Defensive resilience, the capacity to do everything possible to minimise mistakes, is not currently a hallmark of football in North London. Thirty years ago, George Graham was in the process of creating an iconic back four, a group that worked incessantly to restrict space for their opponents and loathed each and every goal conceded. In this excerpt from my new book ’89’, Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn, plus their team-mates and manager, explain how they did it.



Lee Dixon:



George used to sit in the stand first half of every game because he’d get a better view. The second half there’s not a lot you can do, so he’d sit down on the bench. He always used to write stuff down on a piece of paper from his seat in the directors’ box. At Highbury the doors open into the dressing room and there’s a massage table there and he used to be standing, hands resting on the massage table, with his piece of...