After Bruce Rioch departed Highbury before the start of the 1996/97 season, speculation was rife who would be the next manager. Names such as Johan Cruyff and Terry Venables were bandied about but Arsenal decided that Nagoya Grampus Eight manager Arsène Wenger was the man for the job.

The 1997–98 season was Arsenal’s 100th season of competitive football and Wenger’s first full season and what a season it was, with Arsenal winning the league title for the first time in seven years.

Wenger holds the Premier League trophy with Arsenal captain Tony Adams.

The Premier League trophy wasn’t the only piece of silverware Adams was to raise above his head in May 1998 as a 2-0 win over Newcastle United in the FA Cup final meant a second domestic double for Arsenal, their first since 1970/71.

The 1999-2000 season saw Wenger taste defeat in a European final for the first time at Arsenal, when the Gunners lost to Galatasaray 4–1 in a penalty shootout in the Uefa Cup final.

The 2000-01 season again saw Arsenal denied victory in a cup final when two late goals from Michael Owen gave Liverpool a 2-1 win in the FA Cup final.

Thierry Henry, seen here in action during Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Derby County, was Arsenal’s leading scorer during the 2001-02 season and his 24 Premiership goals helped Arsenal win the title by seven points. Not only was Henry the club’s top goalscorer but he was also the league’s top goalscorer and winner of the Golden Boot.

A 2-0 win over Chelsea in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff gave Wenger his second domestic double at Arsenal. The only downside to the season was that two cornerstones of his defence, Lee Dixon and Tony Adams, pictured celebrating Arsenal’s FA Cup win, hung up their boots.

Arsenal started strongly in the defence of their title, with a nine game unbeaten run at the start of the season, including this 3-1 win over Sunderland at Highbury. However, seven draws and six defeats over the rest of the season meant they were unable to retain the title and finished second to Manchester United.

A last minute on the line clearance by Ashley Cole from James Beattie’s header gave Arsenal a 1-0 win over Southampton which meant they retained the FA Cup.

The 2003-04 season saw Arsenal and Wenger’s greatest achievement when the club ended the Premier League campaign as champions without a single defeat – a record of 26 wins and 12 draws. Here Thierry Henry passes to Dennis Bergkamp whilst jumping a tackle from Lilian Nalis during their 2-1 win over Leicester City on the last game of the season.

The team acquired the nickname “The Invincibles”, and the club was awarded a golden replica trophy by the Premier League once the season concluded and they remained unbeaten for 49 games, setting a new record. Arsène Wenger is pictured during the celebrations after the Leicester game holding a t-shirt produced the year before, mocking his prediction that Arsenal could go the whole season unbeaten.

Once again Arsenal were unable to retain the league title, finishing in second place, twelve points behind Chelsea in 2004-05. They did make it to the FA Cup final again where they met Manchester United. It was goal-less after 90 minutes and the game went into extra-time.

And then to penalties with all the penalty takers converting until Paul Scholes’ effort was saved by Jens Lehmann. Patrick Vieira converted the final and winning spot-kick to seal a 10th FA Cup crown for Arsenal.

The 2005-06 season was Arsenal’s final season at Highbury.

The final whistle goes for the last time in Highbury’s 93-year history.

With Arsenal finishing fourth in the league, Europe offered a chance for silverware where after knocking out Real Madrid, Juventus and Villarreal in the knockout stages, they face Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final. There wasn’t a good start for the Gunners when goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was sent off for a professional foul on Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o early in the game. Although defender Sol Campbell gave Arsenal a first-half lead from a set piece, the team conceded twice in the final 15 minutes to lose the match

The following season saw another defeat in a final when Arsenal lost 2-1 to Chelsea in the Carling Cup. In the final Wenger continued his policy in the competition of naming a young team including Julio Baptista - here taking a boot to the chest by Michael Essien.

Arsenal ended their 2007-08 Premier League campaign in third position, having led the table for two-thirds of the season. The club made it into the quarter-finals of the Champions League where they were eliminated on aggregate by Liverpool. Arsenal exited the FA Cup in the fifth round to Manchester United and lost in the semi-finals of the League Cup to Spurs.

Jubilant Arsenal fans after a 2-1 win over Manchester United but the club finished the 2008-09 season in fourth position 18 points behind league winners United.

United knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League in the semi-final stage. United had a 1-0 advantage after the first leg, but the Arsenal fans suffered in the second leg at the Emirates where United won 3-1 for a 4-1 aggregate win.

Arsenal went out of the Champions League a round earlier in 2009-10, losing to Barcelona 6-3 on aggregate. In the Premier League, Arsenal suffered back-to-back defeats on four occasions, but finished the season in third place.

The 2010-11 season started with a 1-1 draw away to Liverpool and the team were within one point of league leaders Manchester United at the end of February, but a run of just one league win throughout March and April ended their title challenge.

Wenger’s team came close silverware in the Carling Cup final, but the Arsenal players and their loyal fans were thwarted when Obafemi Martins scored in the 89th minute to win the cup for Birmingham City.

Arsenal’s attempts to win silverware again proved fruitless in the 2011-12 season. In the Premier League, Arsenal finished third after struggling to recover from a poor start to the season which included an 8-2 drubbing at Old Trafford by Manchester United.

Chelsea keeper Petr Cech claims a cross during their 2-1 win at the Emirates, the first of Arsenal’s seven defeats in the 2012-13 season which meant they finished in fourth place in the league.

The 2013-14 season saw Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge of the Gunners when Arsenal visited Stamford Bridge in March 2014.

It didn’t go well for the Arsenal manager as they were on the wrong end of a 6-0 thrashing by Chelsea. After being early pace-setters in the title race leading the table for much of the season, a combination of injuries to key players and heavy defeats away from home against other title challengers, such as this one, saw the Gunners’ title ambitions evaporate. Nonetheless, Arsenal achieved success in the FA Cup with a dramatic 3–2 win over Hull City in the 2014 Final, ending a nine-year trophy drought.

An inconsistent start to the league season ended any realistic hopes for the 2014-15 Premier League title as Arsenal only won two out of their first eight games. A superb recovery in the second half of the season, where they won eight league games in a row, meant they finished in third place, 12 points behind champions Chelsea. There was better news in the FA Cup, where a 4-0 win over Aston Villa in the final meant they retained the cup, thus becoming the most successful club in the history of the competition with 12 wins.

A 5-2 away win and a 2-1 home win over eventual champions Leicester City helped Arsenal finish as runners up in the 2015-16 Premier League.

A poor 2016-17 season meant that Arsenal finished outside the top four of the Premier League for the first time since the 1995–96 season. This and a lack of investment in players led to a growing band of disgruntled Gooners calling for the manager to go and ‘Wenger Out’ banners appeared at more and more games. However the FA Cup final gave Wenger’s supporters an opportunity to get behind their man.

A 2-1 win over Chelsea meant Arsenal won the FA Cup for a record 13th time and the victory saw Wenger become the most successful manager in FA Cup history with seven wins.

As the 2017-18 season turned into another lacklustre campaign, the calls for Wenger to leave got louder and in April the club announced that he would go at the end of the season.

The club and fans gave the Frenchman a send-off as the Emirates hosted Wenger’s final home game as Arsenal manager.

The fans came out in force to pay homage to their long-serving manager who won three Premier League titles, seven FA Cups and seven Community Shields in his 22 year tenure at the club.