
|---|---|---|
| Won | 36 | 26 |
| Drawn | 13 | 12 |
| Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Goals for | 112 | 73 |
| Goals against | 35 | 26 |
| Points | 121 | 90 |
How the run started and ended
It began on 7 May 2003, near the end of the 2002-03 season, with a 6-1 home win over Southampton, followed by a 4-0 win at Sunderland. Arsenal then went through all 38 games of 2003-04 unbeaten, with 26 wins and 12 draws.
The closest call came in the sixth match of that season, at Old Trafford in September 2003, when Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the bar with a stoppage-time penalty and the game finished 0-0. Arsenal failed to score in only four of the 49 matches, all 0-0 draws: away to Manchester United, at home to Fulham, away to Newcastle United and at home to Birmingham City.
The run carried on into 2004-05. Arsenal passed Nottingham Forest’s league record of 42 matches without defeat against Blackburn Rovers in August 2004, and stretched it to 49 with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa on 16 October 2004.
It ended at Old Trafford on 24 October 2004. Manchester United won 2-0 after Van Nistelrooy scored a 73rd-minute penalty, awarded when Wayne Rooney went down under a challenge from Sol Campbell, and Rooney added a second late on. Many Arsenal fans believed Rooney had dived. The match became known as the “Battle of the Buffet” after a slice of pizza was thrown at Sir Alex Ferguson in the tunnel afterwards.
Who scored the goals
| Player | League goals in the 49 matches |
|---|---|
| Thierry Henry | 39 |
| Robert Pires | 23 |
| Freddie Ljungberg | 10 |
| Jose Antonio Reyes | 8 |
| Dennis Bergkamp | 7 |
Thierry Henry was the focal point, usually supported by Dennis Bergkamp. He scored 39 league goals during the run, 30 of them in 2003-04, when he was the Premier League’s top scorer. In 2008 Arsenal fans voted him the club’s greatest ever player. Robert Pires, playing on the left of midfield, was next with 23.
The team behind it
Captain Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva held the centre of midfield, with Freddie Ljungberg and Pires either side. Jens Lehmann, signed in the summer of 2003, was in goal. Kolo Toure, signed as a right-back and defensive midfielder, was moved to centre-back alongside Sol Campbell after impressing in pre-season, with Lauren and Ashley Cole at full-back. Vieira and Bergkamp were the only players from Wenger’s 1998 double-winning side who stayed in the first team throughout the run.
The Invincibles
Arsenal were the first team since Preston North End in 1888-89 to go through an English league season unbeaten, and the British press took up the old Preston nickname: The Sunday Times led with “Arsenal the New Invincibles”. They remain the only team to finish a 38-match season unbeaten. The Premier League commissioned a one-off gold version of its trophy, and in May 2018 the club gave it to Wenger at his final home game as manager.
The 49-match run is still the Premier League record for consecutive matches unbeaten. Arsenal did not win the league again until 2025-26, their first title since the Invincibles season.
Featured photo: AFP / Odd Andersen