Pain in the Arsenal
Fansided

Ranking the 5 best Arsenal wingers/attacking midfielders of all-time

By Kenneth Daly

Oct 1979: Liam Brady of Arsenal in action during a Football League Division One match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux Grounds in Wolverhampton, England. \ Mandatory Credit: Allsport UK /Allsport
Oct 1979: Liam Brady of Arsenal in action during a Football League Division One match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux Grounds in Wolverhampton, England. \ Mandatory Credit: Allsport UK /Allsport /
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1. Robert Pires

LONDON – NOVEMBER 8: Robert Pires of Arsenal celebrates scoring the first goal for Arsenal during the FA Barclaycard Premiership match between Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur at Highbury Stadium on November 8, 2003, in London. (Photo by Phil Cole/Getty Images)
LONDON – NOVEMBER 8: Robert Pires of Arsenal celebrates scoring the first goal for Arsenal during the FA Barclaycard Premiership match between Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur at Highbury Stadium on November 8, 2003, in London. (Photo by Phil Cole/Getty Images) /

Pires faced a myriad of challenges when he first arrived at Arsenal in the summer of 2001, namely the weight of expectation to replace Barcelona-bound Marc Overmars and his own concerns that he would not adapt to the physicality of English football.

However, the club’s healthy French contingent enabled the Ligue 1 man to find his feet and he would soon combine outstanding creativity and speed with a clinical touch to take the Premier League by storm.

Flashes of individual brilliance and a few memorable strikes lit up short periods of his debut campaign, but it was during the following year when Pires really began to shine. A series of fantastic performances catapulted him to the top of the league’s assist charts, while he also claimed Arsenal’s Player of the Season award and was named FWA Footballer of the Year.

Despite being forced out of the 2002 World Cup due to a devastating cruciate knee ligament injury, Pires did not let the disappointment linger and demonstrated his immense resilience to recover the next season – where he still recorded 14 goals in 20 league starts and rounded the campaign off by scoring the decisive goal in the 2003 FA Cup final.

He continued to go from strength to strength and enjoyed his best season in the 2004 Invincibles campaign, bouncing back from a sluggish start (with only one goal before October) to terrorise defenders across the division and end the term as the Gunners’ second top scorer.

A premature substitution in the 2006 Champions League final meant his Arsenal career did not get the conclusion it deserved, but he nevertheless made an indelible impact and is rightly considered one of our greatest ever players.

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