I am torn between which is the greater achievement. My head says Treble simply because of the number of trophies won, especially as it includes the Holy Grail that is the European Cup.

You might say that this debate is four years outdated, but only very recently have I pondered it in more depth. I confess to knowing absolutely nothing about American Football (in fact as a former school rugby player I have a certain dislike for it), but last weekend a team strived to do the impossible: go unbeaten through a season. The New England Patriots were that team and had demolished all and sundry prior to the Superbowl. Their record stood at 18-0 (they can’t have draws) and were on the verge of becoming only the second team in their sport’s history to complete a perfect season. They were overwhelming favourites in that fateful 19th game – so much so that they had already taken out trademarks relating to their mooted achievement. But the achievement never came to fruition as they were beaten by the New York Giants, thus ruining their hopes of immortality and leaving them trophy-less.

In the build-up to the Superbowl there was a bit of chat on NewsNow comparing the Patriots to our very own Invincibles of 2004. Ultimately it was a rudderless argument as the Patriots failed to get the job done (in America they call it “choking”). Being biased I always reckoned that our achievement was greater simply because we had to negotiate double the amount of games they had to, not to mention another three tournaments. But on the other hand they had won all their games whilst we had drawn a third of ours. Do you see what I mean? Comparing the teams’ respective triumphs would have been very difficult because there is no common ground between the sports.

This led to me debating whether our Invincible achievement was greater than the Manchester United Treble in 1999. Now that four years have passed since our remarkable record, the feat has sunk in more. Back when it actually happened it just seemed like one of those things to me. I went to the parade the day after we completed the campaign by beating Leicester and its enormity only briefly dawned on me when Thierry came out and said something along the lines of: “People will remember this season as the year that we were unbeatable”. That huge sentiment of history was washed away immediately as the next man up to make a speech, our own Romford Pele, led a rendition of “My old man said be a Tottenham fan”.

In the interim, Chelsea have won the league twice whilst the Mancs won it last year. Yet neither went unbeaten in doing so, although Chelsea only lost the once in 2004/2005. And no-one will do so this season either. In history, only Preston did it in the first season of English football (they only played 22 games), whilst I believe AC Milan did it in the early 1990s. Ajax did so in 1995 (and topped it off with the European Cup as well, the greedy gits). Inter went mighty close to doing it last season but they were beaten with about six games left, and even we ourselves only lost one game in 1990/1991 but that was mid-season so nowhere near as tantalising as Inter’s missed opportunity.

The Mancs’ achievement in 1999 was similarly awesome (said through gritted teeth), and similarly no team has done it since. In the very same season Bayern Munich were close to it but of course lost to the Mancs in the Champions League final and were beaten on penalties in the German Cup final. At least they ended up with something though as they won the Bundesliga – which is more than can be said of Bayer Leverkusen in 2002. They were on course for a Treble but ended up with nowt in a season that has been dubbed as ‘Treble Horror’ for them, losing in the German Cup final, the Champions League final to a Zidane masterclass and throwing away a five-point lead in the last three games of the league season to finish as runners-up.

Historically, the Treble of domestic league, primary domestic cup and European Cup had been won three times prior to United’s achievement in 1999. Celtic were the first to do it in 1967 (they actually won the Quadruple that year), Ajax followed suit five years later in 1972 and their great rivals PSV Eindhoven emulated them in 1988. Liverpool themselves achieved a similar feat in their halcyon 1980s days, winning the European Cup, the First Division and the League Cup (now known as the Kiddies Cup to us Gooners). In fact they may have achieved the full-on Treble in 1977 but, ironically, lost to the Mancs in the FA Cup final.

So I am torn between which is the greater achievement. My head says Treble simply because of the number of trophies won, especially as it includes the Holy Grail that is the European Cup. The fact that they would likely be achieved in a two-week period at the end of the season must make for one hell of a rollercoaster. Picture this: a team going through a season unbeaten but end up with nothing to show for it. Unlikely? Well it happened once when I was playing Football Manager (not a good basis, I know), and if two teams have exceptional league seasons then it is a distinct possibility. That’s why my head says Treble, because trophies are the be-all and end-all.

But my heart (and a teeny-weeny bit of bias) says Invincibility. Why? Well as I have listed above, Trebles have come by more often than unbeaten league seasons, and ‘near Trebles’ are also more frequent occurrences than near-unbeaten seasons. To put it succinctly: a Treble consists of three trophies, and at the start of the season someone WILL win these trophies. Of course for a single team to win all three is a fantastic accomplishment. But no-one HAS to go through a season unbeaten, so when it happens it is all the more special in my opinion. No doubting that winning three trophies is special, but Invincibility contains a certain added intangible element. Because no team HAS to do it, for a group of players to attain that status means they have gone above and beyond the realms of “ordinary” achievement.

Of course the ultimate achievement will be an Invincible Treble season, but we’ll cross that bridge if/when somebody achieves it.

What are your thoughts? I’m pretty sure I know which side of the fence Arsenal and Manchester United fans will sit on, so I’d love to hear the thoughts of neutral fans as well. And more specifically, the reasoning behind your choice.

This not an Arsenal 2004 versus Man Utd 1999 debate, nor is it an attempt to shit-stir between the two, so any Mancs writing in saying: “YOU F*CKING GOONER C*NT, OF COURSE OUR ACHIEVEMENT IS BETTER YOU SOUTHERN MUPPET”…don’t bother. ArsenalVision is about intelligent discussion, and some intelligent reasoning in the comments section would be very nice to see.

P.S. this random article is the product of what happens when we don’t have a game on the weekend.