22 stats for 22 years of Arsène Wenger at Arsenal

Arsène Wenger's 22 years as our manager was filled with trophies, glory and memories, ensuring he created a plethora of extraordinary facts and stats as the seasons went on. 

Three Premier League titles, seven FA Cups and 49 games unbeaten might be some of the most important figures from his time in our dugout, but digging through the record books there are plenty more impressive numbers to his name.

Here are some of the most incredible statistics from our legendary manager's time in north London:

Arsène took charge of 1,235 of our matches, which is vastly more than Bertie Mee in second place (540), and George Graham (460) in third. Combined, those two would still be 235 behind Arsène. 

His reign lasted 21 years and seven months, nearly nine years longer than our next longest-serving manager George Allison.

He managed 828 Premier League matches, which is the most of any manager in the competition’s history, 18 ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson. His nearest rival still plying their trade in the division is David Moyes, who is third on the list with 658.

We won 716 times under Arsène, giving him a win ratio of 57.98 per cent. We averaged 1.96 points per Premier League match in the Wenger era.

We scored 2,298 goals in those games, an average of 1.86 per match. Our goal difference during that time was +1,071.

Thirteen of the 22 seasons (59 per cent) in which we have scored 100 goals or more came under Arsène’s management.

Arsène is the most successful manager in FA Cup history - he won the competition on seven occasions. His triumph in 2017 saw him surpass Aston Villa’s George Ramsey who won it six times spanning 33 years either side of the turn of the 20th century.

Wenger selected 222 different players in north London. The player he selected the most was Patrick Vieira, who made 402 appearances between 1996 and 2005, just ahead of Theo Walcott who made 397. 
 

The 200th - and final - player to make their debut under Arsène was Konstantinos Mavropanos, against Manchester United in April 2018.

During Arsène’s tenure, players from 53 nations represented our first team. Of those, England led the way with 80 - followed by France (30) and Germany (11).

Ian Wright scored the first of our 2,298 goals under Arsène in his first game back in September 1996 which saw us beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted the final one to beat Huddersfield Town 1-0 in May 2018.

No fewer than 117 players scored for us during Arsène’s tenure - Thierry Henry netted a club-record 228, with Robin van Persie (132) and Theo Walcott (108) completing the top three.

Always a trailblazer, Arsène became the first overseas manager to win the English league when leading us to the title in 1997/98. 

We conceded just 17 league goals in 1998/99 - the best-ever defensive record in our history, just beating the 18 we let in during our title-winning season of 1990/91.

In 2001/02, we became the first team to score in every Premier League match throughout the entire season.

We played against 125 different opponents in the Arsène era, and the team we beat most often during that time was Everton (32). He recorded his joint-biggest win against the Toffees during his tenure when we won 7-0 in May 2005.

Our 7-5 win against Reading in October 2012 was the highest-scoring match of the Arsène era.

We finished in the top four in 20 consecutive seasons under Arsène. We had never previously recorded 20 consecutive top-half finishes.

Arsène handed first-team debuts to 83 players who had come through our academy. The first was Paulo Vernazza in October 1997 against Birmingham City in the League Cup, and the last was Ben Sheaf in October 2017 in a Europa League game with Red Star Belgrade.

In January 2014, Gedion Zelalem became the first player born after Arsène took charge to make a first-team appearance. Eddie Nketiah was the first player born after September 1996 to score when netting the first of two goals in a 2-1 League Cup win over Norwich City in October 2017.

We went 588 days unbeaten away from home in the Premier League between March 2003 and October 2004 - losing none of the 27 matches we played on the road in the competition during that time.

Under Arsène, we managed to go 32 home league matches unbeaten - a run lasting between May 2003 and February 2005. In fact, we only lost three out of 72 home games matches between May 2003 and April 2007.