{"id":294,"date":"2026-02-27T09:52:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=294"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:52:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:52:02","slug":"limpars-legendary-display-against-chelsea-in-1990-history-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Limpar’s legendary display against Chelsea in 1990 | History | News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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If proof were needed that George Graham\u2019s Arsenal were ready to launch another title bid, it arrived five games into the 1990\/91 season at Highbury, when the Gunners faced Chelsea.<\/p>\n

We had made a positive start to the campaign, with victories against Wimbledon and Luton Town, a goalless stalemate against Tottenham in the north London derby, and a 1-1 draw against Everton at Goodison Park.<\/p>\n

However, always a hard taskmaster, Graham claimed that if his team wished to regain the title almost 18 months after they\u2019d won it in such dramatic fashion at Anfield, they\u2019d need to up the ante, and playing Chelsea, against whom we had gained just a single point the previous season, would give us a chance to shine in front of our own supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the day we started to really click,\u201d recalled Swedish winger Anders Limpar, who\u2019d arrived from Serie A club Cremonese in the close season, along with goalkeeper David Seaman and defender Andy Linighan.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, under the management of former Gunners coach Bobby Campbell, the Blues had assembled a good squad since their promotion back to the top-flight in 1989. Midfielders Andy Townsend and Dennis Wise were formidable talents, and up front Kevin Wilson dovetailed effectively with club legend Kerry Dixon.<\/p>\n

The first half ended goalless, but Arsenal steamrolled Chelsea in the second half, with Limpar involved in everything. On 52 minutes, Lee Dixon delivered a perfect long cross onto the head of Paul Merson, who nodded down, and the new boy slammed the ball home to claim his first league goal in Gunners colours.<\/p>\n

Limpar \u2013 already nicknamed the \u2018Super Swede\u2019 by adoring Highbury fans – was then upended in the penalty area by Blues defender David Lee after a jinking run, and Dixon, Arsenal\u2019s resident spot kick expert, slammed the ball home past Dave Beasant from the spot.<\/p>\n

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Having scored one and been felled for the penalty, Limpar then added two assists to his afternoon\u2019s work, setting up Merson for a tap-in and David Rocastle for a fourth. \u201cIt was the first time I felt I really clicked in an Arsenal shirt. One goal and three assists is a pretty good day\u2019s work,\u201d Limpar explained. In keeping with a crazy second half, there was still time for Wilson to score a consolation, and then miss a penalty.<\/p>\n

The 4-1 victory filled Arsenal with confidence, and Limpar was the Gunners\u2019 star performer as the evenings started to draw in. \u201cFor three months, he was probably the best player in the country,\u201d Kevin Campbell stated.<\/p>\n

Our long unbeaten league continued all the way to February, when ironically they lost 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. It proved to be our only league defeat of the campaign, as Graham\u2019s side won the league by an impressive seven points from nearest challengers Liverpool.<\/p>\n

The manager described the second-half blitz at Highbury in October as a \u201cwonderful display of attacking football.\u201d His ‘Rolls-Royce team,\u2019 as he was fond of describing the class of 1990\/91, had just clicked into gear.<\/p>\n

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\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n

How a flower seller helped Ian Wright turn pro <\/span>
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Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If proof were needed that George Graham\u2019s Arsenal were ready to launch another title bid, it arrived five games into the 1990\/91 season at Highbury, when the Gunners faced Chelsea. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}