Portal:English football/Selected article/20

Arsène Charles Ernest Wenger OBE (born 22 October 1949) was the manager of Arsenal from 1996 to 2018, where he was the longest-serving and most successful in the club's history. His contribution to English football through changes to scouting, players' training and diet regimens revitalised the Gunners and aided the globalisation of the sport in the 21st century.

When he was first appointed on 22 September 1996, much of the English press and his own players weren't that excited, but on his first full season, 1997-98, he became the first foreign manager to win the league title in England, giving Arsenal their first title for seven years. They would also complete the double, defeating Newcastle Utd 2-0 in the 1998 FA Cup Final.

After that first successful full season, Wenger and Arsenal would go on to win another double in 2002, and win their third league championship under his management in 2004, but this was also the first season since the inaugural season of the Football League where a team went through the entire season unbeaten, nicknaming the 2004 team as The Invincibles. Arsenal would also later eclipsed Nottingham Forest's record of 42 league matches unbeaten and went seven more matches before finally losing, albeit in controversial circumstances, in 24 October 2004.

In 2006, Wenger guided Arsenal to their first ever European Cup Final, though they lost to Barcelona 3-1, despite scoring first. This season also marked the final season at Highbury, as they moved to Ashburton Grove, officially named the Emirates Stadium in the summer. For the rest of his tenure, Wenger prioritized the club's finances in order to meet costs, but this resulted in a nine-year spell without winning a trophy, before Wenger guided the Gunners to three FA Cups in four seasons (2014-2017), making him the most winningest manager in the FA Cup.

In the league however, by 2017-18, Arsenal were going sideways, likely to miss out on the top 4 yet again, he announced he would step down as Arsenal manager after the season concluded. His final home game was a 5–0 win against Burnley on 6 May, where he received a standing ovation before the game and was gifted the gold mini-replica Premier League trophy he won during the 2003–04 Invincibles season as a departing gift from Arsenal, and he officially concluded his tenure with a 1–0 away win against Huddersfield.