Amy Lawrence

Arsène Wenger

invincible

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Invincible

Delightful . . . a football book that takes the team not the stars as its starting point

This book is so full of exclusive interviews you'll soon feel like part of the squad. A worthy tribute to one of English football's best ever teams, it makes you long for one more game at Highbury

Unbeatable insight. The inside story of one of English football's greatest teams

Perceptive and well-wrought . . . Provides all-areas access to the inner workings and passions of a top club and a famous team

The story of an amazing season wonderfully told through the eyes of the men who made it happen. I can't recommend it highly enough

Fascinating for any sports fan and truly a gold mine for Arsenal supporters

A fascinating and engrossing read from start to finish. Provides wonderful insight and anecdotes as well as revealing the dynamics and determination from within the dressing room

I picked it up and couldn't put it down. Brilliantly depicts a piece of football history

David Dein, Arsenal Vice-Chairman (1983-2007)

This is research at its riveting best. My only complaint about the book is that it had to end

Patrick Barclay, author of The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman

If you were there in 71 and/or 2004, buy the book. If only now do you appreciate that we probably had four of the six best payers on the planet back then, buy the book and read their words. Let me make it simple. If you are an Arsenal supporter, buy the book

This is a book that contains some of the most evocative prose I have encountered in a book about football and without doubt solidifies Lawrence's place in the very top tier of sports writing in English. The story and characters are fascinating enough, but it is how they come to life and dance in Lawrence's writing that makes this book such a wonderful telling of an incredible tale

Lawrence is a writer who will help the reader to appreciate the football on the pitch with an understanding of how the game is played few can match. At the same time she never fails to appreciate the passion that makes us fans

A gripping account of Arsenal's undefeated title winning season of 2003/4

Inside Arsenal's Unbeaten 2003-2004 Season

In 2003-04, Arsenal overcame every conceivable challenge to complete a 38-game league without a single loss. It was a feat unequalled in modern football. But for Arsene Wenger's 'Invincibles', a team including legends Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp, it was a challenge that went far beyond sport. 
 
Based on exclusive players interviews, this definitive book relives the pivotal games and moments, and allows the Invincibles to tell their own story. It takes readers inside the locker room, to reveal the teamwork, the psychology and the struggle behind one of the greatest teams in history.

There is a gold edition of the Premier League trophy on display inside Arsenal's stadium. It is the only one of its kind. 
 
It was specially commissioned to honour an achievement that has never been done before or since in modern football - an undefeated campaign. Most of the players involved never even touched it, or lifted it, as it was cast as an afterthought. Who, after all, would imagine overcoming every obstacle to complete a 38-game season without loss? Only Arsene Wenger. 
 
Nobody in Arsenal's inner circle took him seriously when he first said it could be done. Yet in 2003-04, a team that played with lightning speed and lustrous skill fulfilled Wenger's lifelong dream. In one season, a special group became invincible. 
 
That group was fascinating for the blend - characters who shared elite qualities but also added idiosyncratic personality to the mix. They pushed and inspired one another. It brought the best out of the likes of Jens Lehmann, a self-styled 'Mad German', Sol Campbell, an intense competitor, Robert Pires, an instant friend if you give him a football, Patrick Vieira, a soft-spoken, battle-hardened captain, Gilberto, a thoughtful Brazilian, Thierry Henry, a supremely gifted and obsessed scorer and creator, Dennis Bergkamp, the perfectionist conductor. 
 
This definitive book is based on their experiences told in exclusive player interviews. Football writer Amy Lawrence, who has reported on Arsenal for more than 25 years, weaves their recollections, as well as the testimonies of other key players and protagonists around the club, to allow them to tell their story. From the battle of Old Trafford to jubilation at White Hart Lane, from training ground sparks to dressing room revelations, readers will go behind closed doors, onto the pitch and into the minds of the players to relive the key games and battles, and to understand the teamwork and the psychology that was fundamental to staying undefeated. 
 
Invincible is also the story of one club's revolution during an era when the game has been transformed. A journey back and forth in time, the book reflects on the scene in the 1970s and 80s, and finishes in the present with a full chapter interview with Arsene Wenger conducted after Arsenal's 2014 FA Cup victory, to put the Invincibles into important historical context. 
 
Full of insight, honesty and humour, this insider's account is not only a must-have read for any Arsenal or football fan, but an enthralling portrait of one of the most extraordinary teams in modern sport.

Amy Lawrence has watched football avidly since her first trip to Highbury at the age of six, and has written about it, mostly for the Guardian and the Observer, for twenty years. She lives in London.

Invincible

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Amy Lawrence

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