Arsenal legend Freddie Ljungberg reveals the ONE weakness he thinks Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles had and the 2004 team-mate he admired the most as he admits Champions League regret

Arsenal legend Freddie Ljungberg has opened up about the one weakness he believes the Invincibles had under Arsene Wenger.

The Gunners made history in the 2003-04 season when they went an entire league campaign unbeaten, a feat not matched before or since in the Premier League era.

Ljungberg played a key role in that side but admits they were not unstoppable and has pointed out a weakness Chelsea exposed when Jose Mourinho took over the Blues in 2004.

“One of the biggest weaknesses was that sometimes I would come out wide right here and people would say, ‘Oh, cross the ball, Freddie, you’re free, just cross it,'” Ljungberg explained on Monday Night Football. ‘I think it was Mourinho and Chelsea who started it, they didn’t come out and press.

‘So I was able to stand out here with the ball and the full-back didn’t come. They were just four in the box and they were great headers, John Terry, Carvalho in the middle, and our attackers weren’t the best in the air.

Despite this historic achievement, Ljungberg still believes Arsene Wenger’s side had a key weakness exposed by Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.

Ljungberg explained how teams didn’t press Arsenal wide and force them to cross when they didn’t have great players in the air in the penalty area

‘So they just said ‘no, come on, cross the ball’. And that in my opinion we couldn’t really detect a threat.’

Ljungberg alluded to how teams seemed to figure out Arsenal after a while, but they still had great success during this period, winning three league titles in six years, with their Invincibles capping off a golden era.

Ljungberg puts this down to having a starting XI where any player could claim to be one of the best three in the world at his position. He declined to name who was the best player, but singled out Dennis Bergkamp and admitted he had great admiration for the Dutchman who always put the team before himself.

“It feels wrong to say that Thierry is the best player I played with because I was in awe of all my teammates. But in terms of technical ability, when you put that out there, I would say someone like Dennis Bergkamp did things that I had never really seen before,” Ljungberg said.

‘He just did what was necessary to perfection. It was all so effective. You see him in training, he could make fifteen transitions, but he didn’t because everything was effective for the team.

‘I think that’s why a lot of us players call Dennis so often. The respect from him that he could have done so much more for his own ego, but he played for the team. And by the way, Thierry was absolutely amazing!’

Ljungberg was part of two title-winning teams and won the FA Cup three times, but the Champions League eluded him.

Ljungberg had special praise for his former teammate Dennis Bergkamp (photo)

Ljungberg revealed he still regrets not winning the Champions League after Arsenal lost the 2006 final following Jens Lehmann’s early red card

Wenger’s men reached the final in 2006, but lost 2-1 to Barcelona after goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was sent off early. Ljungberg stated that he is still angry about missing out on Europe’s biggest prize.

‘It’s the biggest regret of my life. “I really hate that I didn’t win the Champions League and I’m still angry about it to this day,” he added.

‘I can’t explain why because we had a great team. The only thing is that when we went to a Champions League final and we lost, we changed the system and we went to 4-3-3 and we protected the center a bit more when we did that. And then after 20 minutes we said goodbye to Jens. That’s the only change for the finale.

‘But I can tell you that it still eats at me today, I feel very disappointed. But it is our responsibility, we players. We haven’t done well enough. But when you looked at it, you felt like we had to win this.”