Forgotten Gunners – Pascal Cygan

Yesterday former Arsenal defender Pascal Cygan celebrated his 39th birthday. In honour of that, I will reflect on Cygan’s career at the club.

In 2002, Arsenal’s legendary captain Tony Adams retired from football and Arsene Wenger needed to sign a central defender. Whilst some would say Adams was replaced the year before by Sol Campbell, Cygan was signed to compete for a first-team spot with the likes of Campbell and Martin Keown.

Cygan arrived from Lille for a fee believed to be around £2m. He had been a key member of the Lille side that had played in the Champions League and was voted Player of the Year in the French first division in 2001 by French journalists.

Cygan signs for Arsenal back in 2002.

The Frenchman made his Arsenal debut on 1st September 2002 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, replacing Kanu in a 1-1 draw. Stamford Bridge was the venue for an FA Cup 6th round replay in which Cygan got sent off, but Arsenal won 3-1.

Cygan was a fringe player at the club and the fans would often groan if he was starting because in reality, he wasn’t quite good enough. However, I do feel that he was a versatile player and when we needed him to play left-back instead of his favoured central role, he did so competently. He was one of the fringe players often used by Arsene Wenger in League Cup ties to add a little bit of experience to an otherwise young side.

I do remember Pascal taking a couple of penalties in shootouts. We played Rotherham in 2003/04, a game that I attended. After extra-time the scores were level at 1-1. The penalty shootout seemed to be a never ending one. Arsenal went through winning 9-8 on penalties and Cygan scored from the spot. I remember my Dad saying “we better get ready for this to hit us” as we were sitting high up at Highbury, but he smashed it into the top corner, an absolute beauty. Cygan also stepped up to the spot in a League Cup shootout against Doncaster in 2005/06 and also scored in that one too. So Cygan was pretty reliable from the spot when called upon!.

Seeing Pascal Cygan score was pretty rare, with him being a defender and also a backup player too. His first goal for the club came in the 2002/03 season at home to Everton. He put Arsenal 1-0 with a header early on before Wayne Rooney equalised for Everton. Patrick Vieira scored the winner that day in a 2-1 win.

His next goal came at home to Fulham in August 2005, putting Arsenal 1-0 up. He didn’t have to wait quite as long for his next goal, as it came in the same game!. Cygan scored Arsenal’s fourth goal in the last minute to seal a 4-1 win for the Gunners that day. It was one of those moments where   you couldn’t quite believe your eyes. Pascal Cygan scoring twice for Arsenal in one match. They made t-shirts for John Jensen saying “I was there when Jensen scored”, surely they should have made “I was there when Cygan scored twice in one game” shirts!.

One thing I do remember from Cygan’s time at the club was an awful own goal he scored in the Champions League. Arsenal were 1-0 up at home to Panathinaikos in 2004 thanks to a Thierry Henry penalty, but Cygan diverted a shot in off of his bald head and the Greeks stole a point off of us.

Whatever your opinion of Cygan, he was part of one of the best team’s that this country has ever seen. He was an Invincible and played his part in the side that went an entire season unbeaten. He got a Premier League winners medal in 2003/04 and he also won 2 FA Cups with the club as well as 2 Community Shields.

Cygan left the club on transfer deadline day in the summer of 2006 to join Spanish club Villarreal. His team-mate at Arsenal and fellow Frenchman Robert Pires had made the same switch earlier that summer and I believe that Pires had recommended him to the club to help him gel in.

He stayed 3 years at Villarreal before moving to then Spanish second division side Cartagena in the summer of 2009, where he stayed until 2011 before retiring.

Despite not being popular, Cygan did a job for the team and like I said he would play anywhere across the defence if you needed him to.

One final amusing story about him that I have was when in the summer of 2002 when he joined. Being fairly young back then and him being a new signing, I wanted Cygan on the back of my shirt. I told my brother I wanted to do so, but he (despite being 21 at the time) didn’t want  me to get the same player on the back of my shirt as him. So I just got no name on the back of the blue away shirt that year and he got Cygan. He saved me a little bit of embarrassment in doing so, just like the year before on the gold away kit, I had said I wanted new signing Francis Jeffers on the back of it, but again, he got Jeffers on it and I just settled for the shirt with no name once more. After seeing those two perform in an Arsenal shirt, I’m rather glad he did that, so thanks bro!.