The full index of the 100 years in the Top Division series is is [published here](https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/100-consecutive-seasons-in-the-top-division)
By Tony Attwood
Under Bruce Rioch, and indeed I would venture to say in the latter part of his reign under George Graham, Arsenal was a club of some prominence, some distinctioninction and most certainly a unique history.
But from the moment he arrived, I felt that to Arsene Wenger, Arsenal was THE CLUB. And I don’t think I was alone. There was the infamous Adams quote, “What does he know about English football?” but that was just typical of the inward-looking nature of football that existed at the time. A view that allowed some people to argue that English clubs and the national team didn’t win everything simply because foreigners didn’t properly understand the game. It was that sort of world.
Rioch seemed to me to be mighty miffed that he got the sack after coming fifth, and that I think was the problem – he saw fifth as ok, while this was a club that had in earlier times regularly won things. Worse, Arsenal went out of the FA Cup to Sheffield United of the Championship in the third round. I think by this time, we’d all had enough of that.
So Rioch left on 12 August 1996, and even to the most adventurous and hopeful of us supporters of the day, that seemed really odd. For one thing, the opening game of the season was on 17 August (West Ham at home). For another, no one knew who the new manager would be, although it seems Stewart Houston assumed the job was his for the asking as he took over as caretaker.
But to be fair, there doesn’t seem to be absolute proof that Houston thought he was in for the job. Of course, as we now know, he wasn’t, and indeed, seeing his record as a manager after this moment shows us why. Houseon actually left Arsenal when he discovered that, despite being interim manager, he was not going to be made manager.
The fact was that even if Arsenal had been thinking of him as a possible permanent replacement, his results at Arsenal were pretty poor. His opening league results were won two, drawn two, lost one, while his opening European match was a 2-3 home defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach. For a team that now contained not just Ian Wright but also Dennis Bergkamp, Paul Merson and four of the famous defence (only Adams was missing until he returned in late September), this was clearly not good enough.
Houston left Arsenal to be the manager of Queens Park Rangers and took on Bruce Rioch as his assistant. It looked to all the world as if Houston’s prime interest was in sticking two fingers up at the Arsenal board, and if that were so, it failed miserably. Houston and Rioch were both sacked by QPR just over a year later, with the club closer to the foot of the renamed “First Division” (the second tier) than to the top for the promotion the pair had promised the board. It is also worth noting in passing that after a spell at Ipswich, Houston went to be Graham’s assistant at Tottenham, where again he lasted two years.
He later became a scout for Arsenal, which seemed about the right level for him until he retired in 2020. Which is not meant to be a totally unkind comment, but more one that points out that managing a football club, is about more than having been a player.
But to return now to 1996/7, after Houston walked out on Arsenal in September 1996, having been told he would not be the next Arsenal manager, Pat Rice took over as interim manager, until finally Arsene Wenger finished his commitments in the Far East. However, Wenger showed his knowledge of both European football and the situation at Arsenal by starting work before he returned to England, signing Remi Garde and Patrick Vieira, and then finally taking over on 1 Octroer 1006/
So what did the world make of Arsenal having a French manager? There was certainly a huge amount of negativity about the appointment, reflecting a vision popularised by the media that somehow not only was English football different from that in the rest of the world, but really no one but the English understood it.
Thus, Wenger’s purchase of non-English, or perhaps one should say, non-British and non-Irish players, caused a lot of negative commentary, although this was set aside by Arsenal rising to top of the league by the start of November.
But as Wenger began to develop the team to his own model (he was quoted as saying that he was instructed upon arriving not to touch the by now famous defence of Dixon, Winterburn, Keown, Bould and Adams), he did show a much greater understanding of Arsenal and its history than many English people, including most football journalists.
And Wenger’s position was enhanced through a strong start to their league campaign, with one defeat in their first 12 matches which saw Arsenal begin November in first spot.
But as the club started to falter occasionally in matches (particularly with a run of no wins, three draws and a defeat in December and then a run of two draws and then a run of one goal scored in five matches in February) this gave journalists the chance to return to their nationalistic roots, suggesting that no manager who was not English could ever triumph in the league in Engalnd. We invented the game, they suggested, and we knew how to play it. These foreigners were all right in their own way, but they really couldn’t be expected to get English football.
However, there was a further problem since at this time only the top two would make it into the qualifying round for the Champions League, although the 3-1 win over Derby County in the final game (having been one down at half time) saw Arsenal finish third, equal on points with Newcastle in second but seven points behind Manchester United at the top. It was the club’s best finish since winning the title in 1991. But not quite enough.
However, this also represented a turning point in relation to the media’s attitude toward Arsenal as they picked up on the fact that Wenger was able to identify and bring in players from across Europe (as well as speaking English more grammatically than most of the journalists could). Thus, in desperation, it was with some glee that the scribblers noted that the top scorer for Arsenal had not changed
28 different players represented the club in four competitions and there were 12 different goal scorers. [Ian Wright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Wright) of course, was Arsenal’s top goalscorer of the season; he scored 30 goals in 41 appearances. Wenger certainly knew how to get the most out of him!
Team
P
W
D
L
F
A
GD
Pts
1
Manchester United
38
21
12
5
76
44
+32
75
2
Newcastle United
38
19
11
8
73
40
+33
68
3
Arsenal
38
19
11
8
62
32
+30
68