One-Nil to the Arsenal: Part 6 - The Famous Back Four

24:03It may not have been the results the performance warranted, but it put the team in control of its own destiny, returning to Highbury on March 15th. This time, the full complement of attacking options was available to Graham. Wrighty was in the lineup alongside Super Kev, giving the faithful hope of a quarterfinal win.

24:25Alan Smith yeah in front of your own fans you're expecting to you're expecting to beat them and of course you've had 90 minutes against them so you know more about them there's no mystery to them and also personally you know what was my centre half like do I feel like you know I can get the better of him so it was less into the unknown and we would have fancied ourselves. Yeah, I don't think we ever thought we were going to beat them 4-0 or whatever, but we went into that hybrid game. Obviously, the crowd and Willian Yuan, great atmosphere. So we went into it thinking that we could get past them.

25:09Yeah, definitely.

25:13Once again, the practical and disciplined approach of Graeme's side won out over the Italians. Paul Davis, long out of favor with the gaffer, continued to play a critical role in the Gunners' Cup run. He was joined in the midfield by John Jensen and Hillier, though Ian Selle came on in the 14th minute, for Hillier, who was injured so badly it would keep him out the rest of the European run. Selle had an impact getting on the end of some first-half chances. Then in the second half, a sight familiar to modern Arsenal fans was on display as Nigel Winterburn marched towards the net from a midfield run off a Davis flick.

25:50It was the template for what we now expect to see for Mercado Calafiore or Myles Ouskele inverting into the midfield in Mikel Arteta's side. Finally, the breakthrough in the leg and tie came in the 66th minute. Alan Smith. And yeah, you say about set pieces. I mean, we used to work on them a fair bit under George. you know they weren't particularly complicated types of things it was just concentrating on the delivery into the box and and being aggressive in attacking the ball you know it's quite often me tony and stevie bold we were you know all tall and uh we tried to yeah try to impose ourselves on the opposition and uh on that occasion tony sneaked in with one

26:42Arsenal won a free kick and Davis signed up delivering a perfectly fledged ball to Tony Adams who headed the only goal of the game

26:54ArsenalVision Podcast Hosts:I'm not going forward, George Smith. He's having a real wrestling match again with Gaguchi. The back sometimes can be the problem, the way you go out, so you're playing with the three forwards all very close together. It's fairly easy to mark.

27:14ArsenalVision Podcast Hosts:Right in there, Bowling, Adams have come up from the back. Smith, another six-figure there. Arsenal make this one Adams is going in there

27:32ArsenalVision Podcast Hosts:Well their work is done George Graham East into this decisive moment as Davis' free kick comes in plenty of good moves plenty of good moves and I'm only Adams finishing it off To be fair enough, when he does get there, that's his scene. He needs as good as anybody in the game, certainly in England. But that's going in on three kicks and attacking the ball. Well, within a couple of minutes, he'll be saying, I can't see where Arsenal are going to score a goal. That lovely, super slow motion. And that's how it's done. Tony Adams. The match ended 1-0, and Arsenal were through to the semifinals. Even when they needed a goal, the famous back four often had a say.

28:22Long-time Arsenal physio, Gary Lewin. It coming down to George's teams was ingrained in you that if you did not concede, we would score from a set piece. And we always had that belief that as long as we didn't give anything away, at some stage during the game, we would score from a set piece. And so every time you got a corner or a free kick, the confidence was very, very high. And the players really believed that. And I think that showed in the games. No, you didn't. And again, you didn't have any computerized digital analysis. You had a bit of paper on the wall.

29:02But Tony Adams' goal wasn't the plan that day. But that's not to say it wasn't part of the plan. When Graham built that famous back four, he started with Adams and found a balance of defensive solidity and attacking prowess. Adams signed as a schoolboy in 1980, then made his league debut for Arsenal in a game against Sunderland on November 5th, 1983. He was a highly respected vocal leader. Those are the qualities that made him captain. He was also strong and courageous with excellent tackling capability, and he was dominant in the air, making Adams the anchor to a defense that seldom conceded.

29:40From there, the pieces to the famous back four, five or six, depending on your preference, the formation of that era came in little by little. Keon was also with Arsenal as a schoolboy, though he left in 1986. While he was gone, the rest of the back six found their way to the team. Nigel Winterburn signed in the summer of 1987. Then Lee Dixon joined in January of 1988, with his Stoke City teammate Steve Bold joining the Gunners just a few months later in that same summer. The core group making up what became the famous back four was assembled before the start of the 1989 league title run. David Seaman joined in the summer of 1990, and Keown rejoined in February of 1993.

30:26Any transfer business had an element of luck, even more so back in the late 80s, consider this was a time before the internet, a time before YouTube comps, a time when word of mouth and trust in certain opinions mattered more than anything. Yet Graham had a methodology for recruiting ahead of its time in some regards. Even still, there was an element of luck that had to come to fruition for this famous back four to become reality, particularly when you consider that in some cases, Graham was counting on the players to make a jump from lower divisions to the top of the top flight.

31:09Nigel Winterburn. Yeah, well, for me, it was like, I suppose, most of the players. I mean, you know, I said to you about getting rid of some of the senior players. Obviously, some of the younger players were still there. And I think that was George's ideas, to bring in players and mix them in and work with the players that were there. But, I mean, when everyone talks about back four, back five, you know, when they talk about Lee, Tony, Steve, Martin came back, myself, Dave Seaman, John Lucas initially, but Dave Seaman coming in, in goal. but boy oh boy I mean I get asked the question on many occasions and I always answer it with I don't think any professional team in the Premier League today would walk through with their manager situations that we walk through as a defensive unit just a defensive unit without a football on the pitch for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and just set up situations of trying to work out the movement together, what the manager wants you to do in relation to where the ball is.

32:34And basically, the best way to describe it is that if the ball is coming down the right-hand side and you're going to engage the ball, and I go left-hand side, if I move two paces to the left and three paces forward, the other three do exactly the same. So it's keeping the distances between each individual player as a group the same distance all the time. And we walk through that hour after hour after hour. And then George would introduce the youth team to literally attack that back four with Dave in goal. He'd used seven or eight of the youth team. They were just attackers. As soon as we won the ball, we literally just had to chip it back to the halfway line and then set up and defend again.

33:27And that was the process of, you know, trying to understand what each component is doing. And then you get that relationship with, well, for me, it was with Steve a lot of the time. so right next to me, inside of me, and then with the other two, with Tony and Lee, and then as you come into what I call real match time, where it starts to really matter, you start to understand what each player's going to do. I gain more confidence in what Steve is going to do. I understand what he's going to do when he's playing, so I take up positions to make sure that I'm covering him in case there's any mistakes.

34:12and the other three are doing exactly, you know, the other three players, so it's Steve that's going for the ball. Then the other three move, we move in a direction to protect him. You know, it's quite detailed, but in a way it's quite simple. And as I said to you, most of the time it worked very, very well and occasionally it broke down and then we just went back again, over it again. And, you know, with the idea was, it's quite simple. You're a defender. You don't let a goal in. That's as simple as it can be.

34:54Nigel Winterburn was a 24-year-old left back when Graham brought him to Arsenal from Wimbledon in 1987. And because Kenny Sampson was still the team's left back, Winterburn started his Arsenal career as a left-footed right back. It wasn't ideal, but Graham was looking for a solution to replace the great Viv Anderson. His first season was up and down, but the following campaign, Samson was out of the plans, and Nutty Nige, a nickname he earned for his propensity to wind up the opposition, settled into his natural left-back role for the 88-89 season, which ended in a title. Winterburn would stay in that role for over a decade until departing for West Ham in 2000.

35:36He was a tenacious competitor. That spirit, along with his fierce tackles, was what earned him that nutty nickname and a reputation as a strong defender. His left foot was also capable of delivering crosses, and Winterburn often found himself over free kicks. Though he rarely scored, the times he did find the net were in spectacular fashion, such as a memorable late-minute goal against Chelsea in the 98 title-winning season. Even without goals to his name, his attacking importance was evident. Graham's trust in his early scouting system was tested with his next two calls on the back line. Lee Dixon was playing for Stoke when Graham targeted him.

36:17Arsenal fans think of Stoke as, well, Stoke. with that element of physical cynicism that we hate competing against, but wouldn't mind having on our side. At the time, they were an average mid-table second division team, not necessarily the place an aspiring top-tier team would go for talent with its eyes on winning the league or Europe. But Graham was still looking for that Anderson replacement and took a chance on Dixon. Because it was a January transfer, the Manchester native whose father was a goalkeeper for City didn't play regularly until the following season. Again, that run to the title win in Anfield.

36:56Dixon's impact was quickly felt. He shared the same balance of attacking prowess and defensive capability that you could find with Adams and Winterburn. Both Ryan Giggs and David Ginola called Dixon the toughest opponent they faced thanks to his strong tackling and positional play. But he was equally adept at starting the attack, either with his progressive passing ability or his appetite to get forward in the dribble. Watch Dixon highlights and you will see a player with a strong first touch, accurate crossing, and even more goals than you'd expect from a fullback. Taking a chance on one Division II mid-table player was understandable.

37:35But when Graham went to scout Dixon, he fell in love with one of his teammates as well, another defender at that. Steve Bull joined in the summer of 88, just a few months after Dixon. and Graham's rate on Stoke was complete. Bold started his career as a right back, but found success when he transitioned to center back. At the time of his arrival in North London, the center back spots were occupied by Captain Tony Adams and already Arsenal legend David O 'Leary, who had been a regular since making his debut in 1975 as a 17-year-old. Despite still being relatively young in civilian terms by 1988, O 'Leary had, as I like to say, a lot of wear on the tires.

38:21He broke numerous appearance records at the club as the youngest person to reach the 100 and 200 match milestones, and he made his 400th appearance while still only age 26. Graham understandably then was eyeing a succession plan, which led him to Bold. He was known for his physical strength and dominance in the air, and like the rest of Graham's defenders, had a strong understanding of positioning and teamwork. Bold was vocal on the field and offered leadership for his teammates. His path to the starting 11 wasn't easy because of O 'Leary's presence, but once he broke through, he emerged as the regular partner for Adams at that other center-back spot.

39:04Bold made 30 appearances in the 89 title-winning season, sometimes as part of a back five. And as O 'Leary's career wound down and Bold spun up, making the transition complete, the famous back four was fully in place. Maybe more than any of the other famous back four, Bold's status as an Arsenal legend was cemented during the Cup Winners' Cup run in Copenhagen in 1994. Parma was known for an attack that included Brule and Esprilla and Zola, and Bold is credited as a big reason the Gunners kept a clean sheet in that game. Graham's defense was rounded out with the return of Martin Keown, who became an interchangeable piece of the equation and, like Bold, was known for his physicality.

39:50Keown gave Graham a third strong center back and proved valuable through the Cup Winners' Cup campaign when he played in 46 total games, including seven in the Cup Winners' Cup tournament. Regardless of whether you looked at the group as the famous back four or more, there's no question that set of players gave the team an identity that was built to win in Europe.

40:16Nigel Winterburn. Yeah, we used to walk through it. We used to walk through those sessions without the ball. George would almost have it in his hands and just walk. And then wherever he walked to, the nearest player would go to close down and then the other three respond, as I said to you, forwards, backwards, sideways, all the same. and then he might roll the ball to one side or the other or roll it straight down the middle to the centre-half and it's exactly the same. One side, left side, right side or closing down the middle. And then as you go on and on and on, he then obviously introduced the ball, introduced mainly the youth team really because youth team, when they come up against you, They're young, they're athletic, they're energetic, and they don't quite do things conventionally.

41:09You're not sure what they're quite going to do, and they want to try and embarrass you. No. So, you know, in a way that makes it slightly more difficult. So that was the process of the build-up to working together as a back four. We just did it for – well, I don't know how long we did it for, but it felt like many, many hours.

41:36The famous back four won a mythical title in 1989 at Anfield, but in terms of European competition, Graham deemed the defensive unit incomplete. There was, in his mind, a chance to upgrade at one position, goalkeeper. It was a surprise line of thinking. John Lukic was widely considered one of the best goalkeepers playing in England. George Graham famously even acknowledged that while making his case for a new man between the pipes. I still think John Lukic is one of the top three keepers in the country. I just think David Seaman is the best.

42:15Amy Lawrence. What's also important is it wasn't just the back four or five, but also included the goalkeeper, David Seaman. I think when they talk about themselves as a defensive unit, he is as vital a component as all the others. And again, when I think back, it actually reminded me slightly of the Ramsdale-Ryer situation of more recent times, where the goalie who preceded David Zeman was a guy called John Lukic who had been there for a long time. He was a good goalie and he was very popular. But George was like, I want the best. You know, there was no room for sentiment. He was ruthless. And in his opinion, David Seaman was a better goalkeeper.

43:04So he went out and he spent just over a million quid, which I think at the time was maybe a record for a goalkeeper, to get the best.

43:15Seaman broke through for Queen's Park Rangers, and that's the point at which Graham identified him. In 1990, the transfer system looked different than it does now, but there were still deadlines and complexity. When Graham decided to make a move for Seaman, it was towards the end of the 90s season, and the deal involved sending Lukic the opposite way on loan. He opposed the idea, causing the deal to fall apart. But Graham returned for his man when the season ended, and the clubs were allowed to buy players again. Determined to land Seaman, Arsenal paid 1.3 million pounds, at the time a British record for a goalkeeper, and Lukic headed to Leeds, and a new era was born in North London.

43:55Seaman's time at Arsenal coincided with one of the most successful periods in the club's history, and as a result, he is considered one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. During the 1991 season, Seaman conceded only 18 goals when playing in every match of the 38 game season that saw arsenal win another league title

44:20david hillier no it's good i had i had a really good relationship with david and it's interesting after the dense game we um we traveled back to london colony and and at the time david was driving in a uh ford sierra cosworth rs andy rouse conversion and it was like it was like it was like 160 mile an hour ford cosworth with all the roll bars in the back and all of that and i had a um i had a bmw alpina 2.7 m3 and i lived 55 miles from the training ground and and it was around the m25 and on the way back from the airport on the coach i said to dave seaman i said um i'm gonna get home in 25 minutes tonight and he went so so i had to do basically up to 125 miles an hour all the way home all right so he went i'm gonna beat you and he we went the same route and i went no you won't i said you ain't gonna you ain't gonna see me and i jumped in my car shot down the drive I was on the M25 I was doing 145 miles an hour on the M25 and I saw this car coming up behind me closing in my mirror and I thought oh this is the police I've been done and then I pulled over like that and this Cosworth came to the side of me and this face just went turned to me and went and carried on driving like that and he's still whenever I see him now whenever I see now he always says to me the cosworth versus the m3 it's it was just it was amazing and and i did get home in 25 minutes um you know uh but yeah we was doing like 140 plus running and just two cars it was about three o 'clock in the morning um yeah it was uh yeah and that was dave's personally quiet, but yeah, very assured, very assured.

46:26During his time with the Gunners, he won three league championships, four FA Cups and the League Cup in 1993. But of course, the European Cup Winners' Cup in 94 is one of the key reasons Graham brought Seaman into the fold. His legend went well beyond that win, but he is the only goalkeeper that can claim that level of European glory in an Arsenal kit. With the addition of Seaman, Graham had a defense in place that he believed could win Europe. An era-defining group was assembled and ready to make history.

47:02Whether you call it a back four, back five, or even back six, there's no disputing that it was famous. That iconic group was the foundation of the club during the Graham era. It provided the ingredients around which he built a recipe for European success. And when all was said and done in 1994, Adams, Bold, Winterburn, and Dixon, along with Seaman and Keown, etched their name into the Arsenal history books forever in Copenhagen.

47:42that's all for part six of one nil to the arsenal we'll be back soon with part seven the midfield engine i'm your host kent malmros thanks for listening

48:06Thank you.