Arsenal vs Preston Invincibles

Invincibles? Arsenal? Not Really. Preston Invincibles? Yes

It may well work out that there will never be another invincible season in the First Division/Premier League after Arsenal. So much effort is put into margins and so much money is put into squads that it is very hard to be at your best for every game. Plus bad luck and the inevitable poor spell that all teams go through every season means that never being beaten is extremely difficult. With only 10 games gone, nobody has a chance to immortalize themselves.

An extraordinary squad

Today though, I have decided to compare our magical Invincible season with that of our brothers in Preston. Of course, the time difference between the two means that a true comparison is moot, and they won both FA Cup and League so they really were unbeaten. We actually lost 5 matches to Middlesbrough (League Cup) and Manchester United (FA Cup) and 3 matches in the Champions league to Inter Milan, Dynamo Kyiv and Chelsea. Plus defeat on penalties to Manchester United in the Charity Shield. Preston only played 27 matches, and we played 59.

Would they beat us if they had the same facilities as today?

I think we do have to hold up our hands and say they are true Invincibles, though.

Lots of countries, lots of invincibles

The English top flight seems to be one of the toughest places to go undefeated as a look around the world throws up many instances of it. Even in Scotland, Celtic managed to go undefeated under Brendan Rogers in 2016 -17 in all domestic trophies but collected a few defeats in Europe.  In many countries there are teams who have gone undefeated but not won the league including our own Spartak Sofia in 1951. There are also teams who have won all their matches but that is rare. Ferencvaros in Hungary did it in 1932 and they are the last top team I could find that did it.

Life is hard in Bulgaria - you go undefeated and still don't win the league

List of unbeaten football club seasons - Wikipedia  A handy link if you want to check all around the world

So how did we compare against Preston? The first team they came against that we also played were Wolves and they beat them twice 4-0 and 5-2. We also won easily 3-0 and 3-1. The next was Bolton and we won 2-1 and drew 1-1 but they won 5-2 and 3-1. Against Villa we had 2-0 twice and Preston had 2-0 and 1-1. Finally they had Everton which they beat 2-0 and 3-0, and us? 2-1 and 1-1. And that was all the teams we had in common in the league.

We both hammered the Brummies

In the Fa Cup they had West Brom who they beat 1-0 and Wolves 3-0. In the League Cup we had both teams and we beat West Brom 2-0 and trounced Wolves 5-1. As you can see, fairly even stevens in our joint matches.

Preston retained the title the next season, although they never won it again, and we have never won it since. They beat us on that as well, so.

They had 2 Scottish Graham brothers in their team although only John was a regular with 26 games out of 27. Willie was selected 5 times. Still, a link to our genius Scottish George who almost had an invincible season in 1991. Relatives? I couldn’t find out.

They have a North End and we have a North Bank. Their logo is a bit tame, though - a sheep holding a very blunt looking sword.  However Blues are in the ascendency in England at the moment. Man City and Chelsea have won most trophies in the 21st century. Can Preston join them?

Our Head-to-head record shows a tough enough time

Previous meetings: 82
Preston wins: 26
Draws: 19
Arsenal wins: 37

Their best win is 3-0 and ours is 4-0 so a bit ahead there. We have won our last four in the league and FA cups stretching back to 1999 although they won our last match in the first division in 1960 2-0.  Sadly, that was the last time they managed the top flight. They also won their first match against us in 1901 in League Division two 2-0 so first and probably last league match they will always have that record.

Calling the Forbes Rich List

Unless, of course, if any billionaires out there are reading this column and you want to revive a sleeping giant and make them Invincibles again? https://www.pnefc.net/club/contact-your-club is the link. I have made it easy for you.

The legendary Tom Finney was one of England's greatest

They are founding members of the league and Tom Finney is their greatest ever player. They have won all the big English trophies and they are mid-table in the Championship so you don’t have to bring them up very far. Deepdale has been recently renovated although you would probably need to go again if you made the bigtime as the capacity is around 24,000.

Can they come back up?

As you can see, there are quite a few areas of similarity between us. But they went downhill and never quite managed to get back up again. We have never gone down and I hope we never will.

Nwaneri about to unleash his thunderbolt

We both have the distinction of being the best team in England over a period of time, Preston in the 19^th century and us in the 1930’s and 40’s. Only a few teams have managed an extended period of dominance although I suspect Preston will never see such days again. Will we? We all hope. It would be nice to see Preston back in the top-flight even if only to correct that final 2-0 score inflicted on us in 1960.