While most football glory rests primarily with strikers or midfielders, every club’s history includes legendary defenders whose names are almost sacred to fans. Of course, there are such players in Arsenal’s 130-plus year history.
Leave aside the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries for now. Still, that leaves us with a long 100 years to focus on, and we have attempted to find the top ten defenders who have worn the London club’s jersey with the cannon in their emblem during that period.
If the footballer in question continued to play after 2000, it was essential to us that the more significant part of his career fell within the last century. You will find these memorable players in the following chapters.
Eleven years, 372 games – this is Steve Bould’s record at Arsenal. A Stoke City alumnus, Bould earned a reputation as one of the best defenders in the second division at his hometown club in his youth, and it was clear that he would not escape the attention of the rich squads in the top flight. Everton and Arsenal fought for his signature, Bould finally opted for the Gunners, where he transferred for £390,000.
In his debut season, Bould helped Arsenal win the championship. He repeated the feeling of winning the English league twice more. He has also won the FA Cup twice, the League Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup once.
In 1999 he left Bould for Highbury and spent his career’s last season at Sunderland. Since 2001 he has worked at Arsenal again, this time in the youth teams, becoming an assistant coach to Arsene Wenger in 2013 and now working as head coach of the Under-23 team.
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