Arsenal's Invincibles suffered their most damaging loss to Chelsea and blamed Nike ball

Their Premier League record will go down in English sporting folklore. Played 38. Won 26. Drawn 12. Lost 0.

Arsene Wenger ’s 2003/04 Arsenal team have already penned their place in footballing history, but their nickname remains a bone of contention with some of their detractors. After all, while ‘the Invincibles’ couldn’t be stopped in the league, they failed to win any of the three major cup competitions.

Already dumped out of the League Cup at the semi-final stage by Middlesbrough, they suffered the same fate in the FA Cup last four, losing out to Manchester United on April 3.

But just three days later, they had a chance to put that disappointment behind them by clinching their Champions League quarter final tie vs Chelsea.

The Gunners were well placed going into the game at Highbury, having earned a score draw at Stamford Bridge a fortnight before. And when the late Jose Antonio Reyes broke the deadlock in the final seconds of the first half, Arsenal looked well set for another semi final.

However, the visitors came roaring back in the second half, with Frank Lampard bringing the tie level, before Wayne Bridge broke the home side’s hearts with a goal in the closing minutes.

The nature of the defeat was a sickening one for the eventual champions and Jens Lehmann - who was at fault for the first Chelsea goal - pointed the blame at the decision to switch Nike balls from the group stage to the knockouts.

"I remember I made a mistake against Chelsea because we played with a brand new Nike ball and it came swerving like that and I couldn’t stop it,” he told beIN Sports in 2020. “I couldn’t catch it. It was a draw then with Frank Lampard and then in the last minute all of a sudden, because we were so tired, we