There have been some dominant performances in Europe’s top leagues this season, with Champions League participants Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool and FC Bayern all storming to domestic league titles, sweeping all before them.
But despite winning their leagues at a canter, none of these three made it through the entire campaign undefeated.
In the Premier League, Liverpool had an epic season and looked likely to go a full season unbeaten, but in the end Jurgen Klopp’s side lost three games, though two of those were after the title was in the bag.
Of all the Premier League results, it was the Reds’ defeat to lowly Watford which really shocked us here at SBOBET.
And we weren’t alone. The Hornets were eventually relegated but they hammered the league champions 3-0 as winger Ismaila Sarr ran riot to end Liverpool’s unbeaten run.
Even FC Bayern, who ended their domestic season 13 points clear of second placed Borussia Dortmund lost four games.
All of those were in the first half of the season, including a 5-1 hammering by Eintracht Frankfurt. However, their Champions League 2020 odds to go very far were never in any doubt once the Bavarians returned from lockdown and beat all before them.
PSG lost three games early in the curtailed Ligue 1 season but they recovered to win the title by 12 points. They are still in the running in the Europe’s biggest showcase, and they are expected to continue piling up Champions League 2020 highlights.
So yes folks, these are great teams. But as they all proved, to go though a campaign undefeated takes something special.
2003-04 Arsenal
When Arsene Wenger arrived in the Premier League back in 1996, his coaching style was a breath of fresh air, and it was far removed from the direct, hard talking football men in England of the time.
Wenger had an ethereal approach to coaching as he spoke five languages and used his native tongue to usher in a French Revolution at Highbury.
The midfield colossus and captain, Patrick Vieira, was a classy as he was fearsome.
He was playing alongside Robert Pires, who was a musketeer raiding down the wing with the looks and tiny beard of d’Artagnan, and then Dutch master Dennis Bergkamp was the complete forward who made the perfect partner for Thierry Henry – who is the most deadly striker in a decade of Premier League football.
This was a team which was easy on the eye and one which could rip opponents apart at will, finishing with a record of 16 wins and 12 draws.
The biggest transfer fee they paid in the previous summer was £1.5-M paid to Borussia Dortmund for keeper Jens Lehmann.
This achievement wasn’t bought, but sculptured by a genius of a head coach.
2011-12 Juventus
Another former London based manager once guided his team to an undefeated season, but not in the Premier League.
Current Inter Milan and Former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte achieved that feat as Juventus boss in 2012.
It was the first of I Bianconeri’s current run of nine consecutive Scudettos and statistically the most impressive, as they went a total of 49 games undefeated between 2011 and 2013.
The team had legends including goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo who had just signed for the Old Lady.
But the player who has stayed in every Juve fan’s heart and will forever more is the legendary striker Allesandro Del Piero.
He’d been at the club throughout his career, scoring 208 goals in 513 appearances and this title. The Bianconeri’s first in nine years meant as much to him as anyone in Turin.
This was Juve’s first season at their new stadium and they held off AC Milan with a relentless run of 23 victories and 15 draws.
1987–88 and 1988–89 Steaua Bucuresti
To go though one season undefeated is incredible, but to do it twice in two years is out of this world.
That’s exactly what Romanian giants Steaua Bucuresti did in a period when they were one of the best sides on the planet.
They actually went 104 games unbeaten and it is a feat which will surely never be matched.
But while Steaua continued to be a big player on the domestic front, their power on the European stage waned following the 1989 Romanian Revolution which opened the doors for Romanian players to leave and play abroad.
Amazingly just two seasons after their stunning achievement, Steaua could only sit and watch as their neighbours went undefeated through the 1991/92 campaign!
Dinamo Bucharest only managed to do it once. But with two invincibles in one city, that really takes some doing.
The Red Dogs of Dinamo had their day, but Steaua still have the upper hand.
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