The Invincibles (football)

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"The Invincibles", in English football, has been either used to refer to the Preston North End team of the 1880s^[1]^[2], or the Arsenal team of the 2003-04 season.^[3] In both cases, the teams won the top division of English football unbeaten, the only two times this has occurred in English football history.

The term invincible was first applied to Preston in 1883 by a correspondent from Blackburn as a 'sneer' in relation to their Scottish professionals.^[2] In addition, Preston's achievement of winning the League unbeaten in 1888-89 was further enhanced by winning the FA Cup without conceding a goal, making them the first team to achieve the Double. Preston's final record in the league was 18 wins, 4 draws and 0 losses, out of 22 games total. Out of the five teams to have completed the Double, Preston remain the only ones to have done so unbeaten.

Arsenal then emulated Preston's unbeaten run in the 2003-2004 season going unbeaten for all 38 games, almost twice as many league games as Preston had played. However Arsenal's 2003-04 side did not win the FA Cup in the same season, as they reached the semi-finals and lost to Manchester United. Their final record for the 2003-2004 league campaign stood at 26 wins, 12 draws and 0 losses, out of 38 games total. Arsenal ended the run 49 league games unbeaten.