To celebrate 13 years of Arsène Wenger rule we take a look at the 13 best (and we could have done more) and 13 worst (frankly, we struggled) signings of those 13 years. He's been busy...
Oh and these lists are in chronological order - we're not claiming Freddie Ljungberg is better than Thierry Henry.

THE 13 BEST
1) PATRICK VIEIRA (bought for £3.5m, sold for £18m)
Bought with the nod of the incoming manager as a completely unknown 20-year-old in September 1996, 12 years later Vieira was voted the fifth-best Arsenal player of all time. In the meantime, the Frenchman had won three Premier League titles - the final triumph coming after an Invincible season with Vieira wearing the captain's armband. The Gunners have won nothing since his exit and lazy pundits still say 'for me, they never replaced Patrick Vieira'.

2) NICOLAS ANELKA (bought for £500,000, sold for £22.3m)
Possibly the best deal ever made by any manager in England, Anelka came to Arsenal as a 17-year-old, scored some goals (helping Arsenal to the double in 1997-98), sulked a little bit and then buggered off to Real Madrid for massive money. Kerching.

3) EMMANUEL PETIT (bought for £2.5m, sold for £7m)
I was at Highbury for the unveiling of Petit (along with Marc Overmars) and frankly, he looked like a cock, He was wearing some kind of see-through white vest and the gathered press wondered a) who the hell he was and b) who the hell he thought he was. Well, he was a decent defender who Wenger turned into the perfect partner for Vieira into the centre of the Arsenal midfield. Astonishingly, he was only there for three seasons...but lordy he was good.

4) MARC OVERMARS (bought for £5.5m, sold for £25m)
Crikey, he bought some fantastic players in those first seasons, didn't he? The Dutchman had the wonderful knack of scoring vital goals over three years at Arsenal (including one at Old Trafford, Gunners may remember) and formed an almost telepathic understanding with Dennis Bergkamp. He was then sold on for a phenomenal fee and few could quibble that he'd been terrific value.

5) FREDDIE LJUNGBERG (bought for £3m, left on free)
Apparently signed by Wenger on the strength of his performance for Sweden against England, the facially-blessed winger proved to be more than a little handy over nine seasons at Arsenal. He had the very happy knack of appearing at the far post to score those tap-ins that the rest of the Arsenal team rejected as far too easy.

6) THIERRY HENRY (bought for £10m, sold for £20m)
You know this story too well for us to reel it out again. Basically, he looked like a donkey and then he looked like the best footballer the world had ever seen. He scored a phenomenal 174 Premier League goals in 254 games and, well, he was frankly f***ing fantastic.

7) ROBERT PIRES (bought for £6m, left on free)
The sixth-greatest player ever to play for Arsenal and definitely the owner of the best goatee, Pires was Overmars' replacement and he certainly lived up to the billing. Had an almost one-in-three goalscoring record and clearly revelled in playing with the man above him on this list. Eventually fell victim of Arsène's ageism, but only after winning two Premier League titles.

8) SOL CAMPBELL (bought for nothing, left for nothing)
For three seasons (including the Invincibles year), Campbell was quite simply phenomenal. One of the best free transfers of all time, Campbell was the first central defender Wenger bought who was an unprecedented success. Latterly lost his way but Gooners should not forget just how good he was in 2003-04.

9) KOLO Touré (bought for £15,000, sold for £16m)
Bought for peanuts as a striker or attacking midfielder, Touré left for big money as one of the best central defenders in the Premier League. He was quite simply brilliant in the Invincibles season beside Campbell as Arsenal finally found a central defensive pairing to match the one he had inherited from Bruce Rioch. Things didn't go quite so swimmingly with William Gallas but he remains an Arsenal favourite even after his exit. Mostly by virtue of not being Emmanuel Adebayor.

10) GILBERTO SILVA (bought for £4.5m, sold for £1m)
Abou Diaby's pre-cursor in attracting the considerable wrath of Pete Gill, Gilberto actually makes Diaby look like a world-beater. He may have taken his 'Invisible Wall' nickname a little too literally in latter years, but he deserves a place in this list for his part in the Invincible season when he dovetailed brilliantly with Vieira.

11) CESC FABREGAS (bought for nothing, valued at £30m-plus)
Still only 22 but has made over 200 appearances for Arsenal since they sneaked him out of Spain under cover of darkness. Phil Brown may not like the way he dresses, but Arsenal fans have been enjoying the way he plays since he took over the central midfield reins from Patrick Vieira. It seems more and more likely that he will exit the club next summer, probably for a massive wedge of money.

12) ROBIN VAN PERSIE (bought for £2.75m, valued at £20m-plus)
An absolute bargain, the Dutchman was signed as a winger with Wenger envisioning a conversion echoing that of Henry. Van Persie has never quite been in that class but injuries have prevented him really fulfilling his potential, though a league strike record of one in three is nae too bad.

13) EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR (bought for £7m, sold for £25m)
Unpopular player. Popular profit.

THE 13 WORST

1) ALBERTO MENDEZ (bought for nothing, left for nothing)
Spotted playing for German non-league club FC Feucht by Arsène Wenger, it soon became obvious that he probably should have left him there. Somehow stuck around for five years before wandering back to Germany via Spain and can still be seen podding around the (very) lower German leagues.

2) KABA DIAWARA (bought for £2.5m, sold for £3m)
Quite how Arsenal made a profit on Diawara is a mystery of Lord Lucan-esque proportions because he looked out of his depth in every one of the 12 Premier League appearances he made for Arsenal. Still wandering the world in search of a home, the striker has recently played for Al-Gharrafa, Al-Kharitiyath, Ajaccio, Gaziantepspor, Ankaragucu, Alki Larnaca and, latterly, AC-Arles Avignon. Next he'll get to B in the directory.

3) OLEG LUZHNY (signed for £1.8m, left for nothing)
Initially signed as a long-term replacement for Lee Dixon, he instead became back-up for the centre-halves as Lauren was signed to do his job at considerably greater expense. Very, very ordinary - especially when you consider that Liverpool signed Sami Hyypia for a similar fee in the same season.

4) IGOR STEPANOVS (bought for £1m, left for peanuts)
Another prime example of Wenger's defensive blind spot, Stepanovs arrived for a cool £1m from Skonto Riga and basically sat on the bench for three years before shuffling off to Beveren. All we really remember about him is that he was very tall and very slow. Probably still is.

5) DAVID GRONDIN (bought for nothing, left for nothing)
Another one of those players who somehow stuck around for five years despite being, well, rubbish. Was drafted in from St Etienne and was promptly sent back on loan before heading out for spells in various minor leagues (including Bevern in Belgium) before finding his level at Dunfermline. Currently plays for RAEC Mons.

6) TOMAS DANELIVICIUS (bought for £1m, left for peanuts)
For a while there, Beveren were the daft buggers who took all Arsenal's cast-offs, though this time Arsenal needed only a year to realise that Lithuanian striker Danilevièius was not up to the standard required of a team chasing the title. He was also very tall.

7) FRANCIS JEFFERS (bought for £7m, sold for £2.6m)
Wenger's first big-money flop, Jeffers was of course signed as a 'fox in the box'. It soon transpired that he should probably have saved his money and fielded an actual fox. So far out of his depth he was barely visible with binoculars, he eventually left for Charlton and is now on the transfer list at Sheffield Wednesday.

8) GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST (bought for £8.5m, sold for peanuts)
The Dutchman was supposed to be a replacement for Emmanuel Petit but he became a very expensive reserve left-back after suffering knee ligament damage. Arsenal were very happy to loan him to Barcelona after two underwhelming seasons and he eventually moved as a sweetener in the Cesc Fabregas deal.

9) RICHARD WRIGHT (bought for £6m, left for £3.5m)
Along with Jeffers, the disastrous signing of Wright is the reason Wenger began to shy away from spending big money on English players. Had one season at Highbury and ended it as third-choice keeper after a series of blunders, including one spectacular punching of the ball into his own net.

10) JOSE REYES (bought for £10.5m, sold for £8m)
Apparently, poor homesick Reyes thought there were "bad people" at Arsenal, who had taken him from his beloved Sevilla and put him in the nasty Premier League where people delighted in trying to kick him off the park. Not an absolute disaster by any means, but Arsenal fans had been spoiled by signings like Henry for a similar fee.

11) ABOU DIABY (bought for £2m, valued at £2)[/b]
He's very athletic and very tall, but he really doesn't seem to have a brain. Ask Pete Gill for a lengthier appraisal.

12) AMAURY BISCHOFF (bought for nothing, left for nothing)
It was a curious decision to give a contract to a player who had barely played because of a horrendous injury record. True enough, he played a few minutes in the Premier League against Portsmouth and then shuffled off to an obscure Portuguese side. Now a quiz answer waiting to happen.

13) MIKAEL SILVESTRE (bought for peanuts, now worth less)
When one of your major rivals allows one of their number to join your club for very few pennies, there's a damned good chance that they're more hindrance than help. Take heed.

4 losses, 5 losses, 5 losses, 5 losses, 1 loss, 0 losses

That’s your last 6 Premier League winners’ losses tally. Yesterday Perry Groves made what on its surface seems an incredible claim; that this year the title winner could lose as many as 6 matches and still win the title. Most people would think “6 losses? that’s crazy!” and historically they’d be correct. Arsenal lost 6 last year and it was only good enough for 4th place. After thinking about it, though, I’m going to agree with Perry for two reasons; first, because of the challengers to the top four, and second because it’s better to lose a match while going for the win than it is to sit back and go for the tie.

So far this season several teams have looked very impressive; Sunderland looks like they might be the type of team that will push all of the title challengers — with their stropping two center forwards and a middle of Cattermole, Cana, and Malbranque they are a no nonsense squad and will turn over top four teams this year. Their draw against Man U was no fluke, they earned that. Villa are still a dangerous team and folks would be silly to write Martin O’Neill and his squad off as an easy three points. Everton are constructed to grind their opponents down and with news that Phil Jagielka is ready to make a comeback they should look to make up for their poor start to the season with some solid play. Tottenham is a squad that wants to score a ton of goals and that will surprise a lot of folks. And, of course, City look like they are solid enough to push teams, at least until the infighting starts. All this is to say that beyond the usual surprises, such as Wigan stealing one against Chelsea, there are a lot of teams who are built to challenge, if not beat, the top four clubs. None of which even mentions the fact that the top clubs will fight tooth and nail for all three points when they face each other. so, 6 losses each for the top clubs is by no stretch of the imagination infeasable.

But really it’s not losses that matter so much. Sure, it’s dropped points, but so are draws. The old adage is that top four teams sees draws as two dropped points while smaller clubs tend to see it as a point salvaged. How important are draws on a final tally? Well, a team that draws every game gets 38 points and probable relegation. Whereas a team which wins half, and loses half, ends up on 57 points and playing in the Europa League. As for the title challengers, here’s another way to look at it: during Arsenal’s unbeaten season they went 26-12-0 and garnered 90 points. Man U lost 4 matches last year and got the same point total, because they won more, going 28-6-4. They drew half as many and won just two more games, and they got the same number of points! Incredibly, in that unbeaten season, if Chelsea had converted just 4 of their draws to wins, they would have beaten Arsenal to the title by one point — while losing 7 matches to Arsenal’s 0. Clearly, winning is everything. This sounds almost stupid to say but, 6 losses won’t matter to the league winner as long as they win more games. Win more games, win the title, as it should be.

I’m not saying that draws are useless. They can be a good result, say, in a comeback from a 2 goal deficit. Rather, that top clubs and title winning clubs approach nearly every match as a chance to get three points. It’s early in the season but I think Wenger’s approach to this problem is pretty clear: you need to score goals to win and we’re going to outscore you. Yes, this means that like the City game, we’re going to go into the game saying that we’d rather lose 4-2 than get a 2-2 draw. Under that system, and the way that we are playing defense, I can actually see Arsenal losing 7 or 8 this season — and still challenging for the title. Since our comptetitors will be looking at 5-8 losses as well, it will be the win to draws ratio that will decide this season.

All we have to do is win more!