Arsenal nears unbeaten league season
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-14 13:44

Arsenal is a game away from becoming the first topflight English team in 115 years to finish the league season undefeated. That's not good enough for manager Arsene Wenger.

"I feel we can get better and better," he said. "That is my target."

Arsenal goes into Saturday's home game against relegated Leicester with 25 victories and 12 ties. The Gunners have clinched their 13th league title and third under Wenger.

The only English club to complete an unbeaten season was Preston North End in 1888-89, which won 18 games and tied four.

The achievement is just as rare in other major European leagues.

_AC Milan is the only Italian team to go undefeated, winning 22 games and tying 12 in 1992.

_It's happened twice in Spain, but not in a long time — Athletic Bilbao in 1929-30 and Real Madrid two seasons later. Both teams played only 18 games.

_No German Bundesliga team has gone undefeated.

Arsenal has dominated with the French flair of striker Thierry Henry, midfielder Patrick Vieira and winger Robert Pires.

The Gunners have turned aside the challenge of Chelsea and billionaire owner Roman Abramovich and surpassed Manchester United as the dominant team in the country.

Arsenal, however, after beating Chelsea all season, was eliminated by the Blues in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Two surprise clubs, Porto and Monaco, will play in the final May 26.

Arsenal is looking for its first European championship, and that's Wenger's next goal.

"I love to win and I love to improve," he said. "I would like to think that next year I will be a better manager than this year. Not repeating the same mistakes, getting more out of the team, pushing higher up, being more consistent with our quality and doing things that have never been done before."

After Arsenal's 1-0 victory last weekend over Fulham, Wenger said going unbeaten would give the team "immortality."

At least for a few months.

"But we have to start again next season," the Frenchman said. "If we lose two games at the start then we know everybody will be saying we are nobody.

"Maybe if I was 20 years younger I would have said, `OK, let's take it easy.' But I have enough experience to know we have to be ready for it from the first day."

Almost everything else in the Premier League is settled going into Saturday's final 10 games.

Arsenal and Chelsea have clinched first and second and the automatic berths in the Champions League. Man United and Liverpool have third and fourth, which means they have to play in the Champions League qualifying round over the summer to qualify for the main phase.

The UEFA Cup berth will go to the team that finishes fifth. If Aston Villa defeats Man United, the Birmingham club will get the spot. Newcastle, which tied Southampton 3-3 Wednesday to lose a chance at finishing fourth, can take fifth if it defeats Liverpool and Villa stumbles.

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