Arsenal, Bayern, Celtic: What is the longest unbeaten run of the 21st century?

Arsenal going the entire 2003/04 Premier League season without losing a single game is rightfully heralded as one of football’s greatest feats.

While you might quickly point out that Preston North End have also gone an entire English top-flight season in the men’s game without defeat, the achievement of the Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ comes with extra bells and whistles.

That’s because Arsene Wenger’s legendary accomplishment spanned beyond the boundaries of the season in which Arsenal won the league with their unbeaten run starting earlier and finishing later.

In the end, the Gunners’ run of games without a single Premier League defeat stretched to 49 with – as many an Arsenal fan will tell you – Manchester United eventually spoiling the party under controversial circumstances.

That, ladies and gentlemen, means that Arsenal are the proud owners of the longest unbeaten run that English football has ever seen in regards to the men’s game. Remarkable stuff.

However, while we don’t mean to downplay Arsenal’s achievement within the context of the sport in England, it’s important that we point out that their 49-game unbeaten run looks far more pedestrian globally.

In light of Al Sadd’s own recent run without defeat ending at 49 matches just like Arsenal of the early 2000s, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) decided to trawl through the record books.

The result? Well, they’ve drawn up the longest unbeaten streaks from national leagues across the world since the turn of the 21st century, leading to the remarkable result where Arsenal only actually place in 32nd.

So to find out which teams managed to maintain an unblemished record in the league for even longer than the ‘Invincibles’, be sure to check