A lot has happened since The Evening Standard wrote the headline “Arsene who?” after Wenger’s appointment as Arsenal manager in 1996 – 15 years ago next week. Before that Arsene Wenger had worked his way up through French football, making a name for himself at AS Monaco. He led them to a Ligue 1 title and a French cup title, three times runners-up in Ligue 1 and lost the 1992 UEFA Cup Winners Cup finale (to Werder Bremen). Bayern München wanted to take Wenger to Germany but Monaco refused to let the club talk to him. When the Bayern position was filled Monaco released Wenger from his contract anyway. Wenger moved on to a successful 18-month stint with the Japanese team Nagoya Grampus Eight, with whom he won the Emperor’s Cup. He also took the club from the bottom three to runners-up position in the league.

Arsene Wenger was appointed new Arsenal manager on 30 September 1996. The club finished third in the Premier League in Wenger’s first season in charge. In the following 1997/98 season Arsenal won both the Premier League and the FA Cup, a feat they had only before achieved in 1971. The next three seasons Arsenal finished as runners-up in the Premier League, in 2000/01 that also included runners-up in the FA Cup. Then in 2001/02 Wenger again took Arsenal to winning the double, something only Manchester United have also achieved in England. The following season they defended the FA Cup title but were back as runners-up in the league. In 2003/04 Arsenal again won the league, which is so far their last. In 2004/05 they won their last FA Cup and had their last runners-up finish in the league. In 2005/06 Arsenal lost the UEFA Champions League final to Barcelona and they also lost the English League Cup finals in both 2006/07 and 2010/11. In other words this season takes it to seven years since Arsenal last won a title.
Last season’s shock loss to Birmingham in the League Cup final and Arsenal’s poor start to this season has put added pressure on Wenger to deliver. It hasn’t helped his case that two of his biggest stars, Fabregas and Nasri, both recently left the club to chase glory elsewhere. Many Arsenal fans have been disgruntled with Wenger’s recent lack of activity in the transfer market. For now he still has the full backing of Arsenal’s board but for how long? Arsene Wenger himself is convinced that he can turn the fortunes around for Arsenal again. Wenger’s achievements at Arsenal should mean he is afforded time to prove it.

Marcos Antônio Senna da Silva is a central midfielder who plays for Spanish side Villarreal. Although originally from Brazil he was granted Spanish citizenship in 2006. He went on to earn 27 caps for Spain between 2006-2010. That included the 2006 FIFA World Cup and Spain’s winning Euro 2008 campaign.
Senna signed for Villarreal in 2002, from Brazilian club São Caetano, that year’s runners-up in Copa Libertadores. He has with Villarreal reached the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League semi-finals and they were runners-up in the 2007-08 Spanish La Liga. Villarreal have enjoyed an excellent start to the 2010-11 season, with Senna as one of their key players. He is also the team captain.

Alessandro Del Piero is a striker who plays for Italian side Juventus and previously also the Italian national team. Del Piero arrived at Juventus in 1993, aged 18, from Calcio Padova. Since then he has become an icon with Juventus, having both the record of games played and goals scored for the club.
Del Piero has been faithful to the club and stayed on and captained them when Juventus were demoted to Serie B after Italian football’s match-fixing scandal in 2006. Several other high-profiled players chose to leave the club when that happened. On a more positive note that year Del Piero won the 2006 FIFA World Cup with Italy. Del Piero scored in their 2-0 semi-final win against Germany. He has also won seven Serie A titles with Juventus. It has been announced that the 2011-12 season will be his last with the club.

Roman Pavlyuchenko is a striker who plays for English side Tottenham and the Russian national team. Pavlyuchenko began his career with Dynamo Stavropol before moving to Rotor Volgograd in the top flight in 2000. After joining Spartak Moscow in 2003, Pavlyuchenko went on to become the leading striker in Russia’s Premier League in 2006 and 2007. He was first called up to the Russian national team in 2003 and introduced himself to all English football fans when Russia played England in 2007. Russia won the Euro 2008 qualifier 2-1 and Pavlyuchenko scored both goals. He went on to become Russia’s top scorer at the 2008 Championship and included in the Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament. (The four forwards honoured with their names in that dream team were Pavlyuchenko and his country man Andrei Arshavin, plus Spaniards David Villa and Fernando Torres.)
In September 2008 Pavlyuchenko was signed by Juande Ramos at Tottenham. He made his debut that same month and soon started scoring goals for his new club. However Juande Ramos was sacked as manager towards the end of October. New manager Harry Redknapp gradually moved Pavlyuchenko down the pecking order amongst his strikers. By the start of the 2009-10 season he had Defoe, Crouch and Keane all being preferred ahead of him. On 1 February 2010 Keane went on loan to Scottish side Celtic for the rest of the season. Pavlyuchenko was given the chance again and grabbed it by scoring several important goals. He is a firm favourite with the fans, often referring to him as Super-Pav, and he decided to stay on with Spurs. Pavlyuchenko has played an important role at the start of the 2010-11 season, in particular stepping up for Spurs in the Champions League. In the first two months of the season he has scored three goals in the Champions League and two in the Premier League.

Claudio Marchisio is a midfielder who plays for Italian side Juventus and the Italian national team. Marchisio joined the Juventus youth academy as a seven year old. He made his first team debut in August 2006, at the age of 20. The following season he was sent on loan to Empoli, with fellow Juve team mates Giovinco and Volpato. At Empoli he gained more experience in Serie A and also played in the UEFA Cup. When Empoli at the end of the season were relegated Marchisio returned to Juventus. Soon after his return he managed to secure his place in Juventus’ starting XI. The following season Marchisio also played his way into the Italian national team.