"Back in 2004, Arsenal had just won their second Premier League title in three years. More important, though, was what they didn't do: lose. Twenty-plus years later, the Invincibles are still the only Premier League team to survive a full season without a single defeat. They're also the last Arsenal team to win the Premier League -- in large part because of what happened after that historic season."
"You'll never guess what happened next: Arsenal got worse. They finished second in the following season, but never got that high again until 2015-16, and even that felt hollow since the team that finished ahead of them was tiny Leicester City. So diminished were the club's expectations that manager Arsene Wenger infamously said, "The first trophy is to finish in the top four," after a 2-0 loss to Sunderland in the FA Cup in 2012."
Arsenal completed an unbeaten Premier League season in 2004 and then began construction of the Emirates Stadium to expand capacity and revenue. The club financed the move with a $350 million bank loan, which necessitated cutting player spending because most revenue had to be reinvested into wages to compete. The loan interest burden reduced transfer-market activity and coincided with a sustained drop in league performance. Arsenal rarely reached previous heights afterward, briefly finishing near the top in 2015-16 behind Leicester, and public expectations fell so low that a top-four finish was framed as success.
Read at ESPN.com
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