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Merci beaucoup, Arsene Wenger

A total of 3 Premier League titles, 7 FA Cups and 7 Community Shields have been won by Arsenal Football Club in the last 22 years with Arsene Wenger as the manager. He arrived at the North London club in 1996 from Japanese club Grampus Eight. He changed the way the game was played with his idea of possession based free flowing football. He famously signed Thierry Henry from Juventus in the summer of 1999 and introduced the best attacking formations in the league. But it was the Invincible squad of 2003-04 that brought him fame as they finished the league unbeaten with a record of 49 game streak which still stands today. Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry led the team with free flowing football which is rarely seen today.

Arsenal moved from Highburry to Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2006. It was after this transition that Wenger saw a complete dip in the club's fortunes as they failed to win a single league title from then on. The club also failed to win a single silverware for the next 8 seasons until they won the FA Cup in 2013-14. The club also witnessed the departures of many high profile players like Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. But he was still popular with the supporters as they managed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League year after year despite many terrible defeats.

The club failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1996-97. The supporters of the club started to grow disenchanted with as they started to raise slogans of "Wenger Out" from the stands during club matches. The chorus for his departure continued to gain momentum as they suffered some heavy defeats at the hands of rivals like Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham. Finally in the month of April, 2018, Wenger announced that he would be departing from the club at the end of the season.

All his detractors aside, Arsenal went from being the most boring club to watch in the league to being the most expressionate one. He transformed the ugly passing and holding style into the free flowing style similar to the Total Football of the 1970 Dutch side. For all those people who say good riddance hearing the news of his departure, you should be careful what you wish for. Thank you so much Wenger, it was our privilege to watch your beautifully constructed style of play.
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