Arsenal’s best comeback victories within the Premier League

By one estimation, Arsene Wenger was silent for eight straight minutes throughout his first half-time staff speak as Arsenal supervisor.

The legendary Frenchman hardly ever turned to the hairdryer to elicit a response from his gamers even once they had been shedding. Ray Parlour remembers a match at dwelling to Aston Villa in 2001 when Arsenal had been trailing 2-0 and the assistant supervisor Pat Rice started unloading on the squad. Wenger got here in and really raised his voice for as soon as, however solely to say: “Shut up, Pat.” Arsenal gained 3-2.

Wenger and his calming half-time disposition might have left Arsenal however the behavior of rectifying shedding eventualities has remained ingrained within the membership.

Here are among the best Arsenal comebacks Wenger and his successors have overseen in the course of the Premier League period.

Few matches provide a greater lesson within the significance of punctuality and perseverance than Arsenal’s helter-skelter contest towards Bournemouth. After falling behind to the second-fastest Premier League objective, Arsenal scored the second-latest winner within the membership’s recorded top-flight historical past.

Arsenal had fallen behind to a intelligent kick-off routine Philip Billing completed off after 9.11 seconds however the Gunners rallied within the closing half-hour as Reiss Nelson wheeled away with a coolness even Wenger would envy after lashing a match-winning, left-footed volley into the highest nook because the clock ticker learn 96 minutes, 57 seconds.

Bolton had been two objectives and one participant higher off at dwelling to Arsenal with half an hour to play because the rain bucketed down on the Reebok Stadium.

Abou Diaby had emerged from the therapy room lengthy sufficient to get despatched off between Matthew Taylor’s first-half brace as Arsenal’s 2008 title tilt hung in tatters. Arsenal owed their restoration to a William Gallas volley and Robin van Persie’s penalty but additionally loved a big serving to hand from the hosts.

Cesc Fabregas compelled the Ninetieth-minute winner with a weak shot which ricocheted off Bolton’s Andy O’Brien after which his teammate Jlloyd Samuel into Ali Al Habsi’s web, prompting supervisor Gary Megson to seeth: “That end result at this time was a end result which got here from committing suicide.”

Manchester United, notably the Sir Alex Ferguson classic, are hailed because the Premier League’s comeback kings and barely undergo the identical destiny themselves – particularly towards Arsenal.

However, a blustery January night in 2007 was the setting for the surprising.

Still trailing 1-0 to Wayne Rooney’s highly effective header with seven minutes to play, Robin van Persie slid in to stage the rating earlier than breaking his foot whereas celebrating. Thierry Henry managed to keep away from injuring himself after netting a uncommon header in stoppage time to earn Arsenal’s second-ever Premier League victory towards United after conceding the opening objective.

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“I anticipated him to cross,” Wenger admitted after a breathless 3-2 victory at Stamford Bridge in 1999. Nwankwo Kanu had already discovered the web twice within the closing quarter-hour, cancelling out the hosts’ benefit earlier than rounding Chelsea’s wandering goalkeeper Ed de Goey on the byline in stoppage time.

“I used to be by no means going to cross,” Kanu countered. There wasn’t one other crimson shirt within the field for that 12 months’s African Player of the Year to pick however the curled end Kanu produced from an outrageously acute angle was hardly the subsequent logical possibility. At least to mere mortals. “At 2-2, there was nothing else for it,” Kanu shrugged.

As the clock raced into the third minute of stoppage time at Villa Park, Arsenal had been staring down the barrel of a fifth consecutive match with out victory. The Gunners had misplaced to their chief title rivals Manchester City twice in that run, exiting the FA Cup on the Etihad earlier than ceding prime spot to Pep Guardiola’s facet 63 hours earlier than kicking off within the Midlands.

And then Jorginho tried his luck from vary. The January arrival from Chelsea had scored precisely one top-flight objective from past 12 yards in his senior profession when he let rip from past the D. The ball cannoned off the underside of the crossbar, hit the turf after which span off the top of Villa’s goalkeeper Emi Martinez.

The unflinchingly assured former Arsenal goalkeeper, whose time-wasting helped create the six minutes which had been added on, made for a well-liked sufferer of this big slice of misfortune among the many travelling north Londoners. Arsenal returned to the Premier League summit and even ended the weekend prime after Manchester City fell sufferer to a late Nottingham Forest objective later that day.

As the primary half was winding to an in depth, Emmanuel Adebayor could possibly be forgiven for conjuring photographs of headlines lauding one more slice of revenge towards his former employers. Wenger later admitted he was “a bit apprehensive” in regards to the morale of his present gamers contemplating Arsenal had misplaced 4-0 to AC Milan of their earlier outing.

Yet, Adebayor, who created Louis Saha’s fourth-minute opener and scored a penalty to double Tottenham’s lead in 2012, had lower than 5 minutes to savour the second.

Bacary Sagna and Robin van Persie fired the Gunners stage earlier than the interval to quell their supervisor’s considerations. Tomas Rosicky had Arsenal in entrance after 51 minutes as Spurs imploded, delivery a Theo Walcott brace because the Gunners steered away from destruction to take pleasure in considered one of their most emphatic derby triumphs.

Arguably probably the most well-known comeback in historical past occurred 2,000 years in the past over what would come to be referred to as Easter weekend. Fittingly, Arsenal performed out their best comeback on Good Friday.

Three days previous to Liverpool’s go to in April 2004, Arsenal had been painfully knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by London rivals Chelsea. The week earlier than, the Gunners had drawn with Manchester United, as soon as once more opening up the title race.

Thierry Henry admitted: “There was a query mark over our heads after two back-to-back defeats in massive video games.” The punctuation would have been deafening because the Gunners trotted into the interval trailing 2-1 at dwelling to Liverpool.

However, Arsenal’s very personal Messiah hauled his facet again from the useless. Robert Pires levelled the rating simply seconds earlier than Henry picked up the ball in entrance of Liverpool’s massed ranks. Accelerating with every elegant stride, Henry breezed between the billowing white shirts earlier than stroking Arsenal forward.

There was a slice of fine fortune as Henry bundled within the game-sealing fourth however, with a hat-trick secured, Arsenal’s unbeaten league run was preserved and their stranglehold of first place strengthened.

On this version of The Chronicles of a Gooner, a part of the 90min podcast community, Harry Symeou reacts to Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Sporting CP within the Europa League.

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