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The five best Arsenal signings of the Premier League era

James McNicholas |

July 24, 2019

WITH the transfer window now just a couple of weeks from closing, Arsenal still have plenty of business left to do. With a relatively meagre budget, Gunners fans will have to hope every deal they do proves to be a success.

They’re certainly a club with a history of making some outstanding signings. In this piece, we take a look at their five best acquisitions of the Premier League era. It says something about the calibre of player they’ve managed to uncover in the last 27 years that the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Kolo Toure and Robin van Persie don’t even make this list.

 

5. Nicolas Anelka

In a lot of ways, Anelka was the archetypal Arsene Wenger signing: young, French, athletic and cheap. Signed in 1997 for a paltry £500,000, Anelka blossomed into one of Europe’s most dangerous forwards before leaving for Real Madrid in the summer of 1999.

Anelka made quite the impression in his short time in London. His blistering pace and composed finishing saw him terrorise English defences, and he effectively displaced the legendary Ian Wright (himself signed just prior to the Premier League era) in the first-team. 

Arsenal turned a huge profit on Anelka, securing a fee of £22.3 million. The manner in which that money was invested proved hugely significant. Arsenal spent half the money on a certain Thierry Henry, with the remainder funding the development of their state of the art London Colney training complex.

4. Sol Campbell

What Arsenal would give to have a central defender like Campbell available to them today. He was arguably England’s finest centre-half between 2001 and 2004, winning two Premier League trophies and two FA Cups in that period.

Signing a player of Campbell’s quality would always be something to crow about. Doing so from a major rival, for free, is nothing short of astonishing. It was effectively seen as confirmation of Arsenal’s superiority over Spurs—a point the Gunners reinforced with their subsequent spell of dominance over the English game.

Taking Tottenham’s captain, without a transfer fee, makes this one of the best signings in Arsenal’s history. 

3. Patrick Vieira

Before the explosion of the internet and social media, clubs would occasionally sign players you’d simply never heard of. Patrick Vieira was one such case: despite being picked up by Milan at 19, he had barely figured in Serie A and was essentially an unknown. 

That changed as soon as he first loped onto the field. He was a special player—the fact Arsenal fans still yearn for a “new Vieira” tells you how irreplaceable he proved to be. He combined skill with strength, intelligence with aggression. What’s more, he was a leader. He did the seemingly impossible job of succeeding Tony Adams as club captain.

Vieira’s belligerent brilliance was at the heart of Arsenal’s best teams of the Premier League era.

2. Dennis Bergkamp

The arrival of Dennis Bergkamp arguably changed English football forever. Here was a bona fide global star, effectively endorsing the Premier League as a desirable destination for the world’s best.

Bergkamp arguably shares responsibility with Wenger for cultivating the style of football that saw Arsenal become the country’s most attractive team to watch for the best part of a decade. He helped the Gunners shake off the “boring boring Arsenal” tag — for watching Bergkamp was anything but. He is also one of the few players who was integral in both Arsenal’s double-winning team of 1997/98, and The Invincibles of 2004.

1. Thierry Henry

There is a case to be mounted not only is he Arsenal’s signing of the Premier League era, but that he is the finest footballer the division has ever seen.

Signed after an unhappy stint on the wing at Juventus, Henry transformed into a devastatingly effective centre-forward. 

Henry’s success is all the more remarkable because he was bought to replace Anelka. It seemed like a difficult task, yet Henry went on to comfortably supersede his compatriot’s achievements.

He is the club’s top goalscorer, with a record that is unlikely to ever be beaten. The King of Highbury was simply a class above.

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