The Finnish goalkeeper arrived at Aston Villa in 1999 and largely played a back-up role to David James and Peter Schmeichel in his first seasons at the club, before being handed the role of first-choice following the latter’s departure in 2002.
In one of his first starts for the club he would write himself into folklore, though sadly for Enckelman, it would be for all of the wrong reasons.
A fiercely contested derby with city rivals Birmingham would see Enckelman make an infamous mistake, taking his eye off a throw-in from Olof Mellberg to allow the ball to squirm under his foot for an own goal.
It was a catastrophic mistake and one the shot-stopper would never truly recover from, despite making 52 appearances for the club before moving to Blackburn Rovers the following year.
We have tried to create a list of players from the full breadth of the era so you may discover some names you may not be too familiar with.
The right-back role itself has changed from an ostensibly defensive position to one that is crucial to how modern teams attack.
Needless to say that the players we have picked would not have been up to the task if they were playing today. Press the next page to find out more.
If you’ve managed to play over 100 games in the Premier League in your career for a club as big as Arsenal, chances are you’re quite a good goalkeeper. Somehow, Manuel Almunia defied logic.
The Spaniard made his debut for the Gunners in 2004 in a 3-0 home victory against Birmingham City, and then went on a run of only two losses in nine games, until the return of first choice goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. However, Almunia somehow managed to take the goalkeeping jersey off of the legendary German, and was a part of the Arsenal team who managed to bottle many a title challenge.
Some goalkeepers inspire confidence in their defences and actually give the defensive players a boost knowing they have a reliable shot-stopper behind them, but the Arsenal defenders at the time knew they would have to put in the extra work to prevent anything reaching Almunia. The now retired 39-year-old successfully saw the transformation of Arsenal from consistent title challengers to top 4 contenders and was actually a huge part of that.
