ArsenalFC Leads Club of Five Unbeaten League Champions

Scottish giants Celtic‘s 2-0 win over Hearts on Sunday ensured they became the latest league champions to go unbeaten through a season.

Here AFP Sports picks out five other teams who in the past won their respective championships without losing a match:

Arsenal

Arsene Wenger led the Gunners to a memorable English Premier League title in the 2003/04 season, racking up 26 victories and 12 draws. There was to be no domestic double for the Invincibles though as Manchester United eliminated them in the FA Cup semi-finals. Wenger’s fellow Frenchman Thierry Henry led the line brilliantly, scoring 30 league goals in 37 appearances. “When I look back now and see the quality of each player, that’s when you realise it was exceptional,” said Wenger on the 10th anniversary of the title win, something he has failed to repeat.

Preston North End

The first ever Football League season ended in memorable fashion with Preston — managed by Major William Sudell — achieving the double in the 1888/89 campaign. ‘The Invincibles’ played just 22 league games — winning 18 of them — and five FA Cup games in which they did not concede a goal. The team assembled was made up in large part of Scots, but in England international striker and club captain Fred Dewhurst, they had a lethal marksman. Dewhurst scored 12 times in 16 league games that season for Preston and one to boot in the 3-0 FA Cup win over Wolves.

Steaua Bucharest

The 1980s was the Romanian club’s golden era and allusions were made about its domestic dominance — three successive league titles without suffering one defeat (1986/87, 87/88 and 88/89) — being due to close ties to then-ruler Nicolae Ceaucescu and his family. There, though, could be little dispute the club — founded by the post World War II Romanian Army — held their own in Europe. They beat Barcelona to win the European Cup in 1986 and reached the 1989 final, losing to AC Milan.

Ajax

Regarded as one of the greatest teams of all time with the likes of Marc Overmars, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids and coached by Louis van Gaal, they went through the 1994/95 season unbeaten in the league — scoring 106 goals and winning 27 of the 34 matches. They rounded the season off by beating AC Milan in the Champions League final. “Ajax are not just the team of the ’90s,” commented Real Madrid coach Jorge Valdano. “They are approaching football utopia. Their concept of the game is exquisite yet they have a physical superiority as well. They are Beauty and the Beast.”

Juventus

Antonio Conte guiding a side to the title in his first season in charge and without the burden of European football… sound familiar? Certainly to Chelsea fans — save the unbeaten part — as he achieved that with Juventus in 2011/12, the team notching up 23 wins and 15 draws. Perhaps a good omen for Arsenal in next weekend’s FA Cup final, Juventus lost their only game of the domestic season in the Italian Cup final to Napoli. The likes of Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo played integral roles in delivering Juventus their first title since 2003 — two others having been stripped from them over a match-fixing scandal. Pirlo’s assessment of how they had ended the title drought gives an insight into Conte’s ability to rouse players. “We won the Scudetto at the first time of asking and the success was all his (Conte’s), a triumph of bloody-mindedness that went beyond everyone’s expectations.”

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