Arsène Wenger: Invincible

A fascinating film about the legendary Arsenal manager, and my respect for him only increased after watching.

It perhaps would have been nice to have had more time dedicated to things like the relief he felt after that famous 2014 FA Cup win, or the pain of the 2006 Champions League Final defeat, that really heralded the break-up of the Invincibles team.

On the whole a lovely film though, and we'll be lucky to ever have a manager of his ilk again.

We all know the football stuff; the way Arsene changed the game, won the double, the Ferguson rivalry, the unbeaten campaign, move to the Emirates, and, despite calling his last 10 years a failure still qualifying for Champions League 9 of those years (!)......

That aside, this is a well-made film, looks good and feels good. Fantastic cast of important people, excellent footage and a perfect homage to Arsenal's most successful and important manager.

Nicely done.

This is well done. It tells the tale of how this unique football personality transformed the English game, a journey which started in ridicule and disbelief but which along the way produced one of the greatest teams in Premier League history. The tributes from Sir Alex Ferguson were nice to hear and the filming in Alsace gave a real flavour of Arsene Wenger's background. The highlight of the piece though was his own narrative, from which real human decency and a fair amount of wisdom shine through.

This documentary shows a great insight on what life was like at Arsenal Football Club during the invincible season. It really shows how good of a team Arsenal were, it also shows how good Arsène and the players they had were. You can tell by the way it's directed that the team's chemistry was out of this world and that they worked extremely well together. Watching this documentary made me realise that the players that had (Henry, Viera, Pires etc) made the ball look like it was stuck to their feet, at many points they were also like magicians. Arsenal had world class, magic, spectacular players who worked exceptionally well together at this point in time.

For a third generation Arsenal fan like myself, this is a soul lifting shot of liquid nostalgia; for anyone like me it's essential viewing, for those with an interest in English football beyond the strictly partisan it's similarly worthwhile. It's beautifully put together, and the format allows a more critical appraisal of Wenger than his own book; there's a nuance here that the book lacks. The final minutes of the film are unquestionably moving. What is strange is the scant attention given to Arsenal's trip to a Champions' League final. That aside, it's a great watch and captures much that's true about this uniquely focussed and influential football man.