The supporters will feel bad but I hope they understand Saturday will be a different game [at home to Tottenham Hotspur]. to be keen to keep him and he is one of the most talked about rising Last updated 13 Aug 1997. New features every day on FourFourTwo.com. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, Arsene Wenger chose not to tweak Arsenal's starting XI for his first game in charge – a 2-0 win at Blackburn in October 1996 – but upset the players by summoning them to the hotel ballroom at 8.30 on the morning of the game for an unheard of warm-up and stretching session. The club dismissed manager Bruce Rioch in the close season, who spent a year in-charge. In 1996 werd Wenger aangesteld als hoofdcoach van Arsenal.

For [4] Although they were 12 points behind league leaders Manchester United by the end of February, a winning streak of nine matches ensured Arsenal won the championship, with a 4–0 win over Everton in May 1998.

Amit Katwala remembers the side that started the Frenchman's first game in charge of the Gunners more than two decades ago.

most fans could have realistically expected during the confusion which However, Wenger is not expected to take control before

Forest and Sunderland respectively. The team scored a total of 82 goals in all competitions. He set up the Gunners' second goal, picking up the ball in midfield, striding forward and playing a delicious outside-of-the-foot through-ball to Ian Wright, who duly scored. New signings David Platt and Dennis Bergkamp came to justify their hefty price tags, while the ageing Ian Wright showed no sign of winding down thanks to a regular supply of goals. [61] Defeat at home to Liverpool on 24 March 1997 was marred by a dubious penalty awarded to striker Robbie Fowler. playmaker who can control and shape the course of a game from the middle They ended this campaign as league runners-up, a point behind Manchester United, who secured the title on the final day of the season. [61] A 1–0 victory against Blackburn Rovers three days later, helped them move a point behind first position. In the 1997–98 season, Arsenal participated in the Premier League.
Adams went on to spend 18 months in charge of Gabala FC in the Azerbaijani Premier League, where he currently works as a sporting director.

After retiring, he did his coaching badges and immediately returned to Arsenal – working first with the academy, and since 2012 as Wenger’s assistant manager. [23] West Ham conceded a penalty in the second half when Marc Rieper handled Lee Dixon's cross; Bergkamp, in the absence of designated penalty taker Wright, struck the ball low to Luděk Mikloško's right, to score the team's second goal. The result inflicted Arsenal's biggest defeat in over eight years and Wenger defended his team selection, virtually a 'second team': "I knew before the game that this kind of thing might happen. Both Arsenal and Manchester United went into the final two games of the league season on the same number of points, but the former's defeat to Leeds United all but ended their chances of retaining the title.

partially rejuvenated last year by the switch to deploying 3 centre "[45] On New Year's Day, Wright scored his 200th English league goal in Arsenal's 2–0 win against Middlesbrough; he began a three-game suspension thereafter, because of his red card against Nottingham Forest. BMG in Cologne. infamously ignored the unwritten rules of fair play to win a corner from Amit Katwala remembers the side that started the Frenchman's first game in charge of the Gunners more than two decades ago. George Graham’s greatest gift to Arsenal was that fabulously mean defence, so well synchronised in the offside trap that it was like watching a Seaman routine on Dancing on Ice.

backs, the emergence of Scott Marshall and the resurgence of Martin [38] In the match, Wright put Arsenal into the lead through a penalty, but after 57 minutes, Sol Campbell headed on a long throw for Tottenham and the ball fell to Andy Sinton, whose shot "cannoned off the inside of the near post, then hit Lukic on the head and rebounded into the net".