The lasting legacy of Robert Pires at Arsenal

Robert Pires is one of those Premier League greats who have been slowly forgotten by a lot of young and new football fans. A stalwart member of manager Arsene Wenger's finest teams with the Gunners, the Frenchman's quality on the wings is something that has become somewhat underrated throughout the years. Moreover, he was a key asset for some of the biggest achievements in the club's history.

Robert Pires

Pires was a key winger for Arsenal, oftentimes teaming with Thierry Henry for a very compelling duo in the Premier League. Moreover, he was also a great performer for Olympique Marseille, Villarreal, and even the France national team, which are underrated periods of his career.

Early Days in French Football

Although he started with Reims, Robert Pires properly began his career with Metz during the early 90s, having played with their academy. A Benfica and Real Madrid fan during his childhood, the Frenchman started to make waves in the Ligue 1 and became a key component with Metz, to the point that the side almost won the league during the 1997/98 season, losing to Lens because of goal difference.

Moreover, this would earn the winger a transfer deal to one of the biggest clubs in the country, Olympique Marseille. It would be thanks to this collaboration that he would become even more prominent in French football, although he had to deal with disappointment in the league once again, losing the 1998/99 title to Girondins Bordeaux by only one point.

There is also the fact that, by this point in his career, Pires was already a France international and was part of the squad that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup on home soil. He would also become a part of the team that won the 2000 Euros, becoming one of the main faces of such an amazing generation of French footballers.

The Glory Years at Arsenal

Robert Pires was not only joining one of the strongest teams in the English Premier League in 2000, but also one where there was a need to replace one of their wingers, Marc Overmars, who left the club to join FC Barcelona for a record fee at the time of 25 million euros. Moreover, clubs such as Real Madrid and Juventus showed an interest in Pires, but he decided to join the Gunners.

His first few months were complicated, trying to adapt to the rhythm of the league, which is why manager Arsene Wenger had him sitting on the bench a few times. However, once everything clicked, Pires, became one of the key components of the best period in the club's history, which is something that legendary forward Thierry Henry has stated regarding his teammate's playing style.

Thierry Henry

"Robert Pires, people don't understand how clever a player he was," Thierry Henry said in 2025 when talking with Sky Sports. "You play with him in training, I don't remember him losing a game in training. If you were with Robert Pires, you win. He could play now, obviously, the distance would be (a problem). The way he used to move, find positions and stuff like that, I was a bit the same."

Obviously, besides winning the 2001/02 Premier League title and reaching the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League final, Pires' biggest accomplishment with Arsenal would be winning the 2003/04 English Premier League undefeated. It is a milestone that is yet to be equaled and the Frenchman played a big role in that regard.

Arsene Wenger

Moreover, his manager, Arsene Wenger, has gone on record stating what makes the winger such a talented and useful player for his side, especially regarding his evolution throughout the years.

"The little details are very, very important, like preferential vision," Arsene Wenger said in 2014 at Arsenal's official website. "Some players see more on the right and some see more on the left. If you see a player who passes to the right all the time because of that, then you put them on the left. Robert Pires is a good example. He has unbelievable preferential vision, so on the right he is a normal player but on the left he became a world-class player. On the left wing he saw everything, but on the right wing he saw nothing."

However, all great things must come to an end.

The Final Stages of His Career

After struggles regarding a new contract, Pires decided to leave Arsenal in the summer of 2006 as a free agent and joined Spanish side Villarreal. The Frenchman was already in his thirties and was lacking playing time during his final year with the Gunners, which is why he decided to leave for La Liga in order to recover his minutes.

In that regard, he joined Villarreal, a team that was originally defeated by Arsenal during the UEFA Champions League in Pires' final season with the latter, coached by highly regarded Chilean manager Manuel Pelligrini.

"When I went to Spain from Arsenal, I was a wide player," Pires said of Pellegrini in 2013, as per The Mirror. "But Pellegrini told me he wanted to me play inside and deeper. And it worked. He also got the best from Marcos Senna. In fact, he developed his game so much that Senna became an international with Spain under Pellegrini."

Even though he was affected by injuries during his first season, Pires would become a consistent presence and a leader within Villarreal, to the point that he was a part of the side that finished in second place during the 2007/08 season in La Liga, which was the best position in the club's entire history, as of this writing.

He even got to face Arsenal during the quarterfinals of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League, and even though they lost to the Gunners, Pires received a warm welcome from the supporters.

By the end of the 2009/10 season, his contract with Villarreal would not be renewed and he would return to England for a short spell with Aston Villa and would return to football in 2014 for a short stint in Indian football.