“Obviously this has been an emotional day for everyone connected to the football club. I have now the impossible job of trying to express the feelings of those of us who love this club and who love football. Typically Arsene is not here today because his focus is on the game on Sunday. I left him at the fields of the training ground at Colney this morning. That’s who he is. People today are talking a lot and wonderfully about what Arsene has done for Arsenal Football Club and what he’s done for the wider world of football.
"I will leave it to others to talk about the facts and figures of his 22-year tenure. His achievements are extraordinary and many of them will not be repeated. But there is something more coming out today. There’s an affection, widespread affection, from Arsenal fans but also from people right across the sphere of football. And I’ve had the pleasure of working closely alongside Arsene over the last 10 years. What I’d like to do is to talk about Arsene as a football man, but also as a person.
“Arsene changed the game. He set a totally new standard. A new ambition. An ambition not just to win, but to win while achieving perfection. To make art out of football. And he was always brave enough to be true to that extraordinary ambition and incredibly he achieved it with Arsenal’s Invincibles season. People these days use the words ‘football philosophy’ lightly. But Arsene truly has a football philosophy and he’s been brave enough to live by it and in doing that he’s reinvented the game and played some of the best football we’ve ever seen.
“He’s transformed the beautiful game and has made Arsenal famous throughout the world for the style of football we play. Arsenal fans take enormous pride in that. And for that we say, ‘Thank you, Arsene.’
Ivan Gazidis, Arsenal Chief Executive (April 20th, 2018).
Arsenal last starting XI to play in the Champion League in 2017 | Arsenal - Bayern Munich, 8.3.2017
and
Arsenal first starting XI to come back to the Champion League in the renaissance | Arsenal - PSV, 20.9.2023
The past - The present under the majestic Emirates UCL nights.