You father knew football very well 
Yep, surely was one of the very best attacking mids/wingers in the world at his peak. And I’m including guys like Zidane, Figo, Rui Costa etc there.
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In terms of revolutionising our style of play, Overmars still stands out more so than Pires for me.
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Pires was the best winger in league, in the 01-02 . carried us in the first 2/3rd of 01/02 & then Freddie stepped up during the run-in for the title. fair to say he was the best winger in the World from 2001-05?? Far better than guys like Giggs 
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He was surely clear ahead of Giggs at that time. No discussion.
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I think he has a case for the most underrated player in the PL.
Maybe it’s just how late he came but he’s never mentioned outside of Arsenal circles when talking about the greats, but he was getting goals from wide before it was cool, without being particularly selfish and on top of being just generally class.
His biggest flaw was probably being only the 4th most highly rated player in teams he played in. Much easier for someone like Hazard to have a standout season when his team wins a title and get all the plaudits.
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I think he was underrated even among Arsenal fans. He surely had more infuelce in those seasons (except for the first one probably) after he came here than Bergkamp, yet people still mostly put Berkamp ahead of him even in that era which is completely wrong imo.
I still think it was mistake to sub him in UCL final when Jens got red card. I was so angry then.
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Even as biggest fan ever… and no matter how heartbreaking was to see him leaving the pitch… I thought that was the right decision looking at the balance of the team at that moment.
It was still early in the game, we had a lot of running to do… He couldn’t cover the area Freddie covered on the wing. Btw Freddie probably had his best game in his last few seasons here on that night. You don’t leave Hleb out who worked like a wild dog at that time. Also compared to Cesc, he couldn’t do the CM job as well Cesc did at that moment (even at that age Cesc was already one of our most importatnt players).
Generally I was surprised to see both him and Freddie in the starting XI. I was sure Reyes was starting on the left, and it was one of the Pires or Ljungberg to play in that number 8 role in the middle.
He had a great start to the game, looked sharp, but still I think it was the right decision.
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What makes his numbers even more impressive is that he did it at a time when wingers didn’t play so close to goal.
Beat players with sheer timing and technique. Incredible player one of my favourites ever
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It’s quite incredible. He had the football brain of Iniesta, I’d say they had some similarities in their game especially when you see Pires drifting in the middle end simply connecting everything, except obviously he didn’t had that alien ability in tight areas. But also had the positioning of a top number 9, would always make runs when he didn’t have the ball, would sniff rebounds etc. One of a kind.
Talking about goalscoring… Both him and Freddie set a standard that made me hate most of Arsenal attacking midfielders/wingers after them because they were so inert off the ball compared to them.
I love this. He was a brilliant dribbler and used to drift past players with ease, but never relied on outstandind athleticism and pace to do that.
Now talking about that, Partey comes to mind… There are some similarities in how they just roast players with subtle moves withouth doing much.
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This guys runs were something else as he duck waddled passed players with ease, will never forget when he put Vieira on his ass and the look on Vieira’s face was wtf just happened there 
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If Lehmann didn’t get sent off in Paris he would have had a champions league medal too
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A couple of days ago the Lehmann red card popped up on my Twitter. It’s the first time I noticed the defensive errors beyond the red card.
Defensive line…bad
Midfield…exposed
But maybe the biggest error was by Ashley Cole who tried to play for offside in that moment. If he run back, I don’t Jens gets sent off
Monday morning blues ;).
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Don’t think there’s been a more heartbreaking end to a players career here than seeing Pires trudge off as he was sacrificed in the minutes that followed the sending off.
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For sure the look on his face sitting on the bench
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Yeah, I think a lot is made of that final.
If the ref had allowed the goal and not sent Lehmann off.
If Henry had scored one of his two chances.
If Eto’o had correctly been called offside.
I, personally, think Barcelona were all over us. Needed a bit more in that final if we were ever going to win it.
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It’s a pivotal game really in both teams history. Barcelona began a new era of becoming the real power house they should always have been.
We missed out on our biggest night and never IMO or Wenger really believed we would do it then.
I always remember thinking we wouldn’t do it in that era.
It always felt more of a landmark defeat afterwards for me at the time.
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Well at 1 nil up, Henry had a sliding doors chance that he passed straight to Valdes.
2 nil up and we’re reinvigorated to hold on for the last 15ish mins. Barca players’ heads drop as well.
Game was spoiled from the sending off but we still could have won in spite of that.
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