Who Is The Best Arsenal Left Winger?
The ninth in a series of articles on all of the best modern Arsenal players in every position.

Three places left to fill, and the first of them is the left wing. Whilst the right wing has often been more ‘workmanlike’ over the years, the left wing has been full of jinky wingers. Sublime might be an apt word.

George Armstrong

1961 - 1977

621 appearances (68 goals)

Championship Winners Medal, FA Cup Winners Medal, Fairs Cup Winners Medal.

At home as much on the left as the right George Armstrong undoubtedly deserves to be considered for both wings.

In terms of timing you could say he was unfortunate, being a top English winger who played his peak years at the same time as Alf Ramsey was playing with his ‘wingless wonders’, otherwise he would have undoubtedly won a hatful of international caps.

Geordie was one of those people who was universally popular, and it’s rare to find a bad word against him. His later years were spent running the youth team at Highbury and maybe it’s fitting that he collapsed and died during a game at the training ground.

Graham Rix

1976 – 1988

506 appearances (51 goals)

FA Cup Winners Medal, 17 England caps.

One of the first to suffer from the ‘not Brady’ syndrome of the ‘80s, Rix was a supremely gifted footballer who spent most of his career at Arsenal playing for poor teams before moving on to France for a successful swansong.

First made the team in the mid ‘70s, and formed a very successful left side partnership with Brady and Sammy Nelson. Later he formed a similarly instinctive partnership with Kenny Sansom but Rix never achieved what his skill deserved.

Despite problems in his personal life a few years ago he has become a well-respected coach, and you might see him back at Highbury one day.

Brian Marwood

1988 – 1990

60 appearances (17 goals)

Championship Winners Medal, 1 England cap.

Whilst certainly not an unknown when George Graham signed him, he wasn’t exactly the high profile signing the fans thought was needed to push on and become a Championship winning team. Well, George got it right when he signed Marwood, and before pre-season had finished in 1988 the fans had realised why.

Brian was 28 when he signed for Arsenal but played with the enthusiasm of a teenager and was a major factor in the 1989 Championship, although injury ruled him out of the Liverpool game. It wasn’t just endeavour, or pinpoint crosses that supplied so many goals, he also managed to score nine league goals that year as well.

Fell out with George Graham over the amount of time Brian was taking on PFA activities (and no doubt a real union man at ‘his’ club was anathema to George) he was quickly shipped out to be replaced by …

Anders Limpar

1990 – 1994

115 appearances (20 goals)

Championship Winners medal, 58 Sweden appearances (6 goals)

When Graham swooped for the Swede in 1990 he was little known by Arsenal fans, but again the manager had bought the perfect player to push us to the title. As jinky as they come, he was capable of mesmerising a defence single handed before either supplying the perfect through ball or cutting in to rifle the ball home.

Unfortunately for his Arsenal career he upset the manager by playing for Sweden when Graham claimed he was injured. Even more unfortunately, whilst he was perfect for the free flowing football of Graham’s Championship winning teams, he was never going to be the hard working player that the ‘don’t lose’ style of the Cup years required, and left for Everton on transfer deadline day.

Marc Overmars

1997 – 2000

141 appearances (40 goals)

Championship Winners Medal, FA Cup Winners Medal, 86 Holland Caps (17 goals).

Overmars was seen as a risk when signed by Wenger (because of recent injuries) but for a period was as influential as anyone else on this list. A major factor in the double winning team of 1998, he was another who added goals to his assists.

After a couple of years of adulation Overmars appeared to lose interest in Arsenal and was sold to Barcelona (along with Petit) for silly money. As George Graham had done, Wenger was about to replace a superb winger with something just that little bit better.

Robert Pires

2000 – 2006

284 appearances (84 goals)

2 Championship Winners Medals, 2 FA Cup Winners Medals, 73 France caps (14 goals)

Signed fresh from France’s European Championship win Wenger put him on the bench for the start of the Premiership season to ‘observe’, he sat there wondering how he’d cope with English football! Within two years he was Player of the Year.

Spanish and Portuguese parents bought him up in France and he signed for us from Marseille despite an offer from real Madrid. Yet again Wenger was to make a good player great and as well as having a superb assist record he also had a knack of being in the right place for a tap in.

Cruelly robbed of being able to play in the 2002 World Cup because of a knee injury, the players acknowledged his contribution to the double by paying their own homage to him when the  Championship medals were presented at Highbury. Left for Villareal in the summer, only to suffer another horrendous knee injury.

That’s all folks!!! So come on, who are you going to vote into our star team.

The Best Keeper, Back Four, Central Midfielders
and Right Wing Articles are Here...