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EXCLUSIVE: Im an Arsenal Invincible - I know reason why we stopped winning Premier League titles

EXCLUSIVE: A member of Arsenal's historic Invincibles season has opened up about the difficulties the Gunners faced after winning their last Premier League title in 2004

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Arsenal Invincible Jeremie Aliadiere has pinpointed why the Gunners couldn't win a Premier League title after 2004(Image: Action Images)

Arsenals move to the Emirates Stadium was the reason why they stopped winning trophies, according to one of the clubs Invincibles.

With Liverpool running away in the Premier League title race, Arsenal are again set to miss out this season. Its the 21st consecutive year in which the Gunners have failed to be crowned champions of England, with their last triumph coming at the end of the 2003/04 season, under Arsene Wenger.

That just so happened to be the Frenchmans third and most impressive league title as the north Londoners did the unthinkable, going an entire league campaign unbeaten and becoming only the second team ever in English football to do so. With the dominance they showed that season and in the years prior, it would have been unthinkable to those walking the marble halls of Highbury at the time that their wait for another would span more than two decades.

Yet, former Gunners striker Jeremie Aliadiere believes its not by coincidence that Arsenals trophy cabinet suddenly stopped seeing new silverware after the 2006 move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, a few minutes' walking distance away. Aliadiere was a youngster coming through during the Invincibles season, where he just about made the 10 required league appearances to earn a medal.

The Frenchman experienced both versions of Arsenal first-hand: the side that dominated the league in unprecedented fashion and the one, post-Highbury, which always seemed to be playing catch up to Manchester United and Chelsea. He has no doubts that the financial pressure caused by the new 390million stadium drastically hindered Wengers ability to sign top, ready-made talents, dooming them to a decade of second, third or fourth-place finishes.

I personally believe moving to the Emirates was the big, big factor, Aliadiere told Mirror Football via Betting Tools. Financially, the club obviously had to sacrifice buying players and building the squad by choosing to go to a bigger stadium to get more revenue, thats kind of what I think happened.

We moved and I remember Arsene saying that were going to be quite tight over ten years financially to repay the stadium. So yeah, we still wanted to challenge for the Premier League but Man United and Chelsea managed to spend more money on already-made players. Whereas we were younger players, still having a bit of experience but not the experience of the players Chelsea were buying at the time when Jose Mourinho arrived and all the money that they could spend.

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Arsenal's move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium restricted them financially(Image: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

We were financially restricted with the stadium, which played a part in Arsene Wenger not being able to buy more senior experienced players I feel, because we lost some important players, all those big names. All the senior players were at the end of their Arsenal careers and I think the young boys that were coming - us - were good enough and talented enough but maybe not experienced enough to win the Premier League.

Wenger, foreshadowing that his hands would soon be tied financially, cleverly sought to rebuild from the Invincibles squad early on. While the careers of legendary players like Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira were winding down, Le Professeur in the final years at Highbury had already integrated fresh talent such as Aliadiere, Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alex Song and Philippe Senderos, thanks to Arsenals much envied Global Scouting System.

The youthful Emirates-era Arsenal side coincided with a shift from Wenger towards less physical players than those who had brought him so much success, with more technically gifted players such as Aleksandr Hleb, Tomas Rosicky and Samir Nasri exemplifying his new mould of midfielders and attackers.

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Aliadiere and the Invincibles were the last Arsenal team to win the title(Image: 1990 The Arsenal Football Club Plc)

But that gave way to a perception among rivals of the Arsenal squad being not only physically light-weight, but lacking mental fortitude too. No Premier League titles since 2004 and a nine-year trophy drought that followed their FA Cup success in 2005 was evidence of that.

In time, the likes of Fabregas and Van Persie would develop into world class players, ready to win titles - but without the high level supporting cast to do so. Former captain Fabregas, who left for Barcelona in 2011, has been vocal about the strain year-on-year on him to carry team-mates, only to fall short.

Wenger towards the end of the noughties missed out on world class players such as Liverpools Xabi Alonso, leaving his best players disillusioned with the clubs lack of ambition and flocking to rivals. Van Persies shocking move to Old Trafford in 2012 was the final nail in the coffin for Wengers once-promising new era at the Emirates, with the stadium move he hoped would raise the standing of the club tainting his own legacy forever.

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