As we head into the weekend and the north London derby, we take a look at Arsenals season so far and how it fares against the last great title winning season in 2003/2004.
Gabriel injury
As we return from the international break and an exciting end to the qualification process, our attention switches once again to the premiership and the mounting injury list that Arsenal are accumulating. After picking up an injury in Brazil's friendly against Senegal last week, Gabriel looks to be out for at least a month and unfortunately for Mikel Arteta and the team, an extremely busy period for the Gunners. Gabriel joins his fellow team mates, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Gabriel Jesus, Viktor Gyokeres Martin Odergaard and Kai Havertz in the treatment room.
On the positive side a number of key players are nearing a return and in his press conference on Friday Arteta said "We’ve put [in] a lot of energy during the international break, with all the medical staff as well, to try to bring them as quick as possible. So tomorrow we have another training session, see how some of them are feeling, whether it’s a bit too close to bring them for this game, or we feel that they can make a contribution in the game. Tomorrow we have more clarity”. Arteta will no doubt miss these key players and begins a run of competitive fixtures this weekend against local rivals Tottenham with a personal record to defend. That record which stretches back to his Arsenal playing days and through to his role as manager is a proud one for the Arsenal boss, he has never finished on the losing side at home against Tottenham in any competition and will be looking to extend that record this coming Sunday.
Early season assessment
Looking at the Premier league table in mid November and seeing Arsenal sitting deservedly top of the pile is a nice feeling for the manager, players and fans but how does this season so far measure up to our last title winning season in 2003/2004? Lets take a quick look at their start side by side with Arsene Wenger's team.
The year is 2003, it's the first week in November and the 2003/2004 FA Barclaycard Premiership is two and a half months old having kicked off early on August 16th. Arsenal are eleven games into their historical invincible season and sit atop the league table on 27 points, two points ahead of London neighbours Chelsea and 4 points ahead of Alex Ferguson's Manchester United. Eight goals conceded and twenty one goals scored in those 11 games will give you an indication of how strong Arsenal were at both ends of the park in that historic season with French international and Arsenal top scorer Thierry Henry already notching ten goals for the season.
Fast forward to November 2025 and the table looks ominously similar with Arsenal on top with 26 points from eleven games played, and with a goal difference of twenty goals for and five against. Its the blue half of Manchester this time who are giving chase to Mikel Arteta's Gunners, as Pep Guardiola's City team are sitting in 2nd place on 22 points with Chelsea two points further back in third place on twenty points.
Arsenal who had the best points per game record in 2024 have made a strong start to this new season and it can be said, in a similar fashion to Arsene Wenger's legendary team from that memorable 2003/2004 campaign, winning eight matches, drawing two and with a solitary loss in this present campaign. Although there's a long way to go in this season, they are charting a similar course to that which the Invincibles took twenty one years ago. They managed eight wins and three draws from their first eleven games back in November 2003 to set them apart from the chasing pack.
Coincidence
Another coincidence worth mentioning from that memorable season was that the 12th fixture of their title winning season was none other than north London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur who Mikel Arteta's team face this weekend. Goals from Pires and Ljungberg in the second half secured the points that day after an early strike from Anderton had threatened to derail the Gunners. This weeks fixture is also the 12th game week of the season and Arsenal, hopefully following in the footsteps of The Invincibles are at home to Tottenham again and hoping to repeat the outcome. Even without the ever present Gabriel, the Gunners are fancied to continue their push for the title with a convincing win over their north London neighbours.
Ready for the London Derby ♥️ pic.twitter.com/cnEYRhul2k
— Viktor Gyökeres 14 (@Gyokeresfanpage) November 16, 2025
