Here he looks at the sides who brought the League and FA Cup to Highbury and finds that, although the names and nationalities have changed, the qualities required remain the same.

I can still vividly recall just how uplifted I felt the day after the Arsenal side I played in first won the Double for the club in 1971. It was the greatest bonding experience of my life.

Three times now the League Championship trophy and the FA Cup have sat side by side in the Highbury trophy room, a testament to a club that has sought to set standards ever since the days of Herbert Chapman, the great Arsenal manager of the 1920s and 30s.

Yet the three Double-winning sides - two of them under the expert management of Arsene Wenger - differ enormously in their make-up, particularly in terms of nationality.

In 1971, the 'foreign' players in the English League came almost exclusively from Scotland, Ireland or Wales.

Remarkably, when we won the Double in 1971, the team played 64 matches but used only 16 players, two of whom only played the odd match.

Yet there were only three men then playing international football - Northern Ireland's Pat Rice, Welshman John Roberts and Peter Storey of England, though others had played for their countries in previous seasons and were, as in my case, to play in subsequent ones.

By the time Arsenal repeated the feat under Wenger in 1998, the influx of foreign players had begun and though the bedrock of the side - the defence - was very much English, influences further up the pitch were decidedly Continental.

In particular, although Wenger had begun to introduce a few of his compatriots to north London, the crucial factor in bringing the trophies to Highbury was the arrival of Dutchmen Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars, two of world football's biggest stars in their heyday.

Bergkamp remains a pivotal player in the current side, but this season's Double winners have an overwhelmingly Gallic flavour in an era when the domestic game has become hugely influenced, mostly for the better, by the big stars from abroad. This Arsenal side can thank Frenchmen Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and Wenger himself for this season's outstanding success.

Something else has changed at Arsenal. The club built its reputation on football that was pragmatic and organised. The chant 'boring, boring Arsenal' used to echo wherever the team played. It might not have been pretty to watch but it was effective.

Under Wenger that has changed. Yes, his sides have been built on a solid and reliable defence - that has to be the prerequisite - but this latest one is perhaps one of the most attack-minded in the country, and I include Manchester United in that.

Comparisons between different footballing generations can be misleading and there is no doubt the game has moved on considerably since 1971.

What doesn't change, however, is the fact that to achieve the Double you still have to prove yourself the best over eight months on all kinds of surface and in all kinds of conditions.

1970-1971

In those days we only got two points for a win so, if you convert that into modern-day statistics, the side would have finished with 94 points, having played four more matches than the sides play today.

One of the first things that strikes you about the statistics is that this side conceded fewer goals than either of the other two, playing more games, which indicates how good the defence was.

Opinions on who was the better goalkeeper and whether one defence was better than another will vary but the figures on goals scored and conceded tell their own story.

And for all the foreign players imported into the side in recent seasons, the figures do not vary greatly, indicating that a certain level is needed to win the title. The one thing I am certain of about the 1971 winners is that it is impossible that any side could better us on team spirit and camaraderie.

There was a bond that ran from Bertie Mee, the manager, through

If you make individual comparisons we were not a side full of world-class players like this season's team. But the fact that we conceded only 29 goals and only six at Highbury indicates that we were strong in defence in the days when full backs were less attack-minded than they are today.

Pat Rice was very much a defensive full back and although Bob McNab liked to get forward, his crosses very often finished in Row Z. But we had an excellent goalkeeper in Bob Wilson and Frank McLintock was a rock of a centre half.

Don Howe was an excellent defensive coach and he made sure the men at the back were collectively strong, a lesson I absorbed and employed when I became the manager at the club. Understanding at the back gives you something to build on.

We were very organised and difficult to play against. which did not endear us to fans across the country but was very effective. George Armstrong was one of the best uncapped wingers to have played the game. He used to do my running for me.

Peter Storey was our holding player and I used to get forward and get on the end of crosses. But we had two heavyweight strikers in John Radford and Ray Kennedy. Both were big and strong and John was a hugely under-rated striker.

In common with the two other sides, we had a fantastic run towards the end of the season. But it was organisation and spirit that carried the day.

Team: Bob Wilson, Pat Rice, Frank McLintock, Peter Simpson (John Roberts), Bob McNab, Eddie Kelly (Jon Sammels), Peter Storey, George Graham, George Armstrong, John Radford, Ray Kennedy (Charlie George).

League scorers: Kennedy 19, Radford 15, Graham 11, Armstrong 7, George 5, McLintock 5, Kelly 4, Storey 2 (1 pen), Sammels 1.

FA Cup scorers: George 5, Storey 4 (3 pens), Radford 2, Kennedy 2, Graham 1, Kelly 1, Simpson 1.

1997-1998

There is not much doubt that the club - and English football - had changed dramatically by the time the second Double arrived at Highbury, but one thing that remained the same was the strength of the Arsenal defence.

The credit for such an achievement belonged to Arsene Wenger, but I was still proud that the defence which I put together was so vital to the successes in 1998. Although I had left the club four seasons earlier, it was still basically the same unit.

When I brought David Seaman to the club, the crowd did not take to him in the first season but he has proved since what a great acquisition he was for Arsenal. The fact that he is still playing is a great testimony to his own dedication.

If you then look at who was lined up in front of him - Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn - they had to be one of the best and most enduring back lines in the history of the game.

No other defensive unit can have stood the test of time or won so many trophies.

That said, it was essentially the midfield unit that led Arsenal forward to the League title. The axis of Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit playing together at the heart of the side was a partnership made in heaven. They were both world-class players who complemented each other perfectly.

On their outside was Marc Overmars, who chipped in with 12 goals, beginning a trend of goals coming from wide players which has been so vital to the side this season.

Further forward there was the peerless Dennis Bergkamp, who was then in his prime. Although he has been in outstanding form in the second half of this season, 1998 was the year when he excelled with his deft touch and mercurial skills.

Bergkamp was also a great foil for Ian Wright, who was a goal machine but who also infected the rest of the players in the side with his own brand of enthusiasm. So 1998 was a fine mix - a winning side comprising the best of British with a classy sprinkling of foreign stars.

Team: David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn, Ray Parlour (David Platt), Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Marc Overmars, Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright (Nicolas Anelka).

League scorers: Bergkamp 16, Overmars 12, Wright 10 (1 pen), Anelka 6, Parlour 5, Adams 3, Platt 3, Wreh 3, Hughes 2, Petit 2, Vieira 2, Grimandi 1, Winterburn 1.

FA Cup scorers: Bergkamp 3 (1 pen), Anelka 2, Overmars 1, Parlour 1, Wreh 1.

2001-2002

It has taken some time for Arsene Wenger to make the transition from the defensive lineup that was so successful in 1998 to the one that has settled down so well this season - and it is a tribute to the quality of Tony Adams that he is still there at the end.

The arrival of Sol Campbell has helped, although he had a sticky start, but those two, Martin Keown and the invaluable David Seaman give the side its defensive triangle.

A look at the goals against column, however, reveals that this back line is not as tight as the class of 71 and needs to keep a clean sheet against Everton tomorrow to equal the defensive record of the 1998 team.

Otherwise, today's Arsenal lineup differs from the others in being so attack-minded. Both current full backs are natural attacking players, but the really decisive strength this season has been in the wide midfield players.

Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires are not wingers in the accepted sense of the term. They play wide but they can drop back and protect the full backs.

Yet when they do attack, they can both come inside and usually to devastating effect. Their collective goal haul has been vital to this season's success.

Patrick Vieira is still there to hold the middle of the park, sometimes with Ray Parlour, sometimes with Edu, but the damage to opponents has been inflicted from the wider areas.

The side has looked full of goals and the difference is that they have now so many attacking options. Thierry Henry has gone off the boil in the last few games but there have been others to pick up the mantle.

Dennis Bergkamp was not happy about being used sparingly at the start of the season but has had the benefit in these later stages where the side has come on so strongly.

Kanu and Sylvain Wiltord give them even greater options, so that it is really the attacking options that have given Arsenal the edge over Manchester United this season.

They attack as a team, which is the ethic Wenger has developed in the side, and they have always been good to watch.

Team: David Seaman, Lauren, Tony Adams (Martin Keown), Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Freddie Ljungberg (Ray Parlour), Sylvain Wiltord (Edu), Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp.

League scorers: Henry 22, Ljungberg 12, Wiltord 10, Pires 9, Bergkamp 8, Kanu 3, Campbell 2, Cole 2, Lauren 2, Vieira 2, Edu 1, Jeffers 1, Van Bronckhorst 1. (One game remaining, v Everton, at Highbury tomorrow).