It has been 28 years since Arsenal were denied the chance to become invincible – a whole 13 years before the class of 2004 dazzled everyone by winning the Premier League without losing a game.
The Gunners, under manager George Graham, were on course to make history by becoming the first team since Preston in 1889 to remain unbeaten for an entire league campaign.
But Chelsea spoiled the party.
Here, talkSPORT.com has fired up the old time machine to go back in time and look at that blip in the 1990/91 season.
Back then Arsenal drank, fought and battled their way to title glory when everything said they should have caved.
There was the two-point deduction for their part in a mass brawl against Manchester United, as well as captain Tony Adams having to spend time behind bars for drink-driving.
Everything was looking rosy at first, though. Ahead of the season, the club snapped up David Seaman from Queens Park Rangers, Anders Limpar from Italian side Cremonese and began in devastating fashion, remaining unbeaten in 17 games, which ended with a devastating 6-2 League Cup defeat to United in November.
A month earlier against the same opposition in the league, the teams had been involved in what has since been described as a ’21-man brawl’ that saw both Arsenal and United fined £50,000 and deducted points – two for Arsenal and one for United.
“Maybe it means we won the actual brawl,” Perry Groves, who was part of that Arsenal squad told talkSPORT. The Gunners, incidentally, won 1-0.
“After the game, George told us it was exactly what he wanted – players looking out for each other. He said: ‘That’s what I’m saying in here, but in the press I’m going to have to say I don’t condone it and it’s not how I expect my players to behave’. I think a couple of the lads got fined a week’s wages!”
Anyone doubting their title credentials following the 6-2 cup drubbing, though, was given a slap across the face when the Gunners welcomed rivals Liverpool to Highbury at the start of December.
They were six points behind Kenny Dalglish’s side when they beat them 3-0 before eventually usurping them at the top of the league.
Then came Chelsea on 2 February.
The Blues were light years away from being the high flying Premier League challengers of today, but Arsenal found themselves in the middle of a defensive crisis – the crisis being that Adams was behind bars and Steve Bould was forced off with injury midway through the game.
“[Bould] was replaced by David Hillier,” Groves, who now co-presents on talkSPORT, recalled. “David was a very good midfielder player, but he wasn’t a centre-half.”
Adams, as a result of his four-month prison sentence, missed 13 games, including the only league defeat of the campaign – that 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.
“They were a bit of a bogey team for us. At Stamford Bridge, the pitch was horrible, the stands were miles away from the pitch and you couldn’t get an atmosphere.
“I wouldn’t say it was a bad day at the office, as we didn’t play particularly badly, but we just couldn’t grind out the result.”
An unfortunate header across his own box from Nigel Winterburn gifted Chelsea the opener, Kerry Dixon doubled the lead, though Alan Smith pulled one back. It didn’t matter, as the Blues had ended the run.
Not that the players minded. They finished the season as champions for the second time in three years, but the idea of being the first ‘Invincibles’ in 102 years didn’t even register.
“We didn’t think about it,” Groves said. “We played Manchester United at home in the second last game of the season and that was like a parade as we’d just won the league and we weren’t bothered,” adding that the significance of career achievements and near misses don’t sink in until much later on in life.
Champions, but not invincible. You can thank Kerry Dixon for that, Gooners.