Left to right: Bergkamp, Reyes, Vieira, Lauren, Pires, Edu
February 14, 2005: For the 1st time ever, a team in England's top division of football (soccer) takes the pitch with none of the players named to its 15-man eligible squad coming from anywhere in the United Kingdom. Surprising no one, for whom it had long been considered a "foreign team," it was Arsenal Football Club of North London.
It had been considerably more surprising on December 26, 1999, when West London team Chelsea FC had taken the pitch with an entire starting lineup of non-British players, as Chelsea have long been considered a classically English team.
But with Arsenal, it was different. Even at their founding in 1886, the team was not wholly English: Half the players, assembled from the Dial Square shop at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, then in Kent but now in Southeast London, were from Scotland.
Their title-winning teams of the 1930s, '40s and '50s had players from Scotland and Wales helping them win. Their 1971 team that won the Football League and the FA Cup, the "Double," also had some key Scottish players. Their 1979 team that won the FA Cup was known as "The Irish Connection," due to half their starting lineup and their manager being from either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.
But with the coming of the Premier League in 1992, resistance of English fans and the English media to foreign influence got stronger. Most fans didn't mind when their own teams branched out from beyond the British Isles to take on European, South American, and even African players. But let their opponents embrace "Johnny Foreigner," and a long-latent racism broke through. Arsenal became one of the most despised teams because they won with so many foreign players, acquired by French manager Arsène Wenger, taking the PL title in 1998, 2002 and 2004; and the FA Cup in 1998, 2002 and 2003.
On this date, they took the pitch at the Arsenal Stadium, known as Highbury for its North London neighborhood, against South London team Crystal Palace, with this starting lineup:
1 Goalkeeper: Jens Lehmann, Germany
4 Midfielder and Captain: Patrick Vieira, native of Senegal, played for France
7 Right Wing: Robert Pires, France
9 Forward: José Antonio Reyes, Spain
10 Forward: Dennis Bergkamp, Netherlands
12 Right Back: Lauren Etame Mayer, Cameroon
14 Forward: Thierry Henry, France
17 Midfielder: Edu Gaspar, Brazil
18 Centreback: Pascal Cygan, France
22 Left Back: Gaël Clichy, France
28 Centreback: Kolo Touré, Ivory Coast
Substitutes:
16 Midfielder: Mathieu Flamini, France, replaced Pires in the 62nd minute
11 Forward: Robin van Persie, Netherlands, replaced Bergkamp in the 79th
24 Goalkeeper: Manuel Almunia, Spain, did not enter the game
20 Centreback: Philippe Senderos, Switzerland, did not enter the game
Professional Footballers Association Chairman Gordon Taylor said it was a "worrying pattern for English football." Paul Merson, a former Arsenal star whom Wenger had sold because of his bad attitude, called the selections a "joke."
Wenger said, "I don't look at the passport of people. I look at their quality and their attitude." This time, the result was a 5-1 Arsenal win. Henry scored 2 goals. Goals also came from Vieira, Bergkamp and Reyes.
Arsenal did have English players on the roster: Centreback Sol Campbell, left back Ashley Cole, midfielder Jermaine Pennant, right back Justin Hoyte, and forward Ryan Smith. They also had midfielder Patrick Cregg from the Republic of Ireland. And Campbell and Cole had been critical to Arsenal's success the last 3 seasons, and would be again. But none of those British-trained players were listed for this game: Campbell and Cole were injured, and the others were marginal players at best.
Having won the Premier League the season before, and having gone through the entire League season unbeaten, Arsenal did not repeat, finishing 3rd in 2005, although they did win the FA Cup again. Through the 2021 season, despite varying successes including 4 FA Cup wins, they have not won the Premier League again.
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February 14, 2005 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. And the NHL season was canceled due to the owners locking the players out. There were 5 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 106-105 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia. Allen Iverson scored 38 points for the Sixers.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 80-77 at the Charlotte Coliseum. The Bobcats, then in their 1st season, became the new Charlotte Hornets in 2014.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 107-83 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The New Orleans Hornets beat the Washington Wizards, 98-96 at the New Orleans Arena (now the Smoothie King Center). Gilbert Arenas scored 34 in defeat for the Wiz. The Hornets, who had been in Charlotte from 1988 to 2002, gave up the name in 2013, so that the new Charlotte team could have it, and became the New Orleans Pelicans.
* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Utah Jazz, 136-128 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix. Amar'e Stoudemire scored 42 points.
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