Wenger reaches the 1,000 matches milestone

As Arsene Wenger reaches his 1000 in charge of Arsenal, one of his ex players and former Nigerian international Kanu Nwankwo has hailed the manager as one of the best in history saying he learnt a lot from the coach during his stint at the club“If you are looking at the best managers in history […]

As Arsene Wenger reaches his 1000 in charge of Arsenal, one of his ex players and former Nigerian international Kanu Nwankwo has hailed the manager as one of the best in history saying he learnt a lot from the coach during his stint at the club
“If you are looking at the best managers in history then definitely Arsene Wenger is one of them, his ideas and philosophies of how the game should be played and run are amazing, I really learnt a lot from him during my stay as Arsenal”
Appointed in 1996, Wenger officially became an Arsenal employee on October 1, having been announced as Bruce Rioch’s successor in August while he was still in charge of Grampus Eight. After being released from his contract in Japan, Arsène eventually took charge of his first game for his new club on October 12, 1996 – a 2-0 win away to Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League.   
Wenger became the Club’s longest-serving manager four years ago, surpassing George Allison’s 13-year tenure, which straddled the Second World War.
Wenger is one of six men to win the league for the Club, and the only one to have lifted the FA Cup more than once. Arsenal’s 27 major honours so far have been shared between seven different managers (Chapman, Allison, Whittaker, Mee, Graham, Neill and Wenger).
In terms of win percentage, Wenger’s 57.9 puts him far  ahead of his peers, and he’s the only post-war Gunners manager to win more than half of his games.
In fact, even if he lost each of his next 130 games in charge, he would still have the highest win ratio of any Arsenal manager in history.
Wenger has taken charge of 78.9 per cent of all Arsenal’s Premier League games (644), and has won 83.2 per cent of Arsenal’s Premier League total points tally (1,279).
In addition he has overseen 68.7 per cent of all of Arsenal’s games in European competition (169).
Wenger won the domestic Double in his first full season (becoming the first overseas manager to win the English league) and he repeated the feat four years later. That 2001/02 Double season remains his most successful in terms of win percentage, with 65 per cent of the 60 games ending in victory.
The first three times Wenger recorded a win percentage in excess of 60 per cent, Arsenal won the league (1997/98, 2001/02 and 2003/04). However, the numbers would suggest that it’s become much harder to win silverware since the manager’s third league title in 2004.
The following season Arsenal’s win percentage was a hefty 64.9 (the second best of the Wenger era), but the team missed out on the title. Twice more since then the win percentage has been 60 or greater (2007/08 and 2009/10) yet both times the team remained trophyless. In fact the 2007/08 record was better than that of the 1997/98 Double campaign.
In each of Wenger’s seasons in charge, Arsenal finished no lower than fourth. That’s 17 consecutive top four finishes now under the Frenchman – the Club’s previous longest run was five (1930/31 to 1934/35).
In fact, 42.5 per cent of all Arsenal’s top-four finishes in history have come under Wenger.
The win ratio at Highbury was 70.6 per cent as opposed to 68.2 per cent at Emirates, while the side have scored at the same rate per game (2.16 at Emirates, 2.16 at Highbury) and conceded fewer (0.77 at Emirates, 0.82 at Highbury) since the move.
During the 17 years, Wenger has called upon 187 different players – that represents 22.9 per cent of all players who have ever appeared for the Arsenal first team.
Patrick Vieira played more than anyone else for the manager (402 games, 41.7 per cent of the total) and Dennis Bergkamp played most out of those players who were already at the Club when Wenger took over (376 games).
Theo Walcott is the only player from the current squad to appear in the top 10 appearances list, he’s played 270 games so far.
Twenty-seven of the 187 have played just once for the manager, while a select group of 22 played 200 times or more.
More than half of the players who have played for the Club under Wenger have scored (96). The leading scorer in this era, of course, is the Club’s all-time leading goal getter, Thierry Henry, who accounted for 228 of the 1,786 Gunners goals under Wenger (12.8 per cent).
Of the 91 English league clubs currently with a full-time manager, Wenger is the longest serving.