8 Greatest Arsenal Left-Backs of All Time (Ranked)

Left-back is an unheralded but integral position on the pitch. Arsenal fans have become painfully aware of this under Mikel Arteta. The Spanish tactician splashed more than £75m in three years on players capable of filling in on the left side of defence without finding an established starter.

The likes of Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko have all enjoyed bright spells in the team, but still fall some way short of their illustrious predecessors. The uncertainty at full-back is a relatively new conundrum at Arsenal. For much of the club’s illustrious history, the Gunners have been blessed with an undisputed first-choice number three.

Without earning the same acclaim that naturally comes to goalscorers, all-action midfielders or commanding centre-backs, Arsenal have been able to call upon an elite group of left-backs. Here are the best to have ever performed that thankless task.

Ranking Factors

• Stats – While clean sheets offer a vague approximation of the team’s defensive resolve, full-backs that have been able to influence the attack with goals and assists have been ranked highly.
• Trophies – The most basic barometer for success is how many medals you can put on the table.
• Longevity – To break into the first team of a club as historic as Arsenal is one thing, but only the best have been able to fend off internal competition to stay there.

8 Sylvinho

1999–2001

Sylvinho only spent two years in north London at the turn of the 21st century but left a lasting impact on Arsenal fans. The punchy, jet-heeled Brazilian was relentlessly delivered the same grave warning as he prepared for life in England’s top flight: “The pace in the Premier League is very high.” Sylvinho was duly booked within a matter of seconds of his debut.

Endless hours on the training pitch with Arsenal’s legendary assistant coach Pat Rice rounded out the left-back’s attacking instincts, soon leading to a consistent starting spot. The claustrophobic Highbury atmosphere created a mutual admiration between Sylvinho and the steeply banked stands of fans who would hurriedly toss the ball back to the new cult hero for a throw-in. Arsene Wenger reluctantly ended Sylvinho’s Arsenal career in 2001 with his sale to Barcelona. The French coach later revealed:

7 Gael Clichy

2003–2011

A fringe member of Arsenal’s Invincibles who went the entire 2003/04 league season unbeaten, Gael Clichy emerged as the understated successor to Ashley Cole. The French full-back dutifully chugged up and down the left touchline, rarely neglecting his defensive responsibilities without painting many games a distinctive shade of Clichy.

His success was the result of hard work. Clichy’s father, who was his first coach, would disallow any goal that his son scored with his naturally stronger right foot. This unorthodox approach forced Clichy to use his left side, which eventually became more dominant and led to his role as a left-back. Clichy later admitted: “I do believe if I was only a right-footed player, maybe the door for professional football would not have been open for me.”

6 Sammy Nelson

1966–1981

Fittingly for a player born on April Fool’s Day who would later sign for Arsenal on his 17th birthday, Sammy Nelson liked a joke. The effervescent character showed his unique sense of humour – and a few other things – when he infamously dropped his shorts in front of Highbury’s North Bank.

Nelson had taken some stick from Arsenal fans for scoring an own goal against Coventry City in 1979 before storming up the other end to find the correct net. In celebration of a rare strike, the Northern Ireland international mooned the Gooners behind the goal. While the crowd laughed, the FA slapped Nelson with a two-week ban. That well-worn tale captures the full-back’s personality but overshadows the determination he showed to fight his way into the first team after years as an understudy to Bob McNab.

5 Bob McNab

1966–1975

Coming through at his boyhood club Huddersfield Town in the 1960s, Bob McNab was schooled in the art of defending by England’s World Cup-winning left-back Ray Wilson. McNab only earned four international caps himself – thanks in no small part to Wilson’s enduring excellence – but made up for it with his success at club level.

Arsenal’s undisputed left-back for the club’s glorious league and cup double triumph of 1971, McNab only missed matches through injury during his triumphant decade at Arsenal. The club’s legendary goalkeeper Bob Wilson remembers McNab’s unrivalled ability to read the game and communicate with his colleagues as the full-back’s greatest strength, recalling how he “provided an extra pair of eyes for them when danger occurred”.

4 Kenny Sansom

1980–1988

Terry Venables put his Tottenham Hotspur allegiances to one side to hail Kenny Sansom as “one of the greatest left-backs this country has ever produced”. Sansom’s sparse trophy cabinet, equipped with one solitary League Cup crown from 1987, has not harmed his reputation as one of Arsenal’s most reliable players of all time.

A fixture of the side throughout the 1980s, Sansom was crowned Arsenal’s Player of the Year after his debut campaign in north London, becoming the first defender to win that award in almost a decade. While he missed out on collective crowns, individual recognition was not hard to come by. Sansom was voted into the division-wide PFA Team of the Year by his peers in seven of his eight seasons at Arsenal.

3 Nigel Winterburn

1987–2000

What Nigel Winterburn lacked in flair, he made up for with unflinching consistency. For 10 consecutive seasons between 1990 and 2000, the English left-back made at least 40 appearances for Arsenal. During that same sequence, the Gunners recorded the best defensive record in England’s top flight on five separate occasions, including the ludicrously parsimonious campaign of 1998/99 which saw the Gunners ship just 17 league goals as Winterburn was named the club’s Player of the Season.

A key member of Arsenal’s infamous ‘Back Four’ under George Graham, ‘Nutty Nigel’ was a niggly, touch-tight man-marker more focused on shutting the opposition winger down than venturing forward. Winterburn survived the dramatic transition under Arsene Wenger, missing just two games as he collected a third top-flight title in 1998.

2 Eddie Hapgood

1927–1944

Eddie Hapgood excelled in a bygone era. Originally a milkman after leaving school at 14, the slight full-back caught the eye in the Southern League with Kettering Town. Ushered into the marble halls of Highbury during the transformative reign of Herbert Chapman, arguably Arsenal’s greatest manager of all time only asked Hapgood two questions at his interview. “Do you drink or smoke?” and “Would you like to sign for Arsenal?”

The ninth of 10 children was used to battling for attention and quickly established a stranglehold of the left-back position during the most successful era in the club’s history. Hapgood played “in a calm, authoritative way, and he would analyse a game in the same quiet, clear-cut manner”, according to former coach Bob Wall. This clinical approach allowed Hapgood to rack up an unrivalled stack of honours before the Second World War robbed him of more trophies.

1 Ashley Cole

1999–2006

The greatest left-back in Premier League history – not to be confined by Arsenal’s illustrious legacy – never wanted to be a defender. “I always wanted the glory of going up front and scoring goals,” Ashley Cole once lamented. Originally a striker in the club’s academy, Cole begrudgingly admits that he would not have enjoyed the same trophy-laden career which he carved out for himself had he refused to move into defence.

Despite spending each one of his playing days shackled in the backline, Cole was able to offer some attacking verve. It was the England international’s willingness to dribble past the opposition winger that acted as the catalyst for so many of Arsenal’s forward thrusts, unbalancing the dynamic across the pitch which created space for the teammates Cole always envied.

Stats via Transfermarkt. Correct as of 19th July 2024.